Tomb of Dracula #26-49, Giant-Size Dracula #2-5 and Dr. Strange #14
Writers: Marv Wolfman, Chris Claremont, David Kraft and Steve Englehart
Artists: Gene Colan, Don Heck and Nestor Redondo (p), Tom Palmer, Frank Mclaughin, Frank Springer and Dan Adkins (i)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
The Plot:
As Dracula, Lord of the Undead continues to prey upon humanity while battling the vampire hunters that continue to seek his destruction, we see his efforts to discover the source of a draining of his vampire powers leads him to America, where he clashes once again with the evil Doctor Sun. He also becomes involved in a battle to the death with Quincy Harker, clashes with Doctor Strange, and suffers through the loss of his lady love, but manages to find love again through his involvement with a satanic cult.
The Good:
The highest praise that I feel I can make about this book is that Dracula remains an engaging character throughout the entire volume, as unlike the vampire hunters Dracula remains true to the basic elements that form the basis of the character. In other words Dracula remains an outright villain throughout all the issues of this volume, and while he saves the world from the sinister Doctor Sun, and displays a more sympathetic side when he grieves over the death of Shiela, the book offers up repeated examples of Dracula the evil predator as he descends on a number of helpless victims. In fact the book deserves full marks for taking to time to provide a bit of backstory for most of Dracula's soon to be victims, as it makes them into more than simply another warm body that Dracula can feast upon. This volume also introduces a couple endearing characters to the cast, as the ditzy Aurora managed to win me over, and she makes for a fun contrast to the increasingly severe Rachel. Also while he's given a downright goofy name, Paul Butterworth's run-in with Dracula is one of the more engaging encounters of this volume, thanks largely to the character's ability to make increasingly narrow escapes. There's also a pretty entertaining clash with Doctor Sun, who makes for a pretty formidable opponent considering he's a disembodied brain in a glass box. The volume also offers up a great crossover with Dr. Strange, where both characters look to suffer grievous blows, and the highlight of this volume would have to be the battle to the death between Quincy Harker and Dracula.
Gene Colan and Tom Palmer are one of the main reasons why I'd recommend this volume, as while a number of the stories didn't grab my imagination the art remains wonderfully consistent with it's ability to capture the darker tone of the material. The art deserves full marks for the sheer effectiveness of this book's action as Dracula is presented as a decidedly sinister creature when he descends on a number of victims, and the art also does a wonderful job when it comes to its delivery of the other evils that haunt these pages, from the undead zombie army that threatens Frank Drake, to the featureless creature that takes to stealing body parts from its victims. There's also some very effective moments where the characters look to be backed into inescapable scenarios from the wonderful cliff-hanger where Dracula is trapped in a room filling with holy water, to the equally powerful scene where Blade plunges down a pit toward the spikes lining the bottom. Dracula's destruction at the hands of Doctor Sun was also a very effective visual, as was the scene where Blade is confronted by his evil double.
The Bad:
My biggest complaint about this volume is that the vampire hunters that dog Dracula's heels in this series become increasingly ineffective as the series progresses, as in the first volume they remained an ever present threat that provided the basis for many exciting clashes. However while this volume offers up one of the most entertaining clashes, as Quincy Harker's solo clash with Dracula is a wonderful back and forth affair, the resolution to the cliff-hanger is an outright betrayal of the Quincy Harker character, and this damage is only increased by a later story in which the character decides to resurrect the remains of Dracula in order to battle Doctor Sun. I mean it's hard to look upon these characters as credible threats to Dracula when they continual pass by the opportunities presented to them to rid the world of his evil presence, and there is something intrinsically wrong with the idea that they would join forces with Dracula to battle an even greater threat. If nothing else the writing should of done a more effective job of selling the idea of why the characters would be willing to continually comprise their efforts to destroy Dracula. I also have to say the nebbish Harold makes for continued annoyance, as he's a one joke character who quickly grows tiresome, and the story makes no effort to explain why the heck would the others continue to drag him along on their various missions. The story involving Dracula's involvement with a satanic cult is also a bit heavy on long-winded speeches, and not nearly enough action.
Final Comments:
The first Essential volume of this series left me quite excited over the discovery of a horror comic that had managed to overcome the hurdle of what happens after the monster is seemingly destroyed. It also did a pretty effective job of basing a series around a lead character who was clearly a villain, without pushing the character into the ill-fitting role of playing the hero of the stories. However, this volume makes it pretty clear that the concept was running out of steam, and that Marv Wolfman was having a difficult time not revisiting past concepts that had worked in previous issues. Now there are some very engaging issues in this collection from the clash to the death between Quincy Harker and Dracula, to the equally enjoyable crossover with Dr. Strange, but in this sizeable collection of 29 issues I'd say that roughly one half were simply repeat performances of stories that had been delivered in a far more engaging manner in the first volume. I also have to say I was a little disappointed by the way the writing abandons plot threads that I found to be utterly engaging, as Taj's plight with his son would've made for a great standalone issue, but instead it's never allowed to be anything more than an exciting cutaway sequence. Still, there's enough here that I'd recommend the volume to fans that enjoyed the first volume.
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