Cyclops when he wasn't being a complete pillock

[icon_uk]

And one doesn't even need to go back very far.

This is from the "Curse of the Mutants" miniseries finale...



Long story short (Well, short-ish); Dracula has been killed by his son, Xarus, who rallied all the bickering vampire families/sects and created an army of vampires (including Jubilee) to take control of Utopia, reasoning that an army of mutant vampires would be pretty much unstoppable. He has also "turned" Wolverine to vampirehood and is using him as a shocktroop.

However, Cyclops has been co-ordinating the resistance showing flair, brilliance and strategy at every turn, and using the various mutants on Utopia to best effect;

• His advance guard is made up of Colossus, Magma, Emma, Santos, Armor, Bling, Dust, Iceman, Mercury and Husk because aside from having useful offensive abilities, they are none of them what you might call easy to bite.
• He's had Iceman blessed by a priest on the off chance that he would thus be able to create frozen Holy Water (He can, and does).
• He has located the separated parts of Dracula and reassembled him, making a deal to assist in taking Xarus down.
• Namor has mobilised Atlantis to defend the seas and Archangel is doing a severe number on the flying vampires.
• Cypher and Madison Jeffries are on communications and systems support.

He reveals that Wolverine was an unwitting trojan horse with his healing factor temporarily turned off, and turns it back on, allowing Logan to revert to full non-vampire again and depriving Xarus of his ace in the hole at just the right moment to turn the battle into a rout.

And then finally, with his troops not so much in "disarray" as "pieces",Xarus finds himself fighting the Daddy he's already killed. It doesn't end well, as Dracula rips his head off with his bare hands.

And now Dracula shows why he has retained the title of Lord of the vampires for as long as he has....



Uh-oh, this is not going to end well for someone, I wonder who....







And with that, Dracula withdraws... (Love that little smirk of Scott's in that second to last panel)

Later on Emma asks Scott if he really DID have a contingency plan for Dracula.. he points out that she's the mind reader, and she decides there are some things it's better that even SHE doesn't know.

Comments

[mrstatham]

I doubt he was bluffing, frankly.

The fact was that bringing Dracula back in that story was an incredibly dangerous move. Scott would have to be very, very stupid - and not the 'leader of the X-Men' stupid - NOT to have some manner of contingency in place just in case Dracula didn't go along with what they wanted.

As such, I firmly believe he basically faked out Dracula, there.

[shadowpsykie]

me too. I mean this man BLESSED Iceman in the OFF CHANCE that his powers would produce Holy Water Ice and it worked!

I have to say, THIS was the first time in a long time that I had seen a BRILLIANT Cyclops, since whedon, the only other time was in Fear itself, with all his different contingency plans.

[mrstatham]

I think part of the problem is that Fraction had a far longer run than most with more events than say, Morrison or Whedon had, which naturally overrode the flow of Fraction's stories. During Fraction's run, he had to deal with the aftermath of stuff like Messiah Complex and was actively involved in Dark Reign and stuff, and all of those stories have seen Scott make justified but increasingly morally grey decisions to ensure the survival of his people. And I don't think Fraction is the right writer to approach this manner of material - his success in storytelling in Iron Man speaks volumes as to how Fraction can do long-format storytelling and make it work, but Iron Man had less events to deal with and more of an even flow.

Which is why I think this initial Curse of the Mutants story in kicking off the new X-Men title was a breath of fresh air. It was just doing the 'X-Men as superheroes' concept with no real complexities and just solid takes on most of the characters. And I think that's why I liked it, eventually. Just like I liked the Daniel Way story in Astonishing X-Men - the little Monstrous story that took place in Japan. It's just fun. And these types of stories show you can have fun, but still have solid takes on a character.

[skemono]

You're probably right, but I love a villain who'll say "Man that was classy of you. All right, I'll give up for now."

Like Ra's al Ghul in one of the Batman / Spider-Man crossovers.

[salinea]

I don't understand why this event gets so much hatred. It was very solid fun. (except the sexism and what it did to Jubilee, but latter on it turns awesome for her anyway, so I'll forgive the latter).

