The event miniseries, apart from becoming an annual institution at Marvel and DC, has often been a launching ground for new titles. Maybe a character gets a new power-up, or perhaps a character who hasn’t gotten the chance to shine… does get that chance. Blood Hunt has been a great example of this phenomenon in action: Marc Spector was recently resurrected as the Moon Knight, and Blade is primed to star in a miniseries exploring the fallout from the vampire invasion. Blood Hunt: Werewolf by Night #1 continues the trend with a story involving the new Werewolf by Night, Jake Gomez.
Jake is going to an abandoned amusement park to “wolf out” and work off some steam. But he gets more than he bargained for when he witnesses a group of classmates summoning a ghost! That ghost turns out to have a sinister agenda of its own and not helping matters is the fact that the events of Blood Hunt have let loose a pack of vampires, which causes Jake to transform into a new, immensely bloodthirsty form.
Jason Loo, who’s turned in some surprisingly good work with the Sentry miniseries and a Multiple Man story in X-Men Unlimited, handles writing duties on the Werewolf by Night one shot. The story Loo whips up is somewhat of a double edged sword. On the one hand he does manage to tie into the events of Blood Hunt, while also setting the stage for the upcoming Werewolf by Night series. On the other hand, the focus feels split between vampires and ghosts when vampires would have just been a big enough threat.
While the story might have split its focus between two different threats, the artwork from Adam Gorham definitely is focused on bringing the horror vibes, especially when it comes to Jake’s transformation. An entire page is dedicated to said transformation; his face elongates into a snout, he sprouts snow white fur, his eyes turn red, and his teeth and nails elongate into razor sharp points. That’s to say nothing of how he rips into the vampires; limbs go flying, teeth split scalps, and there’s more than enough blood to fulfill the promise of a “Red Band” rating for the upcoming ongoing.
All of this ultraviolence is rendered in glorious color by Alex Sinclair. The sunny skies of Arizona soon give way to the cold, bluish-black energies of the Darkforce Dimension. The only thing that stands out in this darkness is Jake’s snow white fur and the buckets of blood he spills, as well as Joe Sabino’s sand-colored captions. Even if this is a bit of a rocky start, it’s still a start – and hopefully the new ongoing keeps those elements in the forefront.
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