Ulysses Bloodstone (Earth-616)

Ulysses Bloodstone
Name	Ulysses Bloodstone
Aliases	Frank, Captain Ahab, Beowulf
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Formerly 1950s Avengers, Covenant, Explorers Club, Monster Hunters, crew of the Pequod's crew, unnamed Vanir tribe
Relatives	Elise Bloodstone (wife, deceased), Elsa Bloodstone (daughter), Cullen Bloodstone (son)
Marital Status	Widowed
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Height	6′2″ (1.88 m)
Weight	225 lbs (102.06 kg) (116 kg)
Eyes	Irises: Blue
Hair	Blond
Unusual Features	Large, red Bloodgem fragment embedded in the center of his chest
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Human Mutate
Living Status	Deceased
Reality	Earth-616
Place of Birth	Northern Vanaheim, European continent, circa 8250 B.C.
Place of Death	New York City, New York
Personal Information
Identity	No Dual
Citizenship	Nordheimr Vanir
Occupation	Hunter, adventurer, soldier of fortune; former movie actor, major in the army of Colonial America, hunter/gatherer; others
Base of Operations	Mobile
Creators and Appearances
Creators	John Warner, Mike Vosburg
First	Strange Tales #73 (October, 1959)
First	Strange Tales #73 (October, 1959)
Death	Rampaging Hulk #8 (January, 1978)
Death	Rampaging Hulk #8 (January, 1978)

History

Prehistoric Origins

The man who would one day call himself Bloodstone was born about ten thousand years ago, at the dawn of the Hyborian Age, into a small nomadic tribe who occupied the area that would one day be called Scandinavia. One of his tribe's foremost hunters, Bloodstone was hunting for food one day when he encountered the extra dimensional being Ulluxy'l Kwan Tae Syn, the guardian of the bloodstone. An unearthly crystal which had recently materialized on Earth, it housed the Hellfire Helix, a non-organic life form from another universe that possessed great mystical power; in order to exist within Earth's Dimension, the Helix had to encase itself within the protective crystal. But the intentions and motivations of the Helix were evil; in particular, it desired to conquer Earth, and to this end required a native life form to be its agent. Thus its servant Ulluxy'l lured Bloodstone to its lair and offered the savage a portion of the gem's power. Irradiated by the bloodstone, the hunter was endowed with superhuman strength. Returning to his tribe, he demonstrated his power, and told his awestruck people how they too might acquire his gift. The entire tribe accompanied him back to Ulluxy'l's lair and were arranged in formation before the gem. Thereupon the bloodstone bombarded the assembled human beings with its energies, psychically absorbing their minds while killing their bodies.

When Bloodstone realized what was happening, he lunged upon the gem, causing it to explode into hundreds of fragments. One of these geometrically perfect pieces embedded itself into Bloodstone's sternum; the others were scattered across the planet. The hunter's entire tribe had been destroyed by the evil power of the Helix, but he himself had become virtually immortal. Dedicating himself to exacting revenge upon the being he held responsible for his people's death, he eventually took the name Ulysses Bloodstone. Ulluxy'l determined to locate and gather the many fragmented of the great gem in order to one day reassemble it.

For a hundred centuries, the two antagonists pursued their goals. To keep Bloodstone from reaching him, Ulluxy'l dispatched hordes of extradimensionally-born monsters to kill him. Bloodstone managed to triumph over the many creatures sent against him, but he only succeeded in locating his arch-foe a handful of times over the millenniums. When he lost Ulluxy'l's trail completely, and was not involved in learning new languages, skills, or knowledge, Bloodstone would induce suspensions of his animation upon himself, which sometimes lasted for up to a century at a time.

20th Century

By the early 20th Century, Ulluxy'l had assembled all but four of the gem's fragments, while Bloodstone had acquired a fortune through mercenary work and shrewd investments.

