UNCANNY X-MEN #159: Night Screams!

 

The X-Men dig through the ditches and burn through the witches, only to slam in the back of a new foe!

Originally Published July 1982

We begin with the X-Men being super appropriate.

In a hilarious misunderstanding/home invasion, the X-Men have barged into the apartment of Misty Knight (former roommate of Jean Grey, private detective, associate of Luke Cage, Blaxploitation style heroine) only to find a different woman there altogether!

This is Misty's roommate Harmony Young, a famous New York fashion model. That lifestyle must make one very open-minded because after the initial shock of having a squad of colourfully-dressed mutant heroes burst literally through her wall, she takes a "Hey, any friend of Misty's is a friend of mine" attitude and lets the X-Men hang out.

They're there to drop Kitty off for a dinner with her parents. She asks Storm along, who protests she hasn't got anything to wear besides her superhero getup. Of course, they're at a famous model's house, so, you know... Makeover!

Later, after the dinner, Kitty calls asking for Ororo - she hasn't seen her since leaving dinner, and she claimed to be heading back to the apartment, but the X-Men haven't seen her either: Trouble is afoot.

Storm is found and brought to the hospital, victim of an apparent mugging, with stab wounds to her throat and severe loss of blood. Miraculously, she pulls through and is able to leave the hospital that night.

The team brings her back to Misty's apartment, but something strange is going on. Ororo finds herself restless. Something is different about her...

When Kitty arrives in the morning, she rushes to see her best friend and surrogate mother figure, opening the blinds, only for Storm to have a somewhat negative reaction...

In fact, Storm even lashes out at Kitty, demanding to be left alone when she questions her about a scarf embroidered with a "D." Kitty leaves to do some "errands" while the others leave Storm to her convalescence. That night, we get some clues as to who Storm's nocturnal visitor is...

That's right folks! The really for real actual Dracula has come to claim Storm for his own!

For the uninitiated, Drac had carried his own series in Marvel Comics continuity all through the 70's, which is where Blade got his start (I mean, you can't call yourself the Vampire Hunter if you're not up against the Big Dog.) But really, we here at Uncanny X-Cerpts don't require any further explanation - after all, back in the 60's, the X-Men tangled with Frankenstein's monster (which as you'll recall is an alien robot that turned on its masters back in the 1800s) and we celebrated that too.

So, just as Dracula is about to complete his seduction of Storm and bring her into his thrall, Kitty phases through the wall brandishing a cross!

OK, but why is she dressed like Indiana Jones?

This is all well and good, and for a moment Dracula is concerned, but it immediately becomes clear that there is a missing element to Kitty's plan - she is not, in fact, a "believer" in that particular icon, so the cross has no power when she wields it. I think that's an important distinction to make, since it would not be very scary to face a villain who could be completely undone by hanging the flag of Sweden.

Fortunately, as established earlier, Kitty does wear a Star of David necklace at all times, and that does jibe with her personal faith, so she's still got that to fall back on.

Dracula and Storm retreat while Kitty is put in the awkward position of having to explain to Wolverine, Colossus and Nightcrawler that Storm has been made a vampire by the actual real-life Dracula.

Wolverine is skeptical, but Nightcrawler, who hails from the part of Bavaria where Roma Witches and Pitchfork-and-Torch-Mobs are still very much a thing, cautions his teammate to not take these words lightly. And really, after all, it's clear something is going on with Storm, whether it's a vampire or spoiled mayonnaise or something else.

The X-Men track their quarry to Belvedere Castle in Central Park, which is where you would assume to find Dracula hiding out. If it were me, I would pick the Disney Store in Times Square or something where nobody would ever think to look. Anyway, the Lord of Dracness jumps out from behind a bush and says "Yes, it's me, Dracula! And there's nothing you can do to stop me, mwahahahaha!" Or something to that effect.

Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Colossus engage in fisticuffs with the Vampyr King, but find him a tough match, as he has superhuman strength and lots of vampiric tricks like turning into fog or siccing wild animals on his foes.

Wolverine makes the same mistake as Kitty, thinking he can just whip up a cross (using his claws) to ward of the evil one, but as we know Logan is basically an Atheist.

Nightcrawler, on the other hand, is a devout Catholic...

Who knew having a persinal belief system would ever come in handy?

In the castle, Kitty finds the Vampire Sanctum. She sees Storm with flashing red eyes and fangs, noting it appears that she has already become a vampire, but Kitty, who just has to be all "um actually" about it, tells us you don't become a vampire until you've died and come back three days later, and it's been, like a day.

Which is all well and good but Storm is there now and vampire or not, she seems to really want to kill Kitty and/or drink her blood.

Kitty reaches for her stake, but just can't seem to bring herself to plunge it into the heart of her friend and role model for some reason. She reminds Storm that she has pledged never to take a life, so if she's wanting to kill Kitty now, perhaps Storm truly is no more...

Having seemingly attended to this grisly business, Storm joins her vampiric paramour, who says he will slay her remaining friends. And that, Ororo says, is something...

Trick! She has broken free of Dracula's power, and brought her X-Men costume along to boot!

Dracula takes the form of a Man-Sized Bat and takes flight. Storm pursues, as Dracula taunts that they have shared blood and are thus linked forever, and it will be impossible for her to go back to what she once was. They fly into a restaurant, where Dracula takes a woman hostage to get Storm to drop her improvised stake (a broken table leg.)

Storm declares herself free of Dracula's power - she will not kill anyone, except Dracula, to keep him from killing. And Dracula, well, he's Dracula, he's going to do whatever and kill whomever and drink blood. And if he wants to stop Storm, he's going to have to kill her once and for all, and he doesn't want to do that. It's a real ideological stalemate.

So, Dracula bids a fond farewell, noting that the qualities that drew him to Storm are those she used to defeat him. He flies off into the night, hinting that they might meet again. 

In the end, the X-Men are happy with their victory, but it's not to last - Moira MacTaggart calls them back to the Island - the Professor has taken a turn for the worse. And considering the last time we saw him he was comatose, barely functioning, and subconsciously trying to kill himself, that must be pretty derned bad!

To be continued!

Further Thoughts:

Storm has a way of bringing out the sentimental side in evil fellas - first Doctor Doom, now this. It's interesting that one of the most seemingly pure characters finds herself meshing so well with those who are corrupt and vile. There's something appealing about seeing Storm indulge her dark side while still staying true to herself in the end. It's why she's one of the best characters ever.

This is the kind of issue that could very well have been stretched to an Annual - the X-Men tangling with one of literature's great monsters could very well have been a more epic affair, and given us more time to play with Storm's dark urges and the power of Dracula, but as a 24-page comic I will admit it mostly hit the spot. Perhaps one could quibble with the power of Storm's love for Kitty, combined with her own sheer force of will, enabling her to completely overpower Dracula's influence, but what else did you expect?

This issue was also a showcase for the talents of young Bill Sienkiewicz, who had been making a name for himself with his increasingly avant-garde work on the original Moon Knight series. His ability to capture both literal and metaphorical darkness enhances the book, and his innovative work with mixed-media is put to good use in a few panels. If anything, the story doesn't let him take it far enough beyond a few sequences of Storm's vampiric awakening. I would have loved to see a more conceptual issue that took visual cues from German expressionist filmmaking in this vampire story, but uh, I guess that's asking a lot for 1983.

Mr. Sienkiewicz will have another chance to make his mark on Marvel's mutants before too much longer...