X-Men '92 #4 Review

Welcome back to X-Men ’92. Last time, Storm, accompanied by Bishop, Psylocke and a newer character called U-Go Girl enlisted the aid of the legendary Count Dracula to deal with a little vampire problem the X-Men have been having. Said vampire problem is lead by none other than Dracula’s son, Janus, now calling himself Alpha Red. In his bid to one-up his father, Janus has combined the power of Cerebro with the dark magic of a book called the Darkhold to amass an army of mutant vampires, each of them immune to sunlight. Having already converted Wolverine and most of the other X-Men, it’s up to Storm and the other remaining X-Men to put an end to this darkness.

While Storm and the others stand off against Alpha Red’s army, the few remaining mutants in the mansion, including Beast and the professor, have sealed themselves inside Cerebro’s vault. Beast realizes that the key to ending all this is removing the corruption of the dark magic from Cerebro. To that end, Beast has enlisted Dead Girl, a young mutant with total immunity to all things supernatural, to virtually interface with Cerebro’s software and remove the corruption personally. Dead Girl, knowing this will be dangerous, doesn’t want to at first, but agrees when Beast offers to pass her for the semester.

Meanwhile, Storm and the others finally begin the battle, and despite being outnumbered, Storm and the others still put up a valiant effort, especially when Wolverine’s healing factor starts fighting against the Vampire curse, allowing him to fight against Alpha Red. There’s also a nice moment where U-Go girl ports the vampiric students into the danger room, where storm has set up a simulation that pits them against multiple duplicates of Blade.

Back with Dead Girl, she has entered the virtual interface of Cerebro, which, likely due to the dark magic, resembles a level from Super Ghouls and Ghosts. There, Dead Girl meets the anthropomorphic personification of the Darkhold, which has taken the form of a small man in a tuxedo with a twisted smile. Since this reality resembles a video game, it’s only fitting that his dialogue resembles that of a video game NPC. The Darkhold offers Dead Girl the chance to destroy all Vampires, something that will carry its own set of consequences, but may also be the only way to save her friends. The Professor psychically brings in Storm and Beast to aid in her decision, Storm arguing in favor of destroying Vampires and Beast arguing against the use of dark magic to solve their problems. However, the Darkhold kicks them out of the interface and Dead Girl, desperate to save her friends, agrees to the deal.

We briefly rejoin the council of cross-time Draculas who have been observing these events. The head Dracula says that while the people of this reality may believe they have won, but they will soon learn that a world without vampires is a world without balance.

However, back in this reality, the day has been one and all the vampires revert to their human forms, even Dracula and Janus. Unfortunately, since the rituals Janus subjected himself to over the years to increase his power were never intended for humans and he crumbles into dust in his father’s arms. Enraged, the former king of the Vapires lashes out at Storm, but Storm refuses to apologize for what’s been done, and leaves the count to grieve the loss of his son.

A few days later, the X-Mansion is being rebuilt for likely the eighty-seventh time and Storm and Beast discuss the consequences of what this proverbial deal with the devil will cost them later on.

What Works: The action is solid and the virtual reality interface with the Darkhold was very creative. It was also nice to see the council of cross-time Draculas again, albeit briefly.

What Doesn’t:

I liked this story arc a lot, but I think this finale leaves a lot to be desired. First, there’s Dead Girl, a character who’s barely been seen or mentioned in this book up until this point, is now the one who has to save everyone. If she was supposed to be the big hero of this story, then it would have been a smart decision to actually have her be a presence in this book beforehand so it doesn’t feel like sloppy writing.

Second, there’s the resolution, which is the destruction of ever vampire in this reality, something that should have significant ramifications throughout the entire Marvel universe. However, this book takes place in a self-contained alternate reality and it’s stories are made to focus on the X-Men. I said last time that the X-Men have fought against vampires many times in the past, but the two are hardly synonymous with one another, so, either this plot point will never be followed up on, which would be foolish, or, they will continue down this path, which will continue to distract from the more traditional X-Men stories that were promised by this book. The writers have basically set up a lose/lose situation for themselves.

Overall: 3.5/5

I’m really torn on how I feel about this book and the direction it’s likely to take after this issue. On one hand, I like ideas like The Council of Cross-Time Draculas and the idea that a world without vampires may have unexpected consequences, but those are ideas that deserve their own book. As they are, they’re serving as strange creative choices for a book that’s supposed to be about the X-Men