Follow

    Frank Drake

    Character » Frank Drake appears in 166 issues.

    Drake is an experienced supernatural detective and a vampire hunter. One of his experiences was when he was dwelling in Transylvania, and faced Dracula and escape with out death.

    Short summary describing this character.

    No recent wiki edits to this page.

    Origin

    Frank Drake was once a millionaire playboy until he wasted his inherited fortune. All he had left was his charm and a castle that had been in the service of his family for many generations. Before deciding to sell the place, he, his friend Clifton Graves, and fiance Jeanie went to Transylvania to investigate the ancient castle which was the resting place of Count Dracula. During his search, him and another stumbled upon the remains of the lord of vampires and accidentally revived him. Dracula instantly attacked Frank and his friends throughout the castle, Frank escaped with his life due to Dracula finding that Frank was Dracula's descendant.

    Character Creation

    Frank Drake was created by Gerry Conway and Gene Colan and first appeared in Tomb of Dracula Vol. 1 issue 1 (1972).

    Mayor Story Arcs

    Legacy of Vampires

    Drake fled to London where he became broke and in a state of despair, he attempted to commit suicide but was stopped by a woman named Rachel Van Helsing and her companion Taj Nital. Frank was told they were vampires hunters and through the hunters, he met a young descendant of Jonathan Harker named Quincy. Frank soon realized the stories from Bram Stroker were accurate tales of reality and that Rachel was the great granddaughter of Abraham van Helsing.

    Joining the Dracula Hunters

    Explaining his heritage
    Explaining his heritage

    Drake was told that after Dracula's defeat within the stories, he returned and had his vengeance upon Jonathan Harker and Abraham Van Helsing. This team of vampire hunters dedicated their lives to hunting down Dracula and his vile servants due to their losses within their families from the vampires. Frank decided to join Quincy Harker's band of hunters, under the watchful eye and teachings of Rachel. They met many other vampire hunters such as a vampire detective named Hannibal king and the Daywalking vampire known as Blade.

    Drake would battle Blade many times before gaining Blade's trust and friendship, and through Blade he would trust Hannibal King. Friendships between Drake and the others were close but not as close to what he and Rachel had. They shared a very close friendship but lacked qualities to have a strong romantic relationship. Drake's lack of self-confidence was his downfall in their romantic involvement, which Rachel's fear of intimacy was hers.

    Throughout the numerous battles with Dracula, Quincy Harker finally defeated the lord of darkness through using a bomb that was hidden in his temporary wheelchair which he sustained a bad wound from Dracula. This final act would happen inside the castle of Dracula and with the ultimate sacrifice made by Quincy, Dracula, himself and nearly the entire castle was destroyed.

    Quincy soon revealed that he wished rake and Van Helsing to grow a passionate relationship through a letter he left for the two before he died. They tried working on their relationship but due to having no one left to fight, Rachel was left an empty shell, she left Drake with many regrets to pursue a new life. After spending a long time working on other vampire hunting projects, news reached frank that Rachel turned into a vampire by Dracula and was killed by the X-Men. Frank, wishing to finally rid the world of Dracula, teamed up with Blade, Hannibal King, and Doctor Strange to fight his return from the grave. The team soon found a way of finally removing vampirism from earth by using a spell called the "Montesi Formula" in the pages of the Darkhold. The world was rid of the vampire curse and Frank along with Hannibal and Blade formed an investigative unit which they would investigate any number of strange and not so strange cases.

    A Normal Life

    Later, Drake wishing for a more normal life, eventually left the firm. His friendship with Hannibal and Blade had gone worse and they didn’t work well together for a while. Drake moved to Washington D.C. and married Marlene McKenna, a woman he had met sometime after parting ways with Rachel. Soon enough, Drake found that Marlene was under the control of Dracula and she scarred her face to resemble Rachel's facial scars. Drake convinced an easily tempered Blade and his companion katrina to help defeat Dracula once again in which ended with Blade having a nervous breakdown and being institutionalized. Drake, tired of fighting, became determined to live his normal life with Marlene and thus declined Katrina's offer to stay in contact.

    The Montesi Forumla and the Nightstalkers

    Hannibal King explaining to Blade about Frank's tragedy
    Hannibal King explaining to Blade about Frank's tragedy

    Dr. Strange soon found that the Montesi Formula had become weakened and that vampirism was returning. That was not the only strange occurrence happening with the weakened state of the Formula, also supernatural experiences were happening all over the globe. He decided to bring the team of Drake, Blade, the vampiric Hannibal and himself back together to find a solution to this catastrophe. None of them too glad to see the other, but each having their reasons for getting back together, they form the Nightstalkers. They rebuilt the private investigative unit for daytime services and by night, they fought supernatural beings.

    Their encounter with a demonic group known as the "Children of Lilith" led them to work side by side with a group of vigilantes known as the Midnight Sons. Eventually, they fight against the Atlantean vampire Varnae in which Drake overloads his anti-supernatural gun named Linda. An explosion erupts from the gun and Drake is thought to be dead along with Varnae and Hannibal. Blade escapes believing them to be dead but eventually runs into Hannibal King in New Orleans who explains that Drake also survived. Although Frank was starting to heal physically, his mind seems shattered and King thinks he will probably remain only a shell of his former self.

    Other Media

    Blade Trinity

    Frank Drake wasn't directly represented in Blade Trinity however, Dracula uses the cover name of Drake. A similar tactic was used to combine Carter Slade aka Phantom Rider with the Caretaker for Ghost Rider. As a side note, an early script written by David Goyer intended to have a female Nightstalker named "Frankie" Drake but instead went with Abigail Whistler.

    Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned

    Frank Drake in the Tomb of Dracula Animated Movie
    Frank Drake in the Tomb of Dracula Animated Movie

    Frank Drake stars in the animated Dracula film, based on the Tomb of Dracula comic book series from Marvel Comics.

    sizepositionchange
    sizepositionchange
    positionchange
    positionchange
    positionchange
    bordersheaderpositiontable
    positionchange

    This edit will also create new pages on Comic Vine for:

    Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.

    Comment and Save

    Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other Comic Vine users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll send you an email once approved.