Dracula Villain: The Cellspawn (Patreon)

Alright guys! Got one more Dracula villain for you before we move on to other heroes. Meet the Cellspawn, a mutated white blood cell created from Dracula's own vampire blood.

ORIGIN

Part of what led Dracula to pursue a career in medicine was in hopes that the science behind it could potentially lead to a cure for his vampirism where the occultic methods failed. In his spare time, for many years as medical science evolved, Dracula took samples of his own blood to perform various experiments to cure himself. While Dracula had managed to find a cure for those in the early stages of vampires, years of research and experimentation yielded no such results for those afflicted with the curse as long as he had been. Almost ready to give up, Dracula’s drive was rekindled by the return of Nosferatu, not knowing he would not just need a permanent cure for himself, but those who could possibly suffer the curse as long as he did with a new coming age of the supernatural. Tragically, when Dracula began making himself more known to the world as its superhero against the occult, events led to the Think Tank discovering and stealing samples of his research, hoping to harness or weaponize Dracula’s unique blood for their own nefarious purposes.

What happened next could only be described as a walking disaster. Within almost the first experiments performed on Dracula’s blood by the Think Tank, their own experimental process wreaked havoc on the samples Dracula already processed for his own research, causing a mutation in his unique white blood cells that caused them to grow and expand into amorphous blob of it’s original cellular structure. Believing itself to still be within its host body, this “cellspawn” saw everything around it as a foreign entity that needed to be exterminated, and thus it attacked and consumed the Think Tank scientist who created it, growing stronger before it broke loose to attack on a nearby town. Though Dracula was only barely able to stop its rampage and seemingly destroy it, the creature would return time and time again; a constant reminder to Dracula of how his own good intentions led to more harm than good.

Powers/Abilities:

The Cellspawn is a mutated, vampiric white blood cell that is able to mold and shape its body to consume its victims, growing stronger as it does. Its polymorphic form makes it invulnerable to most physical attacks.

So, in case it wasn't obvious, the Cellspawn plays the role of The Blob in Dracula's rogues galleries being themed after classic horrors monsters and villains. Once I had weeded out more of my ideas for iconic classic monsters and Frankenstein I knew I really wanted to branch out to monsters just as iconic but underused compared to other classic horror monsters and villains. Honestly, choosing to base a monster on the Blob might be pushing the boundaries of golden age cinema, but I did research and it was considered a film of the golden age of sci-fi, B-movie horror. So, I'm going to count it.

But yeah, choosing to make the Cellspawn a mutated white blood cell from Dracula's own blood was my first and best idea for this character. I knew I wanted a reason beyond hunger for my blob-villain to be consuming everything in its path, and since white blood cells consume viruses and diseases to protect the host body it allowed me to create this fun notion that in its mind the Cellspawn thinks its still in Dracula's body and that all its victims are viruses and bacteria trying to hurt Dracula. So it's evil by nature in that it's just doing what it was made to do, just not understanding it's in an actual body now. My choice to make the Cellspawn a white blood cell is actually what initially led me to the idea of making Dracula a medical scientist in modern times, as I felt like he might have been trying to cure himself for a while and turned to medical science to do so; and this eventually led me to making him a doctor. So I made some references to his career of medicine in Cellspawn's origins, and while the Think Tank is ultimately responsible for creating the creature Dracula is also partial to blame for experimenting on his own blood in the first place. Road to good intentions and all that.

Anyway, hope you guys like this new Dracula villain! Let us know with a comment below!

Dracula: Prince of the Nocturne © NRG Comics

Art and Design by Danilo Cassonato