Dracula

Characteristics 

Origin

Vlad Tepes Dracula

Vlad Tepes was a Transylvanian warlord who gained the nickname "Vlad the Impaler" from his particular love of impaling his enemies. In life, he was a highly feared yet respected warlord who stopped at nothing to attain victory. When Vlad began having dreams about winning a battle against the Turkish, he decided that his force should take on the invaders, thinking that his dreams were prophetic. Vlad's forces were supposed to lose the battle, due to the deceiving dreams being the work of Varnae, who is truly the first vampire and had chosen Vlad to be his successor, but managed to drive the intruders out using his superior strategic mind and abilities. However, the victory over the Turkish was short-lived, as Vlad's troops were mercilessly slain by Apocalypse and his Rider's of the Dark. Vlad was the only survivor of the attack, and he just barely managed that. The warlord Turac had seen the assault, and sent one of his men to aid the injured Vlad, believing that he could use Vlad to lead his military to global domination. Dracula was then sent to the residential healer, Lianda, who turned out to be a vampire. In order to heal Vlad, Lianda made him one of her own.

Lord Of The Vampires

Dracula then went on to live under the lordship of Turac in one of his towns, and did not realize his vampiric abilities until Turac and his men killed Vlad's wife, Maria. Infuriated by the homicide, Vlad brutally killed Turac and his men. After he had done so, he felt he needed to escape. He dropped his son, who was named after him, off to be raised by a group of residential gypsies and attempted to leave the town. On his way out, he was confronted by a group of Varnae's agents, and was escorted to the lair of Varnae to make a deal with their master. Varnae put Vlad through a series of tests to see if he was truly capable of being the king of the vampires. He was forced to slay Nimrod, who had posed as the ruler of earth's vampires. He did this with some ease, but was soon after confronted and destroyed by a band of priests. Varnae acknowledged the defeat, but did not give up on Vlad. Varnae resurrected Vlad with the blood of the niece of the head priest who had defeated Vlad. The king of the undead then aimed to kill the girl, but was himself killed by a grateful Dracula. Vlad then drank his blood, and became the king of the undead. This event showed Varnae that Vlad was fit enough to be the king of the vampires, so Varnae decided it was his time to go. After Varnae handmade an enchanted casket for Vlad to protect him from the sun, he killed himself by walking into the sunlight unshielded. Thus began the reign of Count Dracula. Throughout the next few centuries, Dracula reigned supreme over many European lands. Dracula was often killed, but never stayed defeated; using his mystic and unholy abilities to revive himself upon death.

Lilith, Daughter Of Dracula

At the turn of the nineteenth century, Dracula fought Jonathan Harker, Abraham Van Helsing, Mina Harker, John Seward, and Quincey Morris. This conflict is chronicled in Bran Stoker's, Dracula. After his apparent death Dracula was resurrected by accident from the Frankenstein monster. Later Dracula caught wind of Clan Akkaba, which was a large following of the god-mutant Apocalypse, the same Apocalypse who brought about his downfall as Vlad the Impaler. Using his extensive resources to find more out about the Clan, Dracula began attacking the Clan, killing off their members rigorously. He then manipulated the now vampiric Clansmen to do his will from within the clan, turning all but a handful of the members into Dracula's undead army, who also had mutant abilities thanks to the blood of Apocalypse flowing through their veins. After many battles between the remaining Apocalypse followers along with the vampire hunter Abraham van Helsing and Dracula's army, Apocalypse managed to impale Vlad through the heart. Apocalypse refused to take Abraham's advice, though, and did not do anything to keep Dracula permanently killed. Dracula returned a few years later and killed Abraham.

