Remember all of Marvel’s talk last summer about how important vampires were going to become to the Marvel Universe? Or the news that Dracula was going to play a role in the company’s 2011 event series, Fear Itself?
Looks like they’re continuing to build on that promise, releasing a teaser image Monday afternoon for April’s Throne of Blood: Birth Of a Vampire comic book written by Victor Gischler (architect of much of Marvel’s vampire material in the Death of Dracula one-shot and the “Curse of the Mutants” arc on X-Men) and illustrated by Goran Parlov, which did not appear in Marvel’s solicitations for that month that were released last week. The teaser image shows a vampire surrounded by various Marvel Universe trophies — including Thor’s hammer, Captain America’s shield, Iron Man’s gauntlet, Dr. Doom’s mask and Magneto’s helmet — with accompanying text promising “a game changer in Fear Itself.”
The full press release — and image — follows after the jump.
Out Of The Shadows, Into The Marvel Universe
A game changer in Fear Itself stands revealed.
He will leave the Marvel Universe a different place.
His story begins here.
Thought you knew everything about Vampires?
Don’t be so sure.
You’ll never look at vampires the same way ever again.
THRONE OF BLOOD: BIRTH OF A VAMPIRE (FEB110543)
Written by VICTOR GISCHLER
Pencils by GORAN PARLOV
Cover by TBA
Parental Advisory $3.99
FOC – 3/14/11, On Sale – 4/6/11
January 24th, 2011 at 2:47 pm
Also Daredevil’s billy clubs.
January 24th, 2011 at 2:48 pm
Is that swashbuckling vamp Nightcrawler? He’s currently dead, isn’t he?
January 24th, 2011 at 2:54 pm
When are we going to get marvel vampires vs marvel zombies? There is an alternate world where all the heroes are vampires. Let’s see the too tussle.
January 24th, 2011 at 3:08 pm
What are those items on the left side of the table? Pumpkin bombs on candle sticks?
January 24th, 2011 at 3:09 pm
i love vampires, but why are they all of the sudden the next gimmick?
January 24th, 2011 at 3:18 pm
if i see a sparkely vampire in a 4 colour format i will kick off big time
January 24th, 2011 at 3:22 pm
@orsonrandall: because Twilight is still a big movie franchise?…altought I would have expected a more aggresive comeback of the Marvel Zombies thanks to the Walking Dead TV series. Guess that might come after the vampires. LOL; I wonder when we will have the foil vampire variant covers (thats the easiest way to make shiny vamps in comics LOL)
January 24th, 2011 at 3:25 pm
If this is what I wanted I would be reading stupid Twilight books.
January 24th, 2011 at 3:33 pm
Seriously no one is asking how he got the damn hammer on the wall?!? “Hey Thor be a pal and hang that up right there…”
January 24th, 2011 at 3:35 pm
with Vampires selling big to female audiences, it’s kinda surprising it took this long for comics to hitch onto the bandwagon. It’s a demographic that really needs to be nurtured…and as Kevin Smith said: “In six years, those twelve year old vampire fans will be 18 year old vampire fans.”
January 24th, 2011 at 3:50 pm
Someone has American Vampire or Vampire Batman envy…
January 24th, 2011 at 4:04 pm
the sword is Blades daywalker sword isnt it?
January 24th, 2011 at 4:05 pm
@Wynn: And with that comment, you have put more thought into this one cover concept than the entire Marvel editorial staff has put into their whole run of books in the past few years.
January 24th, 2011 at 4:23 pm
@Wynn Well Red Hulk lifted Thor’s hammer and he definitely wasn’t worthy so maybe there’s some other explanation to how it got up there. (On second thought, your explanation sounds a lot more plausible. Thor’s such an obliging guy when it comes to hanging his hammer on a trophy wall.)
January 24th, 2011 at 4:29 pm
Agreed Wynn, that is the first thing I asked when I saw this ad.
January 24th, 2011 at 4:48 pm
I am pretty sure those orange balls on the stands to the left are the Things testicles.
January 24th, 2011 at 4:57 pm
Is that Dracula’s son who featured in the prologue to the Curse of the Mutants storyline and in the Storm/Gambit one-shot?
January 24th, 2011 at 5:43 pm
Are vampires still cool?
January 24th, 2011 at 6:15 pm
Enough with the friggin vampires already! I remember a time when it was just Dracula..now you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a friggin vampire. Seriously, Marvel and DC has a way of shoving characters or topics down your throat to the point where you don’t really care anymore.
January 24th, 2011 at 6:41 pm
yawn
January 24th, 2011 at 6:52 pm
i could not be less interested.
if this is a large part of fear itself, marvel is actually helping me decide not to buy it.
enough with the vampires! i know marvel’s stance is that any strong reaction, good or bad, is a good reaction; well, let me say, this is the opposite. completely boring and uninteresting in every way.
January 24th, 2011 at 6:53 pm
Yes, but that was a comic written by a brain-damaged person, so it doesn’t count.
January 24th, 2011 at 7:15 pm
YAWN.
