Tomb of Dracula #6

January 1974
"The Moorlands Monster!"
Gardner Fox (writer), Gene Colan (pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), John Costanza (letters), Roy Thomas (editor)

Dracula and Lenore walk out of the mirror into an abandoned chapel near an English moor in the present day and waste no time in finding victims. Rachel, Taj, and Frank appear through the same mirror and find the inspector they worked with before, who has been looking for them. He tells them that a corpse drained of blood had been found in the moors as well as sightings of a shaggy monster. Rachel warns the local aristocrats, the Derings, who tell her that one of their servants went missing. The vampire hunters find and confront Dracula and Lenore at the chapel where Dracula casually sacrifices Lenore to save himself.

After Dracula escapes, Rachel and the others find the body of the Derings' servant. Lord Dering admits that several hereditary illnesses run in his family, which causes a male child in every few generations to develop a deformed body covered by hair, and the latest to inherit the disease was his son Randolph, who was secretly left to live in the chapel with the servant as the provider of his meals. Thanks to a hint from Lord Derling, the vampire hunters follow Dracula to a ruined castle nearby, where he manages to subdue Taj and trap Frank and Rachel in a dungeon, but not before he taunts Frank by suggesting that he might also turn into a vampire. Thinking they're facing a slow death, Rachel and Frank grow romantically closer while Frank worries he cannot start a relationship with Rachel due to the possibility he may become a vampire thanks to Dracula's legacy. In the end, they are rescued by Randolph Dering.

Wha...?

The narration describes Dracula and Lenore being watched by the Moorland Monster when they first enter the chapel, but six demonic eyes are drawn (in addition to a glimpse of the Moorland Monster's body.) I guess they were supposed to be bats...?

How Not to Write Dialogue

Poor Taj is referred to as a "mute servant" twice.

Comments

Marv Wolfman's rightfully celebrated run begins next issue and, frankly, it cannot start soon enough. This issue is just a showcase of squandered ideas. Lenore, who really wasn't much of a character to start with, is killed off without affecting the plot. The supposed centerpiece of the story, the "Moorland Monster", is a total wash, despite the build-up. All the narration's talk of him wanting revenge for the servant's death and all the hints that he is capable of putting up a vicious fight, and all you get is he rescues the heroes from a medieval pit? I know comic book covers are notoriously deceptive when it comes to the actual plots of issues, but would it have been so hard to have the Moorland Monster have a fight with Dracula or just be involved with the development of the story in any way before the very end?! What's even more inexplicable is how characters constantly assure each other that Dracula, not the Moorland Monster, is responsible for the deaths, even though no one posits him as a suspect. In other words, the characters are responding to a murder mystery that doesn't even exist.

To be fair, the idea that Frank would somehow "inherit" Dracula's condition is a neat if sorely undeveloped parallel to the origin of the Moorland Monster. Also the fact that Frank is a direct descendant of Dracula hasn't really been exploited since the very beginning of the series. Nonetheless the idea doesn't quite work, if only because Fox was apparently just planning to use it as a contrived source of angst for Frank and Rachel, so it's not a surprise that Marv Wolfman never really followed up on that particular plot idea.

As always, the art goes a long way to salvage the issue. The designs for the Moorland Monster are very well-done, although it would have been better if he actually had anything to do...

Footnotes

Page 12, Panel 3 - Lord Dering claims his son suffers from two genetic illnesses, rachitis and naevus pilosis. "Rachitis", much more commonly known as rickets, is a bone disease that can lead to deformities in adulthood, but instead of being genetic it's caused by calcium and vitamin D deficiencies in childhood. "Naevus pilosis" is a reference to another actual medical condition, although the correct phrase is actually "nevus pilosus", which is simply a mole from which body hair grows. Maybe Gardner Fox thought he was referring to hypertrichosis, a rare hereditary condition where the victim grows a large amount of body hair, or maybe it was an odd joke.

(Quick Note: I hate to do this again to my fine readers - all five of you - but I won't be updating until next weekend since I'm going on a vacation to visit friends until after New Year's. Given all the moving and work I've been doing the past month, I just feel like I didn't have a "proper" holiday around Thanksgiving or Christmas, so here it is. I'll be back with some more bondage-loving KGB assassins, Dracula, and something new!)

