Women Who Love Vampires Too Much
Wolfman’s successful characterization of Dracula obliges him to periodically remind the reader just how horrible the title character actually is. The capsule biographies of the victims certainly help, but they will not be enough one that series commits to Dracula as the actual protagonist of his own series. Issue 44 inaugurates a storyline that continues until the series' final issue, one that emphasizes Dracula’s own personal and emotional development. He stumbles upon a group of Satanists in a deconsecrated church. Their leader, Anton Lupeski, is about to offer up a young woman named Domini as the bride of Satan. Dracula swoops in and pretends to be Satan, taking over the church for himself and claiming Domini as his bride.
Initially a cipher, Domini comes to mean a great deal to Dracula, while soon opening up her own complicated history to the reader. Issue 47, in which a Satanic rite allows Dracula and Domini to conceive a child, starts with Domini in an entirely subordinate role. She notices that her husband looks “troubled,” and asks if she can somehow relieve the “aching” she sees in his eyes. Dracula launches into one of his extended monologues, with Domini as his audience.
Dracula: “You are my wife, Domini—bequeathed to me by your leader in worship, Anton Lupeski.
Yet I know nothing of you…of who you are, or why you have deigned to worship in Lupeski’s unholy temple.
You are a mystery to me, and yet, for reasons I still cannot fathom, I…care for you…as much as I cared for my dear Maria.
Domini: I know nothing of you, my husband, except that you are not Satan…as the others still believe.
Whoever you are, my Lord Dracula—it doesn’t matter. At least not to me. I love you. For reasons I do understand.
Domini understands but at this point, there is no way anyone else could. But Dracula goes on, admitting that he has grown troubled at the thought that he exists only for conflict. He tells Domini the high points of his biography, from his time as leader to his marriage to Maria, to his transformation into a vampire. He speaks of his lust for domination, which could include even Domini herself, whom he could easily “crush…like an over-ripe melon. But…:
I can’t…truly I can not.
This tabernacle of God must be affecting me somehow, Domini.
There can be no other reason I would love a mortal—*
Did I say…love?
Dracula admits that he has grown accustomed to seeing humans as tools:
You see, my wife, I have a …power…the power all great men must have to become great
Humans call it…charm..a magnetic personality…charisma! The power to pull people to you…
Dracula’s display of self-awareness would also be self-criticism if he weren’t so thoroughly narcissistic. Moreover, he has just summed up the ethical problem raised by placing him at the center of a comicbook series: he is too charismatic to prevent readers from finding themselves on his side.[1]
But is Domini simply a naive dupe? Wolfman has shown other women besotted by the vampire’s charms (most notably the comic-relief character Aurora, whose infatuation with Dracula is only one of the many elements of her depiction as a brainless bimbo), but Domini professes her love while maintaining an unshakable dignity. When Lupeski asks her if she is prepared to become the mother of Dracula’s child, Woflman provides us with a rare glimpse into Domini’s inner life:
She digs deep into her past, grasping fragments of memories—the convent, where she was schooled…under the ever-watchful eye of Sister Mary-Theresa.
The constant running…rebelling against the church….Searching for…what?
And after each escape from the convent, being returned…by her father—a man who cared nothing for her.
The ceremony is nearly ruined by a masked gunman, whom Dracula quickly kills. But Domini immediately identifies the man as her father:
He came her to take me home again…as he did every time I strayed from him.
I guess…in his own way…he loved me.
But I learned that too late.
Didn’t I—?
At that moment, she is looking at the painting of Christ that hangs in the dark chapel, and declares that everything “rests now in most capable hands.”
Domini, whose name means “belonging to the Lord,” contentedly finds herself playing a double game. She truly loves her husband, but she also knows that the image of Christ granted her father death before he could be infected with the vampire’s curse. The last page consists of five horizontal panels, with Dracula indulging in one of his usual megalomaniacal monologues, while Domini looks in the mirror, reflecting on her future:
Absolution for father…forgiveness for daughter-in-law. And for the son to be—ah, he will not be the devil’s son at at all, and Domini knows that now.
Domini, whose future son’s name “Janus” will reflect his dual heritage, belongs to two lords at once: her husband and God.
Wolfman is careful about parsing out access to Domini’s thoughts and feelings throughout the series, maintaining a sense of quiet mystery about her while telling the reader just enough to know how complicated her agenda actually is. This is in contrast to Dracula, as that last page demonstrates. Though Dracula’s self-knowledge is significantly restricted by his pride, he nevertheless is constantly verbalizing his thoughts and motivations, while Domini chooses to keep her own counsel.
Note
[1] Meanwhile, in a moment that typifies Wolfman’s ongoing contrasts between Dracula and his pursuers, the same issues show Frank and Rachel talking about their relationship in a park. Frank forces a kiss on her, and she gives him the brush-off. Apparently, charisma does not necessarily get passed down through the generations.
