Monday, December 5, 2011

X-Men: Apocalypse/Dracula #3 & 4 (June & July 2006)

And now it's time to finish out the Apocalypse/Dracula mini-series... This post'll be looking at the final two issues of that mini-series.

X-Men: Apocalypse/Dracula #3 & 4(June & July 2006):

Summary: Apocalypse, Ozymandias, Van Helsing and Starsmore return to Clan Akkaba's home base and find nobody there except for the corpse of one of the clan's stronger members and the brain-addled brother(Frederick Slade) of Akkaba's former leader and current vampire. While Apocalypse is scoping out the house, he is jumped by his former Akkaba followers, who have all been turned into vampires by Dracula and Akkaba's former leader, Hamilton Slade. Hamilton taunts Apocalypse and attacks him, but discovers that his mutant/vampire powers are no match for Apocalypse. Apocalypse goes to finish Hamilton off, but is jumped by a few dozen of his former followers. The mutant/vampires are too much for Apocalypse so Van Helsing and Starsmore lend a hand and manage to get Apocalypse away from the angry vampire mob. Before the vampire mob can pull together a second attack, Fredrick surprisingly teleports Apocalypse's group away from the battle, back to his abandoned childhood home. While at the house, the group prepares their defenses for the inevitable vampire attack, and manage to defeat the vampires when they do strike, relying on the sunrise to help them stem the tide of angry mutant/vampires. From there, Apocalypse and company head back to Akkaba's headquarters and stake all of the now sleeping vampires present, with the notable exception of Hamilton, who had his coffin moved to Transylvania. Apocalypse reveals to his shocked allies that he had been bitten by a vampire, most likely Dracula himself, during the earlier battle, and as such knew that Dracula had retreated back to Transylvania. Van Helsing warns Apocalypse against facing Dracula since Apocalypse could very well fall under Dracula's sway, but Apocalypse doesn't want to hear that bunk and has Fredrick teleport himself and his allies directly to Transylvania. Dracula sends a mess of lesser vampires and loyal humans at Apocalypse and company, but Apocalypse angrily tears through this nuisance, demanding to face Dracula. Dracula arrives and taunts Apocalypse by sending rats, bats and wolves after him, telling Apocalypse that he wasn't worth Dracula's attention, much like how Apocalypse dismissed Dracula 400 years earlier. Apocalypse literally blows the vermin away and Dracula invites Apocalypse to face him one-on-one at his castle. Apocalypse and his forces advance on the castle, and while Apocalypse heads to the courtyard to deal with Dracula, Van Helsing, Starsmore and Ozymandias are teleported into Dracula's castle where they begin to burn it down. They are met by Hamilton, who easily bests them and prepares to bite Starsmore, at least until Fredrick reaches over, grabs Hamilton's head and teleports it away. As for the main event, Dracula manages to force Apocalypse to kneel to him(!) due to the earlier bite Apocalypse suffered, and tells Apocalypse that he planned on keeping Apocalypse around for all of eternity to serve as his slave since Apocalypse's blood was granting Dracula extra strength. Before Dracula can snack on Apocalypse again, Van Helsing arrives on the scene and splashes Dracula in the face with some holy water, allowing Apocalypse the opportunity to impale and then behead Dracula, ending their battle. With that taken care of, Apocalypse heads off to hibernate for a few years, Van Helsing heads to Canada to look into Wendigo sightings, Starsmore kicks his opium addiction and Ozymandias sets a hooker up to get knocked up by Fredrick Slade, since Ozymandias could see the potential in Fredrick's bloodline. Oh, and the last name of the hooker? Ferguson... And that my friends, is a wrap.

Thoughts: For what was basically a throwaway mini-series starring Apocalypse and Dracula, back before vampires became the pop culture sensation they are today, this was a solid mini-series. Sure, some parts dragged a bit(especially the third issue), but the set-up and ending issues were quite satisfying. I mean we all knew that Apocalypse was going to come out the victor here, but seeing Dracula get the upper-hand on him, and then watching Apocalypse get saved by a mere human was pretty cool. On top of that, we learn from this mini that Chamber and Blink both have some of Apocalypse's blood in them, since Clan Akkaba's membership consisted of people from Apocalypse's bloodline. That's something that SHOULD be looked into someday, but probably won't be seeing as that Blink and Chamber really aren't doing anything of notice lately(although that may be changing with Blink). What more can I say? Would I go out of my way to recommend this mini-series? No, probably not, but if the recent X-Men vs Vampires event didn't satisfy your craving for mutant on vampire action, this mini may be just the thing for you!

