Welcome back to the Marvel Rundown! This week we take a look at the finale to the latest Marvel summer event, with a review of Blood Hunt #5! This review contains SPOILERS, so if that’s not your style, jump on down to the Rapid Rundown for quick hits on Black Widow: Venomous #1 and X-Force #1.
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Blood Hunt #5
Blood Hunt #5
Writer: Jed MacKay
Artist: Pepe Larraz
Color Artists: Marte Gracia & Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover Artists: Pepe Larraz & Marte Gracia
Blood Hunt has been such an enjoyable event, and this final chapter is no exception. As one might guess, the story ends with the day saved, Varnae and his vampire ilk are defeated… but Doom ensures nothing returns to normal.
As the Beat Crew has discussed in our recent conversations about Jed MacKay’s books, one of his greatest strengths is his character work. Whether it’s between the odd-couple pairing of Spider-Man and Dracula or Doctors Strange and Doom, there are a ton of fun little moments that really make this title for me. The dialogue feels authentic and exciting in a way that MacKay has always been great at. VC’s Cory Petit adds little touches that make the book that much better, with these wispy weak balloons that follow a ghostly Stephen Strange throughout the issue.
Although the Avengers were ostensibly the main characters here (and do somewhat help save the day), I was far more interested in the smaller beats with the bit players, like Bloodline and Spider-Man. Much of that had to do with MacKay’s character works, but I would be remiss not to highlight the superb work Pepe Larraz has done on this series. I don’t know how he does it, but he just continues to level up his linework from book to book, making it harder and harder to look away from whatever book he’s chosen to work on next.
I’m not sure where in the issue Marte Gracia and Fer Sifuentes-Sujo switched on coloring duties because the hand-off here was seamless. Though the whole book looked stunning, the pages featuring newly-minted Sorcerer Supreme Doom were incredible, with this painterly style that felt like a true leveling up for the entire artistic team. Larraz’s lines disappear in a swirl of colors that look ethereal in nature. There’s one specific panel that looks just like Esad Ribić’s depiction of Doom in Secret Wars, though filtered through the smooth pen of Larraz.
A bit of my excitement for the issue was deflated when the final page was spoiled prior to it coming out, but in context of the story, I enjoyed the hell out of this ending. While he’s been present in stories since then, Victor Von Doom has felt a bit lowkey since the end of Christopher Cantwell and Salvador Larocca’s Doctor Doom series from a few years ago, so I’m very interested to see where things go this fall.
Overall, Blood Hunt was an incredibly fun event, with implications that’ll wind up impacting the 616 for a long time to come. There are a few choices I didn’t mention that I was pleasantly surprised to see stick around at the end of the event, and it makes me excited for the stories that’ll wind up coming out in the not-too-distant future.
Verdict: BUY. The future of the Marvel Universe revolves around this issue.
Rapid Rundown!
Black Widow: Venomous #1
What’s genuinely difficult today is crafting a truly refreshing Black Widow solo book. So many of Natasha Romanoff’s runs revolve around going back to the Red Room that bore her into the spy/assassin she is today; constantly looking back at where she came instead of exploring where Nat can go as a character. Now, while Erica Schultz only gets the 30 pages to explore Black Widow, she’s able to seamlessly weave an insightful character look into this tie-in preview for upcoming crossover event, Venom War. Similar to the Daredevil: Woman Without Fear run going on right now, Black Widow: Venomous has Nat teaching a new symbiote she’s bonded with to keep up by taking her into a mental Red Room. Yes, Schultz couldn’t keep Black Widow out of the dreadful KGB training facility, but by placing it within Nat’s mind and allowing her the space to choose nurture over nature, Natasha shows a minute amount of growth– that’s a lot that gets done for a one-shot! This wouldn’t be possible without Luciano Vecchio utilizing the opportunity to dive into the Black Widow’s iconography and use that to inform his layouts. Vecchio’s approach is a composite of breathtaking montages that act as great shorthand for how Natasha’s found family interjects into her life, and how she views them as missions permit. More similar in style to Marco Rudy than J.H. Williams III, Vecchio places each moment of this training montage in its own conceptual illustration all the while keeping the pace of sequential storytelling on track. This isn’t without its hiccups, sure, but the result are pages that wow more than immerse, and that is an entirely viable way to entertain readers! With flat reds and stark blacks, color artists David Curiel and Rachelle Rosenberg spend their time building visual contrast over Vecchio’s non-traditional layouts. We’ve seen this method before of blending flat colors with textured paint to increase the graphic nature of the illustration, but kudos to Curiel and Rosenberg for hiding the seams, as it were. VC’s Ariana Maher commits the cardinal lettering sin of white or red text on black balloons with red strokes. Sure, it looks different, but at the cost of alienating readers with vision difficulties who are looking to stay immersed in their favorite spy/assassin adventure. All in all, pairing the Black Widow up with a symbiote, giving Natasha a widow’s peak set of bangs, and setting the pair lose on a crossover event makes for exciting Marvel Comics! Can’t wait to see what this team cook up for their tie-in run given the taste so far has been worth every penny! — Beau Q.
