Free Comic Friday: Blood Hunt/X-Men

Free Comic Book Day 2024: Blood Hunt/X-Men #1
Cover: Kael Ngu
“Nightfall”
Writer: Jed MacKay
Artist: Sara Pichelli
Color Artist: Federico Blee

“The Fire Still Burns”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: David Marquez
Color Artist: Edgar Delgado

Lettering: VC’s Travis Lanham
Assistant Editor: Martin Biro
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Associate Editor: Annalise Bissa
Editor-in-Chief: C.B. Cebulski
Published by: Marvel
Released: May 4, 2024

From Secret Wars and Civil War II to Avengers/X-Men/Eternals: Judgment Day and X of Swords, Free Comic Book Day often serves as an opportunity for Marvel to hype the next big thing coming to some or all of its books. This year, it was a doubleheader of Blood Hunt, the vampire crossover that's been brewing since the early days of Jason Aaron’s Avengers run, and the first look at the X-Men post-Krakoa.

I’ll state right off the bat* that “Blood Hunt” does not have me very excited. I know Dracula headlined his own book in the 70s, but I’ve always felt like Blade kind of had that area of Marvel’s dark shadows pretty much covered. It's hard to consider guys with sharp teeth and sun allergies an existential threat when at any moment a 100-story armored being can show up to judge the whole planet** or a purple guy can wipe out half of all life in the universe with his bespoke glove.

But here I am judging the event before even reading my free sample.

It opens with Spider-Man battling an apparently new villain who goes by Doctor Dark. Spidey mocks his name relentlessly and, frankly, it's not some of his better work. I’ve seen Spider-Man portrayed as someone who truly inspires his fellow heroes and someone who annoys them and villains to no end. This portrayal definitely falls into the latter category.

Spider-Man lands a single punch before Doctor Dark tosses his cookies, then explodes in a burst of Darkforce energy.

Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman encounter a cascade of the energy in Arizona, where the Fantastic Four have been hanging their hats in Ryan North’s magnificent FF run. In the Big Apple, Daredevil of course can't see night prematurely falling but he can feel the temperature change and hear people screaming in confusion and fear. He swoops in to help and finds vampires attacking people and … falling apart?

Seriously, even if I buy that his billy club line sliced that one in half, where did the other head come from? I haven't read any post-Zdarsky issues yet, but when did Daredevil start maiming people? I know they're vampires, but does he?

In Atlanta, Blade’s recently introduced daughter Bloodline is having to break out her vampire-busting gear in the middle of the afternoon that has suddenly turned to night. Two vampires burst into flames, apparently not due to her efforts, as she says “Too slow.” A third vampire is decapitated and a new arrival says “Indeed. Too slow.”

Turns out, it's Dracula, and he’s here to enlist her help in saving the world.

As Tim Meadows playing Aaron Neville sang in Saturday Night Live's Rockers to Help Explain Whitewater opening 30 years ago, give or take: This is an intriguing turn. Is it enough to get me to buy Blood Hunt? No, but as I said, the deck was a little stacked against it already.

The sudden night across the U.S. and presumably the world would be more interesting if it hadn't happened recently in “King in Black” and even on a smaller scale in Secret Empire. In that event, Manhattan was encased in a Darkforce dome, necessitating a team-up between Doctor Strange, Spider-Woman, Ben Urich and the Kingpin, which was a fun read.

Even if vampires aren't in the same weight class as Skrulls, Sentinels and symbiotes, the juxtaposition of Marvel’s heroes with a horror-like setting could be interesting. But I’ve already seen DC’s version of that in “DC vs. Vampires.” Granted, that was an Elseworlds story but that also meant the consequences could be more dramatic and long-lasting than something in mainline continuity like this one. I just don't believe that many, if any, significant Marvel characters will be dead or undead when this ends, and those who are probably won't stay that way for long.

Marvel is hyping this as more violent than your average superhero story, even publishing “red band” editions of the core series featuring “explicit content.” On the one hand, I give them credit for having a non-mature-audiences version of a big crossover affecting most of their characters. It would be nice if Marvel Studios had considered a similar approach to “Deadpool and Wolverine,” in case some of us would like to see characters from the long-running X-Men franchise introduced into the MCU without the vulgarity of the first two Deadpool movies, but hey, that's a different post. What the red and non-red-band versions suggest to me is, maybe the explicit content isn't very vital to the story if you can tell the story without it, so why add it in the first place?

Speaking of Marvel characters becoming vampires but not staying that way, Jubilee is the star of the X-Men story written by Simone and serving as a lead-in to her “Uncanny X-Men” series. Having followed the Krakoa era extremely closely largely on Marvel Unlimited and only recently starting to regret it, I’ve been curious about what comes next.

Mutants are apparently scattered and underground, and the X-Mansion has been turned into a prison overseen by Dr. Corina Ellis, who seems to have confiscated some of the more conservative items in Emma Frost’s closet. Some of the inmates we get to see are Blob and Siryn, and the story ends with Ellis addressing the unidentified “Inmate X” in a massive holding cell. It’s so obvious that it's Professor X that I’m starting to think maybe it isn't.

Before that, we get a look at the new status quo through Jubilee's eyes. Ellis isn't very concerned about her showing up in Westchester, although that changes when Jubilee uses her fireworks powers to destroy a car belonging to some lowlifes harassing a mutant girl at a local diner. Jubilee offers to help the girl, who declines and says she can't leave her mother, who works at the diner with her and tries to excuse her daughter's obvious mutation as a skin condition. After going all Carrie Underwood on the punks’ car, Jubilee calls Wolverine and tells him to tell Rogue she’s in.

It's an interesting enough setup, and I have enjoyed Simone’s work elsewhere. It feels like a fresh take on familiar X-themes, although what I liked about the Krakoa era, despite its missteps, was that it felt truly different from a lot of what came before. We shall see.

* - Not intended as a vampire pun, but I’ll claim it.

** - Of its own volition or because Iron Man rebooted it.