Published Jul 18, 2026, 12:00 PM EDT
Shaun Corley has been with ScreenRant for over 5 years, and is currently the Coordinator for PR and Outreach for the Comics Team.
Warning: contains spoilers for Operation: Iron Coffin #1 and potential spoilers for issue two!
Dracula has a new foe, and they make Abraham Van Helsing look downright pathetic. IDW Publishing’s Operation: Iron Coffin is a glorious subversion of the Dracula story, taking the repentant vampire and pitting him against hordes of Nazis. Operation: Iron Coffin’s first issue hit the ground running with brutal kills and surprising revelations. Now, in a special first look at issue two, Dracula may have met his match.
Traditionally, Dracula has been portrayed as a villain. The legend of Dracula originated with a real-life person: Vlad the Impaler. Novelist Bram Stoker used Vlad’s life as a jumping-off point to create one of literature’s most evil characters. Dracula was opposed in the book by Doctor Abraham Van Helsing, and an intrepid band of vampire killers including Jonathan Harker and Quincy Morris. Stoker spared no expense in establishing Dracula as evil personified. In one memorable and disturbing scene, Dracula feeds a captive infant to his vampire brides.
Dracula, seeking to make amends for a lifetime of murder, agrees to help the British Army fight the Nazis during the Second World War.
Dracula’s villainy has gone on to infect more books, movies and comics as well, and Operation: Iron Coffin flips every one of these takes on its head. Dracula, seeking to make amends for a lifetime of murder, agrees to help the British Army fight the Nazis during the Second World War. Dracula fought bravely, but soon learned the Axis did not come unprepared. Now, ScreenRant is pleased to offer an exclusive first look at issue two, which introduces a powerful new vampire killer.
Operation: Iron Coffin #2 will be written by Kenny Porter and drawn by Tyrell Cannon. IDW has provided ScreenRant with a synopsis of Iron Coffin’s second issue, shared here:
Discover the deal Dracula made with Quincy Harker that led to him assisting the Allied forces in stopping the deadly Nazi train that contains a deadly vampire virus! Dracula continues to fight his way through the train and now must face down the three augmented soldiers who follow Hazel and Ivy’s every command. He has a great deal of power, but can he combat the power of the Spear, the Gunner, and the Bell?! And how much more of Dracula’s history is about to catch up to him?
IDW also shared three unlettered preview pages from Operation: Iron Coffin #2. In them, Dracula fights a foe known only as “the Spear.” Wielding the Spear of Destiny, the holy crusader, who is ironically working with the Nazis, comes at Dracula, leading to an all-out fight between the two.
The remainder of the issue builds the momentum even further. IDW’s solicitation mentioned three foes that Dracula would face in this issue, and every single one gives the Lord of Vampires a serious run for his money. As Dracula fights his way through the Nazi train, secrets from his past come to light, and could spell doom for the mission.
Operation: Iron Coffin’s Porter and Cannon continue their hot streak from the first issue. Now that the duo have sold fans on the idea of a heroic, atonement-seeking Dracula, the pair push the action even further. Dracula fought Nazi grunts in the first issue, but the second sees him facing some true powerhouses, including one who can seemingly manipulate the fabric of space and time. Porter and Cannon up the ante from issue one, balancing the high-octane action with poignant character moments.
Stories with an evil Dracula are common, so a version that flips the script on this dynamic is most welcome, and Operation: Iron Coffin has not yet lost its verve over two issues. Dracula is now fully committed to walking the path of righteousness, but not everyone believes him. In one vivid flashback scene, Dracula pleads for forgiveness from Mina Harker, which perfectly encapsulates one of the themes of Operation: Iron Coffin, that of second chances. As one of literature’s most popular villains, Dracula is the perfect character for such a story.
IDW will have a special Operation: Iron Coffin T-shirt available at Booth 2729 at San Diego Comic-Con.
To make someone like Dracula look like a good guy, then the foes he will fight must be some of the worst the world has to offer. The bad guys Dracula encounters in Operation: Iron Coffin’s second issue have different powersets, but they are all blinded by their fascist ideology and their hatred of Dracula. “Gunner,” one of the Nazis Dracula must face, is particularly chilling, showing a willingness to kill his own people just to make a point. Porter and Cannon succeed in selling Dracula’s turn to the side of good.
While Abraham Van Helsing may be absent (so far) from Operation: Iron Coffin, he still remains one of Dracula’s biggest foes. Van Helsing has only been mentioned in the series, leaving readers wondering how he might react to the recent shift in Dracula’s moral compass. Operation: Iron Coffin, on its surface, is a slam-bang story but digging deeper, it is also a character study, tackling some big ideas about the road to redemption. Van Helsing’s potential arrival could show how far Dracula has traveled on his quest to be better.
Operation: Iron Coffin #1 is in stores now. Issue two goes on sale August 26 and FOC is July 20!