VS Analysis: Vampirella, Harris Comics' Daughter of Drakulon

 

Background

Vampirella
Nicknames: V, ‘Rella, Ladybug, Lady Midnight, Dark Lady, Elvira
Height: Unknown
Measurements: 36-32-36
Occupation: Vampire hunter, magician’s assistant, actress (formerly), acrobat (formerly)
Likes: Adam Van Helsing, Conrad Van Helsing, Mordecai Pendragon, Pantha, Dixie Fattoni, Shadowhawk, cats, Ireland
Dislikes: Chaos, Dracula, Ethan Shroud, Hemmorhage, Nazis, Lady Death, feminists, Paris
Her backstory has enough retcons to rival Donna Troy, Hawkman, and Quicksilver


Backstory

“I am the night's first daughter, sworn to redeem my mother's sins and bring her other children to heel! You who surrender to the blood-thirst hand yourselves over to me! I am Vampirella!”

The year was 1969. Following a plane crash in the Colorado mountains, a single woman in a sling bikini made her way to the nearest village, heavily injured and bleeding. And as Doctor Ethan Shroud performed surgery to restore her to health, he discovered a series of oddities: retractable bat wings, razor-sharp claws, a mouth of fangs meant for drawing blood, but strangest of all was this woman’s claim that she was an alien from a distant planet called Drakulon, and her name was Vampirella.

As Ethan nursed her back to health (after surgically removing her damaged wings), he discovered Vampirella, like her namesake, relied on a steady consumption of blood, and to help sate these cravings, he created a serum to act as a daily substitute. But he wasn’t doing all of this out of the kindness of his heart. The supposed Good Samaritan was a member of a cult dedicated to the mad god Chaos, and after witnessing Vampirella’s otherworldly makeup, he saw a potential ally. Vampirella was horrified by this and fought back against the cult, ending with Ethan’s untimely demise as their lair exploded.

With nowhere to turn, Vampirella wandered the United States, eventually meeting the stage magician Mordecai Pendragon and becoming his assistant. Her wings might’ve been gone, but her species’ ability to turn into a bat left audiences amazed and coming back for more. 

Her existence also caught the attention of the Van Helsing family, whose current heads, the blind psychic Conrad and his son Adam, initially suspected she was another malevolent bloodsucker. When they realized she was nothing like the monsters they’d sworn to destroy, Vampirella and the Van Helsings became close friends, and in Adam’s case, eventual lovers. With Pen and the Van Helsings by her side, Vampirella battled the forces of Chaos, whether they were the sorceress called the Blood Red Queen, the resurrected Ethan, or Dracula himself!

Then, years after she arrived on Earth, everything changed.

Ethan Shroud had been resurrected again, spearheading the cult of Chaos in an attempt to take over the world and taking Conrad hostage! Vampirella forced Adam and Pen to retreat while she stayed behind to free him, but she never returned. Adam and Pen tried to find her, but with no leads, they eventually accepted the worst and tried to move on. Adam abandoned his training as a vampire hunter to become a US senator and Pen continued his career as a magician, but without his former partner and the depression brought on by her loss, his skills floundered and he became an alcoholic, forced to peddle trinkets to children and tourists.

However, Vampirella was very much alive. She’d survived her encounter with Shroud, but her substitute serum had run out and she was desperate. A vampire drug trade called the “O-Boyz” began supplying her with an experimental new drug, a powder infused with animal blood, and while it curbed her thirst, taking it caused Vampirella to lose her memories, her identity, and even her youth, turning her into a weak, elderly woman. Unaware of her past, the amnesiac Vampirella became a teacher in Georgetown under the name Ella Normandy, and as the supernatural grew more prominent in Washington, she became a frequent buyer from the O-Boyz.

Vampirella spent a decade as a schoolteacher by day and addicted junkie by night, but a spark of her former self returned when she walked in on one of her students, Chelsea Cantrell, wearing her old costume. Unbeknownst to her, Ethan had risen in power and become the head of a cabal known as the Unseelie Congress. This group of monsters, ghouls, and demons had spread across the nation and left Washington under constant attack at night, but Ethan wanted more! Hoping to create a new Vampirella to rule alongside him, he infected Chelsea with vampirism and ordered his men to kidnap her, but Ella discovered them and fought back. In the ensuing battle, “Miss Normandy” instinctively bit one of the men on the neck, and the taste of his blood restored her youth and the years of damage from drug abuse. Vampirella had returned!

After reuniting with Adam and Pen, they (alongside Chelsea) journeyed to the Unseelie’s base hidden behind the Lincoln Memorial. Unfortunately, Chelsea’s vampiric urges became too much as she killed Conrad and attacked Vampirella, forcing Adam to put her out of her misery. This distraction allowed Ethan to finish his incantations and summon Nuberus, the demon herald of Chaos. Nuberus spread his influence across the planet and preyed on the people’s deepest desires. All they had to do was agree with his honeyed words and accept a deal to receive their heart’s desire, and in exchange they’d be placed in a lifelike illusion as his power grew.

Earth’s population slowly fell victim to the demon’s influence, and even Vampirella was briefly tempted after Ethan revealed her memories of Drakulon were fabricated by Chaos. It was only thanks to her love for Adam and her friendship with Pen that she snapped her out of her stupor and Nuberus was cast back into the Nether-Void, taking Shroud’s body and soul with him.

A new Morning in America had come, and with it Vampirella had become a changed woman. For the past decade she had feared her bloodlust and tried to reject it by using serums in its place. Now she had learned to embrace it as a necessary tool to protect others and rejected the substitute serums she’d previously depended on. And those changes had only just begun! 

During one of her magic performances with Pen, a memory unlocked deep in her subconscious, and instead of turning into a bat like normal, she transformed into a batwoman, gaining bat ears and regrowing the leathery wings that had been amputated since 1969. This transformation left Vampirella with more questions about her past, and this journey to regain some clarity spiraled into a bizarre maze. 

The Unseelie Congress hired the psychokinetic assassin Hemorrhage to kill Vampirella, and in the ensuing battle she and Adam began working alongside the paranormal containment group Danse Macabre. Adam tried to make up for his feelings of insecurity by taking the street drug Hyde 32, unlocking his full potential and creating the violent bad boy persona/split personality Bad Jack. And as they became involved in a centuries long war with the Biblical Adam and his remorseful son Cain vs a vengeful Eve, Vampirella discovered the opposing side was led by her evil siblings Madek and Magdelene. Their goal? Return to their childhood home in the Garden of Eden and get revenge on their mother Lilith.

Originally the first wife of Adam, Lilith was evicted from Eden by God for refusing to submit to her husband, and in her rage she consorted with demons, engaging in an unholy orgy that spawned a new race called vampires. But when she saw the carnage her children created, she sought redemption and returned to Eden, birthing the twins Madek and Magdelene to redeem their evil siblings or kill them if they refused. When they were finally sent out, the twins grew to hate their mother for casting them out of paradise into a world of violence and savagery. Like Lilith all those years ago, the twins rebelled against their creator, channeling the rage from their eviction into spiteful acts of bloodshed. 