In 1959, he was recruited into the Avengers alongside the Silver Sable by Nick Fury due to their hunting skills and prowess. The newly formed team then traveled to Helsingborg, Sweden, in pursuit of the Red Skull and his Fourth Reich. The group hijacked a Nazi truck bound for the Skull's castle headquarters, with Bloodstone and the others hiding in the back while the Silver Sable drove. When the truck's doors were opened, the team jumped out and opened fire on the unprepared Nazis. As the Avengers stormed the castle, they found a Nazi Captain America impostor who attacked them. Bloodstone, Sable, Dominic Fortune and Fury remained in the now burning castle to deal with this threat while the rest of the Avengers searched for the fleeing Red Skull. The heroes soon overpowered and killed the impostor while Namora succeeded in capturing the Red Skull. Nick Fury then took the contents of the Red Skull's briefcase and left, telling the rest of the team that he would meet up with him later before disappearing for over a month. When he resurfaced, he gathered the Avengers together at the Stork Club in New York City to congratulate them on a job well done. After dinner, the members each went their separate ways with Bloodstone convincing Silver Sable to accompany him to the Savage Land with the prospect of doing some "big game hunting."

By the latter half of the 20th Century, Bloodstone had established headquarters in six different locations across the globe, each of which he had equipped with hand-picked operatives. His main base of operations was the small Pacific isle he called Bloodstone Island. Bloodstone had become very proficient at modern weaponry as well as applied technology.

Ulluxy'l, in the meantime, had been contracted by a group calling itself the Conspiracy; unknown to the extra-dimensional being, the very Hellfire Helix that he served had organized it. Ulluxy'l was suspicious of the Conspirators and how they had learned of the mystic gem, but he found that he had no choice but to cooperate with them. Requiring only two gem fragments to complete the crystal, one of which was the fragment embedded in Bloodstone's chest, Ulluxy'l stepped up his attacks on Bloodstone, with the resources of the Conspiracy aiding him. Ulluxy'l was killed during his attack on Bloodstone Island, however, by the evolved human scientist called Centurius, who sought Ulluxy'l's place in the five-person Conspiracy. After vanquishing a number of the Conspiracy's agents, Bloodstone was taken captive by the human sorcerer Kaballa, another of the five Conspiracy members, in his lair beneath Central Park.

Bloodstone was then told that the Helix had purposely chosen him as its recipient ten millenniums ago so that it might have a mobile host through which to observe the evolving human species. To that end, Ulluxy'l had served as his eternal nemesis, giving Bloodstone reason to wander the globe and come into contact with all walks of humanity. The Helix no longer required Bloodstone for that purpose, and it had organized the Conspiracy, with promises of immortality and power, to dress the stage for the next phase of its plan. His will subverted, Bloodstone submitted to a surgical operation by a third Conspiracy member, the surgeon Dr. Juden Bardham. This operation removed the bloodstone fragment from Bloodstone's chest, killing him in the process. But owing to his ten thousand years of symbiosis with the bloodstone fragment, Ulysses Bloodstone's spirit did not fully leave his body at his physical death, and his corpse still possessed residual energy from that symbiosis.

After they had the remaining piece of the Bloodgem, the five Conspirators joined it to the assembled gem in a magical ceremony. But evil to an atrocity, the Helix had deluded the Conspirators with its promise of power, and it simply used their special natural energies to bond together its fragments. In the process, the Conspirators's bodies were destroyed. Bloodstone rose zombie-like from the operating table on which he had died and instinctively sought out the restored bloodstone. Mystically entering the consciousness of the Helix, Bloodstone obsessively found the Hellfire Helix itself, and managed by sheer psychic strength to destroy it. The Helix dissipated, the crystalline body it had been building for itself shattered into dust and pebbles that retained none of the evil extra-dimensional magic-mystical energy the intact Bloodgem had possessed, and the essences of the Conspirators died. This had the effect of causing Ulysses Bloodstone's spirit to leave his body fully, so that he was finally truly dead at last. The corpse of Ulysses Bloodstone instantly resumed its true age and crumbled into dust. As he succumbed to his destruction, he did so having finally exacted his revenge on the true being who had killed his entire tribe ten thousand years before.

Attributes

Power Grid

Powers

The Bloodgem granted Bloodstone a number of superhuman abilities:

Superhuman Strength: The mystical energies of the gem suffused Bloodstone's musculature, increasing his strength to superhuman levels. At his peak, Bloodstone could lift (press) about 5 tons.

