Marvel's Blood Hunt is here! This is an epic 54-issue (+5 if you go for the Red Band too) comic event – a main series, limited series, one-shots and series tie-ins. Series led by Jed Mackay, Pepe Larraz & Marte Gracia.
In the run-up to this summer crossover event, I’ve been
reading some of the previous Marvel superhero encounters with vampires and I’ve
created this blog to help other fans explore the back-history.
🧵 This blog was originally a Twitter thread. You can read it here.
Follow the trail 🩸 below. You can click images to enlarge them.
🩸 (001) The
earliest appearance of a vampire in Marvel is 1942: Count Vicaro fought
the Angel (not the X-man) in the story "The Banquet of Blood"
from Marvel Mystery Comics (1942) #35.
🩸 (002)
A moral panic in 1954 led to a US Senate investigation into the effects
of comics on children. The Comics Magazine Association of America (CMAA)
was formed & Comics Code Authority (CCA) became the regulatory body.
Vampires & other supernatural beings were censored.
Stan Lee, in 1971, was asked by the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to run a story about drug addiction. He wrote a Spider-man story (Spider-Man #96-98), the CCA flagged it and refused to give their seal of approval.
003 004
🩸 (003) Stan Lee published anyway, thus breaking the CCA
stranglehold over comics, and vampires were back on the menu. Marvel released a
Tomb of Dracula series on 10th April 1972 and ran for 70 issues (source).
🩸 (004) Starting a generational theme, the first Baron Blood (John Falsworth) appears in "The Blackout Murders of Baron Blood!" from Invaders (1976) #7.
005 006
🩸 (005) In 1976, Dracula faced Doctor Strange for the first time
after attacking Wong in Tomb of Dracula (1976) #44. Dracula seemingly kills
Strange then waits for him to rise as a vampire slave in three days.
🩸 (006) An internal page for Tomb of Dracula (1976) #44: Strange and
Dracula fighting on horseback in a dream-state. 🚨 Content warning:
out-dated views!
007 008
🩸 (007) The story continued in Doctor Strange (1976) #14 where Strange escapes his body via astral projection and later to defeat and kill Dracula.
🩸 (008) An internal page for Doctor Strange (1976) #14. Doctor Strange in astral form views his body after Dracula’s attack.
009 010
🩸 (009) An internal page for Doctor Strange (1976) #14. Having killed Dracula, Strange heals both Wong and himself. Famous last words from Strange: “Thank God, Dracula will menace man no more!”
🩸 (010) Both these stories and also Doctor Strange (1983) #58-62 are collected in “Doctor Strange vs Dracula: The Montesi Formula”
011 012
🩸 (011) In “Tomb of Dracula: The Blood Bequest” from Bizarre Adventures (1981) #33 we finally see early vampire history – the appearance of the first vampire, Varnae and his connection to Dracula!
🩸 (012) This story is collected in “Marvel Horror: The Magazine Collection”.
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🩸 (013) In 1983 Dracula and Doctor Strange clash again with disastrous results for all vampire kind during Doctor Strange (1983) #58-62.
🩸 (014) Internal page from Doctor Strange (1983) #59: Dracula awakes! A cult of Darkholders resurrect Dracula who attacks the
Avengers Mansion to reclaim the Darkhold but eventually Strange invokes the
Montesi Formula wiping out all vampires.
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🩸 (015) Internal page from Doctor Strange (1983) #59: Doctor Strange, Sara Wolfe and Hannibal King talk Dracula.
🩸 (016) Cover page for Doctor Strange (1983) #60: Scarlet Witch and Captain Marvel with Doctor Strange as Dracula enters the Avengers Mansion.
017 018
🩸 (017) Doctor Strange (1983) #61 reveals how vampires were created as Dracula monologues to his Darkholder thralls – a story from millennia ago in pre-Cataclysm Atlantis.
🩸 (018) Atlantean mystics gather parchments left by Chthon into a book: the Darkhold or the Book of Sins. The use a spell from the Darkhold to create the first vampires who they attempt to enslave. The vampires are stronger, slaying the Darkholders and escaping Atlantis.
019 020
🩸 (019) Internal page from Doctor Strange (1983) #62: Doctor Strange fights Dracula on the Astral plane.
🩸 (020) Internal page from Doctor Strange (1983) #62: Doctor Strange completes the incantation of the Montesi Formula obliterating Dracula and his creations from existence.
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🩸 (021) Internal page from Doctor Strange (1983) #62: Death of Dracula.
🩸 (022) Internal page from Doctor Strange (1983) #62: Vampires around the world are destroyed by the Montesi Formula.
023 024
🩸 (023) Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme (1989-1990) #9-18 brings
two Vampire-related stories:
🦇 The Book of the Vishanti: The Curse of the Darkhold (#9-13, 15)
🦇 Vampiric Verses (#14-18)
🩸 (024) Over six chapters, “The Book of the Vishanti: The Curse of the Darkhold” recaps vampire history.
🦇 Part I: the Montesi Formula
Learning his origin as a werewolf, Jack Russell sought out the Darkhold, containing the secret origin of lycanthropy.
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🩸 (025) Jack Russell (aka Werewolf by Night) was originally Jacob Russoff, son of Gregory Russoff, a Transylvanian baron and scholar who once owned the Darkhold. He had brought back Chthon in an attempt to cure his lycanthropy.