Sensing her tools of penance were now consumed by their inner darkness, Lilith used the last of her power to birth a new child: Vampirella. Lilith spent years training Vampirella to master her powers and temper her inner darkness, all to act as her light in the darkness and slay her evil siblings. Instead, the more experienced twins defeated Vampirella in the mountains of Colorado, but her power had impressed Madek. Seeing a way to keep Lilith off their backs and deal with their old enemies in the cult of Chaos, Madek convinced Magdelene to spare Vampirella and rewrote her memories, inspired by his fascination with storytelling. Vampirella now believed she was an alien from the planet Drakulon, the sole survivor of a plane crash, and was sent off to a clinic that was secretly a cover for Chaos’ cult. 

After learning her true heritage, Vampirella engaged the twins in a final battle to prevent them from gaining the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. Magdelene slashed Madek’s throat for doubting their goals, and just before the light left his eyes, he watched Vampirella decapitate her. In the end, a legion of angels eradicated Eden, and a dying Lilith remained behind with her children, ex-husband, and Eve, but in her final moments she assured Vampirella she was proud of her. 

Weeks later, Vampirella was targeted by another enemy tied to her past: Nyx, the daughter of Chaos! Seizing control of the Unseelie Council and with Hemorrhage under her control, Nyx slowly tore everything from Vampirella, culminating in her snapping Adam’s neck in front of her! Vampirella tore through Nyx’s men, fighting tooth and nail to avenge her lost love. Even as her allies fell one by one and she forced Pen and the cyborg Passion to escape, Vampirella remained, weak, tired, and once again stripped of her wings, but determined to fight to the bitter end! Vampirella lunged forward to kill Chaos’ spawn, spurred on by her memories of Adam…

But instead of her claws and fangs tearing through Nyx’s flesh, all she felt was the end of Nyx’s spear stabbing through her esophagus and pinning her to a door. Any remaining energy and adrenaline slowly ebbed away as she helplessly bled out, eventually forced to give in and accept death.

The moment she died, Vampirella woke up on Drakulon, which was real, her childhood home, and once again a planet of pacifistic vampires, just not in space. It was actually a planet in Hell ruled by Lilith, whose life force was directly connected to its bloody River Styx. Lilith had realized her time was coming to an end, so to keep herself alive, she dried up the Styx and went into hiding, leaving her once peaceful children to descend into chaos and war. In response, God sent Adam Van Helsing to punish her selfishness and restore the rivers, an act that ended with Lilith’s death. 

Using the last of her strength, Lilith teleported Vampirella to the Styx and (after retconning that Vampi was only raised in Eden, not born there) explained that the time was coming soon for God to end the legacy of His oldest creations. Eden had been burned down, the first man Adam had died, and Cain had been devoured by Hell’s parasites. Now Lilith’s time was coming, but right before God struck her down, she sent Vampirella’s soul back to Earth.

With a bolt of lightning striking her coffin, Vampirella was resurrected in the town of Whitechapel, America’s own magnet for vampires. After stopping a plot to resurrect Lilith’s eldest son, Vampirella swore she’d grant her mother the redemption she sought for so long by exterminating all vampires who were unrepentant and evil.

After years of battling old enemies like the Red Queen and the forces of Chaos, reuniting with her old partner Pantha in a canon crossover, and a ton of retcons I’ll be skipping for brevity, Vampirella would take the mafia princess Dixie Fattoni under her wing when the rest of her family was slaughtered by vampires. With the help of Vampirella and the Sisterhood of Red Nuns, Dixie began training as a vampire hunter, but they were separated when a final battle with Nyx destroyed a portal meant to bring Hell on Earth. 

Once again trapped on Drakulon with Adam, Vampirella discovered the River Styx had run dry… again. This conflict would lead to her battling Chaos Comics’ Lady Death, briefly “dying,” and being drawn to the heart of the fallen angel Malkuth, the source of Drakulon’s blood river (even though Lilith was already established as being that, but you might’ve realized the writers don’t keep track of continuity).

As she got close to the mountain that held this heart, Vampirella was attacked by the souls of her past vampiric victims, and in her desperation to defend herself, she attempted to remove the spear that had pierced Malkuth’s heart. Even when the angel Metatron appeared to warn her that doing so would release Malkuth’s evil upon the world, Vampirella became desperate when the souls attacked Adam. She removed the spear, and the mountain that held the heart exploded, releasing Malkuth’s energy into the cosmos and destroying Drakulon. Metatron would take Malkuth’s place as Vampirella rammed his spear into his corrupted heart, unleashing a geyser of blood that restored Drakulon’s waters again. However, this would lead to a few surprises when she returned to Earth. 

By replacing the source of Drakulon’s rivers, all existing vampires underwent a sudden evolution. Her brothers and sisters were now immune to the cross, and a new race of energy-draining Aquarian vampires had begun to crop up. Worst of all, this evolution occurred right as the Sisterhood was in the middle of a vampire hunt, and now all of them were transformed and corrupted.

Though they were successful in killing the vampirized nuns, the Aquarian vampire Zarin, and Vampirella saved Dixie from being buried alive by a Nazi wolfman, Dixie would still die shortly after while battling the Nazi scientist Dr. Midwinter. Enraged at her surrogate daughter’s death, Vampirella mutilated the wannabe immortal and had Lady Death throw him to his demise, but it was too late to save Dixie. As Lady Death carried Dixie’s soul into the afterlife, Vampirella was left to bitterly mourn her death.

The years passed, and Vampirella continued her quest of vampire hunting, but her past kept bothering her. Sometimes she’d experience her false memories of Drakulon as an alien planet and how she’d come to Earth on a spaceship, or she received bits and pieces of events she didn’t fully recall. Seeking answers, she went to a hypnotherapist and uncovered some surprising Revelations. 

Vampirella was never “born” in the first place. She was a homunculus created when drops of Lilith’s blood entered the soil of Hell, made for the sole purpose of restoring the strength Lilith had lost by giving birth to her previous children. And despite contradicting ALL of her previous stories, it’s revealed Lilith never actually loved Vampirella and only saw her as a tool to aid in bringing Hell to Earth. It’s even handwaved that all of Vampirella’s previous origins were Lilith and her demon husband Belial rewriting her memories with a magic mirror so she’d do whatever was convenient for them!

Now aware of her true origins and having served her purpose, Vampirella was kidnapped by a horde of demons and reunited with a resurrected Lilith. All seemed hopeless as her mother began feeding on her to regain the last of her lost power, but out of desperation Vampirella reached for the memory-altering mirror. Its touch filled her with mystical energies that overloaded Lilith and incinerated her to the bone, and as Belial remained behind to mourn his dead wife, Vampirella escaped Hell and continued her quest to vanquish evil, even though she knew it was based on hollow lies. 

