After months of anticipation, Marvel Comics finally reveals the main villains for Blood Hunt! Dive into the chilling details about the menacing Bloodcoven here!
Prepare for the darkness to descend this May as Marvel Comics unveils Blood Hunt, a chilling crossover event that promises to shake the foundations of the Marvel Universe. Penned by acclaimed writer Jed MacKay and brought to life by the talented artist Pepe Larraz, this tale plunges readers into a world gripped by eternal night, where vampires, long hidden, rise to satisfy their insatiable thirst for blood.
While we’ve previously delved into the intricacies of this impending saga, spotlighting the heroes who will shape its narrative, one crucial aspect has remained obscured until now—the villains. Today, we cast a light into the shadows and unveil the sinister force at the heart of Blood Hunt: the Bloodcoven.
Comprising enigmatic and lethal members such as Megrim, Cruel, Unusual, the Damascene, Smoke Eater, and led by the formidable Bloodstorm One—a clone of Dracula engineered by the clandestine organization HYDRA—the Bloodcoven emerges as a formidable threat, poised to leave an indelible mark on the Marvel landscape.
The group’s motives, powers and abilities “will strike unfathomable fear into the hearts of your favourite heroes,” according to a Marvel Comics press release, and it’s said, “their bloodlust is only matched by their extreme brutality and an undying commitment to a dark master.”
MacKay explains, “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. 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,” he adds, “but it was Pepe who really brought these characters to (un)life, creating an extremely gnarly set of predators.”
Discover the creative genesis behind the haunting designs of each Bloodcoven member as artist Pepe Larraz shares his inspiration for this enigmatic faction. Dive into his insightful breakdowns below and uncover the intricate details that bring these sinister characters to life.
Cruel – “This one was pretty straightforward, a character wrapped in razor wire by his own will is terrifying enough, so that is what I did. I added the cloud of wires at his feet and neck, always moving like some kind of metal gorgon.”
Smoke Eater – “The idea is that he inhales ghosts to acquire their strength in combat, so I made a physical representation of that. He becomes the unification of multiple beings, therefore the multiple limbs, which makes his silhouette pretty recognizable in battle scenes, and makes him one of the heavy hitters of the team. The idea is that he shows all the eyes of the ghosts on his forehead. I have a thing with eyes–on my designs, I either put none or too many!”
Damascene – “My initial idea was to make them bi-dimensional, like a paper sheet that will cut you when you try to grab it, but it was very difficult to convey that idea in comics, without movement. So I did his body absolutely geometrical to remark the sharpness of the body. Again, I decided to put no face. Expressionless beings are more scary, in my opinion.”
Megrim – “Probably the most vampire-looking of the litter. I hid her face on red cloth but my idea is that the cloth was always drenched in blood. The skirt’s folds make shapes like faces screaming of pain. Everything is super intense with her. She must be unbearable.”
Unusual – “The initial idea by Jed was to make him a collage of old engravings, always changing, like some kind of sinister Max Ernst picture in movement, but that would present a copyright issue so I came up with a weird idea. I started with a bunch of parallel lines and used a liquify tool from Clip Studio to make shapes with those lines, and finally adapted these shapes to a human silhouette. It’s probably the weirdest and fastest design I’ve even done.”
Bloodstorm One – “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. The armour is an homage to Vlad Tepes’ armor from Coppola’s Dracula film, which seemed to me like a proper reference.”
BLOOD HUNT #1 (OF 5)
Written by JED MACKAY
Art and Cover by PEPE LARRAZ
Colours by MARTE GRACIA
On Sale 5/1
Source: Marvel
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