>>Cornell has actually managed a fairly unique take on a character who has been played and written literally hundreds of times over the last 100 years. The takes on Dracula that I’ve seen in the past, dating back really to Stoker’s book, almost always emphasize him as a solo operative, perhaps with one or two pawns and servants to help out; he’s a monster-movie villain. Cornell’s greatly broadened the scope, emphasizing Dracula’s past history as a king and commander of men.
Not at all a unique or new take. This is how Marvel's Dracula, at least under Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan, always was, and if the comics Code had allowed it he would have been this violent too. (In TOMB OF DRACULA there was one scene so violent they had to merely describe it--at length--in a caption, of Dracula mashing a man's face to pulp with his bare hands) But Dracula as king and leader of men was ALWAYS a huge part of Wolfman's Drac. This writer has simply brought it back. And pretty well, too, I think.