Jul 1982
Night Screams!
by Chris Claremont, Bill Sienkiewicz, Bob Wiacek, Tom Orzechoski, Glynis Wein, Louise Jones
The X-Men (Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Kitty) stop by Misty Knight’s NYC apartment, hoping to find their friend, but she isn't home. They startle Harmony Young, Misty's roommate, but she quickly warms to them.
Ororo and Kitty borrow some clothes from Harmony and go out. Kitty winds up spending the weekend with her parents but Storm does not return. She is found by the police, barely alive, and taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital. It is there that Peter and Logan find her.
They take Ororo back to Misty and Harmony’s apartment. She seems okay at first but she has some weird dreams and seems bothered by sunlight. Dracula comes for her the next night. Kitty tries to fight him off. The vampire seems to have the upper hand but he burns his hand on the Star of David around Kitty’s neck. Dracula and Storm quickly depart for parts unknown.
Storm’s friends find Dracula in Central Park. Wolverine, Colossus, and Nightcrawler attack him but their combined might is not enough. Kitty finds Storm and is ready to drive a stake through her friend’s heart but at the last minute she loses her resolve. Storm is moved by Kitty’s heartfelt appeal to her human side and finds the strength to fight back against the control that Dracula exerts over her.
Storm pursues Dracula until he grabs a woman and threatens to tear out her throat. Storm offers to take the woman’s place. Dracula is moved by her nobility. He lets the woman go and flies off into the night.
Thoughts
There is no letters page in this issue.
There is also a brief interlude, which last a little less than two pages, in which Scott Summers (Cyclops) and his father (Corsair) visit with his brother (Alex aka Havok) and Havok’s girlfriend (Lorna Dane aka Polaris). Lorna appears in two panels. In the first one her hair is colored green, as it usually is, but in the second one it is auburn.
This is not the end of the story. The X-Men encounter Dracula once again in X-Men Annual 6 (1982) which was published about three and a half months after this issue.
This a fun and fast moving story. Some of it seems a bit silly and convenient. There is a lot packed into this issue. I first read it back in 1982 when I had a subscription to Uncanny X-Men. I didn’t remember that Dracula could call down lightning bolts as he does in this story. I wonder if that is a new thing dreamed up by Chris Claremont.
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