Vampires are overrunning the Marvel Universe, but Jubilation Lee has a unique perspective on the undead. After all, she used to BE one. Your Major Spoilers review of X-Men: Blood Hunt – Jubilee #1 from Marvel Comics awaits!

X-MEN: BLOOD HUNT – JUBILEE #1

Writer: Preeti Chhibber
Penciler: Enid Balam
Inker: Elisabetta D’Amico
Colorist: Jim Campbell
Letterer: VC’s Ariana Maher
Editor: Annalise Bissa
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: June 12, 2024

Previously in X-Men: Blood Hunt – Jubilee: Running from the past is one race you’ll never win – and as darkness suffuses the world, Jubilee’s past as a vampire is back to take a big bite out of her! It’s gonna take more than a couple plasma bursts to get out of this one, Jubilation…

ENTER: THE FORGIVEN

On the day the sun went out, somewhere in upstate New York, we join X-Man Jubilee and her cool motorcycle, already in progress. Having seen the beginnings of the vampire crisis, she’s set out to find help, only to run into a vampire attack! Laying into them with a baseball bat and her ‘splosive plasma mutant powers (turtle power), Jubilee handles most of the threat, but can’t save all the victims. The arrival of Ghost Blade, one of the friends she was heading to see, balances the odds, but a young woman named Sonal is still left dead. Or even worse, undead? Jubilee takes the new vampire along with her, fighting their way towards Ghost Blade’s teammates, a team of vampires who fight against their own, known as The Forgiven. Team leader Nighteyes reminds her that, with the “lost,” the vampires who have given in to their bloodlust, there can be no mercy, but Jubilee still hopes there is another way.

THE SIDE STORIES ARE SOMETIMES THE BEST

This issue’s guest stars, The Forgiven, aren’t new to the Marvel Universe, dating all the way back to 2011’s Fear Itself crossover, but it’s really good to see that the heroic vampires haven’t been forgotten in the midst of a giant vampire crossover. I’m not the biggest fan of Balam and D’Amico’s angular character designs, but I have to say that the art does work for a scary monster story, especially one where the heroes are also sort of monstrous. The story itself is really just a stop on the way through the big crossover, but it calls back to Jubes’ days as a vampire (House of M was a heckuva drug) and adds depth to the shared universe aspects of a story like this. With so many Blood Hunt crossovers, one-shots, limited series, and so on, very few readers are going to choose to read EVERY SINGLE issue like we did in the olden days of the 1980s. Nonetheless, issues like this one allow readers to pick and choose which characters they follow throughout the story.

BOTTOM LINE: A NICE SPOTLIGHT

There was a time when stories like this would be subplots in the main story, but even I know those days have passed, allowing me to approach X-Men: Blood Hunt – Jubilee #1 as its own subplot, with effective art and a story that pulls in Jubilee’s vampire continuity to great effect, earning 3 out of 5 stars overall. It’s a good issue, and certainly better than the old ways of “tuning out of comics every summer during the big event.”

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