Superhuman Stamina: The gem's mystical energies also greatly increased the overall efficiency of his musculature, causing his muscles to produce less fatigue toxins during physical activity than the musculature of a normal human. At his peak, he could physically exert himself for several hours before the build up of fatigue toxins in his blood began to impair him.

Superhuman Reflexes: Bloodstone's reaction time was enhanced to levels beyond the human body's natural limits. His natural reflexes were about 1.5 times that of even the finest human athlete.

Superhumanly Acute Senses: All of Bloodstone's physical senses of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch were all enhanced to superhuman levels.

Suspension Of Animation: Ulysses Bloodstone had the ability to induce states of suspension of animation upon himself and emerge from them unharmed. There appeared to be no limit to how long he could remain in any such state; the longest period of time he ever attempted was in excess of one hundred years.

Regenerative Healing Factor: Perhaps the Bloodgem's greatest contribution to Bloodstone's anatomy was the fact that the mystical energies of the gem granted his body vast healing and regenerative capabilities far beyond that of any normal human. Bloodstone could heal from injuries that resulted in massive tissue damage and blood loss such as multiple bullet wounds, slashes, puncture wounds, and severe burns within a matter of minutes. Bloodstone was also capable of regenerating missing limbs or organs. However, in order to do so, he would be forced to enter a state of self-induced suspended animation. It once took him about a decade to regenerate a missing leg. Bloodstone could recover from almost any injury short of the dispersion of a vital portion of his bodily molecules.

• Virtual Immortality: As the gem's energy allowed him to fully heal from almost any type of injury, it also granted him virtual immortality. As a result, Bloodstone was immune to the effects of aging and disease. He had neither aged nor contracted any sickness since the gem was infused to his body.

Immunity To Vampires: Ulysses Bloodstone's Bloodgem fragment was anathematic to vampires, being as potent against them as religious icons were in the hands of the faithful. Since his daughter, Elsa Bloodstone, has demonstrated immunity to vampire bites so great that her blood is pure enough to destroy any vampire who consumes it, her father's Bloodgem fragment is believed to have granted him similar abilities.

Psionics: Bloodstone possessed a number of psionic capabilities. His most noted was an invisible "Third Eye" located on his forehead that enabled him to see human auras and astral projections. He also demonstrated minor telekinetic abilities, although the full limits of these powers were never revealed.

Abilities

Ulysses had accumulated centuries of experience in hunting, tracking, marksmanship, survival techniques, and the languages of Earth. He was also a formidable hand to hand combatant, highly skilled and trained in all known styles of combat on Earth. Over the millenniums, he mastered virtually every form of combat and martial art that the human species has ever devised.

Weaknesses

Bloodstone's greatest weakness was also the source of his power and longevity, namely the Bloodgem itself. As it granted him virtual immortality and superhuman attributes, the removal of the gem would cause him to lose those powers. In his case, the Bloodgem was also his lifeline. While he still retained residual energy from the gem after it was removed, enough to permit him some degree of life, the destruction of the gem caused his death.

Paraphernalia

Weapons

Ulysses Bloodstone had become proficient with nearly every type of weapon the human species has ever fashioned. In modern times, he relied mostly on knives, .45"-caliber semi-automatic pistols, and a specially designed shotgun with a sawed-off barrel. The shotgun, which held five rounds between reloadings, fired explosive shells which he could then detonate by psychic means.

The outfit which Ulysses Bloodstone preferred to wear in modern times incorporated not only tough leather boots but also flak storage pouches for a wide variety of weapons and ammunition. This included such weapons against vampires as a shotgun which fired silver cross buckshot and an ultraviolet flashlight.

Transportation

Conventional automobiles, boats and aircraft.

See Also

• 50 appearance(s) of Ulysses Bloodstone (Earth-616)
• 11 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Ulysses Bloodstone (Earth-616)
• 4 minor appearance(s) of Ulysses Bloodstone (Earth-616)
• 19 mention(s) of Ulysses Bloodstone (Earth-616)
• 12 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Ulysses Bloodstone (Earth-616)
• 25 image(s) of Ulysses Bloodstone (Earth-616)
• 2 quotation(s) by or about Ulysses Bloodstone (Earth-616)
• 1 item(s) used/owned by Ulysses Bloodstone (Earth-616)

Links and References

• Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) #16