The X-Men step back to let Dracula sort out his differences with Xarus, but what will they do when Blade wants to intervene?
The Good
I was about as leery as anybody when the X-Men jumped on the vampire bandwagon that's currently plowing through America but, now that this arc has concluded, I have really enjoyed this take on the bloodsuckers. Since the mutants have organized into their own nation, it's actually quite appropriate for them to run afoul another order of humanoid creatures. Believe it or not, this also give Cyclops a great place to shine.
The Bad
I'm all for storytelling in comics that stresses key moments and makes you feel every beat that comes at you, but the number of dramatic pauses in this issue got pretty excessive. There's even a whole page that's mostly close-ups on Dracula, and there really wasn't enough progression in the details of his facial expression for it to feel like the kind of slow reaction they wanted to convey.
The Verdict - 4/5
For a long time, I didn't get why so many fans kept saying "Cyclops is an uptight jerk" - - I just saw him as a straightforward leader.
Gischler grabs that characterization head-on and, while it may seem odd to be pleased when a character's more unlikable, it does make the team dynamic far more interesting. Cykes is very much the kind of rigid authority figure you encounter in real life and his decisions regarding Blade and Dracula here are as frustrating as you'd hope good drama could be.