This one-woman fight against darkness eventually led to a final battle where Pendragon gathered all of the sorcerers Chaos had made enemies of, and together they pooled their mystical energies into Vampirella, giving her the power to slay the Red Queen and Chaos, who had possessed Adam’s corpse. Following Chaos’ defeat, a surprising twist allowed Adam to return to life and retain his powers as Chaos’ vessel. Those same powers would be sought by Vampirella’s secret sister Draculina, who was helping the US military enter Hell so she could get revenge on Lilith and Vampirella for being their mom’s favorite. Having experienced the futility of seeking revenge and blaming others for the wrongs she faced, Vampirella tried to convince her sister to abandon her goals, but it fell on deaf ears as Draculina allowed herself to fall into Hell even after Vampirella saved her.

It wouldn’t be the last time an accident separated her from those close to her. Like with Ethan Shroud all those decades ago, during a mission to stop some demons Vampirella put Pen’s safety above her own as things went south, and in the end Vampirella was killed and buried in a coffin by the demon general Gore. Gore and his hordes invaded everyday life and began infecting the masses, but thanks to Pen, Vampirella’s exploits were revealed to the general public. Unfortunately, the public didn’t see them as real and believed they were just works of fiction.

While the real Vampirella rotted away, her fictional counterpart went viral, becoming the product of numerous books, movies, video games, cartoons, and a popular sex symbol. A group of strippers even took their love for her so far they actually thought they WERE Vampirella, which was closer to the truth than anyone expected.

Many of these supposed strippers were women Vampirella had unknowingly “marked” by feeding on them years ago. For most vampires, draining a victim would’ve absorbed their soul along with it, but out of her respect for humanity, Vampirella fed on these women just enough to keep herself going while ensuring they’d remain alive. And through a complete accident even she hadn’t expected, part of her soul had entered the women’s bodies when she drank their blood. This “curse” could be spread via a bite to the neck, passing a piece of Vampirella’s soul into another, sharing their memories with the other infected, and subconsciously guiding them with a desire to resurrect her.

With the cursed women at his side, Pen led them to storm the demons’ hideout and recovered Vampirella’s emaciated corpse from her coffin. Revived by a bit of blood, Vampirella was given a Second Coming and helped her worldwide order of “sisters” battle Gore and his men, tearing his neck open and drinking his infected blood. As the demonic plague was about to kill her, Vampirella recalled all of the fragments of her soul back into herself. Vampirella’s soul emerged from her bloated, blackened corpse, and in a final, selfless act, unleashed a planetwide wave that completely purged the virus and cured its victims. Vampirella’s soul collapsed in Pen’s arms, and after a final farewell she faded from existence, taking with her the vampirism that had infected her “sisters” and restoring their humanity.

Everything went back to normal, but somehow Vampirella was able to reincarnate through a prostitute. When her partner tried to attack her, Vampirella’s instincts and powers overcame the hooker, resurrecting the daughter of Drakulon once again! But we never actually got to see any of her stories past this point. Harris Publications went out of business shortly after publishing Vampirella: Second Coming, and despite being revived by Dynamite Entertainment in 2010, Second Coming was completely ignored.

Personality

Following her return after a decade of inactivity (both in real life and in-universe), Vampirella underwent a drastic change from her Warren self. Sworn to shield humankind against the threat of her fellow vampires, she lived in a constant struggle between her own natural bloodlust and her mission to protect the innocent. She initially tried to rein in her bloodlust using a substitute serum, but after the decade she spent in a drug-induced haze, she now saw it as no better than the opioids she was addicted to and considered her bloodlust a necessary tool. This change in attitude made her more sure of herself and she started to enjoy fighting, getting a rush from spilling tainted blood and at times entering such a violence-induced high that she needed to concentrate to calm herself!

Early on she’d feel self-reflective on how she’d changed, being disturbed by her bloodlust and how she enjoyed killing her enemies. She’d even blame herself for the deaths of innocents, wondering if she was any different from the vampires she killed or if she became what she was made to destroy. By the end of it, when Pen reflected on how sweet and kind she used to be, she explained that she needs to be a warrior and give into her bloodlust if it means sweetness will continue to exist for anyone. 

She lives for the feeling of the chase and the kill, seeing her bloodlust as a weapon she could control, not the other way around. As time went on she began killing so frequently and easily that she didn’t even think about it or remember some of her victims, only being sure that anyone that fell to her claws deserved to die. She became willing to pull off downright sadistic executions and torture vampires for information. She interrogated one’s severed head as the sun was slowly burning him and let him roast to death. Or there’s when she shot holes to let sunlight into one’s coffin and shot him in the balls when he still refused to cooperate.

This might make her sound like a violent sadist, but she has a strong moral code. She doesn’t believe in senseless killings and refuses to shed innocent blood or drink it, only taking the lives of those with no right to live. She’s gone out of her way to try and spare enemies out of pity or convince them they don’t have to keep fighting, and spared people infected with lycanthropy due to realizing they could still use their transformations for good. She’s sympathized with Danse Macabre’s artificial vampires because they couldn’t control their powers and were afraid of them and what they’d become. Even against the artificial vampires she didn’t like and threatened to kill, like Danser Wild, she still tried to impart wisdom onto him and teach him to compose himself. After witnessing Chelsea’s transformation into a monstrous vampire and being forced to kill her, she swore to honor her memory by refusing to let her bloodlust and rage control her, even though doing so infuriated her. If there’s no other choice, she won’t hesitate to sacrifice herself if it means saving the people she cares for.

While she claimed to have no problem taking the life of an innocent if it means saving lives, even if it damns her soul, this turned out to be a bluff. Even when she tried to convince herself it was the only way to prevent a vampire apocalypse, she couldn’t bring herself to kill a baby. Human babies, anyway. She’ll kill vampire and zombie babies just to put them out of their misery, but if it’s a human, she won’t harm a hair on their head. In fact, the sight of a baby is one of the few things that can fully snap her out of a raging blood lust. 

Being a vampire, she has no issue with drinking blood and will do it regardless of the source. Even cannibalism isn’t off the table, as she sometimes engages in it with vampires' corpses, either drinking their blood or eating their organs. She’s also commented on the taste of her villains’ blood, describing Nazis as tasting vile, General Gore’s as “drinking gasoline, choking on a fountain of cold sick, or drowning in sewage,” and Hemorrhage’s as “Ichor laced with feces and industrial strength drain cleaner.” As a side note, she really hates Hemorrhage, feeling that even thinking about him is a waste of time and makes her want to kill something. 

After going to Hell and learning Lilith yearned for redemption (before it was retconned), Vampirella became devoted to destroying all vampires so she could carry out her mother's will. However, this mission only extends to any vampires that are evil and unrepentant. To her, the ones that remained on Drakulon were still innocent, and she couldn’t bring herself to hate them because they were still her people. When she did kill its vampires, that was during war, and once that war ended she chose to stand with her planet against any threats to it. She was so dedicated to defending Drakulon that during its first drought, after being attacked by her own siblings and seeing Kubek’en’s (her home town) current state, she put her love for Lilith aside and focused on saving her people over ensuring her mother’s survival. Years later when she learned too late that Nowheresville was a town of pacifistic, ethical vampires. she felt guilty about killing some of its people and helped protect them when the military came after them. And when the town was destroyed during the battle, she assured them they could rebuild the happy, functioning community from before.

