As the artist of 70 issues of Marve's Tomb of Dracula, the legendary Gene Colan defined the look of the world's most famous vampire in comic books. Teamed with equally legendary writers like Archie Goodwin and Marv Wolfman, Colan drew a Dracula filled with equal parts demonic menace, villainous arrogance and all-too-human regret, and became one of the greatest horror artists in comics -- no mean feat, considering that he was also one of the greatest super-hero artists in comics.

A version of Dracula first appears in the Atlas Comics publication, Suspense #7. The modern Marvel version of Dracula was created by Gerry Conway and Gene Colan in Tomb of Dracula No. 1.  In Marvel Comics, Dracula appeared in a Tomb of Dracula comic which ended in 1979. Although Dracula (and all other vampires) were eventually destroyed by the mystical "Montesi Formula" in the pages of Doctor Strange, the vampire lord was revived. Marvel published a four-issue Tomb of Dracula miniseries, reuniting Wolfman and Colan, under its Epic Comics imprint in 1991, and revived Dracula and his foes in the short-lived Nightstalkers and Blade series in the 1990s. Most recently, Dracula took the title role in the miniseries Dracula: Lord of the Undead.  X-Men: Apocalypse vs. Dracula featured Dracula battling the X-Men's greatest foe, Apocalypse, in Victorian London.  The character returns in the Captain Britain and MI13 storyline "Vampire State", with Doctor Doom. He is then the main subject of the 2010 series Death of Dracula written by Victor Gischler.

Dracula gained the powers of a vampire from his transformation into a vampire by the bite of the Vampiress Lianda, and gained additional power by Varnae. Dracula possesses far greater powers than most vampires. He is superhumanly strong (to the point of standing toe-to-toe and defeating Colossus in single combat), and also possesses superhuman speed, stamina, reflexes, and transvection. He is immune to aging, conventional disease, sickness and most forms of injury. He cannot be killed or permanently injured by conventional means.  He is unaffected by most assaults and, due to his healing factor, can rapidly regenerate damaged tissue. Dracula can manipulate the minds of others, and command animals to his will, such as rodents, bats, and wolves. With limited exceptions, he may control other vampires.

He has the ability to mentally control victims he has bitten, and can temporarily hypnotize anyone with his gaze.  He is capable of shapeshifting into a bat – normal or human size – or a wolf while retaining his intelligence, and into a fog or mist – partially or fully – and has the ability of weather control, such as summoning electrical storms. Like some vampires in other works of fiction, Dracula does not cast reflections. His powers have been greatly amplified and his weaknesses circumvented by magical sources, such as spells of the Darkholders.  Dracula has a dependence on the ingestion of fresh blood to sustain his existence, and an inability to endure direct sunlight. He falls into a comatose state during daylight hours and must spend much time in contact with his native soil. He has vulnerabilities to garlic, silver (which can cause severe pain), the presence of religious symbols (wielded by one who believes in its spiritual meaning), and can be killed by beheading, a wooden stake through the heart, or blades made of silver. He can also be destroyed by the Darkhold spell known as the Montesi Formula.

Doctor Strange has seen some incredible foes, but none compare to the time he was bitten by Dracula and almost turned into a vampire. While this may seem incredible, given Strange’s power levels, that is exactly what happened in a 1976 crossover between Strange’s solo title and Tomb of Dracula.

Dracula had entered the Marvel Universe a few years prior, thanks to the loosening of the Comics Code Authority, which previously did not allow vampires or similar monsters. This led to other characters such as Werewolf by Night and the Living Mummy returning to Marvel, but Dracula was the biggest name by far. During his stint at Marvel, Dracula has gone up against heavyweights such as Blade and the X-Men, and he still appears in Marvel titles to this day. The story in question was his first meeting with Strange, and he took the Sorcerer Supreme down to the wire.

Mahershala Ali's vampire hunter, Eric Brooks aka Blade the Daywalker, has yet to make his big debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Fans got a small tease of the upcoming Marvel Studios character in the post-credits stinger of 2021's Eternals, but it was merely Ali's voice offscreen, issuing a warning to Kit Harrington's Dane Whitman.

In fact, the MCU's Blade film doesn't even have a confirmed release date, but a director has been lined up in Bassam Tariq and filming is reportedly set to kick off in August 2022.  Watchmen scribe Stacy Osei-Kuffour is also on board as the film's head writer.

Of course, Blade doesn't always work alone in the comics. Sometimes, he's s member of the Midnight Sons, a supernatural and horror-themed superhero team. And now, it seems that Marvel Studios' Blade might have a different kind of team in the works and perhaps even a big bad.

According to Murphy's Multiverse, Marvel Studios is looking to cast two roles in the upcoming Blade: A character with the placeholder name of "Abid" and a woman named "Faiza."

The outlet speculates that, based on the character description of a "burly" individual who has "taken a vow of silence," that Abid might be the comic character Taj Nital. Similarly, evidence points to Faiza being Rachel van Helsing, the daughter of legendary vampire hunter Abraham van Helsing.