Hello everyone, and welcome back to Ye Olde School Cafe’! In this week’s installment, we’ll keep digging deeper into the Essential Tomb of Dracula vol. 1. In the next few issues, the book will introduce a new villain named Doctor Sun, and also the worst day in the life of Quincy Harker. A day that will haunt him forever, to be quite honest.
After their brief encounter with Dracula last issue, the team of hunters is hot on the trail of the Lord of Vampires. They witness him attacking a young woman, and intercede. Dracula is furious, and puts a beatdown on the crew. He is about to fly away, but decides to grab Harker’s daughter Edith, to antagonize his old foe. Quincy screams that Dracula will pay for this assault, and as he flies away, he tells Harker that he will be in touch with the whereabouts of his daughter tomorrow. The team is left wondering how they can get back the only thing good left in their mentor’s life. A quick scene change and we see Dracula taunting Edith and then hypnotizing her as well.
Moving elsewhere, an apartment building occupied by a woman named Safron, and her man, Blade! The two are ready to have an evening of “fun,” but suddenly the phone rings. Blade answers to the dismay of Safron, and hears a voice on the other end that stuns him momentarily. It’s Dracula himself on the phone, and he calls to taunt Blade by inviting him to his little party with Harker’s group. Blade accepts, then takes a verbal lashing from Safron about leaving her alone. Blade heads out the door, and is nearly hit with a flying knife that she throws at him out of anger.
We next see Quincy Harker and his group (Frank, Taj, Rachel) heading into the creepy looking house. Almost immediately, they are attacked by an army of bats that try to rip their eyeballs out. After subduing most of the bats, they hear a scream from Edith upstairs. Frank tells Rachel to stay with Quincy, and then he and Taj proceed upstairs. Once there, they hear Dracula laughing at them and decide to split up. Frank is about to enter a room, when he’s pushed from behind. He spins around to see Blade standing in the hallway behind him. The two talk momentarily, then Blade notices two tarantulas crawling on Franks back. Down the hall, Taj is blindsided by Dracula and knocked unconscious. Edith screams again, and Frank and Blade locate the room Dracula is hiding her in. Blade immediately starts to engage Dracula, but is tossed over a railing for his trouble. Frank nervously grabs an axe and swings wildly at Dracula, but to no avail. Blade then swings from a chandelier and kicks Dracula in the face, followed by a slash across the eyes with his patented knives. Dracula then smashes through a window and flies away into the night.
The team is glad to get rid of Dracula, but then are horrified when they hear Edith speak. She tells them that Dracula has turned her and then shows them her new teeth. They are in so much shock, that her hunger drives her to attack her own father. The team subdues her and Quincy tells them they have to kill her to set her soul free. Quincy himself takes his own daughter’s life with a stake to the heart with the rest of the team watching, horrified by this whole night. Frank looks out the window and sees a bat flying away and vows to kill Dracula no matter what the cost.
In the next issue, the team is still reeling from Edith’s death and Frank and Blade almost get into a fist fight. Quincy tells everyone that the body will be cremated and the team will go right back after Dracula, who coincidentally is swooping down on his next victim in a nearby location. At this point, we also observe two Asian men who are visiting the morgue in search of the body of Lucas Brand. The coroner tells them where the body is, then he gets shot in the face for his trouble. The two men mention how Dr. Sun will be pleased by this night’s outcome. Dracula has made his way downtown to blend in with humanity for a while at a boxing match, then leaves after seeing nothing that impresses him.
The team is back at Harker’s house, and they are formulating their next move. Blade then tells the team about his quest to find the vampire that killed his mother. Dracula then is flying over an area with tents set up for some kind of shin-dig. A policeman on the ground notices the bat, and it’s one of Quincy Harker’s agents that helps fight against the nightstalkers. The morning comes, and Harker receives a phone call from the policeman about the bat. Harker tells the team it’s time to saddle up and go hunting. They first question a man nearby the location of the sighting, but the man seems to be under a hypnotic spell. Harker knows it’s the work of his enemy, so the team heads to the nearest residence.
It’s now nightfall, and Dracula rises and sees his enemies closing in on him. The team bursts into the house and Blade instantly attacks Dracula. Blade gets tossed against a stone wall, and then Dracula grabs Rachel. Taj immediately jumps on him, and then Dracula throws him out a window! Outside, we see Dracula’s hypnotized allies coming toward the house. Dracula then faces Quincy and Rachel inside the home. Quincy tries to use his wheelchair’s defenses, but Dracula turns into mist to avoid the poison darts that once surprised and hurt him. Just as Dracula reappears, Blade pops up and stabs him right in the heart, point blank. Dracula screams aloud, but the deed is done.
Tune in next week for another foray into Dracula’s past. How will the Lord of Vampires get out of this one? Will we learn more of the enigmatic Dr. Sun? Come back next week to find out!
Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net
I’m noticing some patterns here….
@Kristin- lol, yeah, the first few issues feel more like one-shots, but in these last two issues, some ground work was laid for an underlying story that lasts quite a while. In the long run, more guests are brought in, and some really cool characters as well.