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September 01 2010

Marvel Comics
Story: Victor Gischler
Art: Paco Medina, Juan Vlasco, Marte Gracia

Victor Gischler, where have you been hiding? There are plenty of great writers in the comic industry lately, and Marvel and DC both seem to be trying to get as much mileage out of them as possible. Some just seem to be perfect for their respective titles, like Geoff Johns on Green Lantern or Matt Fraction on Invincible Iron Man. When it comes to X-Men, Gischler just gets it.

With such a large cast of characters available, it’s easy for things to become overcomplicated. Gischler, however, seems to have a solid plan for which characters best fit the story and how to utilize them. Wolverine, Storm, Emma Frost and others all bring different angles to the plot, and it never seems like Gischler is using them just to use them.  As part of Marvel’s initiative to bring the X-Men out of isolation and interact more with the rest of the Marvel Universe, Blade makes an appearance here to assist the X-Men with their vampire problem. Of course, Blade is the obvious choice to guest star, but his introduction and interaction is so seamless, you’d almost think he’s a long-lost mutant returning to the team. It’s something that goes wrong in comics all too often.

The biggest issue with many comics is pacing. If the plot moves too quickly, it becomes too hard to follow, but if you spend too much time explaining things, it’s just boring. Gischler effortlessly juggles several plot points in this issue; the X-Men trying to figure out a plan, the vampires plot to take over and the corruption of Jubilee. In the end, the story makes about as much sense as possible for a premise this bizarre. The tension increases bit-by-bit over the course of the issue until the final pages. Knowing the extremes the vampires are taking this war to and the plan Cyclops has come up with to counter them, I simply can’t wait to get my hands on the next issue.

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