X-Men #1

Victor Gischler & Paco Medina

Curse of the Mutants, the latest storyline threading through the X-Men titles, sees the launch of a new X-Men book, simply entitled X-Men, from Victor Gischler (Deadpool: Merc With a Mouth) and Paco Medina (New Warriors).  I think Medina's art is suited well for the dark tale told here, with nice designs for some of the vampires infesting the title.  My only real issue is that the action is a little inconsistent.  There can be a nice little squabble between Wolverine and a female vampire that's easy to follow and clean and exciting, yet there are scenes like the previous one, where there's a fight in an alley between three X-Men and a gang, where it's fuzzy on details and you don't really get a sense of the action that's occurring between the characters at all.  But for the most part, the art is enjoyable, painting a pretty decent story to kick off vampirism among the mutants.  The tale begins with a vampire who pulls off his dark, heavy outerwear at a bustling cafe and literally explodes blood and guts over the crowd.  Unfortunately, this blood is infected and Jubilee is caught in the explosion, and begins to show signs of vampirism, along with many of the other innocent bystanders present.  It sets the tone for this kind of weird supernatural story that promises lots of fun and hordes of the undead.  We don't see too many of the X-Men in this issue, as it mostly sets up the bigger story, but Cyclops and his group of scientists try to figure out what's happening to Jubilee and the intentions behind this new infection, while Wolverine and Pixie do some reconnaissance with Angel.  Storm also makes a brief appearance, hinting at a bigger part for her to play in the overarching story, as she has quite a history with Dracula.  It's fun so far, and I'm looking forward to seeing where it all leads.