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Tomb of Dracula #40: Review

Jan 1976
Marv Wolfman, Gene Colan

Story Name:

Nightmare of a Living Deadman!

Review & Comments

Rating:
4.5 stars

Tomb of Dracula #40 Review by (June 22, 2021)

Review: It opens with an intense review of Dracula’s fate from last issue and ends with the recovery of his ashes. In between, the bulk of the heavy combat is Quincy Harker fighting his conscience over whether to revive Dracula as the world’s only hope of stopping Doctor Sun. And while this series is set in the larger Marvel 616 world, calling in the Avengers or the Fantastic Four would only break the mood carefully established by the creators from the beginning. So out heroes are on their own, facing a deadly decision. Rachel has her own history with Dracula and is dead set (no pun intended) against the idea, yet she will go along with Quincy’s decision. Quincy is the central character this time around and I don’t envy him. Meanwhile, Aurora is cutesy and Harold is there to pad out the page count with all of his kvetching while the team is trying to sneak into the villain’s lair. More stuff hits the fan in the next issue.

Comments: Part four of six parts. Final appearance of Juno, not surprisingly. It’s not clear why everyone is spending the night at Harold’s apartment since Aurora has her own place and the three vampire hunters have hotel rooms (issue #38); if they all wanted to be together it would have been easier to book two more rooms at the hotel. And on the cover, Dracula has been killed with a wooden stake, unlike the actual story, and Rachel looks like her face is dirty and she is regretting all of her life’s choices; Frank looks to be enjoying this way too much.






 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Tomb of Dracula #40 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

Dracula died last issue, impaled on a silver stake by Juno, Doctor’s Sun’s henchman, then burned into ash and placed in an urn…. Aurora Rabinowitz is having nightmares at the memory. She and the vampire hunters, Quincy Harker, Rachel van Helsing, and Frank Drake are staying in the apartment of Harold H. Harold. Rachel shoos the men out and confesses to Aurora that she too was hypnotized on her sixteenth birthday by Dracula and believed herself in love with him. Fortunately, Quincy arrived and drove him off. But Aurora insists she wasn’t hypnotized by the Count, her attraction to him is natural….

The following day, the group heads to the local army installation: Quincy has been supplied with a small platoon of soldiers to raid Doctor Sun’s headquarters, though General Coder is against the idea of mounting a war in the center of Boston. The soldiers roll out but when they get within range of Sun’s building, Sun sends out hypnotic waves, the power having been stolen from Dracula, and the soldiers are brought under Sun’s control. The vampire hunters are barely able to escape their new enemies before Harold speeds onto the scene and drives off with them….

Back at Harold’s apartment, the vampire hunters debate their next move, centering on the question of whether Dracula is the only person who can defeat Doctor Sun. Quincy, who has spent his long life battling the vampire lord, agonizes over the decision to revive him. Rachel, with a similar dark history, strongly opposes bringing him back. Quincy prays for wisdom and Frank volunteers to retrieve Dracula’s ashes from Sun’s HQ. Rachel chooses to go with him and Aurora shames Harold into joining the group. Soon they are approaching the building over the rooftops to evade the hypnotized soldiers. They are spotted by Doctor Sun entering the lab; Frank fights off the guards. Juno enters and Rachel kills him with a crossbow bolt while Harold seizes the urn of ashes and they flee….

Back at the apartment, Quincy has come to a decision. “Dracula must live again!” 



Gene Colan
Tom Palmer
Tom Palmer
Gene Colan (Cover Penciler)
Frank Giacoia (Cover Inker)
? (Cover Colorist)
Letterer: John Costanza.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

> Tomb of Dracula: Book info and issue index

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