Marvel Unlimited

Not Available

Cover Date

Blade has managed to slay Dracula by impaling him in the heart with one of his wooden daggers. However, before the vampire hunters can get rid of Dracula's body, the villages in Dracula's thrall break into the mortuary and overpower the heroes, taking away Dracula's corpse. They carry the body out, leaving Quincy and the others fearing that they may bring Dracula back to life.

Meanwhile, along the Irish Coastline, Mr. Lo arrives at a mansion with the dead body of the vampire Lucas Brand. Conducting an experiment for his master, Doctor Sun, Lo begins performing experiments upon the vampires inert body. Their initial tests confirm that Brand truly is a vampire.

Back with the heroes, as they collect themselves and begin going after Dracula's body, they find that Taj Nitall (tossed out of a window during their battle with Dracula) is alive and well and he rejoins their band. While not far away, Dracula's corpse, now placed within a casket by his mindless slaves, begins to crumble to bare bones. After this happens, the people snap out of his control and fearfully drop the coffin and flee the scene.

While not far away at the revival tent of the Chruch of the Forever Resurrected, Father Josiah Dawn begins to question his faith due to the diminishing attendance of his revival mission. Tossing his Bible away in anger, Josiah quickly repents and asks his Lord to show him a sign. Be it destiny, or design, Josiah spots Dracula's abandoned coffin nearby and finds Dracula's body within. Finding it as a sign of God, Josiah begins to advertises that during his next revival he will bring a man back from the dead.

The press does indeed fill the revival tent to capacity some time later. When news reaches Quincy Harker and the others, they are horrified to find that the man that Josiah intends to revive is none other than their old foe Dracula himself.

At the revival itself, Dawn manages to bring the crowd into a frenzy and works them up to demand he begin the "resurrection" that all believe is the power of God. Having learned of the rival as well, Blade has arrived to attempt to stop it, however he cannot break through the crowd fast enough to stop Josiah from pulling the wooden dagger from the skeletons chest. Blade tries to warn Josiah, who dismisses him as a base blasphemer as Dracula reincorporates into the flesh. When Dracula is completely revived, he boasts Josiah's foolishness and that Blade's warnings were well warranted.

When the people of the church realize what Dracula truly is, everyone in attendance draw crucifix's upon him and begin to rush him. With Blade and the other vampire hunters trying to fight through the crowd, Dracula manages to take advantage of the chaos to turn into his mist form and escape the religious symbols that are causing him pain. In a fury, Dracula summons down a lightening storm, frightening all the revival attendees. Still believing the power of God can help him stop Dracula, Josiah Dawn approaches Dracula with a large crucifix.

Although in pain, Dracula mocks Josiah and his faith, causing the reverend to falter just enough for Dracula to call down a bolt of lightening that strikes and destroys the crucifix. With Josiah dying from the lightning strike, Dracula mocks the priests attempts to try and kill him, and finding his own death in return. Boasting further that he couldn't possibly kill someone who is undead, while he is now dying, never to return. In his dying breath, Josiah still remains true to his faith, telling the vampire lord that his immortal soul will live on long after Dracula is destroyed.

His reflections then take him back to his first victim as a vampire: Turac, the man who invaded his kingdom, left Dracula in the hands of a gypsy who turned him into the vampire he is today, and murdered his beloved Maria. Dracula reflects with satisfaction over turning Turac into a vampire himself.

His thoughts of his wife makes him reflect on his love of her and his opinions toward how man and woman treat themselves. He recalls how one night not too long ago, he happened upon young Richard and Kitty, a couple that have been fighting. Driving down the road after another argument, Kitty tells Richard that she is having her lawyer write up divorce papers. Not willing to accept divorce as an option, Richard pulls out a gun and shoots her in cold blood on the side of the road, revealing that he never loved her and was only interested in her money. Her dying body found by Dracula, and he asks her if she wishes to get revenge. The girl confirms this and Dracula then feeds on her turning her into a vampire. She returns to the home that she shared with Richard to find him there with another woman, and as expected feeds upon him.

While reflecting on deceptions, Dracula recalls a time when he was deceived by an old man named Orphelus. He recalls how not long ago Orphelus called for Dracula to his home and told the vampire lord about how centuries ago he had found an ancient pool of blood that would restore one to their youth. Orphelus, now a withered old man asks Dracula to take him back to that pool to restore his youth one more time, and in exchange for allowing him to feed out of the pool, making it so that Dracula would not have to feast upon humans again.

