Issue(s): Tomb of Dracula #58
Cover Date: Jul 77
Title: "Undead by daylight!"
Credits:
Marv Wolfman - Writer
Gene Colan - Penciler
Tom Palmer - Inker

Review/plot:
Here is an issue of Tomb of Dracula that Dracula does not appear in. It's a Blade solo story, although Quincy Harker's vampire hunting crew does appear. This issue is described as a "fill-in (necessitated by Gene Colan having to enter the hospital for minor surgery - he's fine, thank you)" in issue #60, although obviously it's drawn by Colan. I wonder if the story was originally intended for Blade's Vampire Tales run but got pushed here when Marvel's b&w magazines got canceled and they needed something for this issue, especially since it starts with a recap of Blade's origin.

Friends, if you are a character in a comic book that inexplicably breaks into extended narrations about your background, you may have Sudden Recap Syndrome. See your doctor. There's no cure (at least until recap pages are invented) but with therapy you may learn to slip in your exposition with a little more grace.

I was a little worried that Safron's "we need to talk" indicated relationship trouble, but the two are next seen in post-coital bliss. In the meantime, Rachel Van Helsing is called in to look at a case of a woman, Lorraine, turning into a vampire during daylight hours. Lorraine's husband turns out to be Musenda, the only other surviving member of Blade's original vampire hunting crew, so Rachel gives Blade a call.

Blade says that Rachel contacting him about Musenda is the "First nice thing that iceberg's ever done for me". It's also Rachel who convinces Blade to not just kill Musenda's wife, instead suggesting that Lorraine must be getting possessed by a vampire who is looking for something to do while he's gone to ground for the day. Rachel then brings Blade to Quincy Harker, who gives him a device that will let him track Lorraine when she turns into a bat and flies away.

Musenda accompanies Blade even though he has given up vampire hunting and has gotten soft. Blade himself has been wondering what to do with himself since he recently defeated Deacon Frost, the vampire that he'd been hunting for so long.

This is a repeat theme in this series that is applicable to Quincy Harker and Rachel Van Helsing as well.

Blade and Musenda locate Lorraine, but Blade instinctively stakes her.

Luckily Blade has a theory. He brings Lorraine's corpse back to his and Safron's place, and waits until a few seconds before sunset and then unstakes her. This has the result of bringing vampire-Lorraine back from the dead, but they don't have to fight her again since she quickly transforms back into human form.

There's a couple of reasons why this might not have worked, including the fact that Lorraine wasn't a real vampire and the fact that i'm not sure how quickly vampires are supposed to regenerate, so she might have transformed back into human form with a big sucking wound in her chest. But things do work out fine, except that they have to fight the actual vampire that had been possessing Lorraine.

Tomb of Dracula #30 left us with the fact that there was another vampire hunter from Blade's original group still out there, so having him show up here is tying up a loose end while confirming that there isn't someone even more badass than Blade; Musenda is retired from all of that, so now we know to not really expect to see much more from him (and this is in fact his only realtime appearance). This was a fun story, questionable vampire metaphysics aside, and unlike some of the other stories stretching out the Satanist/Janus plotline, it doesn't feel like filler to me, possibly because in the long run i'm more interested in Blade than Dracula.

Blade and Safron's relationship might have done with a little further exploring. The "we have to talk" line did make me wonder, and there's a few other times in this issue where Safron seems a little put out with Blade's repeated absences. Blade is pretty dismissive about that...

...but it never results in Safron getting overly angry. So i don't know if they have a playful relationship or if she silently stews all the time. Wolfman does create a tie-back between what happens to Lorraine and Safron's own experience at the hands of vampires from a previous Blade adventure, but it remains unclear what her reaction is, exactly (anger at the way vampire hunters put their significant others at risk? A clearer understanding of what it is that they fight for? Just straightforward fear?).

This isn't Blade's book so i guess we shouldn't expect a deeper delve into his relationship. And this is Safron's last appearance in this series, and nearly her last appearance overall.

Quality Rating: B+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• Blade's origin recap is mostly from Tomb of Dracula #12 (in fact it repeats a panel from that issue).
  
• Blade and Hannibal King defeated Deacon Frost in Tomb of Dracula #53.
  
• Musenda was first seen in a flashback along with the rest of Blade's original crew in Tomb of Dracula #30.
  
• Blade tells Musenda that he's still occasionally fighting Dracula, and in fact fought him recently but he "got away". That was in Tomb of Dracula #54 and in fact that the vampire hunters let him get away out of respect for his son being born on Christmas.
  
• Safron was captured by vampires and nearly turned into one in Marvel Preview #3.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Essential Tomb of Dracula vol. #3

Glad to see that Blade is smoother with the ladies than he is with the recaps.