🩸 (026) The Darkhold passed through many hands and copies were made (some destroyed). Dracula realised the threat of the Montesi Formula found within the Darkhold.
027 028
🩸 (027) The X-men fought Dracula over one copy. Meanwhile the battle for possession of the original Darkhold continued. Magic users such as Morgan Le Fey, Mordred and Scarlet Witch became linked to its fate.
🩸 (028) It was the Avengers alongside Doctor Strange and others that finally led to the casting of the Montesi Formula and the destruction of all vampires, as seen in Doctor Strange (1983) #62.
029 030
🩸 (029) In Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme (1989) #10 appear two characters who will likely play a role in Blood Hunt: Morbius the Living Vampire and Victor Strange, brother of Stephen Strange.
🩸 (030) Over the course of this and following issues, Strange reveals his brother died 10 years ago – something Strange blames himself for. But when Strange encounters Morbius, the Living Vampire is in pursuit of Victor who tries to escape him. Strange and Morbius fight.
🩸 (031) I do love these conscious nods to other media, the story title for Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme (1989) #10 is “The Vampire strikes back!”
🩸 (032) The back-up story in Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme (1989) #10 continues “The Book of the Vishanti: The Curse of the Darkhold” with “Part II: The Voodoo Queen of New Orleans”. This is Marie Laveau, who will feature in the “Vampiric Verses” (#14-18).
033 034
🩸 (033) Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme (1989) #11 brings us a crucial story point: Victor is now a vampire.
🩸 (034) Over the course of three pages, we see how Victor was originally killed. Page #1.
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🩸 (035) Page #2.
🩸 (036) Page #3.
037 038
🩸 (037) Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme (1989) #11 continues “The Book of the Vishanti: The Curse of the Darkhold” – “Part III: Dawn of Blood”. We see Set, Chthon and Gaea born.
🩸 (038) We learn Chthon left behind parchments holding his secret knowledge, later gathered together by wizards from Atlantis and it is here where we learn Varnae was one of the priests. Dying, he offered himself in a sacrificial spell and arose as a vampire.
039 040
🩸 (039) Varnae was the first. When Atlantis sank the vampires escaped. The parchments were eventually gathered by Morgan Le Fey and bound into one book: the Darkhold.
🩸 (040) “The Book of the Vishanti: The Curse of the Darkhold” in Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme (1989) #12 recalls Varnae’s battles with the Church and the Montesi family in “Part IV: The Legacy of Aelfric".
041 042
🩸 (041) In “Part V - The Torch Is Passed" of “The Book of the
Vishanti: The Curse of the Darkhold” (Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme #13,
1989) Varnae choses Dracula as a successor after he defeats Nimrod, king of the
Vampires. Varnae then walks outside into the daylight and dies.
🩸 (042) The 5-part “Vampiric Verses” storyline begins in Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme (1989) #14 leading to the return of vampires.
043 044
🩸 (043) In a flashback, we see Marie Laveau with a captured Morbius and she tells him Doctor Strange, magically trying to bring back his dead brother Victor, unknowingly used the “Vampiric Verses” as part of a spell, reciting from the Book of Vishanti.
🩸 (044) The Book of Vishanti was a “white-magic counterweight to the
Black-magic Darkhold”. Victor was frozen in a cryogenic unit. Strange’s spell
turned him into a new vampire and then the cryogenic unit was turned off.
045 046
🩸 (045) The final chapter (“Part VI - The Quest - and the Prophecy") of “The Book of the Vishanti: The Curse of the Darkhold” in Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme (1989) #15 names more historical vampires including Varney the Vampyre!
🩸 (046) In Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme (1989) #16 we see Victor under the control of Marie Laveau. He now wears the guise of Baron Blood.
047 048
🩸 (047) In the final issue of the “Vampiric Verses” (Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme #18, 1989), Marie Laveau successfully resurrects Varnae.
🩸 (048) Varnae is not appreciative of this, but he does find in Doctor Strange a worthy rival. In the ensuing battle Varnae escapes.
049 050
🩸 (049) Varnae next appears in an 18-issue series “Nightstalkers: The Rise of the Midnight Sons” (1992-94). Varnae controls a HYDRA-created Dracula-clone called Bloodstorm One. In Blood Hunt we know Bloodstorm One leads the Bloodcoven. Is Varnae behind everything?
Blade Epic Collection Volume 2, to be released on 14 January 2025 will feature the Nightstalkers. The volume collects: Tomb of Dracula (1991) 1-4, Nightstalkers (1992) 1-6, Ghost Rider (1990) 31, material from Midnight Sons Unlimited (1993) 1.
🩸 (050) Victor returns in Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme (1993) #56. In "Blood Relations" Wong (controlled by the astral spirit of Doctor Strange), tracks down Victor, still wearing the Baron Blood costume.
051
🩸 (051) Victor has captured a man he mistakenly thought was a murderer. In horror of his actions, having been stopped by Strange/Wong from feasting on the man, Victor takes his own life by running a stake into his heart.
With this, a Trail of Crimson has reached the year 2000.
We’ll return soon to explore the stories leading right up to Blood Hunt.
To be continued…
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