Trading The Devils That You Know– Reviewing ‘Blood Hunt’ #5

Times up for Earth as the first vampire Varnae enacts his grand plan. Unless the Avengers can turn the tide.

While there is little doubt the heroes will win the day, the real question is what will be the price the Marvel Universe pays for that win.

One threat is taken off the board, another gains a new ability, and a classic foe becomes something far more powerful in Blood Hunt #5. Jed MacKay, Pepe Larraz, Marte Garcia, Fer Sifuentes-Sujo, and Cory Petit bring the latest Marvel summer event to an actual game-changing ending.

Naturally, there will be spoilers ahead, so turn back now if you’re not ready for those.  

Okay, now that they’re gone, let’s talk about the illuminating portions of this story.

Mostly this is one of those big battle finish situations. Avengers face the Blood Coven once more (sending them scattering, likely to be picked up here or there by other writers over the years) and Thor goes god to god with Varnae. Brielle, Dracula, Miles Morales, and the Strange Academy kids weave into the narrative after wrapping their tie-in stories.

Larraz as usual makes things just sort of sing on the page. Capturing the fluid motion of the characters, while choosing the right paneling options to maximize every bit of space and detail. Dynamic is a word used often for artwork, and Larraz very much embodies it with his style.  It gives the story the right epic blockbuster vibes that it needs. Thus, allowing us to feel every single blow, emotional moment, movement, and more in the most tangible way possible.

Boosting this are the colors that Garcia and Sifuentes-Sujo bring to the page. They really hit hard on the moody ominous darker tones that are part of the everlasting darkness upon the universe. At the same time, there are plenty of flashier colors used since we’re in a superpowered and supernatural type of world.

One of the best things about this event is the fact that from the start, it knows what it is and lives in that space. Another best thing is that it moves at such a rapid pace, nothing being dragged to fill page count of issues. MacKay had a plan going in, set it up through a bunch of titles in the past, and pays it off well.

Even though I was critical of the Blood Coven being thrown into things as some brand new uber threat in the first issue, it pays off some here. As mentioned above there is a rematch of power houses that ends up going the other way (after the heroes struggle for a while). What matters most though are the moves that are meant to shake up the Marvel Universe. Often events or big storylines come with loaded “Nothing will ever be the same again” hype which never pans out.

When a shared universe is built upon staying within certain status quos more often than not, makes really big changes hard to believe.

In this case though, what MacKay pulls off should at least provide some stories for the next year or more. Once upon a time that was normal for these summer events, leaving a new status quo that books would use and work under. While I don’t believe most books will deal with one revelation all that much, they sure will with the other (SDCC panels already proved this).

One change being that as Varnae is defeated the heroes learn that vampires are now immune to the sun (something Dracula mysteriously seems to know the how of). Part of me feels like this is mostly so they can sort of cheat since they are keeping Miles Morales a vampire for the time being (Black Panther t00? Since neither was ‘saved’ here).

Then the other change hits them hard as Doctor Doom announces to the world, he is their new ‘Superior’ Sorcerer Supreme, after sort of tricking Stephen Strange to give him the power in the name of saving the world. Strange, assumed Doom meant saving the world just in this event, but tricky Doom had his fingers crossed and meant a wider open ‘save’ being molding the world as he sees fit with the power.

It will at least be interesting to see how these changes affect things moving forward. With Strange’s series ending after this event, it makes one wonder if MacKay is about to have a Doom Sorcerer Supreme book to continue his multi-year work with those carrying the magical title.

Speaking of these changes, we need to return to the color section for a moment. As the story shifts, there are some bold and subtle changes made to the palette.

A lot of the lighter and brighter colors are popping all over the place, since the heroes won and its daylight and hopeful once more. Sprinkled throughout though are still some heavier instances of the darker colors tied to the sunlight vampire revelation and Doom’s iron fist growing more powerful.

A lot of characters with evil, snarky, heroic, dominating, hopeful, and other emotionally charged voices have many things to share in this issue. Per usual, Petit manages to not only put those words to page in the best way possible, but also makes sure they have the right visual cues to take them even further. Doom’s metal mask altered pompous voice rings in my mind just as much as Strange’s more exasperated calming voice or Brielle’s compassionate and firm voice.

In the end, this was a pure summer blockbuster type of story with plenty of MacKay’s particular character and world developing trademarks. Brought to vivid and spectacular visual life, really allowing us to feel in the moment and like participants rather than just observers. Easily one of the top of these types of events that Marvel has done in last decade. Putting it on the list with some pretty good stories.

Blood Hunt #5 is now available from Marvel Comics.