Forgotten Toons: Marvel's Dracula- Sovereign of the Damned (1980)

 As Marvel under Disney tries to rebound with another billion-dollar Film, let's go back to their animated heyday.

Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned is the 1980 Anime adaptation of Marvel's Tomb of Dracula.  The Book ran for many years and has been viewed well in the Decades since.

In the 70s, Marvel licensed their stuff to Toei Animation.  This is how we got Japanese Spider-Man and Super Sentai.

The Plot is essentially a speed run of THE ENTIRE SERIES which had 70 issues over 7 years.  Alas, there is no Marvel connection in supporting Characters as Blade and Doctor Strange were cut.

Will this make sense in around 90 minutes?
To find out, read on...

My copy didn't have the cool Title...I think.

A Satanic Cult is making a big sacrifice to Lucifer Satan.
Yes, they say it like this every time.

Dracula shows up and they think that he's their Master.
He takes the lady with him.

Elsewhere, a young guy named Frank is confronted by an old dude in a wheelchair and a lady.

They hire him to hunt Dracula!

As it turns out, he's Dracula's Son...albeit one born while he was alive.
They don't get into the chronology of this at all.

The Cult plans revenge when they learn that Dracula tricked them.  Lucifer Satan tells him that he has a plan and to wait a year.

While the year progresses, the Hunters sort of close in and Dracula sires another child- Janus.

Issue 55

Weirdly, he picks that moment to reveal the truth to his Wife.
Yes, this didn't come up in a whole year.

He tells a long flashback where he was a strong protector of his land until he was killed.
He was brought back to life by Lucifer Satan as a Vampire!

The Hunters close in, but they are actually not the first person to confront Dracula.

The Cult Leader surrounds the Church with crosses and tries to shoot Dracula with silver bullets.

He turns into smoke and the baby is shot.
I mean...you turned into smoke in front of them- what did you expect?!?

Issue 59

Things take a very strange turn in the ensuing time.

Dracula hides away and the Wife mourns Janus.
She tries to commit suicide, but a literal Deus Ex Machina happens.

A heavenly light (God?) revives Janus...and turns him into a super-powered teenager.
He was the original Psi-Lord (aka Franklin Richards)

Issue 61

The new Janus has holy powers and scares away Dracula.

A different power confronts him, however, in the form of Lucifer Satan.

He literally Drags them To Hell and tries to kill Dracula, who is saved by his Wife's latent holy powers!
(In the Comics, it's a lady named Topaz)

Issue 64

While he's free, Dracula is a human once again!

He fails many times to get restored, including asking two different lady Vampires to turn him (back).

He gets oddly heroic as he flees to a House full of kids and fends off the undead with a cross.

Issue 69

He manages to regain his vampiric powers, but the Hunters (remember them?) are coming.

Harker makes them stay outside and he manages to impale Dracula with a silver spoke.
He blows them both up, as the Couple leave.

Back home, Janus returns to his Mother...and to his baby form.  The End.

Issue 70

What a strange, truncated series of events.

As mentioned, this is a loose adaptation of 70 issues of Tomb of Dracula.  With Blade and Dr. Strange excised (as well as Silver Surfer), they found room to trim things down.

As you saw, the character of Topaz was basically absorbed into Dracula's Wife, for example.

I was not *that* familiar with the Tomb of Dracula Books (being born 4 years after they ended didn't help matters), so I honestly thought that this one was just going off in a weird, Japanese direction.

Color me shocked to learn that all of this- Dracula's superhero kid, him fighting Lucifer Satan and all that- is 100% from the Books.  Maybe I need to support the Kickstarter to get the last Trade released.

The Animation here is dated in good and bad ways.  If you like the '70s style (think Lupin the 3rd or early Gundam), then you'll like this.
They do take some short cuts with repeat animation, some people just not moving and other such things.  It's not amazing, but it is crazy.

This one works if you don't know the Comics as a bizarre bit of History, with Japan making Anime out of Marvel Comics a few Decades before they tried again.

Now I'm doing this during October since it is Horror themed, but it is actually the wrong Holiday...

Next time, I switch back to physical media.  I'm sitting on a few Horror Remakes from the 2000s, so maybe I'll check one out.  Stay tuned...