Review: ‘X-Terminators’ #3 Don’t Want None

The biggest, loudest and craziest X-Men adventure to date just gets more nuts as X-Terminators #3 reveals a massive twist.

Leah Williams, Carlos Gomez, Bryan Valenza, and Travis Lanham start to unravel the tapestry that their vampires have woven. It’s as messy as the metaphor sounds.

Dazzler, Wolverine, Jubilee, and Boom Boom are doing their best to battle the traps of the vampires’ labyrinth. With the vampire hunters entering the maze looking for them, and beings from Otherworld entering the picture things are looking grim. It’s about to get even grimmer though, as the vampires’ accomplice is revealed!

After an action heavy-plot light issue last month, Williams goes action and plot heavy with this issue, and it’s the best of the series yet. It’s an action romp, full of twists and turns, as well as bonding between the leads. Williams doesn’t spend a lot of time on their relationships, but she does just enough to firmly establish that these four are friends off-panel, and putting them together in this situation is a bad thing for the bad guys. That’s mixed in with the crude, gleeful humor of the story, with butt jokes, boob jokes, and the most explosive moment of T&A ever in a Marvel comic. It’s not for kids, but it’s an absolute blast.

Gomez and Valenza put their best work on the series to date here. The fight scenes continue to be incredibly energetic, but this issue they feature the girls working through some stuff while killing vampires. Tabby’s striptease is goofy, paced well, and has a fantastic climax that’s both crude and sexy, but is also a fist pumping action beat. Gomez gives each of the girls their own personality and fighting style, and he matches Williams’ dialogue as their relationships are made evident on-panel.

Valenza’s colors are way brighter than most would expect out of a mutants versus vampires story, and that’s what makes them work. He adds a lot of “bang” behind Gomez’s energetic pencils (and yes, particularly with Boom Boom and Jubilee). Lanham does great things in keeping up with the art and script. He matches Williams’ energetic patter in a way on page that feels closer to spoken dialogue than captions and speech balloons.

This continues to be one of the most fun books on the stands right now. I truly wish there was more coming than this miniseries.

X-Terminators #3 is available now from Marvel Comics.