Marvel Comics is billing this summer's Avengers and pals vs. vampires event Blood Hunt as the "bloodiest" in the publisher's history, even releasing a second poly-bagged version of the main limited series with more blood and gore. But it may also be one of the largest Marvel events in quite some time, with the publisher teasing more than 20 Blood Hunt tie-ins across limited series, one-shots, and included ongoing series, according to a teaser image that has slowly been filled in over the course of Marvel's announcements.
That's… frankly massive. And at $3.99 a pop on average, that tallies up to a significant investment for readers who want to go all-in on the event - potentially as much as $80 or more in a given month. The event runs from May through July, with some tie-ins running three to four issues, and the main event lasting five.
That tallies up to 59 issues (and over $200 of investment) for those who plan to buy the entirety of Blood Hunt - or 'just' 54 if you don't double-dip on the Red Band version of the central limited series. It's also almost twice the size of Gang War, Marvel's other big recent crossover, which will run for around 30 issues including all its tie-ins.
Marvel has been making no bones about its own creative investment in Blood Hunt, giving the event top billing in its offerings for May's upcoming Free Comic Book Day. And the amount of tie-ins promised - a full two dozen counting both editions of the main Blood Hunt title and the FCBD one-shot - is a little bit staggering, given how much hardcore violence Marvel is also promising in the event.
Even the teaser image which shows the number of expected tie-ins reads "Who will bite it?", and Blood Hunt writer Jed MacKay promised Newsarama in an interview. "When vampires are on the rampage, there's going to be plenty of claret spilled, both on the sides of the heroes and the villains!"
The massive size of the event does raise the question: is Marvel expecting its average reader to buy a good sight more than $200 worth of Avengers vs. Vampires comics? Or is Blood Hunt's gigantic hold on the Marvel Universe intended to make it more of a bespoke event, where readers pick and choose just the parts they really want to see? It seems like a reach to ask fans to invest that much money - and space, given the whole thing clocks in at around 60 comics - that collecting all of Blood Hunt will entail.
Marvel has now released the details of its slew of Blood Hunt limited series as well as all of the ongoing series tie-in issues. There are still six more one-shots left to announce, so stay tuned.
Will Blood Hunt find a place among the best Marvel Comics events of all time?
