Vampire (Marvel Comics) – Wikipedia

Vampires in Marvel Comics universe

Vampires are fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The concept of the Vampire has been depicted by Marvel to varying degrees of significance. Bearing strong resemblance to their literary counterparts, Marvel vampires mostly are an undead subspecies of humans which sustain their immortality and paranormal power by drinking the blood of the living. Unlike most other depictions of the creature, these vampires have their roots in both the supernatural as well as biology. Victims are converted to vampirism via enzymes carried in the vampire's saliva which cause reanimation once introduced into the bloodstream during feedings.

The first generation of vampires appeared in the legendary city of Atlantis roughly fifteen thousand years prior to modern times. A circle of Atlantean sorcerers uncovered a book known as the Darkhold - an indestructible grimoire of shadowy magics written by the Elder God Chthon[citation needed]. In the midst of a war, these sorcerers utilized a resurrection ritual described in the text to raise their fallen enemies in hopes of creating a legion of unkillable soldiers. However, due to the dark influence of Chthon, these undead were too powerful for their would-be masters. In an act of rebellion, the vampires slew all of the sorcerers with the exception of one - the priest Varnae, the first vampire who used the spell to save himself from death. With Atlantis sinking below the sea, Varnae and his kin fled the continent and spread out into the world.

As the eldest and most magically-endowed of his kind, Varnae reigned as the unchallenged lord of vampires for many millennia until finally ceding the title to Vlad III Dracula, a 15th Century Voivode of Wallachia and a notorious warlord known by the pseudonym of Vlad the Impaler. Carrying the title well into the 21st Century, it was not until Doctor Strange - the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth - discovered a ritual within the Darkhold itself that could essentially reverse the magics of the original resurrection spell and exile all vampires into Chthon's realm.[1] Although the ritual appeared to work, with a large portion of the undead population being purged, something went wrong in the invocation itself. While the vampire race was rendered nearly extinct, some - including Dracula himself - survived and continues to propagate their brood.

The vampires of the Marvel Universe share many of the same attributes of their literary counterparts. Their most common characteristics include superhuman strength and speed as well as superior senses and accelerated healing which can be further quickened by drinking fresh blood. Vampires who are centuries old are noted for being both physically stronger as well as more intellectually refined than younger vampires. While this doesn't make them invincible to a seasoned supernatural hunter such as Blade, it does give them an advantage over their lesser kin.

The transformation from a living creature to a vampire begins moments after a victim dies from being fed upon. The vampiric enzyme introduced into their system triggers a metabolic change within their necrotic cells which produces a greenish preservative substance known as ichor. Provided the corpse remains undisturbed and with the heart and brain preserved, the ichor will begin to autonomously flow throughout the cardiovascular system; replacing the blood that was taken as it gradually reconstructs and reanimates the body over the course of several days.

Even if a victim survives being fed upon, the presence of the enzyme in their blood will result in temporary anemia as well as a heightened susceptibility to psychic influence by their attacker. It's also not unheard of for a victim to become erotically fixated on their attacker. Although uncommon, it is theoretically possible for a survivor to begin the transformation if they die before the enzyme leaves their system naturally. Additionally, it is possible for practiced vampires to drain a victim dry and not turn them by carefully sucking out the enzyme.

All newborn vampires experience a dramatic increase in the power of both their bodies and their senses upon their resurrection. They can hear a heartbeat across a yard as well as see in complete darkness and follow a person's scent for miles. Their skin is sensitive to body heat. Their strength and speed are likewise amplified; able to lift a single car with ease as well as cross a room almost instantaneously and even leap between buildings. This enabled them to catch and subdue any victim with minimal effort as well as making them highly lethal fighters.

Count Dracula and his predecessor Varnae are known to be exceptionally strong, having been observed lifting more than 14 and 17 tons, respectively. This is believed to be due to their advanced age and special status as successive rulers of Earth's vampires.

The overall extent of a vampire's abilities depended upon the strength of the vampire's will. Exceptional vampires with powerful wills, such as Dracula or Varnae, were capable of summoning and controlling thunderstorms, even though the mystical concentration required to do so left them extremely weak for a certain period of time. The vampire's willpower could also determine the extent to which he or she could master their craving for blood and retain the same personality they had in life. However, most people that became vampires quickly found themselves unable to resist the all consuming craving for blood. They quickly degenerated into cruel and animalistic hunters of ordinary human beings, even if these new vampires had been kind and sensitive people in their mortal lives.

Vampires could summon and control certain creatures such as bats, wolves, and rats. Vampires could also transform themselves into bats, and in the case of some vampires, wolves, while retaining their human intelligence in these forms. Some vampires could even become human-sized bats. Vampires could also transform themselves into mist at will, while still retaining their normal consciousnesses in that form.

A vampire could make most human beings into his or her temporary slave if he or she could catch their gaze for a sufficient amount of time, usually only a matter of seconds. The exact length of time needed to mesmerize the victim depended on the strength of will of the vampire and that of his or her victim.

Vampires were rendered immune to the ravages of disease and of aging. However, if deprived of blood for a lengthy period of time, a vampire would begin to show distinct signs of aging, such as his or her hair turning gray. Upon ingesting fresh blood, the vampire would revert to the age in which he or she had been at the time of death.

