Random Happenstance

As usual, when I find a full mini-series in the cheap bins, I'm mandated by law to pick them all up; also as usual, here's a book I probably should save until October that we're going to check out now. From 2004, (The) Tomb of Dracula #1, written by Robert Rodi and Bruce Jones, pencils by Jamie Tolagson, inks by Tom Palmer and Jay Leisten. Cover by Bill Sienkiewicz!

This was, let's see, the second mini-series to reuse the name from Marvel's classic horror series: we flipped through a cursed image from the prior revival last year. The previous volume had Wolfman and Colan, but this one does have one link back to the original, with the return of inker Tom Palmer. Blade follows a striking--and suspicious--blonde to a club, shades of his first movie; but this one is almost all vampire wannabes. After killing maybe the one real vamp in the club, Blade still can't figure her out: she still had a reflection, but felt like death somehow. They have a little swordplay/foreplay at her place, where she cops to being a "halfbreed" like him, but they're interrupted by a video call from her boss, who turns out to be Noah Van Helsing.

Through dossier pages and narration, we're introduced to Noah's crew: yeah, don't get too attached. Their upcoming mission was a big one: the vampires were in a frenzy, since a once a millennium event was coming. The lord of the vampires was about to undergo a transformation, ridding himself of any humanity and ascending (descending?) to full demon status, cue apocalypse. But, said transformation had to happen on the vampire's home turf: a later issue notes, the wizard that had been forced to set that up had added that bit to block the then-current vampire lord Varnae, since his home Atlantis had sunk! Blade cuts in and joins them, even though he doesn't think they're up to it, that the vampires would be ready for a siege, and that the blonde, Divinity Drake, can't be trusted, as she was a descendent of none other than...Dracula! Who doesn't appear until the last page here, with rocker long hair and jeans? Urg, that's almost enough to make me reconsider the red-armor look for him.

We actually don't see a ton of Drac in this series, to be honest; since he spends most of it almost cocooned up and ordering his troops around. There is a bit more variety of vampires here too, tapping into other cultures' vampire mythos; as well as the "Mortuus Invictus," or the unwilling dead. I don't think this one quite stuck the landing, though: this maybe needed to be an ongoing, to give it enough room for the other vampire-slayers to be more fully fleshed-out. (The ticking-clock would have to be extended, then; this series takes place over maybe a few days.) That and there are not one but two twist reveals...one I liked, the other felt like a cheat.