Blood Hunt officially started last week, and this week the tie-ins enter the scene, including Amazing Spider-Man #49. Vampires are running rampant through the city, but what is Spidey to do when he’s one of the only New York heroes who doesn’t kill? You find out how close he’ll come in this week’s issue.
Amazing Spider-Man #49 heavily focuses on White Rabbit and the results of a bite that turns her bloodthirsty. The issue opens with the establishing chaos as Spider-Man webs up vampire after a vampire. Soon, he’s taking a call from an unknown person, but he assumes they’re friends. Unfortunately for him, he’s no friend, but writer Zeb Wells uses it to show that even the villains see Spider-Man as a savior and hero.
In an entertaining action scene, Wells and artist John Romita Jr. show how scary White Rabbit can get when amped up as a vampire. Quick cuts show how fast she is, and some well-placed sound effects add to her chomping attacks. Props to Wells for adding a funny bit involving Spider-Man’s screams of fear.
Pretty scary scene.
Credit: Marvel
The issue gets interesting when Spider-Man reaches a key vampire, who you might assume is a killer, but he is just a regular guy who is a bite victim himself. This scene helps reveal how complicated the vampire uprising is since heroes can’t just go around killing innocent civilians who had no say in becoming vampires. This devolves a bit into a joke, but Romita Jr. does capture the utter horror of what happens to a vampire that’s been stabbed through the heart.
Aside from this scene, most of this issue is noise to show the chaos of the vampire uprising, the quick setup of White Rabbit, and the resolution. The use of White Rabbit seems unimportant in the grand scheme of things, and any villain could have been a stand-in. That makes the overall arc of the issue vague in its point and importance.
The conclusion also comes around the corner quickly with no setup. It makes the issue somewhat throwaway, with not enough to set up where the story is going or much to hang the plot on to care all that much.
In the grand scheme of this run, it’s somewhat comical to think demons were attacking people a short while ago, only for vampires to be the primary threat now. It’s not much different when you think about it, though Spider-Man doesn’t reflect on that here.
Amazing Spider-Man #49 gives readers a taste of what Spider-Man deals with when killing vampires or narrowly escaping are his only options. An interesting bit about the civilian victims getting turned is a highlight, but it’s mostly a quick setup without much payoff.
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