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Welcome back to another edition of Marvel Snapshot and another great Character Spotlight. This week we’ll be talking about my favorite villain of all time- Vlad Tepes Dracula! This guy has been around forever and practically fought everybody in the Marvel Universe along the way. Let’s get to it!

Most people know about Dracula’s exploits as Lord of the Vampires, but not very much about his beginnings. He was quite a warrior and leader before ever becoming one of the undead; He was wounded in a battle at a certain point (around 1459), and taken to a gypsy who was supposed to heal him. She was actually a vampire herself and bit Vlad!
After being bitten, Dracula sought revenge for his wife’s death and got it by killing Turac. He went on to fight his way to the top of the vampire chain and even reclaimed Castle Dracula, which had been taken over by another night-stalker. He later fought against Grigori Russoff, the descendant of today’s Werewolf by Night. He also had a run in with Solomon Kane, Cogliostro, and Varnae. In the later 1800s, Dracula discovered a secret organization who worshipped a so called god and called themselves Clan Akkaba. Anyone who is a big X-fan knows who that refers to. Yes, the nigh-immortal Apocalypse is who I’m talking about, and Dracula started to attempt a hostile takeover of his loyalists. Up until this point, Dracula had never tasted mutant blood. During a confrontation with Apocalypse, Dracula managed to bite him and in-turn, make him his slave. Just as Dracula was about to deliver a super-sized chomp to Apocalypse, Abraham Van Helsing stepped in and thwarted Dracula’s plan. Apocalypse then staked Dracula, but didn’t finish the job completely. Two years later, an unknowing Frankenstein helped a gypsy woman revive the dead vampire to stalk the night once again.
Dracula’s next big action would be against his long time foe,  Quincy Harker. Harker fought the vampire Lord by himself initially, but later recruited Rachel Van Helsing, Taj Nital, Frank Drake, Hannibal King, and Blade, to try and stop the bloodthirsty beast. The group had many encounters with Dracula, and one of them proved to be fatal for Harkers daughter Edith, who was bitten by him. Quincy had to stake his own offspring but vowed that Dracula would pay dearly for this crime. A while later, Blade actually put a stake through Dracula’s heart but then his servants heard him calling and freed him from certain death. After that, Quincy Harker had a final confrontation with Dracula, and the two were seemingly destroyed in an explosion at Castle Dracula.
During these same times, Vlad also had run ins with Werewolf by Night, Dr. Strange, Anton Lupeski’s Church of Satan, and Dr Sun. He also had a new wife (his third) and fathered a child. Janus was Dracula’s son’s name and he seemed to actually mellow out a little, but when Lupeski tried to kill Dracula he killed the vampire’s son instead. Dracula went off the deep end and crushed Lupeski like a grape. Dracula went on a downward spiral after that and had a brawl with the Silver Surfer, and was also later stripped of his powers by Mephisto. Dracula and the X-Men also had a good scuffle where Dracula almost succeeded in making Storm his new bride.
The lord of all Vampires was keeping a low profile for a while; running into Blade a time or two. and also Thor, but he didn’t really resurface until he tried once again to conquer the world in the pages of Captain Britain & MI13. That was a great arc in my opinion (and also a great book overall), so if you’re a big Dracula fan, pick it up. In the coming month, we will have a re-issuing of Stoker’s Dracula from Marvel, a BOOM! Studios Dracula book, and back over at Marvel there’ll be an all-out, blood-squirting, mutants versus vampires free for all in the pages of X-Men.
If you want to read more about Dracula, then check out my recommended reading list bel0w. See ya!
Recommended Reading
Essential Tomb of Dracula vol.’s 1-4 Tpb (B&W)
X-Men: Apocalypse vs Dracula -Tpb
Tomb of Dracula vol. 4, 1-4
Captain Britain & MI13, issue #9-15

Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net