307: XMV3 # 1- 6 (Dracula: Curse of the Mutants)
- 11 hours ago
- 7 min read
What’s Covered?
X-Men Vol 3 # 1-6-, Death of Dracula #1, X-Men vs. Vampires # 1 - 2, Wolverine & Jubilee # 1 - 4,
Synopsis
Death of Dracula #1: Death of DraculaWriter - Victor GischlerPencils - Giuseppe Camuncoli
Xarus, the son of Dracula, decides that waiting for his turn is for suckers and murders his father. He then immediately moves into vampire politics mode, working the room and keeping the various vampire sects from tearing each other apart. It is a brutal power grab, but Xarus proves pretty quickly that he is not just some entitled vampire prince. He has a plan, he has ambition, and unfortunately for everyone else, he has enough charisma to make the other factions fall in line.
X-Men Vol. 3 #1 - 6, Curse of the Mutants Tie-Ins, and X-Men vs. Vampires #1 - 2: Curse of the MutantsWriter - Victor Gischler, Chuck Kim, Simon Spurrier, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, James Asmus, Christopher Sequeira, Peter David, Rob Williams, Mike Benson, Howard Chaykin, and Mike W. BarrPencils - Paco Medina, Chris Bachalo, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Tom Raney, Michele Bertilorenzi, Sana Takeda, Doug Braithwaite, Mark Texeira, Howard Chaykin, and Agustin Padilla
A vampire suicide bomber lets himself explode, infecting everyone within range with vampire blood. Jubilee, now powerless and just trying to meet Pixie for lunch, gets some of that blood on her and is pulled into the nightmare immediately. Storm volunteers to investigate, but Wolverine shuts that down because of her past with Dracula. Instead, Wolverine, Pixie, and Angel hit the streets and find a vampire den, confirming that this is not just a random attack.
Jubilee escapes the X-Men’s protection and goes looking for the vampires herself, which goes about as well as you would expect. She is officially bitten, making her transformation much more real and much harder to stop. Cyclops quickly realizes the vampires are playing a bigger game, so he decides the X-Men need to make an absolutely insane move. Their best chance might be resurrecting Dracula.
Storm and Gambit team with Janus to recover Dracula’s body, because apparently the X-Men are now in the vampire monarchy restoration business. Storm is forced into a brutal situation where she has to kill humans connected to a machine in order to bring down a shield. It lands hard because Storm knows she has stepped over the line too many times before. Meanwhile, Northstar snatches the vampires’ amulets at super speed, giving Dazzler the opening to blast them with light.
The X-Club ends up trapped with a vampire, because even the science team cannot escape vampire nonsense. They discover that Emma can telepathically short out vampires, which is a pretty useful trick to learn in the middle of a crisis. It adds another weapon to the X-Men’s side of the board. This is the kind of tie-in that feels small, but still tosses in a useful piece of vampire battle strategy.
Cyclops sends Wolverine to retrieve Jubilee, and Logan spends the mission remembering when he first met her. He thinks about how much she has changed and how she is not just some kid he used to look after, she is family. That makes it hurt even more when Jubilee tricks him and bites him. Wolverine tries to fight the infection, but by the end, it looks like the vampires may have gotten him too.
X-Men vs. Vampires #1 is mostly an anthology of random mutants dealing with vampires, but there are still some fun moments in the chaos. Husk gets one of the better bits when she turns herself into wooden stakes and starts taking vampires down. The issue is not essential to the main story, but it does give the event a wider feeling, like vampires are suddenly everyone’s problem. Some of it works better than others, as is usually the case with anthology comics.
Cyclops decides the X-Men are done reacting and sends teams of two out on offense. Blade and Warren make a surprisingly great team, which is exactly the kind of weird pairing these events are built for. The fighting gets bigger and messier, while Wolverine appears to be truly turned into a vampire. It is a strong tactical shift for Cyclops, even if the art starts to feel a little sloppy here.
X-Men vs. Vampires #2 continues the anthology approach, giving us more scattered mutant and vampire encounters. Like the first issue, it is more about adding flavor to the event than moving the main plot forward. The variety of creators gives each story a different feel, but that also makes the book a little uneven. It is the sort of tie-in that is fun if you are all in on the event, but not mandatory if you only want the spine of the story.
Wolverine and the vampires attack Utopia, but Cyclops is ready for them. He puts a group of mutants outside who cannot easily be bitten, which is smart, cold, and very Cyclops. Then the real plan is revealed: Cyclops had shut off Wolverine’s healing factor, allowing the vampire infection to take hold, only to turn it back on at the right moment so Logan could rejoin the X-Men and counterattack from inside the enemy’s plan. Iceman also gets a great moment after having himself blessed, making his ice vaporize vampires on contact. Then Dracula returns, ready to take back control from Xarus.
