First of all, my apologies on the lateness of this entry. Real life has been insane lately. Second, my apologies on the short overview. Again . . . real life.
Cable and Deadpool # 26-27, Apocalypse versus Dracula # 1-4, X-Men # 180-187
Deadpool goes on the hunt for Cable after Cable goes missing. Turns out Cable has discovered Apocalypse is returning and goes to confront his ancient nemesis. He allows Apocalypse to live because Mutantkind must rally around ‘Poccy in order to survive.
As Apocalypse is restored, Ozymadias recalls a battle between Apocalypse and Dracula. These had met on an ancient battleground when Dracula was Vlad the Impaler. During the 1800s, Dracula finally sought revenge on Apocalypse by attacking Apocalypse’s descendants in the Clan Akkaba. It comes down to two final members – a teleporter and a fire-breather. They save Apocalypse from Dracula and that’s the end there.
In the present day, in Costa Rica, Lorna and Alex encounter both the Leper Queen and a Doop-like being called Daap. Daap takes Lorna and the Leper Queen to Apocalypse. At the same time, a Mutant called Gazer is challenged and becomes War. Sunfire is then recruited in as Famine and becomes his AOA self.
About this time, Apocalypse shows up at the mansion and offers his healing and power-restoring blood to the 198 and X-Men. With Mystique back and causing a rift between Remy and Rogue with the introduction of the Mutant power-disabling Pulse, Gambit joins with Apocalypse as Death. The Sentinels are wiped out in the meantime and then Apocalypse heads off to the UN.
The X-Men (and the New Avengers) manage to take down Apocalypse in his Sphinix-ship, with Apocalypse escaping . . . only to be recovered by the Celestials. Lorna, who was Pestilence this time, leaves the X-Men. As does Pulse. Sunfire and Gambit as manage to escape, joining with Sinister in the end.
First of all, I need to applaud Frank Tieri for not making “Apocalypse vs. Dracula” suck as badly as it could. In fact, the Clan Akkaba is a nice concept and pops up again. It’s a little whacky, but it works with both the Marvel version of Dracula and Apocalypse. So . . . not bad.
Cable and Deadpool is fun, but I would have liked to have seen more Cable’s thoughts and reactions about Apocalypse’s return. It just doesn’t feel right, to be honest. It was well executed, but just wasn’t quite on the button.
The main event isn’t too bad. The story itself is nicely delivered and has a strong direction. There are flaws. It’s jarring and sometimes it seems like the X-Men just aren’t acting like themselves. They should be dog-piling on Apocalypse. Cyclops needed a stronger emotional reaction to Apocalypse’s return. Even though the focus was more on Alex, Scott needed more development here.
Apocalypse himself isn’t acting like himself either. He’s off character, carrying so much about his image. It reminds a little of Morrison’s Magneto/Xorn from “Planet X.”
Furthermore, the Sentinels from ONE seem to become more and more pointless.
But the character development and art are all on high. And for the faults of the story, it was an interesting and fun ride.
Milligan’s run comes to an end. It was a curious little batch of issues. He handled the team well, even if he dropped the ball with the bad guys. His best work was with Rogue and Gambit; his worst was with Lorna, Bobby, and Alex. There was a fundamental organic/natural theme through just about his entire run. Giant fungus spore alien monsters in “Golgotha;” sex and lust in “Bizarre Love Triangle;” monkeys and apes in “Wild Kingdom;” and blood in “Blood of Apocalypse.” It was a interesting theme and it certainly made for intriguing – if not flawed – stories.
~W~
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