Score: 7 out of 10.Yep, for a few moments, Apocalypse was Dracula's bitch!

9 comments:

  1. hey man just a heads up at 3:00 on wensday marvel will hold a press confrence concerning the upcoming phenoex returns event

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  2. Really? That sounds awesome! Thanks for the heads up man.

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  3. They did do something with Chamber. The clan kidnapped him and turned him into a younger version of Apocalypse with hair. He was suppose to be an omega-level mutant but he never learned what his powers were or how to use them. Then, Age of X pretty much wiped all that out and now Chamber has his old powers and missing his face again.

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  4. DUDE DUDE DUDE DUDE !http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=35774

    MORE STUFF WILL COME TOMORROW

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  5. That's big news, but my faith in that creative group (with the exception of Aaron) is lukewarm at best. Also, given the trend at Marvel to promote the Avengers as their main moneymaker, and push the X-men to the backburner (all because Fox owns the movie rights to spidey/xmen), and...yeah I kind of dread this event.

    On the plus side, maybe now they'll finally get Wolverine off of the Avengers :)

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  6. OMG BENDIS WILL END HIS RUN ON ALL THE AVENGERS BOOKS TOWARDS THE END OF 2012

    http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=35772

    .............................. PARTY BITCHES

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  7. Sweet, lots of news I see here!

    I remember Apoca-Chamber, Jermox. It was... odd. Chamber's entire run since Decimation has been odd if you think about it... Lost his powers/nearly died, became Apoca-Chamber/Decibel, and now is back where he started from...

    I actually love ALL of what I read about that X-Men vs Avengers stuff, I mean Jason Aaron, Matt Fraction and ED BRUBAKER(why Hickman and not Remender though?)?! Yes, please!!! I'm definitely not happy about Hope being the center of the story, unless Marvel does the sensible thing and simply kills her off... I mean if they're going to be using the Scarlet Witch(!) in that maxi-series, maybe they can FINALLY undo M-Day, which would make Hope unnecessary.

    As for Bendis, I have to say, it's about time... I mean he's had a few good stories throughout the past several years, but after 200(really?! That many?!) issues, it's time to hand the franchise off to somebody else and see what they can do. For all the shit I give Bendis, I'll always appreciate the fact that he made the Avengers the "It" Marvel book again. Before he took over it was all about the X-Men and Spidey, but with Disassembled, he put the Avengers firmly back at the top of the sales charts, where they've remained. So while he's gotten kind of stale lately, I def appreciate his contributions to the Avengers. Hopefully the next writer can drop certain members(Spider-Man, Wolverine, Daredevil, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, just to name a few) and get us back to basics.

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  8. ... & I really would have wanted how long hypnosis would last against Apoc...especially since Marvel Dracula does not seem to have much chance! The MI: 13 team beat the snot out of him on the moon , Hell even here despite that slight advantage against Nur, I wonder what'd happen after 1 hour
    " My hypnot...aaahh... sorry... My hypnotic...
    " You may realise, you hematophiliac coward , that you have to perpetually make eye contact to hold the fragile grasp you have on me?
    "...Impossibble I mean.... aaaahh...
    " Actually , it is possible. I would even say it is reality. Ah , What do you know , I can move without your order
    "WHAT? how ? when ?
    " Roughly 5-10 minutes after you told me to sit down.(slashes Vlad's head) Now let's see .... Ah , our next targets ,my raiders, are Davis , Milligan & Remender. Bring me their half living corpses so I , Apocalypse, way give them the sanction for their heresies !

    Just you wait for my next pic, It'll shut up anyone who said Nate & Bishop are useless!

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  9. "Just you wait for my next pic, It'll shut up anyone who said Nate & Bishop are useless!" I refuse to believe such people exist in this world! :P

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