When she learned her true origin she was furious, but instead of being broken by the horror of what she was, she decided if she’s a monster, she’d return that monstrousness to those that made her. Even though her mission turned out to be a lie, she was still dedicated to killing Earth’s vampires to protect humans. Though after years of vengeance and taking out her aggression on everyone she could, she realized it was better to move on from her anger than try to get even. By the time she reunited with her forgotten sister Draculina, this epiphany led to her sympathizing with Draculina, trying to spare her, save her from falling into Hell, and convince her to restart her life.

She often approaches her missions with a sense of humor, being slightly snarky even when she’s about to die, and acts snide and smug when getting interrogated. She has no problem taunting opponents or provoking them, and is often annoyed at how vampires that want to kill her will prioritize talking over action. She occasionally makes terrible puns during or after fights, and has joked about being tranquilized and being dead fresh off her resurrection. But if innocents are on the line or it’s against someone she particularly hates, she’ll immediately drop the humor and get serious.

More comedic issues like Jimmy Palmiotti’s characterize her as being really catty, having a short fuse, and being uncharacteristically cavalier about killing or bystanders getting caught in the crossfire. Sometimes she’ll kill people for insulting her like when she flew into a murderous rage at being told she needs a training bra and killed an Iron Man parody for calling her a bitch.

She typically prefers to not involve normal humans in her vampire killing, but when she came across Dixie Fattoni, she felt some maternal instincts and, after seeing so much heartbreak in her lifetime, took Dixie under her wing. This gave something to live for besides killing, but when a misunderstanding led to Dixie abandoning her, she was saddened but believed it was for the best that Dixie separates herself from the supernatural. When Dixie died, Vampirella blamed herself and felt she could never forgive herself for it.

Of her two main companions, Mordecai Pendragon is her oldest, dearest friend. He’s been like a kind, loving grandfather to her, and she sees him as her compass and touchstone to humanity. She views him as a supreme showman and, in her journal that he discovered posthumously, she implored him to continue his training in true magic because she knew he would one day assume his true potential. 

And then there’s her second companion and lover Adam Van Helsing. According to her journal, “Just breathing his name, it is as if his flesh brushes my lips, I smell his hair, grow warm to enfold him, squeeze his palms as his hands cover me.” She loves him so much that it motivated her to persevere even when she was nearly overwhelmed by bloodlust and gave them a mental connection so deep she could sense his presence and transformation into Bad Jack, which she also grew to love. When he died she reacted with a level of brutality she'd never shown before, killing everything around her on pure instinct to get to his murderer. Even when reflecting on his life in her journal her sheer anger at his death caused her to shatter the pens she was writing with.

She eventually tried to move on years later, like when she had a night of passionate sex with a vampire Shadowhawk in their crossover, or there’s the Vampirella Comics Magazines where she kissed a girl named Tina, began living with her while laying low, and got with a Frankenstein’s monster whose heart she regularly worked tooth and nail to restart. But the later comics never bring this up and depict her more as a lone wolf until Adam gets resurrected, something she admits she wanted more than anything in the world, but regrets that it required resurrecting Chaos.

As for some misc personality traits, she’s agnostic and believes God doesn’t care about humans, and she tends to say “Satyr and Circe” when she’s happy, surprised, worried, annoyed, angry, overwhelmed, discovers something, or wants to remove an illusion.

Experience

Across the 18 years Harris published her, Vampirella has slain multiple mercenaries, wolfmen, demons, zombies, fishmen, genetically-altered dinosaurs, and naturally, a ton of vampires! She’s disrupted much of the vampires’ North American business and killed more vampires on a weekly basis than a hepatitis epidemic. She’s hunted down and defeated a succubus, has fought werewolves more times than she can count, and by her own recollection, has encountered "rituals, amulets, and blood gore. Mafia vampire daughters, Mexican zombies, werewolf cops, and the occasional half-naked demigod to put down." 

She’s killed an entire group of thugs like they were nothing while dual-wielding swords, worked with Pantha, Dixie, and the Sisterhood to fight an army of thousands of vampires, worked with Sara Pezzini from Witchblade to kill 1000 demons, and later went on to solo a 1000 demon army. She’s killed an entire group of crazed Avengers parodies and overpowered Lady Death in a one-on-one CQC fight.

Vampirella’s imagination is matched only by her passion for killing. Throughout this era, she’s used her creativity to:
Even when dealing with vampires like Zarin, who are immune to the standard weaknesses, she tricked him into absorbing a plasma gun’s energy, causing his energy-devouring zombies to turn on him, eat him alive, and get incinerated by the energy.

She’s trained since childhood to master her powers and the art of combat by battling monsters in the Garden of Eden, though the legitimacy of these flashbacks are questionable given later retcons. What isn’t questionable is her training with the Sisterhood of the Red Nuns, an organization within the Catholic Church consisting of the best physical specimens trained in state-of-the-art vampire-killing techniques. They trained her in close quarters combat, and she’d later test her skills against the Wickerman, a monster bioengineered from the True Cross that could instantly kill a vampire with a touch and was created to vanquish a vampire army, And all Vampirella suffered against it was a minor, bloody splinter!


Arsenal

Classic Costume


Vampirella’s famous costume, and one whose origins depend on the era. Vengeance of Vampirella revealed this sling bikini was woven by Lilith’s spiders Satyr and Circe, created to display Vampirella’s warrior nature and remind her of Eden and her mission. The late 2000s changed it so that the entire outfit, from the bikini all the way down to her boots, is actually a mass of coagulated blood she can reshape however she likes, even forming it beneath other clothes. While her arm band doesn’t have much of note, it’s durable enough to block a slash from a katana without any damage.


Trenchcoat and Jackets


Occasionally worn over her sling bikini, she owns several different types, with some having crosses sewn into their flaps to ward off vampires. Throughout the 90s, her most used was a brown bomber jacket, which could conceal her weapons or be used to blind others.


Red Nun Arsenal


During the Vampirella Monthly series in the 90s, Vampirella briefly joined the Sisterhood of the Red Nuns to aid them in their fight against the Anti-Vatican and the immortal Nazi named Von Kriest. As part of this sisterhood, Vampirella was given a modified version of their habit shaped like her costume and access to their standard loadout.

Made from liquid chastity latex, the Sisterhood’s habit is seamless and impenetrable. Its retractable claws can be dipped in holy water for maximum damage. Shouting “Fiat Lux” will make the habit generate a high intensity flash that simulates dawn light, illuminating your surroundings with a blast of artificial sunlight that either causes retinal and tissue scarring in vampires or boils their eyes and crisps their flesh, reducing them to ash. It can even incinerate massive Hell worms. Micropore pouches on the stomach secrete synthetic garlic liquid to let her slip out of tight situations, and blowing on the finger produces a white noise field that renders her completely silent even on the high frequencies vampires usually hear at. The collar protects from vampires attempting to bite her neck, and the gloves and boots are embedded with crosses to ward them off (though they only affect vampires’ bodies, not their souls). 