X-Force #1
X-Force #1 is a perfect example of what a first issue has to do, introduce the characters, set up the book’s premise, and entertain the reader. In the wake of the Krakoa Era ending, the From the Ashes new status quo, Mutants must pivot from their paradise sanctuary island to being treated as 2nd class citizens of earth, again. For this new chapter of Mutant Black-ops, writer Geoffrey Thorne and artist Marcus To give us a squad led by the Mutant techno-genius Forge, who uses this iteration of X-Force as his tool for “fixing” Earth. Utilizing his newest invention, Forge assembles his team of X-Men standards Sage, Captain Britain, and Askani, along with new bloods Tank and Surge, they head to hotspots forecasted as pivotal danger points to intervene before the world breaks. With this book, Thornedelivers on the entertaining aspect with a tight plot driven by action, guest star Deadpool’s humor, and Forge’s extreme obsession with accomplishing the mission. It’s this dark obsession as Forge semi-parallels the Beast’s dark character arc of holding on too tight. To further sell the book, To’s visual storytelling and clean linework are solid accompaniments to engaging the reader in this next chapter of Mutants. — George Carmona 3rd
Perhaps it’s because I’ve been reading Marvel comics for over fifty years, but Blood Hunt #5 seemed flat, especially in its handling of sorcery. Dr. Strange used to cast spells; then the system became that whoever used magic did so at a cost with each spell. Now the characters, as with Doom, just gesture and use magic as a type of reality alteration, like a cinematic special effect.
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“A bit of my excitement for the issue was deflated when the final page was spoiled prior to it coming out” Then maybe don’t inflict the same feeling on others by hinting the story point in the title of the article.
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Doom becoming the Sorcerer Supreme doesn’t really mean much, although MacKay, et al. want you to think it does. Strange has lost the title before and gotten it back. The S.S. is supposed to be the defender of Earth’s dimension, not Earth’s lord. Watch out for the significance of the change being exaggerated.
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Obviously, Strange will become Sorcerer Supreme again. It’s comics. It’s not about whether or not the change is permanent, it’s about the story possibilities that arise from the change.
Perhaps it’s because I’ve been reading Marvel comics for over fifty years, but Blood Hunt #5 seemed flat, especially in its handling of sorcery. Dr. Strange used to cast spells; then the system became that whoever used magic did so at a cost with each spell. Now the characters, as with Doom, just gesture and use magic as a type of reality alteration, like a cinematic special effect.
“A bit of my excitement for the issue was deflated when the final page was spoiled prior to it coming out” Then maybe don’t inflict the same feeling on others by hinting the story point in the title of the article.
Doom becoming the Sorcerer Supreme doesn’t really mean much, although MacKay, et al. want you to think it does. Strange has lost the title before and gotten it back. The S.S. is supposed to be the defender of Earth’s dimension, not Earth’s lord. Watch out for the significance of the change being exaggerated.
Obviously, Strange will become Sorcerer Supreme again. It’s comics. It’s not about whether or not the change is permanent, it’s about the story possibilities that arise from the change.
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