Uncanny X-Men Annual #6

"Blood Feud"
Published: November 1982
Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciler: Bill Sienkiewicz
Inker: Bob Wiacek

What's Going On?
This is a follow-up to Uncanny X-Men #159, which first had Storm and Dracula cross paths (and also featured Claremont, Sienkiewicz, and Wiacek's work).  In that issue, Dracula tried to turn Storm into his vampire mistress, but her willpower (and some help from the X-Men) proved too strong.  This time around, Dracula imposes his will on Ororo once more; he basically blackmails her into helping him, with the threat of turning her into a vampire that will kill the X-Men keeping her in check.  What help does Dracula need?  He needs a particular book stolen, and Storm's background as a child thief apparently makes her his best option.  Because turning a professional thief that is NOT an X-Man would be too much trouble.  Meanwhile, Kitty is acting strange and seems to know an awful lot about the book Dracula wants.  Is this character development, or possession by a villain?  Possession.  It's not even written for suspense.  Figuring out who is possessing her, though, isn't nearly as easy.

Art!
I'm a pretty big fan of Bill Sienkiewicz, but this issue doesn't show the growth he showed in the early issues of Moon Knight.  It's not as abstract as his later work in New Mutants or Elektra: Assassin, but it is still pretty stylized for a mainstream Marvel comic of the time.  There are a few odd moments, though...

Not that I am complaining about the art in this issue, but the photocopied transition panels seem out of place in here.  For the record, though, I have so say that I'm surprised that A) Cyclops does not sleep with some sort of eye protection and B) Wolverine apparently sleeps with his head hanging over the side of the bed.

Writing!
This is a nice callback to a previous issue, with a quality art team in place to support Claremont's vision.  Uncanny X-Men has never been great at dealing with fantasy, but Claremont does a good job establishing Dracula as a credible threat to the team.  There are some odd plot moments, though:

So Wolverine strikes a wooden stake with his razor-sharp adamantium claws, and it just reflects into Nightcrawler's hands without splintering?  Okay, sure, why not?  It would have been far less believable if Nightcrawler nimbly grabbed a shard of the stake and drove it into Dracula's heart.

Worth Noting:
- Kitty Pryde gets the news in this issue that her parents are getting a divorce.  While this isn't the first, or even highest profile, divorce in Marvel Comics at this point, it is still fairly unusual.  Of course, they are peripheral characters, but Kitty is certainly the highest profile child of divorce in Marvel Comics at this time.

Paying Tribute to My Namesake:
This isn't even close to a fastball special but it is pretty damn funny seeing Wolverine getting backhanded like a little bitch.

Wolvie's surprise show an emotional hurt much deeper than the physical assault