January 24th, 2011 at 7:17 pm
I can wait for the over sized $39.99 Hardcover!
JK LOL
January 24th, 2011 at 8:00 pm
Wizard & Toyfare ending, a “corporate” Wonder Woman show gets picked up by NBC, and vampires are the big bad for Marvels big event… is it any wonder that everyone sees comics as the next big thing, Oh wait, that was 30 years ago!
January 24th, 2011 at 8:38 pm
VAMPIRES SUCK.
January 24th, 2011 at 8:42 pm
“Marvel reinvent vampires”. Yea the way they turned Dracula into so techno Underworld reject? I don’t see this going far.
January 24th, 2011 at 9:05 pm
Lord Washizu didn’t die from all those arrows, he’s been hiding all this time living as a vampire, and is now coming to the Marvel universe to “change the game” and turn things upside-down!
January 24th, 2011 at 9:14 pm
Watch – his fangs will have adamantium, and somehow Wolverine’s origin will be tied into it…
January 24th, 2011 at 10:39 pm
ughhh, enough with the vampires already…I dropped X-men and Ultimates because a “vampire” arch was the perfect time for me to not care about what happens next….now they are coming to the rest of Marvel.
January 24th, 2011 at 10:58 pm
I actually really dig vampires, at least the ones who aren’t all Anne Riced up. An intelligent, scary ruthless vampire makes a quality villain. I’d like to see how this is handled.
January 24th, 2011 at 10:59 pm
Yert more attempts by Marvel to “recover” from their recent fiascos (No More Mutants, Civil War, killing off Capt. ASmeerica AND Nightcrawler…not to mention the Spider-Man musical)…
January 24th, 2011 at 11:04 pm
Confirmed: the two gold spheres on the left-side of the image are a pair of Green Goblin’s pumkin-bombs.
January 25th, 2011 at 12:34 am
I like vampires despite the giant POS twilight and true blood (used to be good), so I am interested in this
January 25th, 2011 at 12:59 am
Wonderman anyone?
January 25th, 2011 at 1:40 am
I’m not sure how anyone felt about it, but I thought that Gischler’s “Death of Dracula” one-shot was an absolute atrocity with absolutely no redeeming quality to it. After reading it, I to wonder how this guy got the job to then launch the new (unadjectived) X-Men book.
I suppose my biggest gripe was because Gischler’s garbage completely flew in the face of ALL of Marvel’s previous Dracula storylines but also essentially said “Ignore what was done with vampires in the last few issues of the Captain Britain and MI-13 series, because we at Marvel certainly have.”
If Marvel thought there were too many mutants running around to justify “Decimation” in the aftermath of “House of M,” I’d LOVE for them to explain why there are so many freakin’ vampires running around the MU. (That “Death of Dracula” one-shot seemed to have more vamps in it than had appeared in the WHOLE “Tomb of Dracula” series from the 1970s, plus the B&W magazine that followed, and all the vamps that appeared until Dr Strange destroyed them all with the Montesi Formula.)
January 25th, 2011 at 2:08 am
everyone knows that zombies are the new vampires
January 25th, 2011 at 2:19 am
It’s good ol’ Johnny Storm, Human Torch.
January 25th, 2011 at 3:06 am
on the bottom right seems to be the sticks of daredevil…i hope this kind of vampires don’t “sparkle”!
January 25th, 2011 at 6:59 am
Stupid Marvel art tic I’ve noticed recently: drawing Thor’s hammer with a gigantic head and tiny handle.
January 25th, 2011 at 7:07 am
(Joseph Says:
January 25th, 2011 at 1:40 am
“Dr Strange destroyed them all with the Montesi Formula.”)
OMG Thank you! I thought I was the only one that remembered this storyline. All of this vampire shite has been bugging the hell out of me for that major reason.
January 25th, 2011 at 7:09 am
This just backs up my theory that Marvel’s editorial staff quit trying two years ago when they realized they couldn’t compete with what Geoff Johns does over at DC….either that or that “brain-damaged person” behind the Red Hulk has a lot of dirt on a lot of people.
January 25th, 2011 at 7:46 am
That’s not a nice piece of art…
January 25th, 2011 at 7:52 am
It’ll be Norman Osborn.
Unless bendis is writing it, then it’s the Sentry.
January 25th, 2011 at 9:05 am
Robert Patteson is making his reveal as the Vampire king and Emma Frost will be his new girl. WoW, this will be the game changer.
You know I like Vampires, good vampire stories and movies, Lost Boys, Let the right one in, Dracula, Blade 1 and 2, but please if this is going to be the new “hot series”spare me. With the chaos war and whatever else is happening to the marvel universe, the vampire thing is not needed right now, sucks that now punisher is not frankencastle cuz he would kill this vampire king wannabe.
January 25th, 2011 at 9:10 am
what are the goblets in the background, what do they represent?
and if this storyline unfolds without dealing with Blade at all, I am going to launch a public protest..
