Death of Dracula #1

Vampires are getting to be a pain in the neck. Everyone is getting vampire fever these days and now, we see there are way more vampires in the Marvel universe than we might have realized.
 

The Good

Like most of you, I'm getting sick of vampires as well. I have to admit I'm not overly familiar with the full history of Dracula and vampires in the Marvel universe but we do see some interesting things here. I wasn't aware that Dracula had kids. Things start out with a "once-a-century gathering" of the world's vampires. This means there are a heck of a lot of vampires in the Marvel universe. We get to see the different sects and it comes across as believable. Why haven't we seen more vampires in Marvel comics? Because of their weakness, mainly the daylight. They've simply been doing their thing, not drawing attention to themselves. 
 
Like the title suggests, this is focusing on the Death of Dracula. Can Dracula actually be killed? If he's killed, can he return from the dead (or the undead)? The biggest shocker might be in who attempts (and possibly succeeds?) in killing Dracula. If vampires are going to start making bigger waves in the Marvel universe, it looks like the heroes are going to have their hands full.
 

The Bad

This just didn't feel like a Marvel comic to me. Being that this was written by Victor Gischler and the fact that vampires will be making a splash in Gischler's upcoming X-Men comic, I kept waiting to see actual Marvel characters (although there is mention of Atlantis). Yes this is a set up for what's to come but I felt like I could've been reading a Dracula/vampire comic published by any random publisher.
 

The Verdict

We have an interesting take on vampires here. I dug the different sects and didn't really think about the different types of vampires that might exist in the Marvel Universe. You get a hint of how the events here could lead to a bigger repercussions in other Marvel comics. I'm not sure if anything here was really crucial enough to warrant a $3.99 one shot comic. Yeah, there is a "death" and the players are set up but it just wasn't enough to knock me off my feet. It could be worth picking up, depending on how much we'll see of these vampires and Dracula's sons in other titles.