BLOODWRAITH

 

BLOODWRAITH

Real Name: Sean Dolan

First Appearance: Black Knight (Vol. 2) #2, July 1990 (As Sean Dolan); Avengers Annual (Vol. 1) #22, March 1993 (As Bloodwraith)

Powers: Sean Dolan, a former squire of the Black Knight, became a new embodiment of the Ebony Blade's blood curse when he pulled the enchanted sword from its meteorite sheath. He, the sword, and his steed Valinor are now mystically bonded to one another. Sean can maintain his regular personality normally, but is transformed into the violent Bloodwraith when the sword senses evil in its vicinity, and compels him to draw it from its scabbard. The sword has an intense craving for souls, and this manifests through Sean as the Bloodwraith's desire to shed the blood of the guilty. Inflicting a mortal blow on a foe enables Bloodwraith to absorb their soul into his blade, but even a minor cut allows the blade to draw upon a fraction of the victim's soul, sending a temporary bone-chilling weakness through them. The souls of the guilty feed the inherent evil of the blade's curse and are addictive for Dolan, making Bloodwraith even more violent and eager to claim victims. The souls of the innocent, however, will temporarily satiate the sword's appetite, allowing Sean's inherent goodness to reassert control over his second self's actions. Thus, the Bloodwraith's identity is a living balance between good and evil, with the quality of each soul he takes tipping the scales one way or another.

The connection between man, sword, and steed allows Bloodwraith to summon Valinor mentally over a distance, retrieve his sword back to his grasp from anywhere within his line-of-sight, and teleport himself and Valinor into the sword's vicinity if they are ever separated by a great distance. He was once able to transport from New York to Sarajevo instantly to retrieve the blade once Deadpool teleported away with it. The blade itself is virtually indestructible, able to slice through near any substance. It is also capable of disrupting sources of magic on contact, cutting through mystical barriers or deflecting spells cast at it. It can absorb flame and energy harmlessly into the blade's metal as well. Bloodwraith was later overcome completely by the sword's curse when he traveled to the nation of Slorenia, which at the time, had been massacred to the last man by Ultron. The blade reacted to the residual spiritual energy of the thousands dead there, and caused the sword and Bloodwraith to grow into a giant more than 10 stories tall. His new form was now energy-based, powered by soul magic with immeasurable strength and completely immaterial to scientific forces.