January 25th, 2011 at 9:20 am
Joseph Says:
January 25th, 2011 at 1:40 am
“Dr Strange destroyed them all with the Montesi Formula.”
Marie Laveau resurrected Varnae (the original Vampire and Dracula’s “father”) with the Vampire Verses found in the Darkhold. It took years for the legion to reform.
January 25th, 2011 at 10:44 am
Its another stupid fake scenario/red herring cover like most of the Secret Invasion ads. remember those? my we have short memories.
January 25th, 2011 at 11:21 am
Nice cover. Very similar to the “Trophy Wall” commissions in this gallery:
http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryDetail.asp?GCat=727
January 25th, 2011 at 11:40 am
looks alot like “the jackal” to me. not really sure what his character has been up to lately, ill have to look that up. he is a mad scientist who has jacked himself up with various viruses and even cloned himself to become more powerful. he seems like the type who would become a vamp just for the power. my second guess? its a stretch, but maybe this is “norman osborn” with a new identity and direction. i really just hope its not vamps for the sake of vamps, because they really arent that cool.
January 25th, 2011 at 12:13 pm
the only interesting thing that’s come out of the horrible pile of vampire waste is the Jubilie and Wolverine short. Stop it already, just stop it.
January 25th, 2011 at 12:17 pm
YAWN… excuse me while I fall asleep.
January 25th, 2011 at 1:08 pm
Could it be Nick Fury??
January 25th, 2011 at 2:55 pm
First off will everyone cut the “vampires suck” line out. They are popular,deal with it.
2nd,Vampires as currently constructed are nothing but a mere nuisance. Hence why Dracula at his height of power; never really did much. Even the X-men handled him quite well.
Vampires since then have progressed in varying degrees. I feel that if you want a vampire that can be a true force in Marvel for good or bad. You would have to look at World of Darkness from the mid to late 1990′s. They had numerous clans and powers that ranged from weak to godlike.
If you were to make a character comparable to an antediluvian vampire. then you could have an enemy that would challenge the biggest and the best easily. vampires that can command shadows,turn into a giant snake,use blood magic,meld with properties of the earth. so much possibility.
January 25th, 2011 at 3:07 pm
If I know Marvel its probably Glenn Beck LOL!
January 25th, 2011 at 3:49 pm
Many are forgetting about True Blood and The Vampire Diaries which are big hits now. It’s not all about Twilight which does not sit well with many FANBOYS.
It’s just a craze much like the 90s had the word Death in every characters name and blood this and blood that. I can’t wait till 2020 when mainstream comics get good again.
January 25th, 2011 at 5:05 pm
OK, first things first…
1) I, in my humble vampire hunter condition resurrected all the friggin vampires in the Marvel Universe in my last comic collection (Blade, not Captain Britain) with Drac and daddy help (yes, my dad; it sounds kinda crazy but you need to read it)
2)Plus Old Daddy Fangs (a.k.a Dracula) got that Underworld rejected look BEFORE our battle in San Francisco, in a nasty antediluvian ritual that transformed him in a vampire demigod…
you need to read that too.
3) Finally, I, Blade declare that Janus, son of Dracula looks a lot like the vampire in the image. So, let’s start to sharp those stakes……
January 25th, 2011 at 8:08 pm
@Blade – are these stories you type of in the Guggenheim & Chaykin collections? I’ve not read them, but am pretty curious now. I couldn’t find any discussion of plot points on Amazon, so thought I’d ask you.
January 25th, 2011 at 8:29 pm
Am I the only one convinced this is Nightcrawler? Look at his hands? The feet they can hide with the shoes. The tail digitally removed. The skin color can be chalked up (no pun intended) to either light reflections, or more digital trickery. The sword as the weapon of choice. The “out of the shadows” reference. The demonic heritage. The character’s religious background. The ears, eyes and fangs (all Nightcrawler’s natural features, but also common vampire mainstays, I know). Plus the X-Men have a long history of members becoming vampires. It would be a veeery dramatic way for the character to resurrect onto the main-stage, and stop getting sidelined over in the X-books.
January 25th, 2011 at 9:46 pm
@Walkinspanish, yes the first story is in the Guggelheim/Chaykin 12 issue collection. The second one is “Tomb of Dracula” vol.3
Also to see the look Dracula is wearing right now but 15 years before, look around for “Blade The Vampire Hunter” series of 1994. It has it all. the ponytail, the bat cape, the long fingernails….indeed, the look today is not an original idea. Shame on you Marvel, shame on you.
January 26th, 2011 at 2:37 am
vampire sucks! Next will see a werewolf major story arc from marvel
January 26th, 2011 at 10:07 am
I haven’t read all of the posts, so please forgive me if someone has already said it, but aren’t those two pumpkin bombs on the small pedestals to the left of Daredevil’s billy club?
January 27th, 2011 at 10:50 am
Marvel has jumped the shark.
January 27th, 2011 at 7:12 pm
The writers of this dreck are creatively bankrupt. The editors, even moreso. May the internet bring unemployment on them all with vicious swiftness.