The world figures out that Clea is gone, so everyone and their brother wants to be the new disciple to the sorceror supreme. Except for Dr. Doom. The above crosses over with Fantastic Four #258, where we see this:
Isn’t that cool? It’s not “important” or anything, but it’s cool.
Another potential disciple is Jimaine Szardos, a mystic woman who will later be called Amanda Sefton–Nightcrawler’s girlfriend.
And there are still others…
But the real story in this arc is Dracula.
Hannibal King arrives at Strange’s house, advising that Drac looking for the Book of Darkhold, which has the power to destroy all vampires.
Dracula knows it is “near,” so Strange banishes the book to Baron Mordo’s house, to protect it.
Dracula pursues and invades New York looking for Strange in a story that also got touched on in issues of Thor and The Avengers.
Look at how beautiful that Dan Green cover is! It was one of the ones I hung on my wall, I liked it so much.
Drac’s “home invasion” offers the opportunity to have a bunch of cameos and guest stars, which always helped pump sales in the 1980s.
Scarlet Witch is a huge part of the battle against Drac and his possessed hordes.
ice to see her battling possessed people instead of being possessed herself, a trope that happens all-too-often.
Dracula also sends an army of rats to assault The Avengers Mansion. Lots of people storm the Avengers Mansion, but this is the only rat attack I know of.
Given her history with the book of Darkhold she’s leery of Strange’s idea of using it against Dracula.
There’s a cult of Drac-followers, which is an interesting idea, and the world’s leading vampire is a pretty good choice for Strange villain. I could do without there being a mystic “book” called The Darkhold that Strange and Drac are fighting over, but I guess it’s as good a device as any to move the plot along. The idea is that the book holds the secret to destroying all vampires on Earth–The Montesi Formula. So Strange is engaging in a sort of ethnic cleansing. And he’s successful.
The idea is that the book holds the secret to destroying all vampires on Earth–The Montesi Formula. So Strange is engaging in a sort of ethnic cleansing. And he’s successful.
Technically, Drac is a human who became a monster, so this is an example of a superhero killing someone. Hence, the tag below.
Except, of course, we all know that vampires and Dracula eventually come back.
Blade is one of the guest stars. Nice! Especially since after the vamps are gone, there’s really no point to his character.
Overall, a very cool story.
“Ethnic cleansing”-??? What are you, sir, an apologist for the Undead?? Vampires DON’T HAVE ANY LEGAL RIGHTS!!!! ( see any episode of “Kolchak: The Night Stalker” dealing with vampires………or werewolves……….or zombies……….or murderous primates………..or malevolent ghosts………..or mummies……….or nasty witches………) By 1983, the braintrust at Marvel Comics had determined ( incorrectly ) that the public’s fascination with vampires was over, and since the company had laid to rest their awesome, award-winning ‘Tomb of Dracula’ series just four years earlier, that it was time to purge Marvel-Earth ( 616 ) of the threat of the Undead, for once and for all. At the time, I personally thought it was a good idea, because vampires have always scared the piss out of me, and if the determination is that they can no longer sell comics in the futuristic, high-tech, Sci-Fi-oriented world of Early Eighties Marvel World, then why not clean them out of existence?? I have never been comfortable with the idea that vampires, werewolves, zombies, etc., co-existed in the same world as the Super-jocks, because it always seemed to me that if and when the Illuminati gets wise to their existence, the landscape of 616 will be forever changed, since the mission of the world’s superhuman population would therefore have to become “Ghostbusters”, constantly at war with the Supernatural. This would be awkward, so the events of ‘Dr. Strange’#’s 57-62 were much more convenient-and interesting- than this alternative. Unfortunately, it didn’t stick, lasting only as long as it took for Marvel to realize that vampires and werewolves, etc., still had some commercial gas left in them. I seem to remember the Undead making their re-entry into Marvel-World in some kind of an unfortunate adventure involving Captain Marvel ( the Monica Rambeau version ) and Dracula, but I can’t remember the exact hows/whys/wheres of it. Anyway, I remember these issues as hoping that they would, indeed, be the final chapter and epilogue of vampires in the Marvel-World of 616. What a fool was I! All that had to happen was for Anne Rice and the ( insipid ) “Twilight” franchise to make the scene, and Marvel is back on the bloodsucking bandwagon! At least the splash page of ‘Dr. Strange’#60 ( as seen above ) provided us with some highly-memorable superheroine cheesecake, ( thanks, Mr. Leialoha ) and almost makes up for the House of Ideas’ eventual decision to annihilate the power of this awesome tetralogy by reversing the Montesi Formula’s spell! And what, exactly, is wrong with the concept of the Darkhold-?? I think it’s a cool idea- it makes sense to me that a book of nasty spells like that would exist on Marvel-World! It’s existence definitely explains away a lot of questions concerning supernatural activity, and it’s existence gives the Forces of Good and Evil in the world something to constantly combat each other over, kinda like the Evil Eye of the Avengers/Defenders War, of a decade earlier. I like it. Come to think of it, as of this writing, I wonder where the Darkhold IS these days-??? I would have to disagree with this epic’s assertion that Avengers Mansion is the safest place on Earth to secure the Darkhold- Avengers Mansion may be the SECOND safest place on Earth for it to be, ( or maybe even the third, after Dr. Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum ) but it seems to me that the one place on Earth where the Darkhold would be the most safe from the Forces of Evil would be- The Vatican!! Wouldn’t it???