Should they be fully backed into a corner, the wearer can activate a last resort by uttering “Lux Dominus” to activate the mass-energy converter in the uniform’s cross. This rapidly drains their life force and burns them alive so thoroughly that not even ashes remain.

Besides their clothing, everyone in the Sisterhood is supplied explosive gold crucifixes to throw into vampires, smoke grenades filled with garlic extract that blind and choke them with a massive smokescreen, and a pistol whose dart ampoules are made of pure holy water.

The Hell on Earth and World’s End arcs later upgraded this to a latex suit that shows off her boobs, stomach, and thighs, with armored spikes on the arms and shoulders that can easily tear through flesh, make heads explode, and deflect energy. And since its spikes are formed from shards of the True Cross, even the slightest touch is fatal to unholy beings like vampires. These spikes also grant the armor consecration which prevents blades from harming her. And if she wants to fight at long range, she can use a metal crossbow with arrows soaked in holy water.

After all of the Red Nuns were converted into vampires and wiped out, she abandoned this costume and went back to the classic look.


Claws


Vampirella wields razor sharp fingers that she can extend to absurd lengths and turn serrated at will, letting her tear through flesh and bone, metal armor, robots, and really thick metal doors.


Wings


Vampirella can use her shapeshifting to summon a pair of absurdly large, leathery bat wings from her back, usually to fly, but she can use them offensively, as a shield, or snap through restraints if needed.


Stakes


The classic vampire killer. She can use them at close-range to kill or gouge out eyes, fire them from crossbows, create makeshift ones from her surroundings, and even form them out of paper. Later issues depict her using a double-sided variant called dowels.


Swords


Has used them to kill a convent of vampire nuns, slice some mercenaries’ throats, decapitate a vampire, and dual-wielded them against some thugs.


Knives


Usually kept in a thigh holster, jacket, or her cleavage, they can be used for stabbing, slicing, or throwing into an enemy. She’s got one with a longer blade that can cut through armor or serrated ones that can easily slice throats and decapitate victims.


Guns


While she prefers fighting at close range, Vampirella has regularly used guns against vampires and other monsters, with the ammunition usually being silver bullets or having crosses engraved on them. Regular bullets are reserved for humans or when she wants to torture a vampire. Her models include: 

Axes


Vampirella has mostly stolen them from enemies or taken them from her surroundings to swing into heads, throats, and hands, and metal collars.

Crosses


Whether she’s built them herself at a lumber store, using ones nearby, or whipping out miniature bladed ones, Vampirella has made use of them on occasion to ward off vampires, stab them, or shove them down a demon’s throat.

Crossbows


A sidearm that she typically keeps at her side to fire cross-shaped stakes or arrows directly into vampires’ chests or heads. She’s got a few different models, like a metal version that fires arrows or another metal one that fires multiple stakes at once.

Grenades


Has holy water hand grenades that melt vampires into piles of blood and bone and bulky grenades that produce huge explosions. Their shells come with mocking messages to give their victims even more disrespect.

Motorcycle


Whether she steals them or has one of her own, Vampirella’s occasionally ridden them when she wants to keep a low profile and can use their wheels to grind people’s faces or remove their heads.

Religious Shuriken


Metal projectiles shaped like crosses and the Star of David that can be thrown in groups with deadly accuracy or shoved down a demon’s throat to make it explode.

Chainsaw


After tricking a group of vampires into freeing her from the Fattonis’ basement prison, Vampirella used a nearby chainsaw to slaughter all of them.

Plasma Gun


Initially discovered by her friend Lorelei while raiding the hideout of the Red Nuns, this enormous gun was designed to neutralize vampiric energy by incinerating their target.

Its only major downside is it relies on a power pack that’s easily removed, but this can be substituted by electrocuting yourself on a third rail.

Asgardian Thunder Axe


When the superheroes in the Dynamic Force were driven mad by the Definitive Infinity Virus, Vampirella decided to break into their base and stole their emergency axe, using it to slaughter the rest of the crazed heroes. It can fire blasts of electricity and conduct its electricity through metal to inflict extremely bloody, explosive deaths.

The Spear of Destiny


The legendary spear that pierced the side of Jesus Christ. Vampirella eventually got her hands on it during a trip back in time and used it in her rematch against Lady Death. The spear makes its user completely invincible, with even death itself being powerless to stop them. And it’s not an exaggeration. Even with her powers as the avatar of death, Lady Death was completely overwhelmed when Vampirella fought her with the spear.

The Witchblade


After getting trapped in Hell and surrounded by an army of demons while working a case with Sara Pezzini, Sara’s Witchblade split itself in half to bond with Vampirella, giving her a strength boost and allowing them to slaughter the entire army.

In its home series the Witchblade is a sentient, evolving weapon with a ton of cool, esoteric powers, but none of them are relevant to Vampirella’s usage of it. All she does is create arm blades, a knuckle shiv, a bunch of tendrils, and merge with Sara to create a blade that decapitates the son of Satan.


Misc Items 



Skills

Stealth


Vampirella has disguised herself as a nun, a typist, one of Chastity’s troops, and a fashion model to get into different areas, snuck up on Chaos cultists to knock them out, killed mercenaries the same way, and used garlic smoke grenades to create a smokescreen against vampires, kill one of their priests, and sneak into Dixie’s room under the smokescreen’s cover.

Agility


Vampirella’s lithe figure makes her incredibly skilled with acrobatics, being able to flip through lasers and over gunfire, jump up a fire escape, leap long distances, and jump over an 8 foot wall after a cross country trip where she had no food or rest. She’s so impressive that she briefly became the acrobat for a traveling circus.

Stamina


Worked with Sara Pezzini from Witchblade to kill 1000 demons and was still capable of fighting afterward. In a later story she’d go on to kill an entire army of 1000 demons on her own.

Endurance/Pain Tolerance


Vampirella has walked off motorcycle explosions, been stabbed with claws that cut her to the bone, pinned to a wall by a silver cross and showed no signs of pain after it was removed, tore herself free after she was crucified, mutilated demons while they were cutting into her arm and biting her leg and shoulder, and is willing to keep fighting after her wings are torn or fully severed. Even after being left incredibly weak from going weeks without blood, she powered through being tazed, was backhanded onto the first floor of a prison, then got up and won a fight against a group of demon prisoners. More impressive than that, she went back into action immediately after being revived from a decade-long death.

Then there’s one of her most insane endurance feats. Von Kreist infected her with a super virus 1000 times worse than AIDS that made your heart feel like it’s pumping razor blades, turned your internal organs to sludge in hours, caused complete physical disintegration, and wouldn’t even leave behind a skeleton. As she suffered these symptoms, she was imprisoned in a cement coffin, wrapped in chains, covered in cinder blocks, and dumped at the bottom of the Hudson River. Despite all of this, she still broke out of it, swam to the surface like it was nothing, and went back to kicking ass! It was so insane that even other vampires were shocked she had lived through it!

