Comics Fondle

What does God need with a starship? What does Dracula need with a helicopter? That question, along with an eye-roll about every villain desperately needing some ancient tome Jack Russell usually happens upon accidentally, sums up the crossover. The first half, in Tomb of Dracula, is pretty solid (except Wolfman’s Transylvanian bar thug who speaks in American sailor slang), with Jack and Topaz headed to the old country to discover Jack’s roots. Conveniently, his family was wealthy enough in the old country to have both a manor and a castle–and the manor, of course, overlooks Castle Dracula. Or under-looks it.

Wolfman’s real loose with the story, never explaining where the two are going or how they know to go there–or why a near death encounter with Dracula doesn’t faze them–but it’s mostly fine. Gene Colan’s art is rather nice, even though his werewolf is boring, and Wolfman’s endless Dracula ramblings are always good.

It’s too bad about the second issue–Ploog takes over in the middle of a fight scene, so the werewolf looks good again–which reveals the secret origin of Jack’s lycanthropy. It ties in to Dracula and it isn’t bad, but then–almost immediately–Dracula reveals he needs the book Jack has because the Latin passages contain information fatal to the Count. It’s absurd.

The Tomb of Dracula hunters show up more in Werewolf and they’re poorly used, popping in–oh, I forgot how Dracula wasn’t smart enough to figure out Jack was the werewolf. That’s a funny scene.

Anyway, they pop in a couple times, mostly to prop up the crossover.

Then there’s the funny scene with Jack and Topaz finding Dracula lurking around a helicopter. The final fight scene, which Werewolf ought to be good for, isn’t good. It’s abbreviated, maybe a page, and it’s dull. Wolfman’s endless first person from Jack gets annoying real fast here (maybe because the Tomb of Dracula issue shows how well the character works without it).

And then the end’s dumb too.

And where did Topaz get the food to cook Jack breakfast in an abandoned, cobweb-ridden manor?

C

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