COMIC DETAILS
|
Comic Description:
|
X-Men Annual 6 Signature
|
|
Grade:
|
9.8
|
|
Page Quality:
|
WHITE
|
|
Certification #:
|
4231851003
|
|
Owner:
|
Colossus Keck
|
SET DETAILS
Owner's Description
Chris Claremont (writer), Bill Sienkiewicz (penciller), Bob Wiacek (inker), Glynis Wein (colorist), Tom Orzechowski (letterer), Louise Jones, (editor), Jim Shooter (editor-in-chief)
Brief Description:
Rachel van Helsing is attacked by Dracula, a foe she believed dead, at her home and is transformed into his servant. Meanwhile Kitty Pryde is very upset because of her parent's decision to get a divorce. During the night she is possessed by an unknown evil. Storm has dreams revealing that Count Dracula still has a hold on her. She travels during the night to England to confront him alone. She is greeted by Rachel and Dracula and instructed to steal the Montesi Formula, a spell that could lead to his demise. She fails to as Kitty and Colossus under her control thwart her attempt. She is brought back and about to be made into another undead creature by Dracula when the other X-Men rescue her. During the heat of the battle Kitty intervenes and reveals that she is possessed by Lilith, the daughter of Dracula and his most vicious foe. She is bested by Dracula who nearly is victorious but is betrayed by Rachel and promptly destroyed by her. Afterwards Wolverine gives Rachel a proper death by staking her before sunrise. Lilith appears once again still in Kitty's body thanking the X-Men for ultimately completing her devious plan to kill her father. She leaves Kitty's body and Kitty finds she has no memory of what happened. The X-Men leave wondering if this is truly the end of this conflict.
Characters Involved:
Colossus, Cyclops, Kitty Pryde, Nightcrawler, Storm, Wolverine (all X-Men)
Rachel van Helsing
Dracula
Lilith
Phil and other various Bard College students.
Storm's second dream
David and N'Dare Munroe (Storm's parents)
Story Notes:
This issue presumably takes place between Uncanny X-Men #167 and #168. The team living at an intact mansion, plus Cylops being among the line-up leave no other choice.
Storm first encountered Dracula in Uncanny X-Men #159 where she nearly became a vampire.
Xavier is mentioned to be at Muir Island, probably Moira Mac Taggert examining him, as his mind was recently transfered into a cloned body. (Uncanny X-Men #167).
The novel Claremont refers in the beginning is Bram Stoker's Dracula which was published on May 26, 1897.
Interesting to note is while Marvel's Dracula is based on Stoker's creation, there is nothing in Stoker's novel that indicates vampires can be destroyed by sunlight. Count Dracula moved just as freely in the daytime, though with a reduction in his supernatural powers. The "sunlight" motif entered the legend as a result of the 1922 film Nosferatu and later films.
The character Rachel Helsing is suppsoed to be the grand-daughter of Abraham Van Helsing from Stoker's novel. His character is a professor who is highly knowledgeable in vampiric lore and is Count Dracul's arch nemesis. The "Tomb of Dracula" series starred several descendants of characters from Dracula: apart from Rachel herself, there was Quincy Harker, descendant of Jonathan and Mina Harker and Frank Drake, the somewhat hapless, human descendant of Dracula himself. Dracula died (once more) in the final issue of Tomb of Dracula (issue #70). While he was revived shortly afterwards 8Tomb of Dracula Magazine #1) Rachel and her freinds apparently weren't aware of that.
The love affair gone badly that Rachel refers to at the beginning is presumbalby her on-again-off-again- relationship with Frank Drake.
Dracula has died often and has always found a way to return. So, this doesn't prove to be his true death either. Rachel van Helsing on the other hand is still dead, much to the displeasure of "Tomb of Dracula" wrtier Marv Wolfman.
In the comics Lilith is Dracula's daughter from his hated first wife. Dracula (when he was still human) banished both his wife and his infant daughter. Lilith was finally left in the care of gypsies, where a gypsy sorceress changed her into a special kind of vampire whose only destiny was to vex and eventually destroy her father.
The Montesi Formulais an age-old formula, connected to the Darkhold, meant to destroy vampires. At one point Dr Strange used it to destroy all vampires.
|
|
|