Close Quarters Combat


Has shown on multiple occasions that she can handle herself in hand to hand combat, whether she’s brutalizing monsters, taking out multiple armed guards, or engaging in a prison fight.

Weapons Mastery

Skilled at using swords, guns, knives, whips, spears, crossbows, axes, and grenades.


Marksmanship


Her years of killing vampires have made her adept at killing from a distance, able to shoot hundreds from behind without looking, kill them while they’re hidden in the shadows, accurately throw her shuriken into targets, shoot multiple moving targets with a crossbow, and throwing knives, vinyl records, grates, and meat hooks with deadly accuracy.

Seduction


Anyone that’s seen her can tell you Vampirella is beautiful, and she knows how to use it to her advantage. She’s seduced a vampire-obsessed serial killer, freed herself from chains by convincing a guard to get closer, convinced the psychokinetic Hemorrhage to resist possession by playing on his feelings for her, and used a similar strategy to convince a lesbian serial killer/kidnapper to release her.

Powers

Vampire Physiology

Vampires are the fanged, pointy-eared children of Lilith, typically born from the Queen of Hell fornicating with numerous demons, though there have been exceptions. Regardless of how they were born, vampires survive by feeding on blood and can drink from humans, animals, monsters, demons, even other vampires. However, blood is only the medium they feed on. What vampires truly feed on is the essence, otherwise known as the soul. Through drinking blood, they replenish their strength, absorb their victim’s powers (though this is rare), and view their memories. 

Vampires typically feed at least once every 24 hours to keep their strength up, though Vampirella has been known to go days without feeding, possibly weeks. Normally anyone killed by their bite will become a vampire, as shown with this family and the Red Nuns, but Vampirella is an exception. Everyone she kills with her bite stays dead.

In addition to being her main food source, blood has restored Vampirella’s youth and senses after a decade of addiction removed her memories, identity, and youth, and done the same when the demon Bane reduced her to a withered crone. Her blood lacks any red blood cells or even a blood group as humans understand them, and her t-cell is count so high that she’s capable of fighting any infection, rendering her practically immune to viruses unless they’ve been modified beyond what the human body can handle. 

If there’s too much blood around, a vampire can potentially enter a berserker rage which can only be sated by killing and draining everyone in sight or focusing on someone they love.

For some miscellaneous fun facts, they don’t cast reflections or show up on camera, cry blood, have hair sharp enough to act as garrote wire, and near the end of Harris’ era, artists depicted their eyes turning black with glowing green irises whenever they’re about to feed, felt furious, sadistic, or were in danger.

Aquarian Vampire Physiology

Vampirella, vampires who’ve studied her, and groups dedicated to killing vampires have all found that she’s somehow immune to the weaknesses of normal vampires. She can survive just fine in the sun and be drenched in holy water while other vampires will burn alive, eat as much garlic in her linguini as she wants, is immune to the cross, and can use her powers in their presence. Even against a monster created from the True Cross that could instantly kill a vampire with a touch, she completely tore it apart and only suffered a minor, bloody splinter that she completely dismissed.

Her original creators at Warren established this was because of being an alien, but that was too silly and childish for the darker, grittier Harris comics. Now it was explained that Lilith created Vampirella to usher in the new race of vampires and replace the old, for vampires were in the shadow of man and would need to grow with him. And when she restored Drakulon by using Metatron’s lance and heart, it unknowingly kickstarted an evolution among every vampire. Holy water, crosses, and religious imagery stopped working on them, though sunlight would still kill them. 

From what little else we get on them, it’s explained these new age “Aquarian” vampires no longer feed on blood. They instead feed on a victim’s energy, and in doing so infect them with a necro-virus that turns them into energy-draining zombies and vampires. This can be done by unleashing a “bomb” of energy or through contact with the body.

Vampirella has theorized that her generation’s weaknesses might adapt to the modern day, becoming weak to the 21st century’s equivalent of a crucifix, or that Coke would replace their weakness to holy water. But this is just a theory, nothing concrete, and it was never proven since the writers forgot this plotline existed and every vampire in the later stories is still affected by their usual weaknesses.

Bat Woman Form

Initially to make up for her missing wings, Vampirella could shapeshift into a bat to fly through the air and use echolocation, but during a magic show with Pen, she felt something unlock in her subconscious. Rather than a full transformation into a bat, she turned into a bat woman. This form increases her strength and mobility, makes her more savage, and gives her glowing red eyes, extendable claws, and massive, retractable wings. She can still use her bat form if she wants, but this replaced it as her main transformation. She usually enters it automatically when travelling, fighting, or whenever she gets angry.

Despite being her staple transformation like the bat form was in Warren, once the 90s ended, this form disappeared and artists usually just have her summon wings or claws without any other visual changes.

Shapeshifting

 

Aside from the features of her batwoman form, Vampirella has multiple ways to change her body. She can turn her fingers into razor-sharp, serrated claws, turn into a werewolf to maul a vampire, and become an anime schoolgirl or a man to sneak in and get the drop on unsuspecting vampires.

Hypnosis

 

By making eye contact with someone, Vampirella can immediately force them into a deep trance where they’ll do as they’re told. She can alter people’s memories, force information out of them, convince someone to let her work with them, make them believe what she says, get people to fight each other, force a soldier to drive his tank into his fellow men and superiors, remove Nyx’s control over Hemorrhage, replace someone’s loyalty and love toward others with her, and force Hemorrhage to drown an entire city in blood.

Other users like Madek have used this casually to force a mugger to kill the rest of his gang, made one of his fans kill all of her loved ones and herself, forced his son to stop breathing, and completely rewrote Vampirella’s memories, which lasted decades.

Interestingly, it was initially stated that Vampirella’s hypnotism works differently on different people, with the narration emphasizing that “On this woman, it is immediate and deep. She is helpless and unresisting– an easy victim.” However, this distinction never comes up again, and it’s depicted the same way every time she uses it barring the two times it failed.

Mind Control

Anyone she bites becomes her bitch and is forced to do what she says. Even other vampires.

Enhanced Senses


Vampire senses are highly evolved to be superior to humans. She can: 

Extrasensory Perception


Vampirella has shown on several occasions that she can sense the feeling of evil in the air, the presence of demonic evil, Adam’s transformation and presence, intruders in her room, when she’s being followed, when someone is human, and the power of Lilith’s essence inside a temple. 

Non-Physical Interaction

 

Can slice through ghosts with her claws.

Illusion Removal


Done by saying “By Satyr and Circe, illusion be gone.”

Wall-Crawling

 

Self-explanatory for the power, not so much for how she did this.

Regeneration

 

Vampirella has an extremely quick healing factor that lets her heal from being shot through the throat while unconscious, healed a shot to the shoulder by drinking blood, has done it in seconds without needing to drink blood, and fully regenerated in seconds after a serial killer tattoo artist rendered her back a bloody mess. She should also be superior to fodder vampires who’ve healed in seconds after being riddled with bullets and vampire children who can heal skin damage from sunlight in hours and damage to eyes in days.

