Merge:Baron Blood

Baron Blood is the name of several vampire supervillains in the Marvel Comics universe. The first Baron Blood, John Falsworth, is a frequent foe of Union Jack. He first appeared in Invaders #7 (1976) and was created by Roy Thomas, Frank Robbins and Vince Colletta.

The second Baron Blood, Victor Strange, is the brother of Doctor Strange. He first appeared in Doctor Strange vol 3 #15 and was created by Dann Thomas, Roy Thomas and Jackson Guice.

The third Baron Blood, Kenneth Crichton, is the grandnephew of the first Baron Blood. He is a foe of the current Union Jack. He first appeared in Captain America vol 1 #253 (January, 1981), and became Baron Blood in Union Jack #1. He was created by Roger Stern, John Byrne and Josef Rubinstein.

Baron Blood I
John Falsworth was born as the younger brother of Montgomery Falsworth in the late 19th century. He left England when Montgomery inherited their father's estate. John believed the legend of vampires to be real and travelled to Transylvania to seek out Dracula in an attempt to gain power, but instead fell under Dracula's power. Dracula turned him into a vampire, then commanded John to wreak havoc on England. John sided with Germany during World War I (where he gained the code-name Baron Blood), and fought his brother (secretly Union Jack).

During World War II, John also sided with Germany and in exchange Nazi scientists found a way to mitigate his susceptibility to sunlight. He fought both his brother and the Invaders. He was killed (impaled on silver-veined stalagmite) and later resurrected by Super-Axis, but then killed again (wooden stake through heart) and buried in the Tower of London.

Many years later, he was again resurrected, this time by one of Dracula's servants, Dr. Jacob Cromwell. Blood returned home with Cromwell, but turned on them. He killed Cromwell and one of his daughters and turned the other daughter into a vampire, who came to be known as Baroness Blood. Baron Blood himself took Jacob Cromwell's identity. He started killing again and Union Jack suspected that his brother had returned. He asked Captain America to help him investigate the murders. Eventually Blood was decapitated by Captain America, burned to ashes, and the ashes were scattered.

Baron Blood II
The sorcerer Doctor Strange once tried to resurrect his dead brother, Victor, with a spell from the Book of the Vishanti. Still inexperienced, Strange did not realise that this spell would later resurrect his brother as a vampire. For unknown reasons, Victor Strange dressed the same as Baron Blood and called himself Baron Blood as well. Unlike most vampires in the Marvel Universe, Victor was able to control his bloodlust and retained most of his personality. He tried to become a hero by only attacking and drinking the blood of criminals, but his brother was forced to slay his victims who had come back to live as vampires. Victor continued his career as the costumed vigilante Khiron, but eventually realised how violent and bloodthirsty he had become and killed himself.

Baron Blood III
Kenneth Crichton was next in line to take on the identity of Union Jack, but refused, stating that his friend Joey Chapman was better suited to be the new Union Jack. Joey agreed and became Union Jack III. Suffering from anemia and feeling estranged from Joey as Union Jack and his recently rejuvenated mother, Lady Crichton, Kenneth became an easy target for Baroness Blood, who turned him into the new Baron Blood as a "cure" for his anemia. The Baroness used Kenneth and several other vampires to obtain the Holy Grail, which gave her immunity to sunlight and the other traditional weaknesses vampires had, but she didn't want to share this power with other vampires and destroyed the Grail. The sun rose and Kenneth and the other vampires all died, despite Union Jack's efforts to save Kenneth.