While Blade might be Marvel’s most famous vampire hunter, Doctor Strange briefly wiped out almost every vampire in the Marvel Universe.
While Blade might be Marvel’s most famous Vampire Hunter, he hasn’t always been the most effective vampire-killer. Instead, that distinction belongs to Doctor Strange, who wiped out all of Marvel’s vampires after going up against one of literature’s most iconic and powerful supernatural beings: Dracula.
In 1983’s “The Montesi Formula,” a story in Doctor Strange #59-#62 by Roger Stern, Dan Green, Steve Leialoha, Terry Austin, Rick Magyar, Bob Sharen, Jim Novak, Janice Chiang and Joe Rosen, Strange teams up with Wong, supernatural detective Hannibal King, occult investigator Frank Drake and the notorious Blade as they set about to rid the world of vampires indefinitely.
Strange and his allies cross paths with many evil entities as they battle to locate the Darkhold (a grimoire containing the scrolls of Elder God Chthon) and set into motion the Montesi Formula – a spell which reverses Vampirism, hereby terminating the supernatural threat of vampire worldwide at once.
Having defeated the Children of the Night, Strange contacts Scarlet Witch about the whereabouts of the Darkhold. Arriving at Avengers Mansion, he is set upon by Dracula and his servants who he fights off alongside King, Captain Marvel, and Scarlet Witch. Strange hinders Dracula’s attempt to get the text by teleporting it to Castle Mordo to be cloaked by a pre-existing aura of dark magic. Knowing that Dracula has eyes on the Sanctum Sanctorum, Strange cleverly employs Sara Wolfe and Morgana Blessing as decoys to enable him, as Wong, King, Drake and Blade to transport to the castle.
Once inside, Strange engages with the Darkhold inside the castle’s inner chamber, an effective illusion that dupes Dracula into believing that he has succumbed to its dark powers. However, this is merely a smart ploy by Strange who has manipulated the creature into believing that he has the upper hand. And so, as Dracula attempts to retrieve the text, he is transported to the Astral Plane where Strange awaits. The two battle in the metaphysical environment as Strange’s allies on the ground surround their physical bodies. As the Montesi Formula reaches completion, all vampires – Dracula included – are wiped from existence.