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.