Dracula (Marvel Comics)
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| Dracula | |
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| Publication information | |
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| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Suspense #7/Tomb of Dracula #1 (Apr 1972) |
| Created by | Gerry Conway Gene Colan |
| In story information | |
| Alter ego | Vlad Tepes Dracula |
| Team affiliations | Lord of the Vampires, Legion of the Unliving, Defenders |
| Notable aliases | Count Dracula, Justin Drake, Dr. Vlad, Vlad III the Impaler, Dagon, Count Orlok, Drake, Alucard, Dondora, numerous others |
| Abilities | Superhuman strength, longevity, speed and resistance to injury Healing factor Weather control Shape-shifting Ability to defy gravity Mental powers |
Dracula is a fictional character, a comic book supervillain from the Marvel Comics universe. He is based on Dracula from the novel of the same name by Irish author Bram Stoker.
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[edit] Publication history
The Marvel version of Dracula was created by Gerry Conway and Gene Colan in 1972. He first appears in a Atlas Comics publication.[1]
In Marvel Comics, Dracula appeared in a Tomb of Dracula comic[2] which ended in 1979. Although Dracula (and all other vampires in the Marvel Universe) were eventually destroyed by the mystical "Montesi Formula" in the pages of Doctor Strange, the vampire lord was revived. Marvel published a four-issue Tomb of Dracula miniseries, reuniting Wolfman and Colan, under its Epic Comics imprint in 1991, and revived Dracula and his foes in the short-lived Nightstalkers and Blade series in the 1990s. Most recently, Dracula took the title role in the miniseries Dracula: Lord of the Undead.
X-Men: Apocalypse vs. Dracula featured Dracula battling the immortal foe, Apocalypse of the X-Men in Victorian London.
[edit] Fictional character biography
Born Vlad Dracula in 1430 in Schassburg, Transylvania (now Sighişoara, Romania), he was the second son of a Transylvanian nobleman. He was named prince of Transylvania and voivode (prince) of Wallachia and became ruler while still a child. Over the next several years, he struggled against the Ottoman Turks, losing and regaining his throne. Through an arranged marriage to a Hungarian noblewoman, he sired his daughter, Lilith. He sent his wife away and later married a woman named Maria, with whom he had a son named Vlad Tepelus. He had a son with his third wife Domini named Janus.
In 1459, Dracula was mortally wounded by the Turkish warlord Turac, who brought Dracula to a gypsy named Lianda to be healed. However, Lianda was a vampire, and in revenge for his prosecution of the gypsies, transformed Dracula into a vampire as well. Turac raped and killed Dracula's wife Maria, and in revenge Dracula slew Turac, causing him to become a vampire. Dracula gave his son Vlad Tepelus to gypsies to raise.
Dracula defeated the vampire Nimrod in battle, and thus succeeded him at ruler of Earth’s vampires. Soon afterwards, he enhanced his own blood with that of Varnae, giving him greater powers than any other vampire. In 1471, Dracula abdicated his prince hood.
In the 19th century, he faced opposition from Abraham van Helsing and Jonathan Harker in England, the exploits of which were recorded in the 1897 novel by Stoker, Dracula. When the humans destroyed Dracula, his remains were placed in his coffin, concealed within a cave blocked by an enormous boulder. In Frankenstein's Monster, the behemoth in the story was tricked into unsealing the cave and opening the coffin, thus, freeing Dracula.
In the 20th century, Dracula was returned to vampiric life by Clifton Graves. Dracula then first met and clashes with Frank Drake.[3] He soon first encountered an adult Rachel van Helsing.[4] Not long after that, he renewed his enmity with Quincy Harker.[5] He recounted his first clashes with Cagliostro and Solomon Kane.[6] He later battled the Werewolf.[7] He eventually had his first contemporary encounter with his daughter Lilith.[8] Not long after that, he clashed with the N'Garai demons.[9]
Dracula encountered numerous opponents in the 20th century, including Quincy Harker and Rachel van Helsing, the descendants of his enemies described by Stoker, vampire hunter Blade, his only known living descendant Frank Drake, vampiric detective Hannibal King, Mephisto, Doctor Sun, the X-Men, and others. Just before World War I, he was responsible for transforming Lord John Falsworth into Baron Blood. Doctor Strange destroyed Dracula and all of Earth’s vampires by casting the Montesi Formula[10], though Dracula eventually returned.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Dracula gained the powers of a vampire from his transformation into a vampire by the bite of the Vampiress Lianda, and gained additional power by Varnae. Dracula possesses far greater powers than most vampires. He is superhumanly strong (to the point of standing toe-to-toe, and defeating, the X-Man Colossus in single combat), celerity, flight or levitation (which is a usual attribution to most vampires with shapechanging abilities, see vampires in fiction), superhuman stamina, agility and reflexes. He is immune to aging, conventional disease, sickness and most forms of injury. He cannot be killed or permanently injured by most conventional means.
