Marvel's Blood Hunt Kicks Off With the Deaths of Three Avengers

Three of Earth's Mightiest Heroes are the first to fall in the opening of Blood Hunt. The vampire crossover event has promised massive repercussions for the Marvel Universe, with no one safe from the creatures of the night's bite. Blood Hunt #1 introduced a new species of vampires, along with the surprising character leading them. When it came time for the Avengers to square off with the new breed of vampires, a sacrifice was made, a powerful hero was quickly taken down, and the betrayal of the year took place.

*WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Blood Hunt #1. Continue reading at your own risk!

Blood Hunt #1 comes from the creative team of Jed MacKay, Pepe Larraz, Marte Gracia, and VC's Cory Petit. While the Avengers are helping fight the vampires in the streets, Bladecalls them up asking for help and saying he has vital information to share. The Avengers teleport Blade to their orbital base, the Impossible City, but instead of Blade showing up, a new breed of super-vampires called the Bloodcoven ambush them. The Bloodcoven gets the upper hand thanks to the sneak attack, with the blade-wielding Damascene lodging one of its sharp red blades inside Thor's skull. Since the Bloodcoven's leader, Bloodstorm One, wants to turn Captain America into a vampire as their new status symbol, Black Panther makes the hard sacrifice of evacuating as many Avengers as he can, only to wind up impaled in the chest by Bloodstorm One.

Finally, Blade pays a visit to Doctor Strange and Clea, who are working on a spell to kill every vampire on Earth. Blade fills them in on the vampire uprising, and how they've organized under a group called The Structure. Moon Knight killed their leader back in Moon Knight #18, but someone new has stepped up to fill that void. It's here that we learn that Blade is the person who blacked out the sun, assembled the vampires, and is The Structure's new leader. Blood Hunt #1 ends with Blade stabbing Doctor Strange through the back.

Are the Avengers really dead?

What we know is Black Panther will be turned into a vampire, with his adventures continuing in the Black Panther: Blood Hunt miniseries. The ongoing Doctor Strange series, written by Blood Hunt scribe Jed MacKay, will fill readers in as Clea and Wong race to save the Sorcerer Supreme, and Captain America assembles a new team of Earth's Mightiest Heroes in Avengers.

And this all took place in just the first issue of Blood Hunt! With several more chapters to come, there's no telling which way the story will go from here.