703. Apocalypse vs Dracula #1

[This is reviewed on 17th Jan 2018. To those who are wondering on why the oddness in dates, basically it depends on when I am free to do a review. However, I am still trying to ensure we keep every two times a week a review. Hence a huge backlog. I read this comic yesterday. So hence the post]

Well, the movies may have tried to jumpstart the monsters carnival with the Mummy and Tom Cruise but just a few years ago, Marvel did a decent job on the Lord of Vampires when he was featured in various X-titles and having even one of their own, Jubilee becoming a Vampire

And in this book, we take time backwards to see how he came across Apocalypse who was also in one of the X-Men movies and in the comics, his origin is pretty much the same. A mutant who has lived for centuries ... whose powers seemed to be transforming his body into energy and mechanical parts(?!?!?!!) and stretching like Reed Richards (??!?!?!), Apocalypse at this juncture, it was revealed goes through periods of hibernation where he rejuvenates his body. During this time, a pale man who looks more like a statue would guard his body and this man is starting to get disappointed with his master

So in the intervening years, how does his people survive? Well, apparently, as we find out here, Apocalypse had something called Clan Akkaba where those who believe in him and his credo of survival of the fittest are given a small tattoo somewhere and then they are genetically enhanced to demonstrate some, not all, of Apocalypse's abilities. Naturally where such things happen, they tend to bicker and fight be it for position or otherwise

Our tale picks up when the local constabulary discovered more bodies with puncture wounds with blood drained dry. And while the police may not know what is going on, our Akkaba people for sure does as they encountered folks like Helsing who tell them that the lord of vampires is going after Akkaba simply because when he Dracula came to be, he was humiliated and cast aside like a piece of nothing by none other than Apocalypse. Now that he is a power unto his own with his own people, well, he is coming to hunt down the man who had "hurt" him

This issue naturally ends with chaos as the master is reawakened with some saying he should be brought up to date while others preferring to let him sleep and handle it themselves. But besides moles in the police force, are there those who harbor anything against the master and even themselves?

There is enough going on within to keep you coming back for issue 2 that's for sure and the artwork is of sufficient detail to make it an easy and entertaining read

Ratings: 6/10