Mutants vs. Vampires? All Right.
To be clear, I was dreading this story when it was first announced. The idea of going from Second Coming to a mutants vs. vampires story sounded terrible, especially with Necrosha in recent memory. But back then, I was also under the impression that this story would be much bigger than a self-contained arc in the new X-Men ongoing series. It turns out Curse of the Mutants is much better than I was expecting.
If the cover doesn't make it obvious enough, Blade joins the fray this issue. He acts to fill in the X-Men and the readers on the events that happened within the Death of Dracula oneshot, getting everyone up to speed. Gischler does a good job of writing Blade, who sadly seems to get short end of the stick on that sort of thing usually. In fact, Gischler does a good job across the board when it comes to the characters appearing in this issue. The only questionable case may be that of Colossus being a little heavy on the humor, but then again, I can't say I know for sure what personality Colossus is supposed to have at the moment, if he has any.
For me, it is great to see Jubilee featured so prominently in an X-Men book again. After being decimated and then involved in that horrible New Warriors series, I thought it was over for the character. So it's fun to see her back in action, and I am keeping an open mind about whatever Gischler has planned for her. Given that the character is coming from rock bottom, it is easier to accept a writer doing drastic things to the character.
As good as the story is so far, it isn't perfect. The light-bending technology that allows vampires to survive in the daylight feels unnecessary and unwelcome. So far, the ability to come out during the day isn't a central part of the story and it is more a side element. The ability to come out in the daylight also kills some of the fun of having vampires in the story, and it will present problems for future writers of vampire stories if Gischler doesn't do something to get rid of this minor plot element by story's end.
Curse of the Mutants isn't the kind of X-Men story I would like to see often, but it is occasionally fun to see the team deal with threats outside of their element. Usually, stories like that are some of the worst X-Men stories. Gischler and Medina are breaking from that trend and delivering an interesting mutants vs. vampires story.