Batman #419, Ten Nights of the Beast Pt. 3

May 1988
Ten Nights of the Beast! Part III
Jim Starlin (writer), Jim Aparo (pencils), Mike DeCarlo (inks), Adrienne Roy (colors), John Costanza (letters), Danny O'Neil (editor)

KGBeast and Salari manage to blow up a private jet carrying Agent Bundy and another of KGBeast's planned victims, General Ridwell, using a rocket launcher. Gordon worries whether or not the next two on the hit list, Senator Dayle and Congressman Burns, will be safe under guard at a hotel, but later the Congressman is killed by an explosion in his room. Despite Batman's objections, Parker arranges to have the Senator and his men taken to the ground floor through the elevator. Unfortunately, the elevator is stopped by KGBeast, who begins hurling cement blocks down the shaft, killing an FBI agent and nearly killing the Senator. Batman pursues KGBeast out of the hotel and onto the rooftops, where he manages to restrain his hand with a rope but KGBeast cuts it off to free himself. Afterwards Agent Bundy shows up alive and well, revealing that the plane that had been destroyed was empty and controlled by remote while the General had been secreted away to DC. Batman supposes that, even without a hand, KGBeast will still come after the last target on his list, President Reagan, who will soon be making a speech in Gotham.

How Not To Write Dialogue

At one point Gordon becomes possessed by the Ghost of Plot Exposition: "CIA Agent Budy knew the risks, trying to sneak General Ridwell out of town that way...General Brian Ridwell, the military head of the Star Wars program." Now arguably that chunk of exposition, while clumsily inserted with a jackhammer, was a tad necessary for those jumping in the middle of the storyline, but there's really no excuse for this: "...looked like it might turn up who the traitor in our midst is...the turncoat supplying the Beast with inside info on the victims." Thanks, Jim, but you might want to throw in a couple of more synonyms for "traitor" just to be extra sure we're following along.

Comments

I'll just come out and say it: this story is boring. Yes, pretty much half of the issue is an action sequence, but it's still Batman, Gordon, and a bunch of people with no personalities beyond what could be picked up by rummaging through some old thriller/espionage movie cliches fretting over KGBeast's rampage or who the mole is; the plot still taps into the exciting and compelling topic of strategic missile defense initiatives; and in the end Batman is still chasing KGBeast through the rooftops.

To keep with the spirit of things, I think I'll even end up writing the same review. In fact, I will point out again that Starlin does at least try to make this feel like "more" than just a Batman yarn by throwing in a few hints of real world politics. This time, Robin vocally suspects Parker is the mole because he was involved with the Students for a Democratic Society, which, as Robin points out, is "the group the radical Weathermen sprang from." Batman rebukes Robin for his logic, pointing out rightly to Robin, who apparently is a Joe McCarthy apologist in his spare time, that just being a member of a leftist student group in the past doesn't make one a Communist spy now. This is the sort of thing that fuels fanboy debates over the political leanings of superheroes.

On a related note, Starlin's efforts to make this story arc into a serious geopolitical thriller really are undercut by KGBeast's depiction. I don't mean how he's written - from what few glimpses of a personality we have the cool, competent killer archetype standard for this type of story - but how he's drawn. Of course, the vast majority of supervillain costumes are neither aesthetically or practically sensible, but this is too much:

It does look less like a Mexican wrestler get-up and more like a vision of a gay S&M bar.

The only aspect that's at all engaging is the mystery of who the mole is, and even that is ruined for the careful reader. I'm not sure if this counts as a spoiler, but in this issue just watch out for any tertiary characters who suddenly start becoming the centerpiece for more than one scene. I suppose the action sequences are fairly good too, although there's really only so much enjoyment you can get out of seeing Batman chase a steroid-pumped bondage fetishist for the second time in a row.

Hi all,

We're going to have to take a hiatus (hey, at least I'm bothering to announce it this time!). I'm in the middle of helping family make a major move and moving myself, so my life is a bit of a nightmare right now. I probably won't have regular Internet access for some time yet, but next week, when overall everything should be settled, I'll update with the thrilling (well, no, not really) conclusion to "Batman: Ten Nights of the Beast" and start with Dennis O'Neil's famous run on "Green Lantern/Green Arrow."

-Chad