Finding the idea intriguing, Dracula takes Orphelus to the pool, however Orpheus reveals his deception: That he did not come to the pool to regain his youth, as the pool in reality only granted immortality, and after 17 centuries of life he wished to end it all. Using a medallion of mystical properties, Orphelus kills himself in destroying the pool, leaving Dracula with nothing for his troubles.

Finished writing down his reflections, Dracula leaves his hiding place to take in the night and reflects back on the events that led to his skeletal remains being found by Frank Drake and Clifton Graves.

It was during the evening in which the first man landed on the Moon, Dracula had prepared a number of coffins to be shipped from Transylvania to London, as he intended to move back there for some time. Returning to his castle for some last minute provisions however, Dracula came upon the Scotsman, the man who would succeed in impaling Dracula with the faithful stake that Clifton Graves would pull from his chest in modern times.

During their struggle, the Scotsman impaled Dracula through the heart, however before Dracula could crumble into mere bones, he succeeded in tossing the Scotsman down into a pit, the fall killing his attacker. Dracula then stumbles into his coffin where his flesh would dissolve off the bones.

While within Highgate Cemetery, Dracula rises once more for the evening to look for fresh victims to feed upon. Happening upon two grave robbers, Dracula is about to attack them when the coffin they are opening gives them a rude surprise: The skeletal remains within pops out and kills them before dissolving into ash before Dracula can get revenge on the undead creature for killing his intended meal. Knowing that the dead bodies would bring the Yard, Dracula uses his mental control over the custodian of the cemetery to come and bury the bodies before going out and searching for a new victim. He finds it in young Marie Komph who is out walking alone late at night.

While back at Scotland Yard, Inspector Chelm, suspecting that the murders he's investigating are the work of Dracula calls Quincy Harker for advice. Harker advises Chelm that the double murder doesn't fit Dracula's modus operandi but offers to aid if Chelm needs any additional help. After Chelm gets off the phone, he gets a report of trouble on Coventry Street.

There, the undead creature is attempting to attack a woman wearing a necklace, finding opposition from the pub crawlers that are about the place. Killing all those who get in it's way, the dead creature is stopped from reaching his goal when Dracula spots it and attacks the creature for it's previous interference in the vampire kings nightly feeding. The creature manages to toss Dracula aside and retrieve the necklace before disappearing in the night. Dracula revives just as the Scotland Yard are arriving and is forced to flee the scene in his bat form when the Yard begins shooting at him.

Meanwhile, in Ireland, Mr. Chen reports to Dr. Sun and shows him a newly revived Lucas Brand, proving to Sun the existence of vampires. With Brand under their full control, Dr. Sun offers to gives Mr. Lo anything he desires. Lo asks that Dr. Sun arrange that Lo's father, a prisoner of the Chinese government for years, is freed from captivity. Dr. Sun grants the request, sending his own forces to break Lo's father out of his prison.

While back in London, Dracula returns to Highgate Cemetery, rationalizing that the corpse could only have returned there. He unearths the grave that that the coffin was in, and the creature is once more within the coffin. It attacks him briefly before once more crumbling into dust. Dracula takes note that the tomb stone is in the name of a man named Paul Beare, a man that Dracula knows as a mystic and Satanist who once asked Dracula to help him on a quest, one which Dracula declined to partake in.

Meanwhile, Inspector Chelm has been investigating the series of murders, and realized that there is a connection between the three murdered people, Paul Beare and a man named Duncan Corley, whom Chelm deduces is their mysterious skeleton. As Chelm heads out with his men, Dracula arrives at the home of Paul Beare, and finds his decaying corpse within the home with a note reading "Do not bury him again" pinned to the shirt. Knowing that burying Paul's body would bring the creature out once more, Dracula removes it from the property and takes it back to Highgate Cemetery.

There, Inspector Chelm happens upon the creature, and tries to run it down but it gets back up again. Chelm attempts to kill it with silver bullets he had prepared to fight Dracula with, but the creature would knock the gun out of his hand. Dracula would then arrive with the body of Paul Baere, and resume his fight with the undead being. Dracula manages to beat the creature into submission and prepares to bury the remains of Paul Baere.

• Fantasy
• Sci-fi
• Marvel