He ignores most assaults and can rapidly regenerate damaged tissue. Dracula can manipulate the minds of others, and also command the minds of animals such as rodents, bats and wolves alike. With limited exceptions, he may control other vampires. He has the ability to mentally control victims he has bitten, and can temporarily mesmerize any human with his gaze.
He is capable of transforming into a bat — normal or human size — or a wolf while retaining his intelligence, and into a fog or mist — partially or fully — and has the ability of weather control, such as summoning electrical storms. Like some vampires in other works of fiction, Dracula does not cast reflections. His powers have been greatly amplified and his weaknesses circumvented by magical sources, such as spells of the Darkholders.
Dracula has a dependence on the ingestion of fresh blood to sustain his existence, and an inability to endure direct sunlight and falls into a comatose state during daylight hours and must spend much time in contact with his native soil. He has vulnerabilities to garlic, silver (which can cause severe pain), the presence of religious symbols (wielded by one who believes in its spiritual meaning), and can be killed by beheading, a wooden stake through the heart, or blades made of silver. He can also be destroyed by the Darkhold spell known as the Montesi Formula.
Dracula is a skilled hand-to-hand combatant and swordsman, specializing in 15th century warfare and militaristic strategy. He has a gifted intellect, and studied under tutors in his youth in Transylvania.
[edit] Other media
[edit] Television
- Dracula appeared in the Spider-Woman episode "Dracula's Revenge."
- In 1980, an animated TV-movie was made based on Tomb of Dracula. Much of the main plot was condensed and many characters and subplots were truncated or omitted. It was animated in Japan and sparsely released on cable TV in North America by Harmony Gold under the title Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned.
- Dracula appeared in the Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends episode "The Transylvania Connection" (AKA "The Bride of Dracula") voiced by Stan Jones.
[edit] Film
Dracula appears as the main villain in Blade: Trinity portrayed by Dominic Purcell and under the name "Drake." Drake was resurrected by a cadre of vampire followers to help them in their plan to transform them into daywalkers. While Blade and Abigail are out hunting, Drake finds their base of operations, killing the entire staff, and capturing Hannibal, who was injured in their last encounter. In a desperate attempt to rescue him, both Blade and Abigail storm his skyscraper fortress, and confront him. After a prolonged battle, Blade draws Drake's blood and releases the Daystar, a bio-weapon that will wipe out all vampires. In a show of respect, he allowed Blade to escape upon his death, assuming his identity for several hours while dead.
Drake's origins are never stated although he claims to have been alive when Jesus was crucified. Given Drake's age and origin, he, more than any other Vampire that followed, can harness a much greater and more dynamic range of abilities. He possesses unnatural strength, much greater than that of Blade, and also incredible speed. Like those he sired he is capable of leaping great distances and seems to be knowledgeable of sword fighting techniques, even rivaling Blade himself. Drake's true power though is derived from his origin as the first of his species. Unlike the rest of the vampires, Drake can walk in sunlight like Blade. He also has the ability to shape-shift. Because his body structure and skin are not like that of a human or a vampire, but they are close to that of a snake, and his body structure consists of thousands of tiny bones, which allows him to take the shape of other people. The manipulation of energies which lead to his first resurrection left Drake with two forms; human, and a demonic alter ego.
In his demonic alter-ego form, Drake is much stronger, resilient to all forms of damage and much taller than his human self. He also possesses very keen senses, at one point allowing him to catch an arrow mid-flight. Drake can see in total darkness, whereas it appears pure bloods can see with minimal (below the perception of the human eye) light, and turned vampires cannot (requiring as much light as humans to see).[citation needed]
Drake's demonic alter ego has three-way jaws and a leech-like sucker similar to those seen possessed by the Reapers in Blade II.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Dracula
- Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Dracula
- http://marvel.com/universe/Dracula
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