Marvel’s Dracula
The long, strange history of the infamous vampire in Marvel Comics
One of my favorite things in life is watching the bewildered faces of people when they first find out that Dracula is a Marvel Comics character. Yes, that Dracula. The ancient vampire that lives in a castle in Transylvania exists in the main Marvel Universe right along with Spider-Man, Captain America, Iron Man, and the X-Men. In fact, he is currently playing a major role in the companywide “Blood Hunt” event being orchestrated by Jed MacKay (who is also writing the primary Blood Hunt comic that is being illustrated by Pepe Larraz). In fact, Dracula even stars in his own tie-in limited series by Danny Lore, Vincenzo Carratu, and David Curiel called Dracula: Blood Hunt.
How is this possible? The novel Dracula was never registered for a copyright in the United States by Bram Stoker, so it immediately entered the public domain there. It fully entered the public domain globally when it entered the United Kingdom’s public domain fifty years after Stoker’s death in 1962. That means any elements from the story along with all of the characters are free to use in any artistic endeavor that anyone might have. If you want to put Dracula into your own original story, you are legally able to do so. That’s why the vampire has appeared in so many films, television series, novels, comic books, and podcasts over the years.
Dracula’s path into Marvel Comics was a little bit more complicated than just dropping him in willy-nilly. That is because of a little thing called the Comics Code of Authority that was introduced in 1954. The Comics Code of Authority was created in response to a moral panic spurred on by the publication of a book by psychiatrist Fredric Wertham called Seduction of the Innocent (1954) that accused comic books of corrupting the youth of America with lurid stories of sex and violence along with subliminal messages that were turning kids gay. Needless to say, this dude sucked. The moral panic he drummed up led to some Senate hearings which ultimately led to the creation of the Comics Code of Authority by the Comics Magazine Association of America in order to avoid government censorship. While the code tackled many different issues, it put an added emphasis on banning many traditional elements of horror in particular. This portion outlining some banned elements is especially notable for our purposes:
Scenes dealing with, or instruments associated with walking dead, torture, vampires and vampirism, ghouls, cannibalism, and werewolfism are prohibited.
Kinda hard to put Dracula in your comics when you aren’t allowed to include any mention of vampires. That portion of the code would face a serious challenge with the publication of DC’s House of Secrets #83. The introduction to one of the stories contained within the comic stated that the narrator was told the story by “a wandering wolfman.” The Code explicitly forbade any mention of werewolfism, so this was not permitted. The problem is that this was a bit of an in-joke. The writer of the story was Marv Wolfman. When editor Gerry Conway explained this, it was determined it was fine to use “Wolfman” as long as it was part of the credits. It’s a small thing, but it helped illustrate the inherent silliness of banning these types of words and phrases. In 1971, the previous version of the Code banning vampires was updated to the following:
Scenes dealing with, or instruments associated with walking dead, or torture, shall not be used. Vampires, ghouls and werewolves shall be permitted to be used when handled in the classic tradition such as Frankenstein, Dracula, and other high calibre literary works written by Edgar Allen Poe, Saki, Conan Doyle and other respected authors whose works are read in schools around the world.
Boom. Vampires are back on the table, baby! Marvel wasted no time in taking advantage of this change to the Code when they published the first issue of The Tomb of Dracula in 1972.
The debut issue of the new series was written by Gerry Conway and illustrated by Gene Colan with Neal Adams responsible for the iconic cover. It basically tells the story of Dracula (long dead from being staked through the heart in his Transylvanian castle) being inadvertently resurrected by some stupid Americans in present day (well…1972). It’s a great bit of classic gothic horror. Conway nails the tone, and Colan’s art is fantastic. I especially like his design for Dracula. It’s the classic look popularized by Lugosi with the black suit and cape, but he’s more gaunt like the Lee portrayal in the Hammer films. He also gives Dracula some facial hair that calls to mind both the novel and the John Carradine portrayal from the 1940s Universal films. Colan would go on to illustrate all seventy issues of the series that ran from 1972 to 1979. Conway would leave the writing duties behind after only two issues, and an assortment of different writers would hop on the series until Marv Wolfman (remember him?) would jump on with the seventh issue and stay on for the duration of the series.
I’m not going to go in depth into the series here (will be doing that elsewhere), but it’s a really good Bronze Age book. Wolfman and Colan would introduce new characters such as Blade the Vampire Hunter, Deacon Frost, and Hannibal King (all of whom have appeared on the big screen at this point). The Tomb of Dracula was the first of many horror-themed books that Marvel would put out in the 1970s like Werewolf by Night, The Monster of Frankenstein, Ghost Rider, Son of Satan, Supernatural Thrillers, Creatures on the Loose, and many more. If you’re interested in learning more about these other characters, please give a listen to my friends over at the Bronze Age Monsters podcast. They rule.
