By: Victor Gischler (writer), Paco Medina (pencils), Juan Vlasco (inks), Marte Gracia (colors) & Joe Caramanga (letters)
The Story: Vampire Wolverine! Whether that is a good thing or not is up to you.
What’s Good: There are some good moments in this issue mostly revolving around Blade and Angel going on a vampire hunt at a punk rock concert, chopping up a few vampires and having the crowd remark that the “special effects are pretty lame.” It was just a very enjoyable odd-couple pairing and it is nice to see that Blade didn’t get paired with a more predictable mutant (Gambit, Warpath, etc.). Who ever thought you’d see pretty-boy Warren Worthington going on a vampire hunt with Blade? Oh well, if you read comics for long enough you’ll see everything.
The art is also generally good. Medina draws a very nice and sexy Emma Frost. Not all female characters need to be sexy, but this is in keeping with Emma’s character. Plus all the scenes and panels are clear, concise and easy to understand. There was no style at the expense of storytelling.
What’s Not So Good: All kinds of things don’t make sense in this issue and it is threatening to ruin an okay introductory story arc for this title.
Example #1: Why is it that Logan’s healing factor can fight off having a Brood egg laid in his body, but he cannot resist becoming a vampire? And that was back in the bronze age X-Men before Logan’s healing factor got ramped up to its current levels where he grows back just about everything. Not to mention all the other unspeakable things Logan has been infected with in his comic career. Hopefully this plot twist isn’t just so that Marvel can sell a Vampire Logan action figure.
Example #2: When Angel and Blade walk into a trap and are confronted by ~100 vampires, why does Warren not shift into Archangel? Wouldn’t that be the preferred persona for tangling with vampires? And we learned in Uncanny X-Force #1 last week that he can control the change to Archangel now. Or is this a case of “I’ll beat you with one hand tied behind my back”? Also, this is a missed opportunity. As cool as seeing Angel and Blade together, how cool would Blade and Archangel destroying a room full of vampires have been?
Example #3: [Spoiler] At the end of the issue Vampire Logan is sent off to kill Cyclops claiming that he “Never liked that self-righteous son of a bitch”. Huh? That is straight out of 80’s X-Men comics and is totally at odds with recent X-Men story-telling where Cyclops and Logan have become the old leaders of the mutant species and where you can tell they respect the hell out of each other even if they don’t always agree on things.
Make what you will of those story oddities.
There are some bad art moments in this issue too. A few panels with funny faces, an odd looking neck here and there– that sort of thing. Nothing fatal, but the art wasn’t all roses.
Conclusion: A misstep in this previously fun X-Men vs. Vampires story. Hopefully next issue will iron out some of these issues and bring the story home in grand fashion, but this issue (while far from terrible) just wasn’t doing it.
Grade: C-
– Dean Stell
Grade
Conclusion