Marvel Heroes (UK Magazine) #28 (Story 2)

Background

Here's the eight page backup story from Marvel Heroes (UK Magazine) #28.

Recap: Dracula is working with Viper. They have kidnapped Storm.

Story 'Eternal Night'

Wolverine leads the X-Men to a nearby cemetery where they join forces with Blade the vampire hunter.

They all encounter Dracula, who explains his plans. He has obtained (thanks to Viper) a copy of the Darkhold, an ancient book. With this he can perform a ritual to cast the world into eternal night. Seems to me that would be a silly idea, since without the sun's rays, Dracula would end up being head honcho over a frozen ball of ice. But hey, nobody asked me.

There's some more mumbo jumbo. An ancient runestone, a mystic gateway, and such like. Oh yeah, the ritual also requires a storm, which is why Storm is required.

Everybody fights, but Dracula manages to finish the ritual. And then... Viper reveals herself as "Chthon", who has just tricked Dracula into opening a permanent portal between earth and her home dimension.

Now Dracula must work alongside the X-Men to defeat Chthon and close the portal. Which they do. There's a final explosion, and Dracula disappears, doubtless to return again another day.

General Comments

From a purely technical point of view, this is all perfectly well executed stuff. The plot is intricate, the dialogue is competent, and the art work by Lee Townsend is top-rate, with great colouring finishes.

So why does this whole thing feel so flat? I dunno. I just can't feel any soul in the story. Yeah, there's a whole bunch of stuff happening, but... well, it's not the real X-Men, it's just some rip-off adaptation. There's nothing in here to give me any emotional attachment to the heroes.

Overall Rating

Despite the fact that I feel vaguely detached from this story, I can't deny that it is perfectly adequate.

I have no real reason not to grant it a perfectly average three webs.