Dracula is one of the most popular horror characters to ever be created, and a large part of that is down to the fact that he's in the public domain. Anyone can use Dracula, and the fact that he can appear in any story in any kind of role means that we've been spoilt with great Dracula's over the years. Just this year we've had two cinema releases with the character in both The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Renfield, both of which are wildly different from each other.
Mortal Terror, by writers Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon, is taking the Dracula story and doing something kind of new and interesting with it. Instead of dealing with the menace of a vampire coming to terrorise the mortal inhabitants of Britain, things have been flipped. London is a vast underground city, inhabited by vampires. Jonathan Harker, Mina Murray, Lucy Westenra, and Lady Goldaming amongst other classic characters, are now all the undead.
This first issue of the mini series is focused on laying the groundwork, and we spend a great deal of time with characters, getting to see what their roles are in this flipped world. We learn that whilst the vampires have built a good life for themselves beneath the surface, not too far removed from what we'd expect from this time period, there have been increasing attacks from terrorist-like elements. Mortals are fighting them.
Other parts of the book explore the mortals in different ways, with Sewards asylum being home to a mortal woman who claims that she was once a vampire, and that the vampires have forgotten that they were once all mortal too. I'm expecting one of two things with the series, the Eternal King spoke of will either be Dracula, or Van Helsign, and will be the one responsible for turning everyone into vampires. I expect that which of them it is will dictate who the shadowy figure Mina is seeing is, with it being the opposite. I imagine the King will be Van Helsing, and that Drcaula is the mortal hero for this story. I also wouldn't be surprised if the year isn't actually 1893, and that the characters have been vampires a lot longer than that and don't know it; which is why their memories have had time to fade.
But that's all conjecture, based on not a whole lot, because whilst the book does lay a lot of foundation for stuff to come not a whole lot happens in this issue. It's got some great ideas, and as someone who's a fan of the original book it's fun to see this twist on the tale. But I'm not sure how much this issue will grab people who've not got prior knowledge.
The art on the book is done by Peter Bergting, and Chris O'Halloran on colours. The art suits the story well, and has a dark and gloomy feel to it. It very much fits the Dark Horse style, and evokes books like Hellboy. The art does a lot of the world building too, as we're dropped into an unusual world that no one really comments upon. Instead, the art showcases the differences, the city beneath the surface, the style of buildings, the way people dress. One of the panels does raise some questions too, as we see Seward's asylum surrounded by trees and plant-life, a night sky above it. I'm interested to see if this was an art error, and the artist forgot to put it below ground, or if some of the vampires have surface buildings too.
Overall, this was an interesting introduction to the series, one that raises a lot of questions, and answers none. It's a neat twist on the expected tale, and I'm very intrigued to see where it takes us.
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