Review by Frank Plowright

The X-Men’s perhaps unlikely involvement with vampires stretches back to Chris Claremont’s days writing the series and Dracula’s infatuation with Storm, but before Curse of the Mutants it’s been transitory, not such a prolonged immersion with lasting consequences.

Victor Gischler’s X-Men account opens with a vampire’s terrorist attack during the X-Men’s seemingly settled period on Utopia, an island off the San Francisco coast. Unfortunately Jubilee is at the epicentre, and although she survives, she’s infected with vampire spores, and gradually transforms. That provides the emotional pull, while the threat emerges as a vampiric creature somehow not subject to the traditional limitation of having to avoid daylight. The bigger plot is the vampires having a new leader, and his aim is to transform Utopia’s entire mutant community into his private army.

It’s often the case that inserting horror into superhero comics removes the bright glow of superheroes, but not here. Paco Medina has the vampires in darkness, yet it’s not at the cost of destroying the X-Men’s atmosphere. Wolverine plays a feature role in his yellow outfit, and a highlight is the way he battles through assorted threats for a confrontation. Medina’s imaginative layouts maximise the possibilities. He draws Curse of the Mutants from start to finish, most of it very polished, but with a disappointingly objectified Emma Frost.

As the situation escalates, Gischler introduces all the necessary elements, but maintains a tight focus on the X-Men wherever they’re located. In the process a second conflict is set up, and both play out very pleasingly with a good twist and leaving the X-Men with a longer term problem. Blade drops by, as he usually does when there’s a vampire infestation, but he’s largely around to strengthen the emotional turmoil, as his presence is neither here nor there to the X-Men, who have their own resources.

Curse of the Mutants is a lively start to a generally entertaining run from Gischler, and With Great Power is next.