The Psychology Of Supervillains Club..October 2020 - Dracula & Vampires 🧛

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The Psychology Of Supervillains Club…October 2020 - Dracula & Vampires :vampire:.

Welcome to The Psychology Of Supervillians Club. This month we will delve and dissect Dracula & Vampires :vampire: . Step into their minds and determine what makes them tick

WARNING :
This club will be discussing darker aspects and elements within the DC Universe. These aspects and elements could be viewed as overtly violent, malevolent and possibly offensive to some.

  • We acknowledge that we are not mental health professionals, and are not able to provide any diagnosis or guidance in this regard.
  • This thread does not suggest or support any mental health diagnosis or any guidance of or for people in the real world. We are dealing with purely fictional characters within fictional worlds.
  • Supervillains are potentially driven by deep seated and often dark or disturbing concepts of what they feel is the right thing to do and why the villain is the hero of their own story.
  • We will explore if the supervillain is actually correct in their views and actions, are they justified in what they do and potentially would their fictional worlds be better off if they actually did win and defeat the hero.

The club gives this warning because some may find such discussions disturbing, distasteful, and/or possibly immoral and we want the community to be well aware of what the contents of these discussions can involve.

The Ground Rules: ( Yes…even villiany has to follow a few rules . Don’t take my word for it…Go ask The Legion Of Doom or The Crime Syndicate, they have rules too.)

  • Posts must follow DC Universe Community Guidelines
  • This is a “ safe space ” to explore a sometimes taboo topic…villainy. Why it’s necessary and possibly why villains are often more interesting than the heroes that oppose them.
  • Be respectful of the opinions of others. Did I mention that … Posts must follow DC Universe Community Guidelines
  • There is no such thing as a “right” or “wrong” opinion here.
  • The views expressed are the opinions of the poster and deserve to be acknowledged as a valid opinion, even if you might disagree and debate items. What does that mean? Posts must follow DC Universe Community Guidelines
  • We are dealing with the intricacies of the mind. The one thing we do know is that we can never be ultimately sure what is actually going on in the mind of a supervillian.
  • However, we can conjecture based on what we do know about them and form our own points of view on what makes them tick and have blast while doing it.
  • In case you missed it the 3 times earlier…Posts must follow DC Universe Community Guidelines

Don’t be afraid to be bold, to challenge the status quo, to think in unique ways and be outspoken. Their is no “right” or “wrong” point of view here. There is what we each find in delving beneath the surface and into the mind of our Supervillian Of The Month.

Most importantly, have fun. Enjoy your process. Revel in it. Don’t be afraid to let some of your “evil” out. We’ve all got a bit of it in us somewhere. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t find villains interesting, now would we. :smiling_imp:

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Reminder: Posts must follow DC Universe Community Guidelines

Our October 2020 Supervillian of the month - Dracula & Vampires :vampire:
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Dracula…The prince of darkness. The king of night. That’s right, it’s October. Time for those that live in the shadows love to come out and play. Since DCU is moving to an all comic book service, the DCU resources are all comic books.

Dracula has appeared in several DC books and others have had Vampires, that weren’t Dracula, as the villain. So on the recommendation of other members of the club, I have also included some of their favorites as well. And that’s great!!! Having other members recommend books is great for the club. So special shout outs to @TravisMorgan and @OracleB

Did you know that DC has done Sherlock Holmes stories? You can find some below.

There is a DC Animated movie “Batman vs Dracula”, unfortunately not on the service. But a BYO-Watch-Along isn’t out of the question.

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Below are some comic book resources for Dracula & Vampires :vampire: available on DCU.

This is by no means a definitive list.

Reading the entirety of the resources below is not expected.

Comic Resources:
Batman Strikes - 15 (2004-)

Batman & Dracula: Red Rain

Victorian Undead II: Sherlock Homes vs Dracula - 1 (2010)

Victorian Undead II: Sherlock Homes vs Dracula - 2 (2010)

Victorian Undead II: Sherlock Homes vs Dracula - 3 (2010)

Victorian Undead II: Sherlock Homes vs Dracula - 4 (2010)

Victorian Undead II: Sherlock Homes vs Dracula - 5 (2010)

Batgirl - 28 (2011-)

Batgirl - 29 (2011-)

Batgirl - 14 (with special guest star- Supergirl) (2009-)

I, Vampire: Rise of the Vampires (DCU Storyline Collection with Justice League Dark and I, Vampire titles)

Detective - 455 (1937-)

Justice League of America - 96 (1960-)

House of Secrets - 105 (1956-1978)

House of Secrets - 108 (1956-1978)

House of Secrets - 113 (1956-1978)

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What resources you use or don’t use is up to you. The only limit is your imagination and deduction.

Use whatever materials you like in building up your case for the psychology. Although noting what you’re basing it on could be helpful as resources for the club and our members.

I know with the current pandemic circumstances, some folks may have more or less time on their hands than normal.

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What do you think of the character of Dracula vs other Vampire

I have include Silver, Bronze and Modern Age books. Which is your favorite and why.

We have both the “horror” genre and the "superhero” genre of comics represented here. What are your thoughts on the differences.

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Without further ado, we delve into the mind of Dracula & Vampires :vampire:.
Let the adventure begin!!!

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has anyone read Bram Stoker’s?