This regeneration seemingly extends to those who receive a blood transfusion from her, as it allowed the wheelchair bound Kessler to walk again, but according to her, it’s just a placebo effect and the real healing power comes from her bite. 

A vampire’s only limits are being stabbed through the chest or other vital areas, which will require outside help, and while they can survive having their throats slashed, it will leave them incredibly weak and kill in minutes without any blood to heal them.

Immortality/Resurrection

Vampires can live for thousands of years and remain in their prime. Even if they begin aging from long periods without blood, this is immediately remedied with even a small sample of foul blood. Fellow immortal Von Kreist has said that he gave up on killing Vampirella since she’ll live forever, instead settling for torturing her. If she does die, the slightest drop of blood will resurrect her even if she’s an emaciated husk of a corpse that’s been buried for a decade.

There’s also one where I’m not really sure what it means exactly, but after Vampirella died to Nyx and woke up in Hell, Lilith explained that until now, Vampirella couldn’t die. As Lilith’s daughter, she’s a mythological creature. She’s a story, the embodiment of an idea. She could not die until now because God has grown tired and chosen to close down shop and end the stories.

Hemokinesis

Vampirella has the power to control blood, using it to form, mold, or remove her costume and form shapes with her own blood. She can even remove the control other hemokinetics have over blood by tapping into her inner fury, bonding with the blood and overpowering them. 

While boosted from drinking Lady Death’s blood, she was able to manipulate the blood around her to form a canyon or unleash a massive flood of it.

Soul and Power Absorption

As revealed in Vampirella/Lady Death, blood is just the medium a vampire feeds on. What they truly feed on is a person’s essence. By draining Lady Death’s, Vampirella neutralized her powers and absorbed them for herself. During this time Vampirella showed she could resurrect herself after being killed, fire blasts of arcane energy, and manipulate the blood around her to create canyons or floods. However, the longer she used this power, the more corrupted she became, so despite potentially being permanent, she was forced to neutralize its influence by draining Adam. The holiness in his blood canceled out the stolen power and returned her to normal. 

This aspect of her blood draining wouldn’t come back until years later in the 2008 Summer Annual when she absorbed Chaos’ soul out of Adam and used his powers to restrain Draculina.

The Curse of Vampirella

 

Unlike the rest of her kind, Vampirella’s bite can’t infect its victims with vampirism, or at least that’s what everyone thought. After a failed attempt to stop General Gore’s demonic invasion left her dead and entombed, Vampirella discovered posthumously that feeding on women nonfatally had unknowingly left trace amounts of her essence/soul in them. Now that she was dead, she could call on these traces from beyond the grave. Anyone she’d infected with her essence was then influenced to spread it by biting another woman (it can be anywhere on the body, such as the neck or arm), usually one trapped in a mundane life. Those bitten will forget the initial encounter but retain a small seed of awareness as Vampirella’s essence remains and grows inside them.

These “sisters of Vampirella” possess an echo of superhuman strength, are immune to the demonic Carnivore plague, and can see the true forms of those infected by it. Should a “sister” see one of these plague carriers while unawakened, she’ll unconsciously stab herself in the neck to activate the curse, her blood congealing into a Vampirella costume as she attacks the demons and infects any women nearby with Vampirella’s essence. If she hasn't already met another of their group, the “sister” (awakened or not) will be subconsciously drawn to their strip club hideout. 

As the one responsible for this infection, Vampirella shares the awareness and memories of all of her “sisters,” and they can communicate telepathically. This infection spans the entire globe, and when Vampi became infected by the Carnivore plague and started dying, she called on them to return her essence to her. This allowed her to regain her full strength and astral project out of her corpse to spread a planetwide cure, though it cost Vampirella her life while restoring the humanity of everyone she infected.

Resistances

Diseases:
Von Kreist injected her with a virus 1000 times worse than AIDS that causes complete physical disintegration and won’t even leave behind a skeleton, but she was able to fight through the virus and swam to safety after being wrapped in chains inside a cement coffin. And when she got a second dose, all it did was make her pass out, with blood showers and transfusions letting her gradually regain her lost strength.

This resistance also extends to supernatural viruses, as when Zarin tried turning her into a zombie with his necro-virus, she wasn’t affected.

Poisons:
Is immune to a liquid Eucharist wafer that made some demons violently sick and knocked them out.

Extreme temperatures:
Dives into freezing cold water and ignores the change in temperature to rescue a man, withstood the energies of the Black Sun, which burned Lorelei on contact, removed her chastity latex habit before it could fully burn her alive, and was unharmed by a dragon’s fire breath and a flaming werewolf attempting to crush her.

Electricity:
Positive showings 
Negative showings 
Illusions, Empathic and Mental Manipulation, Age Manipulation, and Memory Manipulation:
Positive showings 
Negative showings 
Hypnosis:
Despite being briefly affected both times, she quickly snapped out of Dracula’s hypnosis.

Life absorption:
Was able to resist Hemorrhage’s blood tendrils while he was enhanced by the Red Death, which gave him the power to absorb life force and drain strength on contact. She later survived long enough to remove her chastity latex habit after activating its “Lux Dominus” command to drain the life force of her and some vampirized nuns.

Counter charms:
Despite being weakened by its presence, she powered through the effects of a monster counter charm tattoo and bit it off to remove its power.

Vampire cures:
Was forced to ingest Lilith’s ashes, which cures any human of vampirism and makes their blood toxic to demons, and they did nothing.


Strength

 


Scaling 

Speed

 



Durability

 


Scaling

Her Allies 

Both narratively and feat-wise, Vampirella is depicted as stronger than her allies, whether it’s through regularly matching and overpowering Pantha, Adam only being comparable in strength through hard drugs that unlock his full potential, or just having naturally stronger feats than what people like Pen and Lorelei have done. 

Pantha 

Adam 

Others 

Her Enemies

Everyone here is someone Vampirella has fought on her own and overpowered, with the only exception being Chaos. Of their two actual confrontations, it’s hard to justify 1:1 scaling. 

During the Chains of Chaos miniseries, Vampirella traveled to an alternate universe where the Earth had been taken over by the Chaoschild, the physical incarnation of Chaos born from that reality’s Vampirella. The Chaoschild was still young and learning his dark potential, and Vampirella was said to be the one who could challenge him. When they finally battled, Vampi withstood being blasted by his energies and drew a ton of blood by scratching him, with his sentient armor noting that she’s stronger while he’s weak, but it was ultimately the Rook, someone Vampirella had previously fought, who killed him with a blast that caused his energy goes out of control, killing him. 

When she fought the Chaos from her universe, she needed a massive, nonstandard amp to actually pull it off. Normally this would disavow scaling, but given her fight with the Chaoschild, her surviving attacks from the main Chaos without amps, and later absorbing his soul, you can at least argue downscaling if nothing else.

