Tomb of Dracula
Tomb of Dracula was a horror comic book published by Marvel Comics in the 1970s. Tomb of Dracula featured a group of vampire hunters who fought Dracula and various other supernatural menaces. Occasionally, Dracula would work with these vampire hunters against a common threat or even battle other supernatural threats on his own, but more often than not, he was the antagonist rather than protagonist. In addition to his supernatural battles in the Tomb of Dracula series, Marvel's Dracula often served as a supervillain to various characters in the Marvel Universe, battling the likes of Spider-Man, Werewolf by Night and even the licenced character Solomon Kane.The original Tomb of Dracula series ran for 80 issues, and was replaced by a black-and-white magazine that lasted for only five issues. Another series, Dracula Lives!, lasted a year. Although Dracula (and all other vampires in the Marvel Universe) were apparently 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 under their Epic Comics imprint in the 1980s, 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.
Marvel published a black-and-white Tomb of Dracula collection, Essential Tomb of Dracula, in 2003; a second volume is scheduled for 2004.
Major characters in the Tomb of Dracula mythos:
- Dracula himself
- Dr. Quincy Harker, descendant of Jonathan and Mina Harker, and leader of the vampire hunters; he died in battle with Dracula
- Rachel van Helsing, descendant of Abraham van Helsing, and leader of the vampire hunters upon Harker's death; she was turned into a vampire by Dracula and subsequently killed by Wolverine of the X-Men
- Blade, son of a woman bitten by a vampire during pregnancy
- Frank Drake, descendant of Dracula
- Hannibal King, a vampire hunter and PI who is himself a vampire, frequent partner of Blade & Drake
- Taj Nital, a Hindu vampire hunter whose son was vampirized
- Lilith, the Daughter of Dracula, an immortal vampire who was cursed to never die until her father was permanently destroyed; when slain, she was reborn into the body of a woman who was full of hate
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