Dracula is one of the horror genre's most famous characters. Outside of the Universal monster movies and novels however, the lord of the Vampires has found his own place among the heroes and villains of the Marvel Universe.
He has been featured in Marvel comics since the 70s, although his history of course dates back even further. We're taking a look at ten of the things you may not have known about one of Marvel's top vampires in all of their stories.
10 ALTERNATE DRACULA
Before Marvel Comics, the brand that Dracula was featured in for some time was known as Atlas comics. While Atlas eventually morphed into the company you know and love today, this iteration of the character was not transferred over.
The original Dracula was different in personality, becoming much closer to the horror stories readers were used to and that reflected the overall genre at the time. When Dracula was introduced into the main Marvel line he was reinvented slightly to reflect the changing of story telling.
9 AFTER THE COMICS CODE
The comics code significantly weakened the chances of having Dracula in Marvel. For one thing, horror creatures like the vampire were actually banned from being printed. Therefore it would break the code to include him in stories.
However, a reinvention of the character happened in the early 70s just after the comics code had been releaxed. Dracula therefore quickly made his appearance as part of a Spider-Man story, which involved another famous Marvel blood sucker.
8 MORBIUS ARRIVAL
Morbius may be arriving into the Marvel Cinematic Universe soon with his Sony film, but we don't think Dracula will be appearing in this. However, Dracula was actually brought into the comics once more because of this living vampire.
During the Spider-Man story, Dracula is introduced in order to flesh out the lore surrounding vampires. Of course, Morbius and Dracula have since teamed up and fought against one another on a number of occasions, but it's interesting their history is so linked.
7 VAMPIRE WIPEOUT
There was a period of time in Marvel Comics where all vampires were actually completely wiped out. It was due to a spell by Doctor Strange but the story resulted in all the major vampires being written out of stories, with Dracula getting killed.
He was of course later revived as he can never be brought down completely, but it's shocking that Marvel ran a story that very well could have spelled the end for one of the world's most famous vampires; even if the Marvel iteration isn't as well known.
6 IMPRINT REVIVAL
We mentioned that he had a revival, but there's something more to this reboot apart from an updated costume and differing visuals and characteristics. The new Dracula had a title within Epic Comics, the imprint brand of Marvel.
The idea of using the imprint was to be able to move this character in different directions without damaging the brand or main line continuity. As stories have changed and comics have matured this version of the character has been brought back in.
5 MONSTER OUT OF TIME
Dracula is of course an ancient monster that has been around for some time. His presentation has therefore changed a bit, but he's always held on to his heritage. During his earlier days he had quite a distinctive look with his cloak and high collar.
The vampire was clearly from the dark ages and dressed the way in which you'd expect Dracula to. However, the character evolved to talk more like he was from the Victorian era, with his gear slowly upgrading to eventually become impenetrable armor.
4 LEGION OF THE UNLIVING
It seems surprising that Dracula would ever actually team up with anyone else. Apart from the odd alliance with other vampires it's rare that he does actually join any teams. There's been two shocking examples where he has however teamed up with some very unlikely companions.
The most surprising one is that the character very briefly joined the Defenders. What's less shocking and much more practical is that he joined a number of other mystical and dark creatures and anti-heroes as part of the Legion of the Unliving.
3 DARKHOLD
The Darkhold is an incredibly powerful book containing some significantly dark magic. It's the kind of mystical relic that even Doctor Strange would be scared to use and once triggered the might of the curse of the werewolf by night.
Dracula used the Darkhold to become more powerful than he has ever been before. The character ruled over his subjects using this weapon and gave himself abilities that he could only dream about before the dark monster used the magical book.
2 WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL
Even without the use of the Darkhold however Dracula holds a distinction compared to all the other blood suckers. He's actually the lord of the vampires, having been around for so long and becoming so famous and experienced.
He is more powerful than every other vampire on Earth and this is clear when he has bested other vampires in the past. This means that his abilities are enhanced more than normal, which is probably why Blade has been obsessed in the past with killing the beast.
1 MCU DEBUT
It's not that surprising to learn that Marvel Studios have further ambitions with the character. Like many other famous comic book villains and heroes, Disney want Dracula to be included potentially, in one of their upcoming series, on the streaming network Disney Plus.
With the TV show based on the character of Moon Knight, comic book fans will know that he has a long running rivalry with Dracula. While there's plenty of other characters that could therefore pop up throughout the course of the series, we think it's safe to say the vampire will make an appearance.