Thor vs. Dracula

[trueredorion.insanejournal.com]

Just under the wire for Halloween (my time), here's Thor vs. Dracula. 6 pages from Thor #332 and 7 from Thor #333.

During the early 80's Dracula seemed to just randomly pop up and fight every hero he could. He fought the Silver Surfer, Howard the Duck, the Defenders, the X-Men (twice) and others during this time period. Thor jumped on the bandwagon since the book was going through a down period between the end of Roy Thomas' run and the beginning of Simonson's.

Thor slays some of Dracula's victims who have arisen as vampires:








While this is going on Dracula has become obsessed with Sif and while Thor is doing this he feeds on her while she's asleep at the end of the issue. The next issue reveals Sif is now under Dracula's control and has developed amnesia. Her blood has also super-charged Dracula's powers. Thor discovers this when he goes to visit Dr. Strange and goes to confront them at the Opera.

The fight:



Dracula flees through a hole in the roof and Thor follows.




Seriously who the hell tries to attack somebody who can fight evenly with the Hulk with rats?




Sif is back to normal and Dracula is killed by Dr. Strange along with every other vampire in his next appearance.

Comments

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

If you're looking at it from a strictly Christian perspective, yes - but first off, I'm not a Christian, so I don't look at it from a strictly Christian perspective, and second, this is set in the Marvel Universe, where numerous different pantheons of gods are shown to have an active part in Earthly affairs - you CAN'T look at it from a strictly Christian perspective in that context; it doesn't make sense, since the MU is obviously not a strictly Christian universe.
Anyway, vampires, in one form or another, appear all over the world, including in folkloric traditions that don't include Christianity at all, so putting them in a strictly Christian context makes little sense. Eastern Europe has given rise to the best-known variation of vampire, but it's far from the only one - and even that variety includes numerous details that hark back to pre-Christian traditions (garlic, the wooden stake, and running water are all clearly pre-Christian).

[petalsinthewind.insanejournal.com]

Yes.

And in settings with where "vampires are often shown showing vulnerability only to Christian symbols," it is not "the power of belief that invests a symbol with power," but the power of God.

Also, the folklore surrounding the manananggal, the ramanga, jiang shi, etc. obviously don't apply here: It's Dracula.

I am just saying that "faith" being what repels vampires is just a multicultural interpretation of the more traditional folklore.  It is traditionally God, which means only crosses/crucifixes warding vampires makes sense in those stories.  There isn't a more true interpretation to "acknowledge".

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

Well, let's put it this way - it has been shown, elsewhere in Marvel continuity, that other religious symbols WILL repel a vampire, if believed in. It's nice to see they're acknowledging that, if nothing else. (Besides, I personally think that if vampures DO exist, and follow the traditional rules, then the 'faith not God' rule likely applies - but that's just me.)