Hulk: Blood Hunt #1 - Marvel Comics

HULK: BLOOD HUNT No. 1, September 2024

Promising a “spine-chilling chapter of the Blood Hunt event”, this one-shot certainly should have pleased any Hulk-heads who picked the thirty-page periodical up from the spinner rack in the hope that it would both progress Bruce Banner’s quest to save poor Charlie Tidwell’s soul, as well as give them an insight into the Green Goliath’s adventures during the publisher’s vampire-filled crossover story-arc. Indeed, one of the narrative’s greatest strengths is arguably Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s ability to simply dip the audience’s toes into the undead blood-drinker’s worldwide invasion, without any of them needing to specifically own or encounter any of the numerous comic book’s covering the actual calamity; “Of course. The sun’s gone dark. They’re not trapped in the desert anymore, are they.?”

Much of this accessibility is undoubtedly due to the reader simply being able to witness the gamma scientist’s overnight stop at the Old West movie set of Old Tucson without any foreknowledge as to how he got there, and subsequently tremble at poor Miguel’s horrifying encounter with a coven of ghastly ghouls some fifty years earlier. This yarn, enthrallingly told by the somewhat elderly Mexican immigrant, is incredibly well-penned by the “Eisner-nominated writer”, and should genuinely tug upon the heart-strings of any one ‘hearing it’ for even the tenth time – especially when the poor boy’s mother sacrifices everything just so he has a chance to escape the Nosferatu’s underground lair.

Equally as enthralling as this book’s emotional journey though is the Hulk’s subsequent brutal battle against the vampires residing beneath the saloon’s creaking floorboards. Absolutely packed full of body horror, bone-breaking punches and innards-spilling slashes, this action-sequence is terrifically paced, with the founding Avenger desperately attempting to fend off his inhuman assailants with a pair of large, improvised wooden stakes.

Also throwing a well-stocked bucket full of grisly, internal organs into the mix is artist Danny Earls - who pencils some truly harrowing scenes of unwholesome slaughter. Foremost of these contributions is probably young Miguel’s terrifying escape from the hungry-horde who transform his entire family into the next generation of Arizona’s undead inhabitants. However, the Irish illustrator is just as proficient pencilling Banner’s initial fate at the hands of the Nosferatu, when they quite literally cut his belly wide open and witness Bruce’s alter-ego horrifically rise from the gory mess of his badly disfigured rib cage.

The regular cover art to "HULK: BLOOD HUNT" #1 by Nic Klein