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Avengers #15: Review

Jun 2024
Jed MacKay, C. F. Villa

Story Name:

Blood hunt part 2


Synopsis

Avengers #15 Synopsis by Rob Johnson
In the Blood Hunt event vampires have blocked out all sunlight and are overrunning the globe. The current Avengers are busy with the main problem so meanwhile Captain America (Steve Rogers) has gathered together an ad hoc team (Hawkeye (Kate Bishop), Hazmat, Hercules and Quicksilver) to help the citizens of New York. They found that vampires in Nazi uniforms were capturing people who were than transported into an ex-SHIELD Helicarrier. And the vampire leader was Cap's old vampire foe from WWII and later, Baron Blood.

Blood orders his vamps to kill the heroes but keep the 'cattle' they've just transported up. Hawkeye fires an arrow at him and Cap hurls his shield. The Baron catches both but finds that this version of the shield is edged with silver which burns him. Steve tells his team he'll draw BB away while they defeat the leaderless vampires and take the civilians to escape capsules 1 deck below. And he goads his foe into following him into an access tunnel.

Hazmat advises her colleagues to close their eyes as she emits a massive amount of radiation in the form of sunlight which harms the vamps. Then Herc picks her up and smashes a way to the deck below, leaving Pietro Maximoff as a rearguard. As Cap leads Blood on a merry chase he asks him if he's behind the dark sky. John Falsworth admits that he isn't, but he'd already acquired the Helicarrier and his willing troops so he jumped at the opportunity. But he does intend to be at the top of the pile in the new order which will succeed the human world. Cap correctly deduces that he's kidnapping humans as foodstock.

Meanwhile Hawkeye is ushering people into the escape pods while Hazmat blasts any approaching vampires. Jen Takada worries that they might be over the ocean, but Kate assures her that SHIELD's pods can float and contain emergency supplies and locator beacons. Jen asks if she fantasised being a SHIELD Agent as a kid, and a flashback shows she did. But we see the ejected capsules parachute down to safety(?!) in the City.

Hercules contacts Captain America via Avengers Communicard to let him know the civilians are safe. Cap's plan is now that they 'neutralise' the small number of vamps they've seen and take control of the ship. At that point Blood catches up with him and tells him that he may only have the small number of active troops that he can feed, but he has many more to call on. And Cap sees a large hold full of coffins. And when he reports that to his troop, Quicksilver informs him that *they* have found another hold full of many more people in cages. Which Hawkeye claims is way more than the available escape pods can take.

Falsworth enters the hold and begins to awaken the rest of his vamps. Cap tosses in a pair of grenades and leaves. In the other hold Hercules starts to rip open the cages. Quicksilver reckons the people need a stirring speech to give them confidence. He and Hazmat think this calls for Captain America. But it's Hawkeye who steps up. She says she understands that they're afraid because she too doesn't have superpowers, but the other Avengers do have powers and will keep them safe.

Slightly singed Baron Blood tracks Cap down to the Helicarrier's control room (containing some presumably vampire burning corpses). Steve uses the intercom to tell everyone to hold tight, and does a hard right turn.


 

Review / Commentaries

Rating:
4 stars

Avengers #15 Review by (June 14, 2024)
Like any good middle issue of a trilogy this 1 marks time but ups the ante.

Over with the regular Avengers in Blood Hunt #3 the other Captain America (Sam Wilson) *does* broadcast a stirring speech to the nation.

Baron Blood was John Falsworth, the younger son of an English Lord who therefore didn't inherit the title. He was turned vampire by Dracula and sided with Germany in WWI to get revenge on his country where he was opposed by Freedom's Five (including Union Jack who was his elder, and hence titled, brother Montgomery). During WWII he fought Captain America & co in several issues of the Invaders. During that time his niece Jacqueline became the Invader Spitfire, and nephew Brian became the Destroyer and then the new Union Jack and joined the Invaders as well. Towards the end of the War he joined the Nazi Super-Axis team. And in the Avengers 1959 mini-series he was part of the ICON team that clashed with an early Avengers team led by Nick Fury. He entered the Marvel Age in CA#253-254. He's had many apps since then but many of them are flashbacks. His last real app seems to be in the Secret Empire tale in Free Comic Book Day 2017.




C. F. Villa
C. F. Villa
Federico Blee
Joshua Cassara (Cover Penciler)
Joshua Cassara (Cover Inker)
Guru-eFX (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Cory Petit.
Editor: Wil Moss. Editor-in-chief: C. B. Cebulski.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Captain America
Captain America

(Steve Rogers)
Hawkeye
Hawkeye

(Kate Bishop)
Quicksilver
Quicksilver

(Pietro Maximoff)

Plus: Baron Blood, Hazmat (Jennifer Takeda).