[mrstatham]

It certainly wasn't awful, having read the trade in the library, but I think it basically got a lot of loathing from male comics fans for seemingly threatening to bring in the 'Twilight' crowd to comics; At least, that felt like the attitude in quite a few places. Marvel got accusations of trying to capitalise on the current vampire craze too, by launching a new X-Men title with a vampire story, despite the fact that they'd just had a Dracula story in Captain Britain and no-one seemed mind. And, well, nevermind the fact those accusations were completely unjustified, given the redesign they gave Dracula was hardly an Edward-esque one like it could've been.

But I thought it was solid and fun, in general. A little bit cheesy, but.. Well, it's a superhero vampire story. I wasn't expecting much. Certainly a lot more fun than Fraction's long and increasingly dull run that was coming out at the same time.

[icon_uk]

Does it? That seems a shame.

[cainofdreaming]

I haven't really read it, but my mild dislike to what I've seen comes mainly from the retcons of Drac-lore. Dracula having a second son, when the first one required pretty much an act of God (who'd somehow turned from an angel into a vampire for this story too). Things like that. *shrugs* It's a pet peeve, I guess. Unnecessary retcons getting on my nerves.

I mean, why couldn't it have been a non-blood relation to Drac that took over?

[ensiform]

Why is Wolverine towering over Storm? I hate it when the artists do that.

[arxh]

uneven ground?

[donnblake]

They kind of seem to be standing in a doorway, maybe Wolverine's standing on some higher steps so he can see?

[equinox216]

Standing on Puck.

"To me, my Alpha Flight footstools!"

[sindra]

I don't care if it WAS cashing in on the vampire craze.....


It was still better than the AvX/ Phoenix 5 bullshit we're going through now.

[mrstatham]

Yep. It's quite funny how the low-key things that Marvel doesn't push quite so heavily as their big events often end up being better than said big events.

[crinos]

I would never want to play cards with Cyclops. That guy has a Poker face.

Lady Gaga be dammed.

[rainspirit]

Half his face is hidden by that giant visor of his, so it's no surprise.

[theflames]

Oh I read this story, liked it, but at the same time, felt murky when it came to involving Vampires into the mix, things like that always remind you that this is a Marvel *universe* and there's more to it than mutants and humans.

And yeah, when he isn't a pillock (just reading Grant's run on the X-Men, and damn can Scott be whiny at some points.), he's brilliant.

Also helps that the writer knows how to properly show leadership, instead of just having people be cool on the page. Very good in that regard.

I'm more impressed though by how you wrote this post, concise, straight forward, pretty full proof if anyone wanted to debate otherwise - well done. :D

[icon_uk]

I love superhero team stories where they operate as a team, and use their abilities to best advantage. It's one reason I liked the Wolfman/Perez Titans, because they gave a valid purpose for Robin to be on this super-powerful team, because he comes up with the tactics which work best. Warren Ellis is also very good at it (Okay, of course, the writer can cheat by making the opposition a good match for the heroes, but the good one makes it work)

[sir_razorback]

Look close at the three faces of Drac at the bottom. Those aren't a complete copy-paste, the artist actually went through the effort to draw them *almost* identical, but with fine changes in nuance as he was thinking it over.

[icon_uk]

Heh, I nearly mentioned that very thing! :)

[nyadnar17]

This story was made of awesome and fun. It was a nice break from the super heavy story lines of the 5 years leading up to it. Cyke is the man.

[donnblake]

I know there was that time Dracula decided Storm would make an ideal bride (and that alternate universe where he succeeded), but have the X-men met him aside from that once?

[leoboiko]

looove Dracula’s earrings

[glprime]

I just appreciate them doing the "repeated panels of a face" trick BUT NOT by recycling one panel digitally. A person actually drew each panel with minute differences. That's how you're supposed to do that.

[cypherfdp]

"Niiiiiice. Okay everyone, we're packing it up! Let's go, people!"