The X-Men burst into the vampire stronghold just as Dracula beheads Xarus, which is one heck of a family reunion. Cyclops then bluffs Dracula into standing down, proving once again that Scott can win a fight before anyone throws another punch. Jubilee is returned to the X-Men, but there is a massive catch. She is still a vampire, and that problem is not going away just because the battle is over.
The event closes with the vampires beaten back, Dracula restored, and the X-Men technically victorious. Still, Jubilee pays the highest price, losing the life she had just as she was already trying to figure out who she was without her powers. Cyclops gets one of his sharper strategic wins, but it comes with the usual uncomfortable question of how much manipulation is too much. For Jubilee, this is not just another event, it is a complete reset of her life.
Wolverine and Jubilee #1 - 4: Wolverine and JubileeWriter - Kathryn ImmonenPencils - Phil Noto
Jubilee is struggling badly with her new life as a vampire. She needs transfusions from Wolverine, she is angry all the time, and everyone around her is scared of what she might become. It is a really good setup because the horror is not just that Jubilee is a vampire, it is that she feels isolated from the people who are supposed to be her family. Things get worse when a coven of vampires finds her and frames her for killing a group of immigrants in a shipping container.
Wolverine takes Jubilee to Siberia to train, because Logan’s answer to trauma is usually somewhere between “road trip” and “survive this terrible place.” They get a tip about a house full of zombies, and Jubilee cuts loose on them. It gives her a chance to use her new powers without putting innocent people at risk. There is something sad about how much she needs that kind of outlet just to feel in control for a few minutes.
The woman who set Jubilee up teleports her away and forces Wolverine to go into Chernobyl to retrieve a mysterious package. Meanwhile, Rockslide tries to track Jubilee down and somehow ends up fighting a dragon gypsy. It is a strange turn, but at least Santo’s involvement gives the story a little more Academy X flavor. Jubilee’s life is already a mess, and now the plot is getting weirder by the page.
Wolverine, Rockslide, and Jubilee eventually find themselves in some kind of pocket universe fighting a giant dragon. Don’t ask. The emotional core is still Jubilee trying to figure out whether she is a monster now, with Wolverine refusing to give up on her. The story gets extremely bizarre by the end, but the relationship between Logan and Jubilee keeps it grounded enough to work. She may be a vampire now, but Logan still sees her as family.
The mini-series works best when it focuses on Jubilee’s anger, fear, and shame. Her vampire status is not treated like a cool new power set, but as a genuine identity crisis. Wolverine’s role as the gruff, bloody, emotionally stunted father figure fits perfectly, because he understands better than most what it means to be treated like a weapon. Even when the plot goes completely off the rails into dragons and pocket universes, the Jubilee and Logan material still hits.
My Connections and Creators
Boring or Great?
This was rough. I was mildly interested in the vampire stuff for a bit, but this just went on for way too long. I started by reading all of the little mini-series, but when I realized they were filler material, I just gave up, therefore I gave them very little time here. Victor Gischler will go on to do one more arc after this (which I've read and it's God awful) before being replaced by Kyle Yost. Can't wait. I mean...it's crazy that Jubilee being a vampire is the new status quo. I guess if they aren't allowed to give her mutants powers back, and she's done running with the New Warriors under the name Wondra, then they might as well find a way to make her more interesting.
Fans, I need to be honest. This is a rough X-Men run here. I'm pretty bored and that's why so much time is passing between blogs. It's a slog to get through and I'm not even trying to make my blogs that good. I just need to get to Krakoa, however I am always enjoying Peter David's X-Factor.
Thoughts on Art
Giuseppe Camuncoli gives the vampire world a sharp, dangerous look that fits the political horror tone well. The sect leaders all feel distinct, which helps sell the idea that this is not just Dracula’s family drama, but a full vampire society shifting under new leadership.
Paco Medina’s work gives the main X-Men chapters a bright, energetic superhero feel, which makes the vampire material feel more like a blockbuster than straight horror. Chris Bachalo brings a moodier, stranger energy to the Storm and Gambit issue, while the anthology books vary wildly depending on the artist, with some stories landing much stronger visually than others.
Phil Noto’s art gives this mini-series a softer, moodier look that really helps the emotional material land. His Jubilee feels haunted and vulnerable without losing her edge, which is exactly what the story needs.
Larger Impacts & Things to keep an eye on
Jubilee seems to be in store to stay as a vampire for the time being. How long will that last!? Until Krakoa!?