Jan 1973
The Moorlands Monster!
by Gardner F. Fox, Gene Colan, Tom Palmer, John Costanza, Roy Thomas
Rachel, Frank, and Taj return to the present through a mirror but Dracula and Lenore are not there waiting for them. The trio of vampire hunters find themselves in the Moorlands. They learn from Lord and Lady Dering that one of their servants has gone missing.
Rachel, Taj, and Frank split up. The vampires corner Rachel and almost kill her. Frank kills Lenore with Rachel’s crossbow. Dracula escapes but Frank and the others continue to pursue him. They talk once again to Lord and Lady Dering and learn about their son, Randolph, who is hideously misshaped and frequently referred to as a monster by others.
Frank, Rachel, and Taj head to abandoned Hagscroft Castle. There they find Dracula but he has set a trap for them. Frank and Rachel share a moment when they think that they won’t be able to escape the hole into which Dracula threw them. Frank declares his love for Rachel. They share a kiss but the moment is over fairly quickly as Randolph shows up to free them. Dracula has left by the time they have been freed.
Thoughts
There are a number of things that didn’t add up in this story. I’m not sure how Frank managed to get a hold of Rachel’s crossbow in time to shoot and kill Lenore. Aren’t vampires supposed to be very fast? I'm not sure why Taj did not get thrown in the hole with Frank and Rachel. The only reasonable explanation that I can dream up is that Dracula wanted to give the potential lovers a moment alone. I’m not sure how they survived the fall into that hole. Falling 15-20 feet onto a stone floor could be deadly.
This story was okay. It wasn’t great. Everything happened a little too quickly to fully satisfy me.
This is the last issue of this series that was not written by Marv Wolfman. These last couple issues have not been awful but they have paled in comparison to the ones that came before. I’m ready for a change of pace.
No comments:
Post a Comment