X-Men v3 Issue 3
In a giant sea of comics books and an almost as giant sea of X-Men books, it's easy for a book to get lost in the shuffle, to get pushed towards the bottom of your books in terms of importance. That is the case with the newest volume of X-Men, as I found myself without enthusiasm going into this book, deciding not to even purchase it due to the lack-luster second issue and overall handling of story. See, it's not that I don't like vampires and X-Men, I think it's great and goes back to a simpler time, but with all the Curse of the Mutants books being better than this, I feel nothing towards it. Regardless, let's dive into X-Men issue 3.
The issue opens with Dr. Rao telling Wolverine and Cyclops what happened last issue with Jubilee, as Wolverine tells Rao and Cyclops that he is going after her and that "She's coming back. One way or another." As Cyclops and Rao discuss with Nemesis their master plan, Storm informs Cyclops that the pieces of Dracula are there and they're ready to re-animate him, which they do successfully. Meanwhile, Wolverine is on the hunt for answers to finding Jubilee and thinks about how much she means to him, while elsewhere Jubilee plots his demise with Xarus. Dracula, now awakened, talks with Scott and the X-Men about a plan of action as Wolverine finally catches up with Jubilee and changes the status quo...
While last issue felt "barebones" to me, this issue seemed to have a bit more meet on its bones. Maybe it was because I didn't have to wait for Jubilee to run out on the X-Men like I was for all of issues 1 and 2, maybe it was because there felt like actual progress this issue, but the entire issue just seemed better to me. I liked that Victor Gischler actually made Scott serious without keeping him dull, which I feel sometimes other writers do. However, I feel that it was a bit out of character as a result, and giving the gravity of the situation, it didn't seem appropriate for him to be making little jokes and being so informal. Not only that, but the dismissal of Namor when he said much had happened seemed like a poor decision. I mean, Namor is one of their heaviest hitters, you'd think Scott would need him to fight off a giant vampire army. And as a little note, that they noted that Namor had his adventure seeking Dracula in his own book but not Gambit and Storm getting the body was a bit annoying, mainly because Storm and Gambit had suuuuuch a good one shot it needs recognition. Namor was just eh.
Paco Medina on art left me feeling the same as I had before, however it seemed like his art looked especially polished in certain instances, particularly the severed head of Dracula and his reanimation looked gorgeous, sleek, and overall intimidating and appropriate, catching me off guard. I really liked the look of Jubilee in this issue as well, however it doesn't look entirely true to her character, as she is still too tall and doesn't look entirely right. And Dr. Rao looks horribly inaccurate based on how she is depicted in other comics. In particular, when I think of her I think of Astonishing X-Men, where she actually looked like a real person and talked about not being pretty, while here she is drawn like every other comic book woman, tall, thin, and gorgeous.
Overall, this book got better with this issue and with the master plan still untold, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested. There is hope for this book yet and things are hopefully going to bring this book to be all it can be. 3.5 out of 5.
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