Doctor Strange Fact — November 1, 2026

Today's Fact

Checked against independent sources — the issues are cited below.

DOCTOR STRANGE ONCE ERASED EVERY VAMPIRE ON EARTH — DRACULA INCLUDED — WITH A SINGLE SPELL FROM THE DARKHOLD!

The Featured Fact

Blade's life's work took Stephen Strange one evening. Across Doctor Strange Vol. 2 #59–62 (1983), Roger Stern's “Montesi Formula” arc, Strange hunts down a spell buried in the Darkhold that can undo vampirism itself — while Dracula, newly schooled in dark magic from that same cursed book, races him for it.

The finale at Castle Mordo in #62 is a two-front war. Strange drags Dracula onto the astral plane, where the vampire lord's new sorcery counts for less, while on the physical plane Wong, Blade, Frank Drake and the vampire detective Hannibal King join hands and complete the Formula's recitation around their bodies.

The effect rolls across the entire planet. Dracula disintegrates, his daughter Lilith burns away with him, and every vampire on Earth is destroyed in a single sweep — a Marvel Universe with no vampires at all, which held for years. The one ally caught in the blast radius, King, survives because Strange the surgeon takes over from Strange the sorcerer and transfuses him on the spot.

Why It's Obscure

Marvel's greatest vampire hunter needed no stake, no sunrise and no sequel — just a library card for the worst book ever written.

#59–62

The Montesi Formula — Stern built the 1983 arc as a direct sequel to the seventies Tomb of Dracula era, reuniting Blade, Frank Drake and Hannibal King for one last campaign.

The catch

The cure sat inside the disease — The Formula lives in the Darkhold, the grimoire of the Elder God Chthon whose pages also stand behind the creation of the first vampire, so casting it meant opening the most dangerous text on Earth.

The surgeon

Two kinds of doctor — King's refusal ever to drink a victim's blood slows his destruction just enough for Strange to save him with stored blood and battlefield medicine, letting him greet a sunrise for the first time in over five years.

The expiry

Nothing stays erased — In Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #14 (1990) the Vampiric Verses surface as a counterweight, the Formula's grip loosens, and the undead begin filtering back into the world.

Gallery

Comic art of Doctor Strange and the figures named in today's fact.

Doctor Strange battling Dracula on the Dr Strange vs Dracula Montesi Formula collection cover — **Sorcerer versus lord of vampires**The collected Montesi Formula cover: Strange grapples with Dracula, the opponent he would erase along with every other vampire in Doctor Strange #62 (1983).

Blade the vampire hunter with swords comic cover — **The other vampire hunter**Blade fought beside Strange through the Montesi campaign — then watched a sorcerer finish, in one recitation, the extermination Blade had pursued one vampire at a time.

Doctor Strange casting a spell comic cover art by Kevin Nowlan — **The man who cast it**Kevin Nowlan's Doctor Strange: the Sorcerer Supreme whose 1983 working remains the largest single vampire kill in Marvel history.

Sources

Every claim above checks out against at least two of these independent sources.

Bullpen Bulletins

Doctor Strange Is a BETTER Vampire Slayer Than Blade — CBRCBR walks through Doctor Strange #59–62 (1983): the Darkhold hunt, the Castle Mordo finale and the Montesi Formula wiping out all vampires, plus its weakening in Sorcerer Supreme #14.
Doctor Strange Vol 2 62 — Marvel DatabaseThe Marvel Database synopsis of #62: the astral-plane duel with Dracula, the allies completing the Formula, Dracula annihilated, and Hannibal King saved by an on-the-spot transfusion.
Doctor Strange Is A Way Better Vampire Slayer Than Blade — ScreenRantScreenRant's account of the 1983 issue: the spell spreads across the world wiping out every vampire, and later wears off, allowing the undead to return.