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A loooong time ago but yes.

The way it’s structured it wouldn’t make for good tv or film. Which is why no true adaptation has ever been done.

For those that might want a good overview of the book. I found this a very “cliff notes” version

Enjoy

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I suppose we’re not allowed to count Marvel’s Tomb of Dracula series, right? :stuck_out_tongue:

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it’s a technical. depending on your technical.

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Actually a compare & contrast of the the two from a psychological standpoint could be interesting. Go for it.

Dracula is one of the few characters you could do that with.

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It did occur to me that this completely allowed. When we did Riddler, I specifically made multiple uses of Frank Gorshin’s portrayal of Riddler and that was from Batman’66. A property that is owned by Disney, not DC.

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I assumed the batman '66 inclusion was just to have another version of the character in the discussion, regardless of owner,

Dracula is a character that was created outside of both the DC and Marvel Universes. so it’s about the take or interpretation, thus allowing the Marvel books. my marvel unlimited account is still good albeit dormant, if anything is there, that’s where i would get it.

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𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒎𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒘𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒔𝒐 𝒇𝒂𝒓. 𝑰 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒂𝒓𝒚 𝒔𝒕𝒚𝒍𝒆, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝑰 𝒅𝒐 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒅𝒆𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈

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It’s probably worth forcing your way through. it’s what i had to do with Shelley’s Frankenstein. All i can remember about Stoker’s was that it was a good read. the humans kept losing their battles. it’s a proto origin of Mina Harker if you have seen The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

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It is a story where the “heroes” fail a lot. The diary style is why no real film version of the book has ever been done. It would translate badly to film.

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I remember X-men comics used Dracula a lot as storm’s love interest/ arch enemy

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Interesting. I did not know that. Although I’ve never been a big fan of the book once Claremont redid it, but shortly into the start of that run, I lost interest.

That is perhaps something eise to ponder, is how is the more modern “sexy” version of Dracula/Vampires plays out in these stories.

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I agree that it should be included when ‘profiling him’. Even in the original Stoker classic there’s the element of danger with vampires with it not just being about physical danger, but that you can lose your soul basically by the seduction of vampires/Dracula. I find it interesting that part of myth lore is that vampires can only come into your house if you let them enter. They have to be invited inside. While I love The Batman vs Dracula cartoon movie, I don’t think they quite pulled off Dracula himself, cause he was not charming around Vicki.

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Been reading Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula
One a non Dracula related item. They did a really bad job on Sherlock’s sitting room and the 221B Baker St exterior. But,I admit I’m a Sherlock nerd. So it might not be noticeable to others.

Other than that, it’s been quite good.

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For me, at the end of the night, you can’t beat Dracula. He is still the wooden stake, silver cross and holy water standard of vampires. He has it all, the knowledge, the experience, the will to control others. To simply feed, to make more vampires, or to just slaughter people in his way. He has the deserved title the lord of all vampires. The prince of darkness, The king of the night. He does what he does, how he does because he wills it to be so. He embodies the Nietzschean will to power in much the same way as Sinestro does.

In the JLDark/I, Vampire crossover both Cain and Bennett had the power. Bennett only had the will after being granted the power. Neither of them had the sheer personal willpower that Dracula has. So Dracula gets the gold medal as top vampiric villain. (Let’s face it, there was no way he was gonna willing take silver.)

The most fun books for me:

“Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula” was the best adaptation of any comic, tv or movie of telling the story of Dracula as Stoker wrote it. It has that slice burn feel, and didn’t fall into the trap of making vampires “sexy”.

The Batgirl/Supergirl teamup was just so freakin fun and adorable. It never took itself to seriously. It was fun and witty and puny and playful. A vampire and Halloween story for people that don’t like horror. A classic “buddy cop” comedy.

Red Rain was a nice elseworld book. Is there such a thing as a “good vampire”? It certainly touched many of the same elements that JL:Gods and Monsters did in relation to Batman. It also raised an interesting idea of does Batman feel an erotic connection to the very darkness he occupies.

Going through all the books this month, considering vampires as villains. I am left wondering one thing. Is Dracula truly the first modern/post Industrial Age supervillain? I think in the end, he probably is. Here you have a single character, who is immensely powerful, as any good supervillain should be. He is also functionally immortal (Vandal Savage) Has enormous amounts of willpower and the will to use it, that make him so dangerous (Sinestro). Is driven by a basic desire to do what he wants because of his ego. (Mirror Master) Has a cunning, sharp mind and toys with his opponents (Riddler).

When considered against so many of the supervillains we have already covered. It’s safe to say he fits the psychological mold. Or perhaps better stated, they fit into various aspects of Dracula’s mold.

I was not expecting this last item when I started this month. It comes as something of a surprise, to me. However, the longer I ponder the idea, the more sense it makes that Dracula is the archetypal supervillain.

That’s my take.

What’s yours?

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I’ve started my Get Caught Up Odyssey since I moved (Aug 31/Sep 1), but I started in World of Wonder. But with respect to October’s villain, I suspect I could fake it.

Dracula as the first super villain does have merit. Much like Jack the Ripper is the first serial killer. part of Dracula’s secret origin also lies in whatever was going on in Stoker’s life when he wrote the story. And thus my fakery is shown for what it is because i don’t know what was going down with Bram.

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