X-Men: Curse Of The Mutants Blade #1 – Review

By Duane Swierczynski (writer), Tim Green (artist), Nathan Fairbairn (colorist)

The Story: Someone or something is killing vampire hunters all over the world, and Blade’s investigation into the matter uncovers a terrifying revelation that will change his life’s work forever.

Randomly Assorted Thoughts: Seeing as how Victor Gischler did such an amazing job asserting the role and dominance of the vampire nation in his “Death of Dracula” one shot, I was immediately curious to see how this storyline would impact Marvel’s premiere vampire hunter. What I took from this issue, oddly, was a caption from Blade towards the end of the story where, being the last man standing against Xarus and his footsoldiers, he realizes “Killing us Slayers–His prime opposition–wasn’t his endgame. Merely an item on a To-Do List.” And therein lies the crux of why this issue didn’t work for me: to a degree, it exposes how irrelevant Blade and his vampire slaying ilk have become in this brave new world where vampires can now walk and hunt in daylight. Not that Blade’s any less good at what he does, but he didn’t win his battle against Xarus in this issue as much as he barely escaped with his tail between his legs.

“Curse of the Mutants” is, obviously, a storyline tailor-made for the X-Men. There’s nothing wrong with that, and if anything I credit this storyline with bringing me back into the X-Universe, but even as I applaud what I feel it’s doing for the X-Men, I’m a bit taken back by what it’s not doing for Blade; this should have been Blade’s moment to shine, it should have been the perfect opportunity to try launching a new series for him, but he instead comes off seeming strangely fragile and inconsequential, slightly out of his league as the vampires barely pay attention to the vampire hunters and instead set their sights on the mutant populace.

Namor: The First Mutant #1 – Review

By Stuart Moore (writer), Ariel Olivetti (artist)

The Story: As the assembled tribes of a now unified vampire nation descend upon the island haven of Utopia, Namor volunteers to embark on a suicide mission to retrieve the severed head of the one vampire capable of saving the mutant species: Dracula.

The Good: In the spirit of total disclosure, I’ll get this out of the way right now: I’m an avowed Namor fan. Not so much when he’s pining over Sue Storm, but definitely when he’s the cocky, assured, audacious bastard that I found him to be in this issue. From the moment he derides Oudvrou for being weak for losing an eye in her escape from the Aqueos to his dispatching of a vampire squid (oh yeah, you read that correctly), Namor is at all times portrayed by Moore as a man so convinced of his own moral and physical superiority over his worlds on land and in the sea that his dominion over them would be all but assured if not for inconveniences like this vampire insurgency. Characters like Namor, Dr. Doom, Mr. Fantastic, and Magneto aren’t heroes as villains as much as they are men who are utterly certain that their way of looking at the world is the Right Way, and it’s the rest of us who ought to fall into line. I know that’s an incredibly atypical morality for a hero like Namor to possess, but damn it all if it doesn’t make for some entertaining reading. My feeling on this character has always been that the more of an arrogant, yet noble prick Namor can be, the more fun he is to read, and from what I’ve seen in this issue Moore seems ready to take him down that path, and this pleases me. I also liked how Moore began to develop Namor’s undersea world as a fully realized culture, unique unto itself. In the same way that the recent, and incredibly cool, “Death of Dracula” one shot firmly established the vampire nation in the Marvel Universe, I think Moore has the creative chops to achieve the same outcome for Marvel’s ocean denizens. I didn’t see as much of that world-building in this issue as I would have liked, but I’m willing to let that play out over successive issues provided Moore can pull me deeper into Namor’s world. I’ve always thought it strange how an environment that covers seventy-five percent of the world Marvel comics take place in has never been nearly as fascinating or dynamic a place as, say, New York seems to be, and I hope Moore and Olivetti can change that perception and making the Marvel’s a haunting, adventurous new setting in this world.

Death of Dracula #1 – Review

By Victor Gischler (writer), Giuseppe Camuncoli (artist), Onofrio Catacchio (finishes), Frank D’Armata (colorist)

The Story: I don’t think it would be giving away too much to say that it has something to do with the death of a certain infamous vampire…

The Good: Uh… Wow… I honestly was not expecting to like this comic as much as I did! No, seriously, I was fully prepared to go off on this book, with its corny premise and strangely redundant title, with all the drunken fury I could muster, but after I finished this comic I genuinely wanted to know more about this strange new world Gischler and Camuncoli have created for us. As I understand it, the purpose of this book was to define and update the vampire nation and their role in the Marvel Universe, and to this end I think the book wildly succeeds. Gischler has created an entire culture with a deeply rooted sense of history, rivalries, politics, and rituals. You get the feeling reading this comic that these vampire sects have been in the Marvel Universe all this time, quietly lurking in the shadows and conducting their business without any of us being the wiser. I really appreciated that this culture was so fully realized, and frankly it makes me wish we could get an entire series devoted to them; at this point I would gladly pay for that story.

This story, with its thick air of political manipulations and Machiavellian betrayals, often reminded me of Deadwood and Rome, shows that excelled at revealing the ways people use and abuse each other. I got that same vibe reading this comic, and I felt that was a good decision on Gischler’s part, exploring vampire culture like he did, because I think I would have been bored to tears if it was simply an oversized issue of Anne Rice wankers being emo and using their vampirey douchebag powers against each other. But it wasn’t, so hell yeah. I was fully convinced that this was a thriving community, and believed in the weight and consequences of the rivalry between Xarus and Janus. Camuncoli was a brilliant choice to illustrate this story, his characters can’t help but look sinister, dark, and thoroughly contemptible, even when they’re standing around talking during the many quiet moments that take up most of the issue. To be able to pull off that level of intrigue is, in my opinion, the mark of a damn fine artist, and that’s why I’m always willing to follow Camuncoli’s stuff.