Jubilee has succumbed to her vampire blood lust and has been captured and imprisoned by a group of good vampires referred to as The Forgiven, led by a man named Raizo.  They are hoping to recruit her to their cause and offer her animal blood to sustain her, but she is determined to attain human blood and refuses their aid.  Several members try to relate to her, but she spurns them all.  She attempts to seduce Raizo, but he rebuffs her.  Finally, they send their youngest member, Quickshot in a last ditch effort to win her over, but she ambushes him, steals his light bending pendant, which allows him to walk in sunlight and bolts for a nearby village.  She comes to a cottage in the woods and is about to feast on a teenage boy inside, when she looks in a mirror and doesn’t see her reflection.  This is too much for her and she returns, a sobbing mess, to Raizo and asks his help.  Storm, meanwhile, vows to locate her at all cost.

Honestly, I just don’t like Jubilee as a vampire.  It’s kind of a WTF move if you ask me.  Just a stunt to drum up interest.  I hate to mention the “T” word, but you know what I’m talking about.  It’s not as if the X-Men have never encountered vampires– Storm was enslaved by Dracula at one point– but this time?  I just don’t care for it.

Also Jubilee was known for being a spunky character, not this mopey, emo chick.  She really comes across as unlikeable here, just really nasty, manipulative and negative.

The art is good.  New penciller Al Barrionuevo has a darker, rougher style than the previous art teams.  (See my review of issue #22)  It suits the supernatural vibe of this storyline.  The roughness might be a turn off to some, especially after how clean the art was previously, but I was okay with it.  It was technically proficient, if not the prettiest.

The writing, overall, certainly isn’t bad.  But it failed to intrigue me enough to want to read any more.  There are a ton of X-Men books and I read a large chunk of them and review them for this site, but as in many similar cases, you get to the point where if it’s “just okay” you don’t want to waste your time on it, and that’s how I feel about this book.  It’s decent!  There’s nothing actually wrong with it, but it’s just middle of the road and there’s too much competition.

So I might be scratching this off my list and sticking to ‘Wolverine and the X-Men,’ ‘Uncanny X-Men’ and the quirkier ‘Astonishing X-Men,’ ‘X-Factor’ and ‘New Mutants.’  I think that’s more than enough mutants in my comics diet!

Verdict: Borrow

X-MEN #24
Written by Victor Gischler
Penciled by Al Barrionuevo
Cover by Will Conrad and Guru EFX