Blood Hunt # 2

 By Mark Rodriguez

All the vampires in the Marvel Universes decided to team up as they forced all Dark Force users to cover up the sun, plunging the world in eternal darkness. As the Avengers fight with a group of powerful vampires called the Bloodcoven, Thor, Black Panther and Scarlet Witch are gravely injured. Elsewhere it's revealed that Blade is the one behind this as he betrays and fatally injures Doctor Strange!!! What will happen now?

 

The story opens in the Impossible City as Thor is being restrained (with a spike impaled in his skull) and Scarlet Witch is suffering a mental attack. Blade oversees this and says they are safe in the Impossible City, a place for monsters to call home. He asks the Black Panther how he feels, as we see that he's been turned into a vampire. Blade approaches him, telling him to try to fight him, but T'Challa can only kneel with loyalty. Blade sends T'Challa and the Bloodcoven out to their next mission. Blade says his palace is secure, but he wants more. He sends T'Challa to find 'his prize', and he sends the Bloodcoven to find 'the girl'. He is referring to his daughter, Brielle.

 

Meanwhile in New York City, some kids are cornered and trying to desperately defend themselves against several vampires. The woman, presumably the mother, holds onto a child while she holds out a taser and another kid is holding a make shift hammer with sharp objects nailed into it. Just then, the vampires are beheaded as Bloodline shows up, armed with her sword. She says she doesn't have to ask, as she knows the vampires will want to do things the hard way.

Dracula shows up and tells Bloodline not to waste her time and she is too important to risk her life for 'insignificants'. Bloodline says they are innocents. Dracula says they are vulnerable and the Blood Hunt has started for her. Just then they are caught by someone calling out Dracula and Brielle Brooks by name.

Elsewhere in Uptown, Tigra and Hunter's Moon take out some vampires and say they have to find Doctor Strange. Just then Miles Morales show up, who is also looking for Doctor Strange. Miles says he's the 'other Spider-Man' and asks if Hunter's Moon is supposed to be 'the other Moon Knight'. Miles joins them since he doesn't know where Doctor Strange lives. He's still new at the superhero biz and people don't tell him these things.

 

Tigra points out the large 'inconspicuous' mansion in front of them. Miles says he doesn't hang out in the village, and Hunter's Moon admits he didn't know that was the house either. Tigra knocks on the door and Doctor Strange appears as a ghost, phasing through the door. Tigra says vampires are everywhere and the sky went black, while Strange is hanging around as a ghost when he should be assembling the Defenders.

Strange explains he's in his astral form since there are complications with his corporal self. We see that his assistant Clea is trying to keep Strange's body at bay which is currently a feral vampire.

Dracula faces off against the Bloodcoven, calling Bloodstorm One his clone. Bloodstorm asks if he's impressed with how he's grown. Dracula says he is the lord of all vampires and Bloodstorm will kneel. Bloodstorm says he is a false lord and a false king, and they serve the true lord that serves the true philosophy of their kind. Just then, the Avengers show up, this time consisting of Captain Marvel, Sam Wilson, Iron Man and the Vision. Captain Marvel says their philosophy is that they have a lot to avenge.

Bloodstorm calls for Megrim but Vision has already grabbed him and is flying off with him. Vision explains his brain patterns might be similar enough to humans but he can cycle them too quickly for Megrim to lock onto. Captain Marvel punches Bloodstorm, which sends him flying. Sam throws his shield at Smoke Cutter saying that she will pay for what they've done to Black Panther.

Cruel is ready to attack Iron Man again, but this time Tony hit him with widely oscillating magnetic fields. Damascene forms a blade is is ready to throw it at Tony from behind when suddenly a bright light makes his arm shatter. Vision expels solar energy which hurts the super powered vampires. Carol tosses Bloodstorm into Smoke Cutter. She says they might have sucker punched them before, but even at half strength, they're still the Avengers. She fires off a blast into the sky saying no matter how dark the night gets, they'll make sure the sun rises again. The Avengers get together, and this time Dracula and Bloodline joins them.

 

Bloodstorm says they will return and next time it will be for everything. The Bloodcoven escape in a portal and Sam tosses his shield at them, which only cuts through the remaining smoke after they disappeared. Carol tells Sam that they will get the Impossible City back and they will rescue their friends. Brielle tells Iron Man they have to get to Greenwich Village. 

The heroes gather at Doctor Strange's mansion. Sam informs Strange that they lost the Impossible City as well as Thor, Wanda and T'Challa. Strange says he has gathered Spider-Man, Tigra and Hunter's Moon to help them. Brielle is glad to see Miles since she knows him, when he suddenly gets a strong headache. Brielle says with everything that has been going on, she can't find her dad. Just then Miles turns into a feral vampire!!

 My thoughts-

The heroes all get together in this issue, or rather the ones that we have seen in the last issue. I'm assuming we'll see other characters like the classic Spider-Man and Captain America and members of the X-Men and whoever else in their tie-in issues.

I have to say, it was satisfying to see Captain Marvel send the overly smug Bloodstorm flying. It was also good to see the bad guys being sent running. The first time the Avengers weren't ready for these super powered vampires, but they were ready for the rematch.

 

There are several differences from the regular comic and the Red Band version, including a page that has Bloodstorm actually tell Captain Marvel that Blade was their leader. Without that page I wonder how that will come about in the regular book. 

For the differences, other than that example I mentioned, we see Vision take Megrim close to sun where he can see the villain's melting off. When we see Doctor Strange's body being kept under control by Clea, he is still cut in half in the Red Band version. I have to say, the concept of Strange being able to leave his body while it's being controlled by some outside force is pretty interesting. I mean, imagine getting bit by a vampire or zombie, then checking out just in time. You not only save your sanity... but you get to witness your former self run around as a mindless monster.

 Finally, the mother and children that were cornered by the vampires fared a lot better in the regular book than the Red Band. In this one the mother is being devoured by the vampires as the poor kids watch. It's hard to say if it's the same characters as they have different designs between books. Maybe the original trio survived the ordeal while the Red Band featured a different set of less fortunate victims.

The one thing that confused me was Thor. The last issue he had a spike driven through his skull. Now he's chained up, presumably kept alive somehow with the spike still impaling his skull. I don't know how he's still alive and how he'll get that out of there.

The story is picking up and we have to see what happens when the heroes find out that Blade betrayed them. Sadly reading some of the Blood Hunters ongoing run spoiled Miles becoming a vampire, though I didn't know that T'Challa shared the same fate.

The last thing I'd like say was I got an extra copy of this one in one of the random comic bags from Third Eye Comics. I was hoping to look back when I bought the first copy to see if I got an alternate cover, but as luck would have it, I got the same cover twice. Oh well.