NIGHTSTALKERS

 

NIGHTSTALKERS

Roster: Frank Drake, Blade (Eric Brooks), and Hannibal King

First Appearances: Tomb of Dracula (Vol. 1) #1, April 1972 (Frank Drake); Tomb of Dracula (Vol. 1) #10, July 1973 (Blade); Tomb of Dracula (Vol. 1) #25, October 1974 (King); Nightstalkers (Vol. 1) #1, November 1992 (as group)

History & Powers: The Nightstalkers are a trio of vampire hunters comprised of three lone hunters. With the threat of Dracula evident, the three men decided to pool their resources together to hunt and kill Dracula.

Frank Drake is the human descendant of Dracula, and formerly a professional vampire hunter. With the Nightstalkers, he carried a massive gun known as "The Exorcist" (more affectionately called "Linda", after the actress Linda Blair). The gun was specially designed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to target and destroy supernatural phenomena using nano-technology. It fires a plasma-charged energy beam as a delivery system for microscopic machines that break down occult forces at the molecular level, and the plasma beam itself is effective against non-supernatural targets. The Exorcist disrupts the fundamental energy fields that exist within the supernatural, creating a form of feedback that charges inanimate occult objects like a live wire, or causes intense pain in living supernatural targets. Drake can also specially program the gun's energy beam to affect specific targets after he has recorded their occult energy signature, creating a specialized beam designed solely to incapacitate and destroy that one target. The Exorcist is sensitive to occult emanations, equipped with a small radar-like screen allowing Drake to pinpoint nearby mystical beings or forces. A low-density beam projected from the gun can also be used as an occult-seeking light effect, clinging to and illuminating people or objects that are supernatural or were recently in contact with supernatural forces. The Exorcist's beam also seeks out occult forces like a magnet, conducting itself through other mediums. For instance, Drake could blast a speeding vehicle, and the energy would sweep through the car before localizing on an occult object being held by the passenger, causing it to flare up and burn the person holding it. On another occasion, Frank attacked a group of cultists in a cemetery, and the Exorcist's beam struck one ceremonial dagger and then jumped from that enchanted blade to the blades being held by all the other cultists, like chain lightning.

Blade (Eric Brooks) was affected when his mother was bitten by a vampire while she was in labor giving birth to him. As a result, the chemical ichor vampires secrete from their fangs entered his bloodstream as he was being born, affecting his developing metabolism and making him a dhampir (a genetic hybrid of human and vampire). Blade is thus functionally immune to a vampire's bite, at least in the sense that he can never be transformed into a vampire himself. Many vampires also seem to find the taste of his blood unpalatable. Blade has also manifested an extrasensory ability to feel the presence of the occult or supernatural forces. This ability's operation is quite similar to Spider-Man's "spider-sense": Blade can sense the intensity of the occult forces being used, can feel a general direction to guide him towards the source, and can focus his sense on a specific person or object to determine if it has supernatural properties. Blade has employed a number of anti-vampire weapons and other tools over the years, including wooden stakes, throwing knives, retractable wrist blades, a samurai style sword, and goggles which bend light in order to render him immune to vampires' hypnosis. He wore a suit of metal-plated armor with the Nightstalkers. At one point, Blade read a spell from the Darkhold that he believed would eradicate all supernatural forces on Earth. Instead, it transformed him into a new Demogorge entity nicknamed "Switchblade", giving him the power to absorb the supernatural powers of anyone he killed. Switchblade amassed a large collection of abilities during the events known as the Midnight Massacre, including healing abilities, precognition, the powers of a vampire and a werewolf, Johnny Blaze's hellfire-blasting shotgun and mystical motorcycle, and the Demogoblin's demonic weaponry. Eventually, the power of the Darkhold page was reversed, restoring Blade to normal and reviving all his victims. Later, Blade fought against Morbius the Living Vampire, and was bitten by him. Morbius's scientifically-derived vampire powers combined with Blade's dhampir physiology to give him superhuman strength, speed, agility, endurance, reflexes, vision, and recuperative powers (A Daywalker). Since then, however, further revelations have revealed that Blade was always the Daywalker, but presumably concealed that fact for his own purposes. He is over 100 years old and possesses the bloodlust of a vampire, but does not require blood to survive. Blade severed his own hand to escape a dungeon, and so now employs a bionic hand provided by S.H.I.E.L.D., or occasionally a gun-hand that can mentally switch between standard, rubber, or wooden bullets.

Hannibal King was a private investigator who was turned into a vampire, but never consummated the curse. Because he never drank blood from another living victim, Dr. Strange was able to save King and restore him to a normal life when the Montesi Formula was released and destroyed all other vampires in existence on Earth. Once the power of the formula was reversed, however, King began to revert back into a vampiric state. He became trapped between man and revenant, possessing most of a vampire's strength and yet not all their weaknesses. King is virtually immortal, and unaffected by nearly all forms of physical injury. Mortal wounds quickly vanish as his flesh regenerates back to its normal state. Although he needs to avoid direct contact with sunlight, King does not need to sleep during the day like some vampires. He is also less affected by garlic or religious symbols than others. A stake through the heart does little more than paralyze Hannibal until it is removed, but decapitation will permanently end his un-life. He possesses superhuman strength, somewhere between 1,000 lbs and 5 tons, and increased speed, endurance, reflexes, and night vision. He can mentally control creatures of the night such as bats, wolves and rodents, and possesses shape-changing powers: Hannibal can turn into a wolf or bat, or into half-human variations that resemble a werewolf or man-bat. He can also convert into mist, making him physically untouchable, capable of flight and seeping through tight crevices. If his hands or another part of his body is lobbed off, Hannibal can also remotely turn those pieces into mist and cause them to return to his body mass from a distance. Although he is capable of sucking the blood from the living through his fangs, King feels only a psychological need for life-blood, and does not require it in order to survive.