The next Marvel Universe comic book summer event is here with the horror-tinged crossover story Blood Hunt, with core series by Jed MacKay and Pepe Larraz. The story has the world overrun by vampires, with the heroes rocked by a huge betrayal from within.
Spoilers ahead for Blood Hunt #1.
Blood Hunt is the culmination of years of comic book storytelling, primarily from titles written by Jed MacKay across Marvel’s publishing line since 2021. Seizing control of the magic users in the Marvel Universe connected to the Darkforce Dimension, vampires use their unique energies to blot out sunlight from reaching the Earth. After the Avengers are ambushed by an elite squad of vampires in their own base before they can react to vampire attacks around the world, Blade attacks Doctor Strange, revealing himself as the one leading the all-out undead assault. Here is the story behind Blade’s betrayal of the heroes in Blood Hunt and how Marvel has been building to this twist for years.
The Corruption of Blade
During Jason Aaron’s longtime run on Avengers, the vampire community in the Marvel Universe fell into a vicious civil war that drew the attention of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. In the end, Dracula regained his place as the leader of a diplomatically recognized vampire nation-state in the ruins of Chernobyl. In exchange for its sovereign status, the United Nations installed Blade as its official inspector to ensure vampiric matters didn’t spill over beyond Dracula’s domain and affect humanity.
This uneasy position forced Blade and Dracula to work together to tackle threats that were poised to upend the fledgling nation-state’s diplomatic legitimacy. When an ancient evil entity known as Adana arose that surpassed Blade’s powers, Dracula convinced Blade to embrace his full vampiric potential and offered to let him drink some of his blood to upgrade Blade’s abilities. Blade did so and successfully defeated Adana in Blade #10, by Bryan Edward Hill and Elena Casagrandes, but visibly began to grow more violent and harder to control himself.
Moon Knight and the Vampire Cult
However, not every vampire fell in line under Dracula’s rule, particularly those living outside of the growing community in Chernobyl. A cult known as the Structure militantly pursued an agenda to prey on humans, expanding their activities into New York City, which put them on a collision course with Moon Knight. The street-level superhero had since opened an organization known as the Midnight Mission to look after those neglected by society, which includes peaceful vampires.
In 2022’s Moon Knight #18 by Jed MacKay and Federico Sabbatini, Moon Knight succeeded in killing the head of the Structure, leaving the cult in apparent disarray as he stopped them from conquering New York. However, this defeat proved only to be a momentary setback for the structure, who quickly reorganized in the shadows under the secret leadership of Blade. Under this new direction, the Structure planned a coordinated attack of major cities worldwide to be carried out simultaneously under Blade’s orders after the Darkforce magic was used.
Doctor Strange’s Surprising Vampire History
Blade personally attacking Doctor Strange is another carefully calculated move, given how often the Sorcerer Supreme has tangled with vampires, going as far as to cost them their costliest defeat to date. After multiple battles against Dracula, Strange found a spell within the Darkhold that would eradicate vampires from the planet seemingly for good. Known as the Montesi Formula, Strange successfully casts this spell in 1983’s Doctor Strange #62 by Roger Stern and Steve Leialoha though its effects would weaken over time, leading to the return of Dracula and a growing number of vampires.
Aware that Doctor Strange and his wife Clea are attempting to recreate this move to save the world from vampires, Blade decides to pay the good doctor a house call himself in Blood Hunt #1. Closing out the issue with the story’s biggest development yet, Blade reveals himself as the new leader of the Structure and responsible for the attacks, stabbing Doctor Strange in the back to stop him from finding a spell to use against the vampires. With this reveal, Blood Hunt is truly on as Marvel prepares to take Blade into boldly traitorous territory, opening its big summertime crossover event with a bloody bang.
