Union Jack The Ripper: Blood Hunt #3 - Marvel Comics

UNION JACK THE RIPPER: BLOOD HUNT No. 3, September 2024

Skewered straight through the torso by an enormous vampire, and then chomped in the neck by the self-same blood-sucker, it’s probably a good bet that many bibliophiles experiencing Cavan Scott’s early plot for Issue Three of “Union Jack The Ripper: Blood Hunt” thought the titular character was well and truly sunk. But whilst Joseph Chapman’s “one man war” momentarily appears to have come to a tragic conclusion, this twenty-page periodical does a terrific job in snatching a costly, bitter-sweet victory from the savage jaws of defeat; “’E felt it. The boss. Every time we got ‘it. My ‘and, ‘Elen and the pretty boy. Even told Eddie ‘bout it. ‘Bout the pain Joe caused ‘im.”

Indeed, poor possessed Bulldog’s horrendous sacrifice is arguably one of the saddest affairs to have occurred during the entire “Blood Hunt” crossover event by “Marvel Worldwide”, and will surely have traumatised this book’s audience as much as it clearly does Union Jack when the surviving super-hero wearily sinks down to his knees in abject grief over his gore-covered team-mate’s mutilated corpse. Such a sad, long-lingering impact is genuinely rare for a secondary cast member, and goes to show just how well-penned the member of the Britannia Project’s story-arc was.

Impressively however, this sense-shattering shenanigan is just one of many to pack a phantastic, pulse-pounding publication, with the startling appearance of the undead lord Hunger, a truly treacherous betrayal by Alan, and Police Constable Mara Syal getting beaten within an inch of her mortal life, being just a few of them. Furthermore, the “New York Times bestselling comic writer” also even manages to provide tiny Judy with a genuinely innocent moment, as the child naively refuses to believe her former friends-turned-vampires will actually hurt her, or that Chapman’s alter-ego will let anyone do the young girl harm. 

Also helping to make such an emotionally-charged tour-de-force occur are Kev Walker, inker Craig Yeung and colourist Java Tartaglia, who combine together to create as much mayhem as a “Parental Advisory” book can allow. In fact, the sheer noisy brutality of the central protagonists’ desperate conflict against a literal cacophony of living corpses and unrelenting evil is debatably what makes this narrative’s more quieter moments, such as Winston’s aforementioned death and Judy’s unwavering belief in Union Jack, so incredibly impactive.

The regular cover art to "UNION JACK THE RIPPER: BLOOD HUNT" #3 by Rod Reis