Chaos 

Nyx 

Fodder Vampires 

Others 

Shi

 

Vampirella and Shi briefly fought when they first met in the Vampirella/Shi crossover, and when Shi showed up in Vampirella Monthly, Vampirella not only referenced their crossover, but fought her to a draw.

Lady Death (debatable)

 

Out of all of Vampirella’s crossovers, none of them have hammered home their canonicity quite like Vampirella/Lady Death. It was set up at the end of Vampirella Monthly issue 0, with the crossover having Vampirella challenge Death to personal combat with no armor or defenses, quickly overpowering her and biting her on the neck to absorb her “essence.” To be fair, Death did kill Vampirella, but she only managed this by cheating and Vampi was able to resurrect herself thanks to absorbing her powers. The point is that this story’s events set up the next arc of Vampirella Monthly. Issue 13 references it in the recap page, Vampirella’s dialogue, and a text box, and issue 14’s recap brings it up, but the reason I labeled this scaling as debatable is because of what happens in their other crossovers. See the Q&A for that explanation.

Intelligence 


Feats 

  • Saved Chelsea Cantrell from being kidnapped by Ethan’s men 
  • Recovered the memories of her past three separate times 
  • Prevented the resurrection of Lilith’s Eldest Son upon her resurrection 
  • Helped the Sisterhood of Red Nuns rescue Dixie Fattoni and dismantle Judas Iscariot’s Anti-Vatican 
  • Restored Drakulon to a lush paradise by killing Metatron and using his heart to recreate its blood river 
  • Killed Bane, Chelsea, Magdelene, Hemorrhage, Nyx, Metatron, the Blood Red Queen, and Chaos 
  • Defeated Lady Death twice 
  • Successfully pulled off a long-term plan to resurrect herself before sacrificing herself again to cure a global demonic virus 
  • Inspired the “bad girl” era of the 90s

Weaknesses

 

Vampirella is one of the deadliest vampire hunters in the world, but she’s not unstoppable. Like the rest of her kind, she relies on blood to survive, and while she can go weeks without it, this drastically weakens her. She also can’t feed off everyone’s blood. Zombies, people with Hepatitis B, and Jackie Estacado from The Darkness have blood that tastes disgusting, blood contaminated by Lilith’s ashes will make her weaker and knock her out, and demonic blood has the two for one deal of tasting disgusting and (depending on the species) potentially infecting her with a deadly virus. It’s also possible for her to devour an opponent too quickly and become constipated.

Her hypnosis isn’t perfect, either. She’s admitted she has difficulty affecting multiple people at once. Being bound in magic chains can keep her from shapeshifting. She has regularly shown that she isn’t bulletproof or immune to arrows or blades. Being shot in the right area or hit hard enough will knock her out at minimum, she can be choked out or drowned, she’s consistently died to impalement, and as shown from Major Eichmann’s suicide, regular bullets to the head will kill vampires. 

For a time she was briefly addicted to the street drug Blood, which reduced her to an addled old woman who couldn’t remember her past. Hallucinogens and tranq darts have affected her in the past, and despite her willpower and resistances, she can still fall victim to possession.


Q&A

Lady Death Scaling

If there was one thing that might’ve stood out to you for Vampirella’s scaling, it was probably this. For a series whose feats were pretty grounded up to this point, it might seem hard to believe that this street level vampire hunter can go toe to toe with someone on this much of a cosmic level. And it gets weirder when we look into them.

Vampirella/Lady Death starts off in media res with Vampirella seemingly overpowering Lady Death in the first three pages and biting her on the neck, believing she’s won their battle. But Lady Death turns out to be a sore loser and stabs Vampirella in the chest with her blade. This kills her, but then Lady Death realizes her powers. After this we see a flashback to why they were fighting, with Vampirella shrugging off two blasts from Lady Death, her sword being unable to pierce Vampi’s armor due to it being consecrated. LD admits they’re in a stalemate, so she demands that Vampirella bring her the Heart of Hell or her army will overtake Hell. Since Vampirella doesn’t know what that is, she challenges Death to personal combat with no armor or defenses, leading to the fight at the start of the comic. And we see throughout the comic that drinking Lady Death’s blood neutralized her powers and let Vampirella absorb them. Unfortunately, this isn’t a permanent buff since she willingly gives up these powers at the end of the comic by drinking Adam’s holy blood to cancel out Lady Death’s demonic influence.

Alright, sounds simple. Vampirella overpowered her in a straight brawl, died from Lady Death basically shanking her while her guard was down, and temporarily absorbed her powers. Why’s it debatable?

Well, the problem is Vampirella Monthly’s final arc had another crossover between the two.

During their first rematch in this story, Lady Death disarms Vampirella and pushes her against a wall, but Vampi headbutts her and bites her on the neck. But Lady Death has gotten an upgrade since their last fight and is now the avatar of death, making her blood fatal to all that lives and making Vampirella weaker by drinking it. Lady Death goes on to backhand Vamp and kick her, then kills her by stabbing her in the chest. When they have their second rematch in the final issue, Vampirella fights her using the Spear of Destiny, which makes its user invincible and allows Vampi to casually defeat her while LD is powerless to stop her.

So we’ve got three fights between these two, and each one has a different winner. The first was a Vampirella win until Lady Death decided to just forego their rules and stab her, the rematch occurred after Lady Death got an amp that countered one of Vampirella’s main powers, and the final one required Vampirella to have nonstandard equipment that countered that amp.

Even the noncanon crossovers go back and forth on whether Vampirella can scale to her. 

Lady Death vs Vampirella has them briefly fight on even ground, but this was only possible because one of Death’s disgruntled servants gave Vampirella a gem that would boost her strength and let her fight Death. And even with this amp, Vampi’s still shown to be on the backfoot, the gem starts breaking mid-fight from her rejecting its influence, she gets rid of it after biting Death on the neck and realizing they’re both being tricked, and afterward she admits to herself she doesn’t stand a chance without it. This paints a clear picture that Lady Death is completely above Vampirella, so naturally the sequel to this crossover has them fight each other more or less evenly without any amps, and Vampirella is able to land some solid hits despite Death claiming her strength far surpasses Vampirella’s.

With all that said, what would Lady Death scaling give Vampirella? 

At minimum, Lady Death has feats like vaporizing a cloud and causing a nuclear explosion by tackling someone into a building, which both get hundreds of tons of TNT, but realistically speaking she has enough casual cosmic feats to let Vampirella scale. She shattered a black hole as a regular human, and with her powers she’s casually transformed a false version of Hell into the Endless Graveyard, an infinitely spanning graveyard that she can transform with a single gesture or glance. This could bump Vampirella’s scaling to universal at minimum, possibly low multiversal considering how Lady Death merged Hell, a dimension made up of 7 to 9 layers, with that infinite-sized graveyard. Though it’s worth noting this would be an extremely high end for Vampirella’s scaling, and your mileage may vary on whether this is usable since not even the god tiers of Vampirella reach that kind of power. 


Credits 

CrabCave’s Eddie the Head vs Evil Ernie for the Lady Death feats and calcs 

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