Off the Cuff – Edition 14
By Eric Barrett
Comics, Cartoons, and all things related

*Vampires. You love ‘em, I love ‘em, vampire hunters hate ‘em. It’s a nice little synergistic (whatever that means) world. And lucky for you, I’m going to write about them.

Frankly, I feel like I’ve been inundated with vampire stuff this week. I went and saw Blade: Trinity, and I also finished off the Marvel mini The Tomb of Dracula (also featuring Blade). I guess you could say it was a very Blade weekend.

(Note: do not read any further if you do not want any level of spoilers)

I enjoyed Blade: Trinity. But it wasn’t as good as the previous two movies. The action wasn’t as good, and the story wasn’t as original. However one thing did stand out: the portrayal of Dracula. I found it interesting that in Blade: Trinity, Dracula is portrayed as sort of a noble vampire. I’ve never seen that anywhere else. I’ve seen Dracula portrayed as evil. As a monster. And even as a tortured soul. But I’ve never seen him portrayed as having true nobility of spirit. I found this to be a very interesting take on the character.

At first I thought this was completely ridiculous. How can you have nobility of spirit if you suck the blood out of innocents? But if you look at the innocents as ‘food’ then why couldn’t you develop a sort of nobility and honor? After all, I like my steaks, and I’d like to think that I have a sense of honor.

Now the one downfall of this argument is that that cow I just ate isn’t a sentient being. So clearly there are some differences between me eating a steak and a vampire eating a human. So there’s a little bit of cognitive dissonance: vampire style going on there. But as I said, it was an interesting concept.

It is however, in stark contrast with the way Dracula is portrayed in The Tomb of Dracula. In this book he’s nothing more than an evil demi-god, bent on destroying human civilization and attaining absolute power for himself. He even kills quite a few vampires on his way there. He’s not above using deceit, trickery, or lackeys to do his bidding. As I said, a total contrast with the movie version.

But I suppose that’s the beauty of a character like Dracula. I’m not sure there is a right way to portray him.

*I’d watch Blade: Trinity just to see the ‘goth shop’ scene again!

*Jennifer Garner is apparently suffering from a viral infection and will likely miss the premiere of Elektra. Her publicist, Nicole King, said she’s “taking it day by day.”

Day by day! It’s not as if she’s mortally wounded or recovering from some kind of addiction. Can we please turn the cliché meter down to a 3?

*This just in! Eric Barrett will miss next weeks Off the Cuff due to a paper cut. Reports are coming in that he will make a full recovery.

*Update: Since writing that last comment a few days ago, I saw an updated news item. It said that Garner has some nerve damage from a stunt she performed in Alias. Here at OTC we hope Ms. Garner has a full recovery. (But I still think ‘day by day’ is clichéd).

*Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor? You cannot be serious Bryan Singer!

*Oh the irony. I just picked up about a dozen old issues of Demon (you just can’t beat the 50-cent bin). Well it turns out that Etrigan will be getting another book. Cool.

*Cliché Alert. In the promo blurb for the book, they used the phrase “all the rules have changed.” This is one of those stupid clichés that people use because they think it makes them sound ‘edgy’. But think about that phrase for a second, “all the rules have changed.” Really? All of them? Gravity? Thermodynamics? Good vs. Evil? Cats vs. Dogs?

In reality nothing has really changed. The book probably includes more violence, profanity, sex, or screaming than in the past. And here I was excited about the book until I got to that cliché.

*I hate to mention this, but the War Games crossover has sucked me into buying Batgirl, and quite possibly Robin. I don’t know if I’ll stick with it or not, but I’ve been enjoying the Bludhaven crossover. I’m curious to see how things are going to change in the Batworld.

*I just mentioned the changes in the Batworld. And that’s because after War Games “all the rules have changed”! (Ha ha – sorry). Actually things must change in the Bat books. I’ve talked a lot about War Games in this column. And I’ve said that I really enjoyed it. The crossover was well done from a standpoint of integrated stories and characters. But the more I think about the ending, the less satisfied I am. So I think the only way I can be ‘satisfied’ by that story line is based on how they handle the aftermath.

*I am not at all pleased with Marvel’s web page. It takes forever for the site to load. It’s so slow that I don’t even want to bother looking around. I can’t even imagine what it must be like if I was on a modem.

*Well come back next week for a bit more fun. I think it’ll be a good column (if you don’t mind me saying so).

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