Vampires Have Their Own Country in Marvels Take On The United Nations

In the latest issue of Marvel Comics' Avengers, the vampire leader Count Dracula has managed to legitimize his country of vampires with the United Nations. Having joined Marvel's heroes in defending the planet against Knull's massive King in Black event, Dracula is now leveraging his position and influence, demanding that he and his kind receive their own sovereign nation, not unlike mutants with their island nation of Krakoa. However, Black Panther and the Avengers know better than to fully trust the frequent villain, and they create some conditions for Dracula's new nation of vampires.

Avengers #45 from writer Jason Aaron and artist Luca Maresca sees Earth's Mightiest Heroes in the days just after Knull's invasion of Earth was thwarted. But there's hardly any time for the heroes to rest and relax, as Dracula quickly goes public with his demands that he has his people get a nation of their own, feeling as though they earned it by helping save the world from Knull and his vast symbiote legions. However, he conveniently left out the part where his forces immediately turned on Blade the vampire hunter the second the fighting ended. But the vampires didn't account for Knull's Symbiote dome, which had been blocking out the sun, coming down after the King inBlack's defeat. As such, many of the vampires attacking Blade died from the daylight, though Dracula spun this around, claiming that Blade killed them all, in an attempt to gain sympathy from the leaders of the world.

Unfortunately, Dracula's plan couldn't be stopped by the world's governments and Blade is naturally quite angered that the Avengers simply have to agree, as any move they now make against Dracula will now be considered an act of war against a sovereign nation. Requesting blood deliveries to his starving people from the Red Cross and the release of any vampiric political prisoners, Dracula's new nation is built upon what remains of Chernobyl because vampires can survive the radiation plaguing the region.

However, Black Panther comes up with some conditions of his own and, as king of Wakanda, he's able to convince the United Nations to back his plan. Dracula's nation will only be receiving synthetic blood as aid, rather than actual blood from humans. Furthermore, the Avengers and United Nations appoint Blade himself to be the sheriff of Dracula's nation, maintaining the same law and order any other nation would be expected to uphold. This is an incredibly smart play, especially since recent issues of Wolverine and X-Force have seen Dracula secretly building an army. He's also been attempting to use Wolverine's blood to make him and his army invulnerable to their typical weaknesses such as daylight, garlic, and holy water.

Now that Blade is in the position to keep an eye on things, it's likely going to be much harder for Dracula's dark desires to be carried out. Nevertheless, becoming a part of the United Nations still provides the vampire lord with avenues, power, and influence that could very well cause a large status quo shift in the Marvel Universe. Here's hoping Blade, Black Panther, and the rest of the Avengers will be able to keep Marvels's new Vampire Nation contained in future issues.