Abraham Van Helsing

Another century later, Dracula found himself in the United States. Much to his disgust, Dracula found Adolf Hitler and his Nazi followers imprisoning and slaying his gypsy followers. In order to put a stop to this, Dracula teamed up with Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos and helped bring down the Nazi empire. A few months after Dracula assisted in the Nazi downfall, he turned his attention to Castle Mordo in Transylvania. When Dracula began to turn some of the Castle's inhabitants into his vampiric slaves, Baron Mordo successfully managed to fend off the vampire lord. The year after this, Dracula observed a man, who is later determined to be the father of Jack Russel, transform into his werewolf form. Dracula deducted accurately that the reason for this transformation must involve the notorious Darkhold, which was one of the only objects that could cure Vlad of his vampiracy. Vlad kept an eye on the lycan population from behind the scenes for the next few years, slowly building a strategy. Afterwards, Vlad tracked down the famed vampire hunter Jamal Afari, who was also the mentor of Blade, and killed him. After the death, Blade swore to see to it that Dracula died at his hands. Many years later, Dracula again turned his attention to the home of Baron Mordo, but decided it unwise to attack the sorcerer, remembering his past encounter with him.

Bloodlust

Throughout the next century, Dracula had multiple run-ins with the greats of the Marvel Universe, including Dormammu, the Avengers, Hannibal King, Dr. Strange, Blade, Thor, and even the X-Men, but was ultimately destroyed by Blade, by being staked through the heart and then blown up, the stake still firmly embedded in the heart of Vlad. But as Quincy Harker stated, "how do you kill someone who can keep being resurrected over and over?" He recently has had dealings with his daughter Lilith, duping her into calling a gathering of all the great leaders of the various vampire families and then slaying them singlehandely, by the sword.

Current status

Dracula was last seen in his new castle on the moon, where he made plans to attack/invade Great Britain. The good old Transylvanian Count with his high body count is now in league with non other than Dr. Doom, all of this seems to be part of the new Dark Reign which was started by Norman Osborn.
 
He launched an attack on Great Britain in an attempt to establish a country for the vampire race with the aid of Lilith, mother of of Demons and Captain Fate.  Despite careful planning he was outmaneuvered by Pete Wisdom and MI:13.  His armies were destroyed and Dracula himself was killed by Faiza with the sword Excalibur.  In the end, he was unable to overcome the holy blade despite his superior physical abilities and swordsmanship skills resulting in him being stabbed through the chest and turning to ash.

 

Powers and Abilities

Vampires in general have superior strength and reflexes, Dracula being older and being the recognized Lord of Vampires should be considered to have Super-Strength and Super Reflexes. (He once back handed Colossus, felling him with one blow) Dracula has command over several natural elements such as summoning storms and control over the lesser creatures (Bats, Rats and Wolves). Dracula has very powerful abilities where hypnosis, suggestion and mesmerization are concerned and only the strongest minds/wills (such as Professor X or Dr. Strange) would be capable of resisting him. Dracula's own will is practically indomitable and he himself is seemingly immune to any kind of will controlling powers. This combined with his powers of invulnerability allowed him to nearly withstand the full fury of a mystic energy attack from Dr Strange at close range before finally falling. It is a credit to Dracula's powers that he was actually able to use the power of mental suggestion upon Dr. Strange himself, to make him think he had actually destroyed the Vampire Lord, thus allowing Dracula to escape complete annihilation.

Dracula has shape changing abilities such as turning into an insubstantial mist that can still direct itself about according to his will. He can also change into various animals, but prefers to travel as a bat. Apparently he can control the size and degree of transformation from a normal sized bat to one of monstrous proportion (6 foot wingspan) as well as a demonic looking half-humanoid were-bat variation. Dracula is invulnerable to all mundane weapons except the wooden stake. (when thrust directly through his heart)He has tremendous healing faculties, recovering from most damage including magical damage, given time. Fresh human blood will accelerate healing and increase all powers temporarily.

He has complete control over lesser vampires and can command them as an army if he can gather enough of them. Only a direct challenge and trial by combat by another vampire can unseat his authority.

Dracula is a master tactician and thoroughly competent in all the Knightly weapons of the 1400's, which seem to be his favorite choice when he decides to use something other than his bare hands; themselves being tipped with semi-long pointed finger nails. Combined with his super-strength and invulnerability they have been used with feral and bloody efficiency, even scoring metal upon occasion.

Dracula is also capable of recovering/resurrection from utter destruction as long as his ashes or bones are recovered by someone. Usually some kind of magical ritual is necessary to activate this resurrection though sometimes it can be as simple as the tears of a virgin being poured on his remains to bring him back to un-life.