Bloodscream
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Bloodscream (Zachariah Ravenscraft) is a fictional character, a comic book supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe and an enemy of Wolverine. The character's first appearance was in Wolverine (volume 2) #4 (February, 1989).
[edit] Character biography
Bloodscream is a Pseudo-Vampire, a creature with vampiric powers but not an actual vampire. He was born in the Kingdom of England during the 16th century. He was a typical sailor of the Tudor period. He served under Francis Drake from 1577 till 1580.
However this sailor was mortally wounded in combat and taken for treatment by a Native American shaman. The shaman was secretly a necromancer and offered him life for a chance to experiment on him. The Englishman was desperate and agreed, only to awake as a creature living on the lifeforces of others.
Despite his vast powers, Bloodscream longs for his humanity to be returned to him. He killed the shaman who initially transformed him, after making him reveal a cure to his condition. It seems his version of vampirism can be cured by the blood of an immortal.
His activities for the following four centuries are unknown. He resurfaced in the 20th century as a soldier of Wehrmacht, the armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. He served during World War II and first encountered Wolverine during the Battle of Normandy (June 6 - August 25, 1944). Wolverine was serving as a corporal of the Canadian Armed Forces.
Bloodscream met Wolverine decades later in Madripoor. The Canadian seemed to have not aged a bit. He surmised that Wolverine himself must be immortal, and therefore a candidate for curing his pseudo-vampirism. This is why Bloodscream repeatedly hounds Wolverine.
He properly introduced himself to Wolverine while working in Madripoor as a criminal enforcer with his partner, Roughhouse. He often came into conflict with Wolverine (who was at the time in his alter-ego as "Patch"). After Roughhouse retired, Bloodscream partnered with Cylla Markham of the Reavers. He killed her for sustenance, then tracked down Wolverine, who hacked him nearly in half with the Clan Yashida Honor Sword, which was, according to legend, forged from a meteorite by a god. However, Bloodscream later reappeared, apparently having turned over a new leaf; this reform was short-lived, though, and Bloodscream reverted to villainy, eventually teaming again with Roughhouse.
When Bloodscream first appeared in Madripoor, he was using the name Bloodsport.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Bloodscream possesses a variety of superhuman abilities that are reminiscent of those possessed by supernatural vampires, even though he himself is not a true vampire.
Like true vampires, many of Bloodscream's physical attributes function with superhuman levels of efficiency. Bloodscream possesses superhuman strength of an, as yet, unrevealed limit. Whatever the limit, Bloodscream is considerably stronger than an ordinary human. Bloodscream possesses superhuman levels of agility and reaction time. Although not as developed as Spider-Man, Bloodscream is more agile than even an Olympic level athlete.
Bloodscream possesses an accelerated healing ability like that of true vampires, although his operates with much greater speed and efficiency. Bloodscream's "healing factor" originates from the magical energies flowing throughout his body and is not subject to his will. This "healing factor" enables Bloodscream to regenerated damaged areas of his body including severed limbs and once even reattached his head after it was severed. Bloodscream's supernaturally enhanced body generates less lactic acids than the bodies of ordinary humans, granting him superhuman levels of stamina. It is estimated that Bloodscream can exert himself at maximum capacity for several hours before fatigue begins to impare him. Due to a combination of his healing powers and his status as a "pseudo-vampire", Bloodscream's aging process has been dramatically altered. Despite being several hundred years old, Bloodscream seems to have aged very little, if any at all. He has often boasted that he is immortal and cannot be slain by any weapon forged by a mortal hand. Whether this is the actual truth or merely a boast Bloodscream uses to intimidate his enemies isn't known.
Like true vampires, Bloodscream requires fresh blood to ingest on a regular basis, although it is unknown how often he must feed or the quantity he needs to maintain his youthful vitality. If Bloodscream goes for an extended period of time without fresh blood, it is possible that he may actually die or merely go into a comatose state just as true vampires. He possesses a unique ability to draw blood from his victims by placing the palm of his hand across their bare flesh. Bloodscream draws his victim's blood through his hand while burning an imprint of his hand upon the area where the blood was drawn. However, for reasons that have never been explained, this power is useless against superhuman mutants.
Unlike true vampires, Bloodscream also does not possess most of the vulnerabilities possessed by true vampires(in the Marvel Universe). Religious icons, such as crucifixes or the Star of David for example, are unable to cause Bloodscream any physical or mental distress. Bloodscream is able to walk about in daylight without sustaining any physical discomfort, where as true vampires would begin to incinerate after only a few seconds of exposure to direct sunlight. Whereas true vampires are highly allergic to silver, Bloodscream possesses no mystical vunlerability to it. He could be injured by a weapon composed of silver but would quickly recover, whereas a true vampire, if not killed outright, may take several days or even several weeks to heal depending upon the severity of the injury or injuries sustained.
Whereas many of Earth's true vampires have demonstrated the ability to manipulate the weather, to a limited extent, Bloodscream has demonstrated no such abilities, nor is he able to transform himself into animals such as bats, wolves, or rats as true vampires are all capable of.
Bloodscream can shift his shape, to a limited extent. While Bloodscream has a human appearance, he can transform himself into a monsterous visage. While in this form, Bloodscream possesses rows of bone spines down his back and a sleek tail that can impale as well as constrict. His mouth is filled with rows of razor sharp teeth as well. Bloodscreams fingers also become tipped with razor sharp claws, possibly up to 12 inches in length secreting poisons lethal to even those who have healing factors. In this state, Bloodscream is little more than a ferocious animal and his craving for blood reaches frenzied levels. There is a possibility that some of Bloodscream's superhuman abilities operate on higher levels within this form, but this has yet to be revealed one way or the other.
[edit] Special Skills
Bloodscream is a good hand to hand combatant and has many connections throughout the criminal underworld, adding to his reputation as a mercenary for hire. His extended life-span has granted him great experience in matters of naval warfare and piracy.
