Written by: Justina Ireland
Art by: Marcelo Ferreira, Roberto Poggi
Colors by: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letters by: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover art by: Marcel Ferreira, Roberto Poggi, Rachelle Rosenberg
Cover price: $4.99
Release date: May 15, 2024
Amazing Spider-Man: Blood Hunt #1 teams the Wall Crawler with Misty Knight and the Lizard to find Michael Morbius because the Living Vampire may be inches a way from curing vampirism.
Is Amazing Spider-Man: Blood Hunt #1 Good?
Well, okay then. Justina Ireland steps away from Star Wars: High Republic writing duties to send Spider-Man on a high-flying adventure through the vampire-infested streets of NYC. At best, this first issue in a three-part mini-series is better than the majority of Zeb Wells’s run on ASM, but the issue isn’t without its flaws.
Amazing Spider-Man: Blood Hunt #1 picks up immediately from the end of ASM #49, wherein Spidey is suddenly confronted by the Lizard. After a brief scuffle, Lizard stops his attack when Misty Knight arrives because the two are working together (long story). Misty explains she and Lizard are searching for Colleen Wing and Michael Morbius (Dr. Mike) who were kidnapped by vampires. The mission is urgent because Morbius may have discovered a cure for vampirism.
Misty explains she can track their movements via a homing device Wing placed on Morbius, which leads the unlikely trio to an abandoned building, a church where survivors have taken refuge, and a second church that acts as a front for an abandoned Beyond lab. Ultimately, their search efforts run into a dead end, except for a curious bit of intel that Maxine Danger is involved.
Meanwhile, Colleen Wing and Michael Morbius are blindly transported to the garage of an office building. They escape their bonds and overcome the guards to begin the long climb upward. They soon find the building is crawling with vampires who are obedient to an ambitious executive-turned-vampire who has a proposition for Morbius.
What’s great about Amazing Spider-Man: Blood Hunt #1? Ireland’s pacing is energetic, the plot has plenty of twists and turns to plant the seeds of mystery about a possible larger conspiracy, and the character voices are generally on point. At a macro level, this issue does read like it could be meaningful to the main Blood Hunt storyline.
![](https://weirdsciencemarvelcomics.files.wordpress.com/2024/05/asm-blood-hunt-1-p2.jpg?w=674)
What’s not so great about Amazing Spider-Man: Blood Hunt #1? There are too many individual plot points happening off-panel, forcing the reader to accept out-of-the-blue developments without context. Misty Knight and Lizard are bizarrely working together, and Misty explains that the reason for their partnership is a story for another day. Michael Morbius asks why Misty and Colleen stormed his lab, and she explains that it’s a funny story she’ll share later.
In effect, we’re tossed into a scenario with several characters who are taking actions or forming alliances without context, setup, or background. For a mega-crossover event supposedly over a year in the making, that type of shoddiness is a no-no.
Further, there’s an odd sticking point that doesn’t make a lot of sense. Zeb Wells made a big deal of teaching Spider-Man a lesson in ASM #49 that vampires are people, too, and that cutting loose on bloodsuckers is not the best approach. Here, that point is hammered home on the preface page, but as the unlikely trio makes their way through the city, Misty has no qualms about shooting vampires through the head and Lizard literally rips vamps apart. What was the point of projecting that moral message if it’s simply going to be ignored in the next issue?
How’s the art? Ferreira and Poggi deliver the goods with exciting vampire fights, web-slinging action, and dramatic panels. On the whole, this comic looks great.
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.
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Bits and Pieces
Amazing Spider-Man: Blood Hunt #1 delivers plenty of action, drama, great art, and mysterious developments that hint at one or more conspiracies at work supporting the vampire apocalypse. Unfortunately, several character appearances and plot points either happen off-panel or aren’t explained at all, which makes the reading experience unsatisfying.
6/10