In most cases, vampires were able to heal themselves from minor injuries within a very brief period of time. Some vampires, such as Count Dracula, could heal from severe burns or broken bones within the span of a few hours, whereas most other vampires might require several days to heal exactly the same injury. Vampires were not able to regenerate missing organs or severed portions of their anatomy, with the exception of hair and skin. Apart from periodic inconveniences, injuries like these would not critically impair a vampire's effectiveness. Because the ichor was similar in function to blood, poisons and other toxic substances that were circulated in its bloodstream would adversely affect a vampire, although no dosage was large enough to cause them dying.

Vampires had many limitations imposed upon their supernatural abilities, and even upon their very existence.

The only substances which could cause a Vampire pain were silver and, to a lesser extent, unless it penetrated the Vampire's heart, wood. The surest way to kill a Vampire was to drive a wooden stake or a silver blade through his or her heart. The stake or blade prevented the heart from supplying ichor to the rest of the body. If the stake or blade was removed, however, even if the Vampire's body had crumbled to dust, the Vampire's mystical vitality would restore his or her body to the condition it had before the Vampire was slain, and return him or her to Vampiric "life." Beheading a Vampire would also kill him or her as well as extensive damage to the majority of his or her body. However, there were only three methods of making sure of destroying a Vampire permanently. One was to expose the Vampire to direct sunlight and then to scatter the ashes. Another was to pierce the Vampire's heart with wood or silver, sever his or her head, burn the head and body in separate places and scatter the two resulting piles of ashes in separate locations. The third was mystically, most notably by using the incantation known as the Montesi Formula (after the monk who first realized its significance). Montesi created the incantation by studying fragmentary copies of the Darkhold. It was lost amid many other documents copied by various anonymous monks over the centuries. Research conducted by various Vampire hunters over the past few decades revealed its significance, and it was sought by both those hunters and by Dracula, who wished to destroy all copies of it. The incantation apparently cancelled the mystic curse that allowed any Vampire within earshot to exist, causing it to crumple to dust. The danger is that, as the Montesi Formula was created from black magic theory from the Darkhold, those untrained in the mystic arts who use it lose their souls.

At one point, a cult who worshipped the elder Demon Gods apparently fixated on Dracula as a recipient of their power. Dracula gave them the fragments of the Darkhold he had discovered; the cultists (who were low level mystics) repeatedly recast the original spells that created the first Vampires. This increased Dracula's powers considerably, and he lost his vulnerability to sunlight and others. Dracula was able to take full control of their minds (as well as anyone around the world that Dracula had ever hypnotized in the past, at will).

Doctor Strange (who at the time was in a great battle with Dracula) was aware of the Montesi Formula. He tracked down the Darkhold, and, using the original source material to study the spells that created Vampires, Doctor Strange created a massive version of the Montesi Formula (backed by his power as Sorcerer Supreme) to wipe out all Vampires in the Marvel Universe.

As shown in the Runaways series, staking a Vampire is not always completely effective. Nico Minoru shoots the Staff of One completely through the Vampire Topher without permanent damage. However, Topher was defeated when he drank Karolina Dean's blood, which contains pure solar energy (Karolina is a Majesdanian, an alien race that lives within a star).

Living Vampires and Pseudo-vampires are vampires that were not created with the magic of the Darkhold, but originated through alternate means like science, mutations, or magic other than that of the Darkhold. They usually possess many vampiric qualities, including appearance and many similar superhuman abilities, but rarely possess their vulnerabilities. Examples of these pseudo-vampires include: Blade, Michael Morbius, Hunger, and Bloodscream.

In 2010, Marvel introduced the idea of Vampire sects as part of a general "revamping" of the Vampires in the Marvel Universe as seen in "Curse of the Mutants". Sects are diverse as human religions and Vampires from different sects might have different characteristics or abilities. The sects shown so far in the one-shot issue Death of Dracula are:

A few sects did not appear in the issue. These include:

The following vampires are listed in alphabetical order:

The Ultimate Marvel version of Vampires are the main villains in Ultimate Avengers 3. Their powers and abilities seem to be the same as the mainstream Marvel Universe, including sensitivity to religion, silver, and immense sunlight.[136] The vampires are led by Anthony (a.k.a. Vampire-X), a vampire hunter that had been bitten and turned, and had stolen Iron Man's outdated suit in an effort to walk around in sunlight. He was also a mentor to Blade, Stick and Stone in the past. Since then, Blade has been moving his way through bosses throughout clans over the last 20 years. Vampire-X outmatched and turned the Nerd Hulk (a clone of Bruce Banner), and had the Nerd Hulk, in turn, bite Stick and the new Daredevil. Captain America is later bitten and infected in an attack in the sewers, and is led into battle by the Nerd Hulk as the new boss after having killed Anthony with one punch. Later that night, hundreds of vampires are overrunning Nick Fury's Black Ops team guarding S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Triskelion in New York, turning a few Reserve Ultimates (like Giant-Men member Dave Scotty) and even killing Perun. However, Captain America's Super Soldier Serum blood later fights back the infection, after which he returns to normal, and uses Perun's Hammer to teleport the Triskelion to Iran. As hundreds of vampires end up dying, Blade then purges his sword into Stick's chest (now wearing Anthony's Iron Man suit) for the kill, while Captain America takes Perun's Hammer and slays the Nerd Hulk.[136]

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Vampire (Marvel Comics) - Wikipedia

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero