Synopsis / Summary / Plot
In Blood Hunt #1 users of the Darkforce were used to cover the Earth in darkness, hiding the Sun, and the world was overrun by vampires. The regular Avengers were attacked by a group of super-vampires called the Bloodcoven. Black Panther and Thor were apparently killed and Scarlet Witch captured.
Now Captain Marvel has called Captain America (Steve Rogers) to gather ex-Avengers to help in the fight. And he's made some calls.
Even more now he's killing vampires while he waits. This is war so he's now a soldier rather than a superhero. Then the 1st of his recruits joins him by throwing a bus at some attacking vamps. It's Hercules and he's come armed with the 'sun-kissed' sword of Apollo. A hail of arrows announce the arrival of Hawkeye (Kate Bishop). Quicksilver zooms in with a personal goal to wade through vampires until he reaches his captive sister. The last recruit Hazmat uses her radiation power to blast the foes with simulated sunlight.
Pietro Maximoff is impatient (as usual) to make saving Wanda a priority, but Cap says everyone's priority should be saving people from the vampires. The ones they've been dealing with here are just disorganised cannon fodder. But there are also organised groups rounding people up, probably to serve as blood banks, and they should be their targets. Internally Steve is agonising over the choice. As a superhero he wants to save everyone but as a soldier he knows that the way to save the most is to end the war.
Speedster Quicksilver scouts around on foot while the other 4 pile into an Avengers version of SHIELD's flying cars. Hawkeye spots a bunch of vamps in matching uniforms herding people with cattle prods. Hazmat (Jen Takeda) notes that they're wearing Nazi outfits. QS reaches them 1st and Cap and Herc drop from the sky to join him. Hazmat also gets down somehow to add her blasts. Hawkeye stays in the car, steering with her feet while she fires arrows. Herc throws Hazmat at the enemy (replicating the Colossus/Wolverine fastball special). Pietro notes that Steve's shield isn't flying right. Cap tells him it's a special edged in silver that he had made after he was temporarily a werewolf (his #402-408). Hercules comments that he himself once became a Spider-Man (Herc #7-8 during the Spider-Island event). Jen wonders what she's getting into being an Avenger.
Kate wonders where Nazi vampires come from. A burly vamp throttling Pietro comments that they are another example of a master race conquering their lessers, until Cap's shield decapitates him. Herc blames the Kull-era surface Atlanteans for using the Darkhold to create the 1st vampire (Varnae, as revealed in Bizarre Adventures #33). Cap adds that he's known good people cursed by vampirism (eg Blade, Hannibal King) but he's never known a good Nazi. Whatever, they kill all the Nazi vamps and free their prisoners.
But then a vortex beam sucks heroes and victims alike up into a helicarrier. Hazmat plans to wreck the craft with an EMP, but Hercules (of all people) warns her that it would endanger them and the city below. And Cap is less-than-surprised to see the vampire behind the Nazis is his old foe Baron Blood.