Review by Frank Plowright

In his first X-Men arc Victor Gischler closed with the shocking transformation of Jubilee into a vampire. As she’s been little seen in the remainder of his run, it’s been rather the cheap device unless Gischler was merely the architect of a problem played out elsewhere. War Machines concluded, however, with Jubilee approached by Raizo, a character seen before, and disappearing in Eastern Europe, traditional home of the vampire.

The Curse is Broken opens with Jubilee confined to a cell and craving the blood, which the X-Men circumvented via Wolverine supplying blood including his healing factor that fought off cravings. It’s a harrowing solo chapter dealing with combatting addiction, drawn with appropriate emotional resonance by Al Barrionuevo. The X-Men, meanwhile, are working their way through vampire covens across the face of the planet searching for Jubilee.

Gischler doesn’t play out the expected scenario, which is good, but in avoiding the predictable his substitute is for several chapters the weakest of his X-Men run. It traps the X-Men on a remote island with a group of better-intentioned vampires fighting off a wave of bounty hunters. Deadpool’s among them, so that’s a distraction, but there’s little inspiration, and little explanation of Raizo and his allies other than their being a breed of vampire not out to subjugate humanity. The sense of disappointment is compounded by Jorge Molina not matching his earlier artistic peaks. He goes for stylised people with square heads in minimal backgrounds, saving the awe-inspiring art for pin-up pages.

Will Conrad rectifies the artistic shortcomings over the final two chapters, which drop the vampire plot and focus instead on Pixie, the youngest of the X-Men. It’s much better material, the opening making good use of Skrulls and their shapechanging abilities and Pixie’s uncertainty and lack of experience ensures a lack of predictability. The Fantastic Four and Spider-Man are also involved in two chapters of full-on fun with everyone operating to a deadline.

The final story doesn’t compensate for the weakness of the remainder, but instead of focusing on that, let’s instead acknowledge that Gischler’s run overall hits some highspots, and any of his other X-Men collections is worth your time. Brian Wood takes over the series after this with Blank Generation.