At Long Last — Lilith!

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THE TOMB OF DRACULA — Issue no. 67, August 1978

Book: The Tomb of Dracula

Issue No.: 67

Published: August 1, 1978

Title: “At Long Last — Lilith!”

Cover Price: 35¢

Format: Original paper copy

My introduction to Marvel’s Dracula of 1978 wasn’t promising. The setup — Dracula goes to hell and faces off with Satan — is incredible. But the actual story is boring — it’s mostly just Satan talking (and talking and talking). But the story ends with Satan taking away Dracula’s vampire powers and making him into a regular human.

The issues of Tomb of Dracula I’ve read since then have been a lot of fun. This one is no exception, though there is a lot going on here, including some apparent callbacks to past issues I haven’t read.

Dracula is in New York City looking for his daughter, Lilith. He needs a vampire to turn him back into a vampire (Dracula is not thrilled being a regular human Joe). And, since he’s a snob, Dracula won’t accept a turning from anyone other than his own flesh-and-blood.

Two problems: Lilith can possess other people, so it’s hard to know what she looks like; and Lilith really hates her dad, because he was apparently really terrible to her in centuries past.

Dracula evidently has some kind of Lilith-sense, so he manages to solve the first problem quickly. Lilith has possessed a happily married (and pregnant!) young woman named Angel (which has to be a purposefully ironic name choice from writer Marv Wolfman). Dracula just bursts into Angel and her husband’s apartment demanding to see Lilith. The husband is like “uh...” and then Lilith reveals herself and starts attacking Dracula. And we don’t really see the husband again. And we don’t see the unpossessed Angel. She seems like a good kid — I hope she’s OK.

Two panels from this issue. The first shows Lilith atop a building with Dracula on the street below. It’s raining. Narration reads, “The Greenwich Village streets roar with the padding of dogs scurrying into the distance, and then it comes alive with the harsh gutteral crack of lightning...” Dracula says, “You won’t succeed in destroying me, Lilith. Do you hear me!” Sound effect is “crrakk!” The second panel shows a close-up of Dracula in the rain. Narration reads, “But Lilith the temptress can only laugh in response. She holds the upper hand... And she will not relinquish the power she now covets.” Dracula says, “Bah! All my shouting is meaningless. There is no way for me — a mere mortal — to battle her. Damnation! If I had but a fraction of my former power — she would be little more than ashes...”

Lilith really goes hard at Dracula. Not only does she turn into a bat, she also uses her vampiric powers to attack him with rats and dogs. And since vampires can control the weather (which I did not know prior to reading this story) Lilith brings down a rainstorm on Dracula. Which is totally awesome, and now I want to see a weather battle between the X-Men’s Storm and Lilith.

A team of Dracula’s enemies (I think one of them is named Harker, a reference to a family name from Bram Stoker’s original Dracula novel) finds out that Dracula is under attack without his vampire super-powers. One of the enemies comments that they’re finally going to be able to defeat Dracula. I suspect they’re in for some disappointment.

The story ends with Dracula’s son, Janus, showing up. And I know nothing about Janus, so I guess I’ll find out what his deal is next issue.

Gene Colan and Tom Palmer provide the pencils and inks for this issue, and John Costanza handles the lettering. So on top of all the cool Lilith vampire action, the issue looks great.

Next time — The Thing, Captain Marvel, and my 1978 week 31 wrap-up!

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