Written by: Victor Gischler
Illustrated by: Paco MedinaThe Vampire Nation’s army is unleashed on Utopia, with vampire Wolverine leading the charge — and, boy, does he have a bone to pick with Cyclops! Meanwhile, the newly resurrected Dracula is nowhere to be found. So why is Cyclops smiling?
Vampires and mutants and fight sequences, oh my! This is a rather big issue, all things considered, but I’m also the member of this site that has rather been avoiding the book and sticking to Uncanny. Now that I’ve ventured outside of my comfort zone into Gischler’s play pen, what do I think of the X-Men verse America’s new number 1 horror villain? Find out after the jump.
I don’t like vampires. I never have. They always creeped me out as a kid. All that neck biting? Ick. So I’ve always tended to avoid vampire anythings, and with the recent uprising of vampire nonsense, it hasn’t made me any more of a fan than I used to be – although now I’m not scared! So in the case of X-Men, I figured that anything involving vampires was ignorable. But curiosity got the better of me as it often does, and I found myself catching up and checking it out.
I can’t say I’m overtly a fan, but I don’t necessarily dislike it either. Adjectiveless X-Men, as it is right now, is neither a love it or hate it book for me. It simply is a book that involves characters that I enjoy in a plot that doesn’t really move me. With this issue, the vampires lay their attack against Utopia, and Gischler uses this as a chance to take a few shots at my favorite X-Man, Cyclops, and his recent leadership decisions through the mouthpiece of little man Logan. Of course, Cyclops has an ace up his sleeve, and the issue reveals his “master plan” against the menace.
I suppose my biggest problem with the story is that, for a villain that was completely dominating for four issues, it seems like Cyclops and his ability to simply push a button and win is just too convenient, even for this story. In a situation where it felt like there was no hope and the X-Men were literally backed into a corner, it has a rather simple and easy resolution. It just doesn’t seem to make sense from a tactical standpoint, because the few X-Men in this battle were quite outnumbered in this situation. My distaste of vampire things in general certainly doesn’t help either, although the vampires in this book don’t have odd white buns on their head nor do they spend all their time creeping in windows, so I have less to complain about there.
Aside from that, the issue does have some nice moments. The arrival of Wolverine is actually a scene I really enjoyed. As much as Cyclops is my favorite X-Man, he has been quite a dick since he took over leading the troupe. It was nice to see him called out on such a large scale, and the line “Jeannie wouldn’t even recognize you any more” really drove the point home. Gischler wavers between both an entertaining writer and one that seems to rely too much on deus ex machina with this issue, creating an imbalance with the book. Part of me wants to dislike it for what I see as faults, but the rest of me is looking forward to the resolution with next issues assumed spank session.
To me, the real selling point of the issue is Medina. Usually I try not to get into books just for the artwork, but Medina is doing some awesome things with the book that are just too good to ignore. The splash sequence of the X-Men against the vampires is awesome albeit Colossus’ confusing stance. The way Medina draws both Wolverine and Cyclops as well really give the characters a great depth, and his style mixes a sleek cartoonish style with a rounded figure form that screams “comics!” at you and does an excellent job settling in it’s niche. Medina is a great talent in his own right, but the book as a whole reminds me of a Dodson-meets-Stewart style, and that right there is a huge selling point for me personally.
So I have trouble leaning really hard either way with the book. I find flaws in the story, but I enjoy the presentation. There is certainly things here that I, as a fan of the mutants, dislike, but there is also enough to make me want to keep reading. My original intention was to jump on with the second arc once the vampires were gone, but now that I’m caught up with everything I can easily say that while this book isn’t busting down any doors or reinventing any wheels, it is a fairly consistent X-title that merits a read as an X-fan. It’s not in the same vein as Whedon’s Astonishing was when that was the side book to Uncanny, but with time and more careful plotting by Gischler, it could certainly start heading in that direction.
Final Verdict: 7.0 – Browse/Buy
