Warning: SPOILERS for Blade: Vampire Nation #1The legendary vampire Doctor Doom is an outdated villain.
The vampire world in the Marvel Universe has mixed feelings over what Dracula is doing. He has planned for years to take over the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and establish a Vampire Nation. While vampires predominantly live in the cities within the exclusion zone, cities along the edge, where the radiation levels are far lower, are populated by both vampires and humans living together under bizarre circumstances.
Not everyone is happy with this situation, though, as seen in Blade: Vampire Nation #1 by Mark Russell and Dave Wachter. The issue opens up with an assassination attempt on Dracula. Fortunately, there has been a switch with another high-ranking vampire official, who dies instead. Blade, who is the sheriff of the Vampire Nation at the United Nations' request, is tasked with finding out who was behind the assassination attempt. When Blade asks Dracula why he doesn't just round up people and execute them for the crime, Dracula states that he seeks to build a country people actually want to live in. That requires a form of due process and freedom that can't result in unfounded arrests.
Doctor Doom Needs A Softer Approach
Dracula is certainly a villainous character in not just the Marvel Universe but all of fiction. So it stands to reason that if he went through all the trouble of founding his own country that he would act like a brutal and ruthless dictator. However, the fact he is employing Blade to use discretion when investigating the assassination attempt shows a progressive way of ruling that other dictators can learn from. Dracula says he will certainly execute those who are responsible, but he is being careful not to accuse anyone outright. He wants evidence first, which other dictators may not care for.
Doctor Doom is probably the most notable dictator in the Marvel Universe. He is known for ruling Latveria with an iron fist. He crushes all dissension and doesn't allow a free press within his country. One would assume Dracula would act in a similar manner, but he doesn't. Dracula is being a lot more nuanced and careful with how he runs his country because he knows a lot of eyes are on him. The fact that Doctor Doom doesn't care about what people think shows that he's definitely an outdated kind of villain when compared with what Dracula has accomplished.
Blade: Vampire Nation #1 is now available from Marvel Comics