It would be easy to assume that Dracula would fade into obscurity in the Marvel Universe when his series ended in 1979, but you should know better than to assume Dracula would ever stay down. He turns up in Uncanny X-Men #159 and Uncanny X-Men Annual #6 (1982) by Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz of all places. He turns Storm into a vampire who then stalks the other members of the X-Men throughout the mansion. Don’t worry. She’s cured by the end of the issue. Dracula also pops up in issues of Thor and Doctor Strange in the 1980s. At this point he is no longer lurking in a corner of the Marvel Universe away from the more prominent superheroes. He’s thrust right into the middle of it.
The 1990s would see a revitalization of a lot of Marvel’s supernatural characters that debuted in the 1970s like Ghost Rider, Blade, Hannibal King, and Morbius. Dracula would make the occasional appearance in comics like Marvel Comics Presents, Nightstalkers, and Doctor Strange at this time, but he was mostly a fringe character.
The 2000s would see Dracula feature much more prominently in mainstream Marvel Comics. A brand new The Tomb of Dracula limited series by Robert Rodi, Bruce Jones, and Jamie Tolagson would debut in 2004 that focused on a team of vampire hunters led by Blade trying to stop Dracula from completing a ceremony to increase his powers. 2006 would prove to be a big year for Dracula when he appeared in X-Men: Apocalypse vs. Dracula by Frank Tieri and Clay Henry wherein Dracula fights Apocalypse. Probably could have guessed that by the title. A new Blade series by Marc Guggenheim and Howard Chaykin would debut that same year. Unsurprisingly, Dracula would make frequent appearances. He would also play a major role in the pages of Captain Britain and MI: 13 #10-15 (2009) by Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk where he is attempting to build a vampire society on the Moon.
The most important development in Dracula’s history in the Marvel Universe since his debut in The Tomb of Dracula all those years ago comes in the pages of a comic published in 2010 called The Death of Dracula by Victor Gischler and Giuseppe Camuncoli. It’s a one-shot where a character revealed to be Dracula’s son kills Dracula. We all know Dracula won’t stay dead for long, so why is this issue so important? In short, it’s because Gischler and Camuncoli give Dracula a makeover.
Since his debut in 1972, Dracula has basically looked the same. He has black hair, oftentimes some black facial hair, a Caucasian complexion, a black suit, and a black cape with some red trim. It’s the classic look that has permeated pop culture ever since Lugosi donned the cape back in 1931. That all changed with The Death of Dracula. Suddenly, Dracula has chalky white skin, long white/blonde hair, large pointy ears, red eyes, and a suit of red battle armor reminiscent of a medieval warrior. This is a significant change. It immediately brings to mind the character of Kain in the Legacy of Kain video game series.
It could have been a one time deal. Like I mentioned earlier, Dracula is killed in this issue. It would have been easy to just bring him back with his traditional look the next time he shows up. His next (full) appearance is in the pages of X-Men #3 (2010) by Victor Gischler and Paco Medina where he once again appears with the same look from The Death of Dracula. That essentially codified the look for the foreseeable future. He has that same look in Fear Itself: Hulk vs. Dracula #1-3 (2011) by Victor Gischler and Ryan Stegman. Noticing a trend here? Gischler clearly has an affinity for Dracula!
As surprising as it may seem, Dracula has become a mainstay in Marvel Comics in recent years. He was involved in a massive vampire civil war in the pages of Avengers #14-17 (2019) by Jason Aaron and David Marquez that culminated in Dracula founding a vampire nation-state called Vampyrsk located in the Chernobyl region of Ukraine. Dracula and his vampire nation next popped up in the pages of Wolverine (2020) by Ben Percy and Viktor Bogdanovic in a multi-issue arc that sees Dracula attempting to utilize the healing factor in Wolverine’s blood to make vampires unstoppable. Dracula even pops up in X-Terminators (2022) from Leah Williams and Carlos Gomez in a story that…actually, you should just read it. My words can’t do it justice.
That brings us to Dracula: Blood Hunt that debuted last week from Danny Lore and Vincenzo Carratu. This comic is too new to be getting into spoilers, but it certainly earned my stamp of approval. It stars both Dracula and Bloodline (Blade’s daughter) during the vampire uprising that started in Blood Hunt #1 by Jed MacKay and Pepe Larraz. If you’ve ever wanted to see Dracula unleashing the full force of his powers in ferocious combat, then this is the comic for you.