Marvel's Blood Hunt Introduces New Supervampire Villains

A new breed of vampire villains are sinking their teeth into the Marvel Universe. Blood Hunt promises a bloodbath as Marvel vampires — including Dracula, the lord of vampires, and Morbius, the living vampire — emerge from the shadows when an overwhelming army of bloodsucking terrors unite for the first time in millennia. Blade, Bloodline, the Midnight Mission, the Avengers, and a new team, the vampire-slaying Blood Hunters, are among the heroes whose lives are at stake during the event that introduces a brood of villains: the Bloodcoven.

Along with Bloodstorm One, a Hydra-created clone of Dracula, the team includes Megrim, Cruel, Unusual, the Damascene, and Smoke Eater — supervampires who feed on the blood of superhumans.

"I knew going in that vampires weren't bad enough. If the children of the night were going up against the Avengers, let alone the other heroes of the world, bigger guns were required," said writer Jed MacKay. "Hence the Bloodcoven — supervampires, fed on the blood of superhumans that follow different vampiric philosophies, subsisting not only on blood but pain, or magic, or thoughts, or even ghosts! I threw together a list of names and some thoughts about powers, but it was Pepe who really brought these characters to (un)life, creating an extremely gnarly set of predators!"

Artist Pepe Larraz designed the key villains of Blood Hunt. Marvel describes the Bloodcoven: "The group's motives, powers and abilities will strike unfathomable fear into the hearts of your favorite heroes, and their bloodlust is only matched by their extreme brutality and an undying commitment to a dark master."

Cruel is wrapped in writhing razor wire and "always moving like some kind of metal gorgon," Larraz said. Smoke Eater "inhales ghosts to acquire their strength in combat" and becomes "the unification of multiple beings," making the many-eyed and multi-limbed monster a heavyhitter of the team.

The spiked and expressionless Damascene is "absolutely geometrical to remark the sharpness of the body," and the vampiric Megrim hides her face behind a cloth drenched in blood. "The skirt's folds make shapes like faces screaming of pain. Everything is super intense with her," Larraz said, adding that the aptly-named Unusual is a swirling mix of parallel lines shaped into a human silhouette.

Their leader is the armored Bloodstorm One, a Dracula clone not seen since he was hunted by Blade and the Nightstalkers in the 1990s.

"I gave him a lot of thought because I didn't want to do a vampire super hero, but a true monster, who is scary enough that he's even scared of himself. He hides his true nature under a perfect human shell, like some kind of Michelangelo's David which is rotten inside, twisted, homicidal. The worst monster of all is the one who wants to look as the perfect human," Larraz said. "The armor is an homage to Vlad Tepes' armor from Coppola's Dracula film, which seemed to me like a proper reference."

Marvel's Blood Hunt #1 is on sale May 1.