Because publishers want you to buy their product every month, comics are typically serial in nature. However, occasionally (and more often nowadays than ever before) publishers launch a comic title that is only meant to last for one issue. While ongoing series often have multiple chances to hook in new readers, the comics highlighted in this ongoing investigations only had One-Shot At Greatness!
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Date: October 2010
Cover Price: $3.99
Writer: Chuck Kim
Artist: Chris Bachalo
Once Xarus (Dracula’s son) became the new lord of the vampires, he declared war on San Francisco (the new home of the X-Men). The vampires are armed with new technology that allows them to walk in daylight so the X-Men will need their own secret weapon to take Xarus down … Dracula, himself. The X-Men dispatch Gambit and Storm to “Vampire Island” to figure out how to shut down its protective shield so they can return with Dracula’s body.
After the two former thieves have snuck onto the island, they meet with Janus, the firstborn son of Dracula. He wants to see his father reinstated as the lord of the vampires, and joins forces with Storm and Gambit, who share similar goals. As Janus and Gambit battle through Xarus’ vampiric forces, Storm manages to shut down the island’s protective field – allowing the other X-Men (Emma Fost, Colossus, Northstar, Angel, Psylocke, Wolverine and more!) to teleport in. They make short work of the vampires and transport Dracula’s headless body back home with them.
Chris Bachalo’s art style is very neat to explore but, at times it does get a bit sloppy (most noticeably in the page after the X-Men ‘port in). Kim’s script plays heavily on Storm’s past with Dracula, which is a nice treat for long-time fans like me, who remember those old issues. Even though Gambit is the guest-lead in this story and shares a lot of the action, the main characterization follows Storm as she is made to take an innocent life in order to shut down the vampires’ field of protection. It’s not something she does lightly and Gambit notes that the important part was her hesitation. Overall, it was a neat mutants vs vampire story that advanced the Curse of the Mutants storyline ever so slightly as the X-Men gained posession of Dracula’s body … but not his head …. not yet.
On Ebay: Curse of the Mutants | Chris Bachalo
On AtomicAvenue: X-Men | Gambit | Storm