Dracula!
Nighthawk has truly become a Night-Hawk, getting the power to walk but only at night. Look how he goes through all the phases of grief in just three panels. So, now he really is a Nighthawk.
Then Dracula busts in and attacks.
The Defenders end up talking out their problems with the Count and telling him he was possessed by the Six Fingered Hand, and that’s why he attacked them.
Otherwise, hey, we can all be friends here. The team and Drac then join together and fight some of the Six Fingered’s bad stuff.
That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I don’t like the sanitizing of Dracula, even when they try to explain it as Son of Satan trying to see if something spawned by the Devil can be redeemed.
This story didn’t work for me.
My big problem with this story runs along similar lines. It seems to me that the very instant that Count Dracula and his kith and kin ( as Roy Thomas likes to endlessly say ) makes their presence known to Earth’s superhuman population, they are living ( un-living?? ) on borrowed time. It seems to me, also, that as soon as Dr. Strange discovers our world is suffering from a vampire epidemic, that he would work tirelessly to purge it. On page two of the seminal ‘The Tomb of Dracula’#44, ( “The Tomb of Dr. Strange”, chapter one ) Dr. Strange is seen musing on the existence of the Undead in our world. This is, well, strange, because the good Doctor indicates that he has been aware of the problem, for at least some time. Why, then, does he wait for a loved one to be attacked by one ( Count Dracula, no less ) before he tries to address the problem?? Dr. Strange is supposed to be the world’s first line of defense against supernatural menace. Suppose it had been CLEA who was attacked??? Could have been! Vampires, and Dracula in particular, have a distinct taste for beautiful women! That makes Clea a prime target! Dr. Strange’s attitude towards the presence of Dracula in his living room in this issue is also strange, because as far as Dr. Strange is supposed to know, he destroyed Dracula at the conclusion of ‘Dr. Strange’#14! ( “The Tomb of Dr. Strange”, chapter two ) So, why is Dr. Strange totally unfazed by the appearance of the vampire he supposedly destroyed, some time earlier?? The conclusion of this rather odd story is unsatisfying, as well, as Doctor Strange and his Defenders are all now fully aware of the presence of Dracula and vampires in our world, but, apparently, nobody seems concerned over it AT ALL. Weird. Dr. Strange#’s 60-62 gives us what was supposed to be the resolution of the situation once and for all, ( since by 1983, Marvel had apparently concluded due to some form of market research that vampires were no longer commercially viable ) with a very satisfying conclusion to the vampire problem on Marvel-Earth, which remained the status quo on the matter until vampires returned to pop-culture vogue with movies like “Near Dark”, “Fright Night”, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, and the puerile “Twilight” franchise, at which point in time, the undead were slowly but surely reinsinuated into the Marvel Universe via some time-travel hokum involving Dracula putting the bite on a time-displaced Monica Rambeau, who returns to the present day, and reintroduces the vampire virus to the world all over again. Oh well. One aspect of this tale I did appreciate was Daimon Hellstrom and his attitude towards Dracula. Reading this story, you do get the impression that Hellstrom IS aware of the threat to the world prevented by Dracula and his ilk, but, I guess he figures, considering his fellow Defender’s laissez-faire attitude about the whole matter, well, what can one lone exorcist do??? Hellcat’s initial attitude about the Count is correct: “Kyle- are we supposed to believe that this guy is actually Count Dracula-??!” Exactly. I figure Brunnhilde, being a valkyrie of several thousands years’ vintage, has probably dispatched a few vampires in her time, as we know her old flame Thor has, as well, which explains her unrufflled attitude towards the Count’s presence. What ISN’T explained is why she, Doc, and Hellstrom all didn’t insist on the vampire’s destruction at the conclusion of the story, Hellstrom’s deal with Dracula be damned. Count Dracula exists for only ONE PURPOSE: The total subjugation of the Human Race: Vampire Apocalypse!! Screw THAT!!! I’d say that would warrant welching out on a bad deal. Daimon Hellstrom, like the Silver Surfer at the conclusion of ‘The Tomb of Dracula’#50, is now going to have the blood of EVERY SINGLE PERSON Dracula murders from that point forward on his hands!! Talk about your ambiguous superheroes! Well, those are my thoughts on ‘Defenders’#95. Grade: B. Down with vampires! Peace out!