The vampire consumes the energy of others to meet its own needs, which can be physical, mental or spiritual. A common theme in literature is immortality and its price. Vampires go on forever as long as they are willing to drain energy from the living. Thematically, this is an exaggeration of our basic need to eat animals and plants to stay alive.

Vampires also reverse the notion that humans are at the top of the food chain and the evolutionary ladder: vampires are stronger, faster and more alluring than normal humans. Sometimes the vampire manifests as a parasite who offers its host a symbiotic relationship: life force for enhanced abilities.

Despite its origins in world folklore (blood-sucking ghouls truly abound), the vampire first acquires literary resonance in the nineteenth century with the gothic writers (1819: Lord Ruthven, 1845: Varney, 1897: Dracula). Vampires represent the dark side of an imagined romantic past, counterbalancing the rationality of the enlightenment and scientific progress. Vampires become metaphors for sexual anxiety, including repressed desire and the fear of venereal diseases. The vampire combines the qualities of the antagonist and tragic hero, transforming the villain into a sympathetic monster.

During the Golden Age, vampires were relegated to infrequent appearances in horror comics. One notable exception (1939: The Monk), a red-robed Batman adversary. The Comics Code Authority explicitly banned vampires in 1954, thus depriving the Silver Age of supernatural subject matter for its innovative stories. However, two vampires in disguise made their debut: a power-stealing criminal who resented his inability to touch his family (1966: Parasite) and a cosmic eater of worlds (1966: Galactus).

Marvel challenged the code with non-traditional vampires, an energy drainer who becomes a pterodactyl (1969: Sauron) and a modern blood-sucker with a scientific origin (1971: Morbius). The CCA amended its code in 1971 to allow supernatural vampires that were consistent with established literature. From the public domain Transylvanian count in Tomb of Dracula (1972: Dracula) to a British aristocrat turned Nazi (1976: Baron Blood), vampires were reestablished as comic book villains.

The tragic aspects of vampires resurfaced at the end of the Bronze Age. There was now a hint of redemption and repentance to have the reader empathize with the monstrous cravings that vampires endure. Marvel’s sympathetic female analog to DC’s Parasite (1981: Rogue) lacks self-confidence, prompting her to absorb other personalities for answers.

Other vampires justify their continued existence by resisting the urge to feed on humans, finding substitute nourishment in the form of animal blood (1981: I…Vampire) or partners willing to be donors (1982: Cloak).

Vampires become predictably extreme in the Modern Age: a parasitic costume that grants superhuman powers at a price (1988: Venom) and an alien vampire warlord with no redeeming qualities (1993: Rune).