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Quote1 Four hundred years ago my vampiric kiss transformed the woman I loved into a soulless thing called Mary, Queen of Blood! Today an unholy order follows her evil designs, and the blood they spill is on my hands! Thus I must stop her... I, Andrew Bennett... I... Vampire! Quote2
Andrew Bennett src

Andrew Bennett is a 16th Century vampire who hunts other vampires. Despite having supernatural strengths and weaknesses, he is able to resist the bloodlust to feed on humans. His immortal life is dedicated to hunting down his former lover Mary, Queen of Blood.

Origins

In 1591, Andrew Bennett was a celebrated English nobleman in Queen Elizabeth's court. He distinguished himself in military service during the Anglo-Spanish War. His lover Mary Seward was the Queen's handmaiden. During one of his late-night rides, he was attacked and bitten by a vampire. Bennett slew the vampire and then hid in his bedroom to resist bloodlust, feeding only on animals. Mary begged him to transform her so she could be with him for eternity, and he agreed in a moment of weakness. To his horror, she lost her humanity and became a merciless killer. Mary took the name Queen of Blood and started the Cult of the Blood Red Moon, a secret international organization of vampires. Bennett dedicated his immortal life to tracking her down across the centuries, trying to end the terror he released upon the world.[1]

In the early 1900s, he worked with a man named Edward Trane in London, although Trane was captured by the Blood Red Moon and presumed dead.[2] Bennett met his friend and ally Dmitri Mishkin as a young boy, when Mary killed Dmitri's parents. He took the boy in and raised him as a vampire hunter, becoming his oldest friend.[3] He recruited a young woman named Deborah Dancer to his crusade when he rescued her from Mary at the Woodstock festival. [4]

I... Vampire!

I Vampire 0051

Fighting vampiric urges for the sake of a friend.

Eventually, Bennett, Deborah, and Dimitri track down Mary, Queen of Blood after many years, but it was revealed to be an impostor sent to embarrass him.[1] They take down a vampire drug dealer named Emil Veldt who gives them the Blood Red Moon's financial records.[5] Investigating all of their properties, they fight the American Freedom Party and meet Dmitri's vampiric mother Dunya Mishkin.[6] Dmitri is shaken so badly he nearly kills them in a car accident before confessing his sorrows.[3] Their next mission is the Temple of the Ineffable Tao. They meet a group of peaceful vampire monks led by Master Shoju, and slay the manipulative Billy Kessler.[7] When they're attacked by human agents of the Blood Red Moon in daytime, the group is trapped in a cave-in. Bennett nearly gives in to his bloodlust and eats Deborah, but she wakes up and he kisses her instead. Realizing that he must stop putting his friends in danger, Bennett abandons them to continue his crusade alone.[8]

The next family to take him in are murdered when the Blood Red Moon finds him again.[9] He realizes that their activities are linked to a traveling carnival, and infiltrates them in disguise. Mary discovers this ruse and stakes him through the chest.[10] Bennett survives and thwarts their plans, burning the carnival to the ground. Every vampire is killed in the flames except Mary, who escapes again.[11]

I Vampire 0037

Threatening a subordinate of Mary's for answers.

Vampires start dying when a cancer cure is invented by Allen Barr that makes human blood poisonous. Andrew follows Mary to Egypt, where they travel backwards through time using the magic Rings of Kur-Alet.[12] Mary tries to kill Barr's grandparents in the 19th Century, but ends up fighting Jack the Ripper.[13] She strands Bennett in the past by threatening Deborah Dancer as a child and throwing his ring into the ocean.[14] Bennett and the young Dancer find his ring by scuba-diving when it reanimates Nazi Zombies in a U-Boat. He travels back to find Mary in their own history, where each of them knock out and switch places with their past human selves.[15] They are hunted down by witch-hunters and forced to flee before Mary can bait and kill him.[16] Finally back in present-day Manhattan, Bennett destroys the rings so they can't be used again. He briefly falls in love with another reluctant vampire, but she kills herself rather than become a monster.[17] When he sees a Woodstock documentary in theaters, he remembers how important his friends are and decides to go home.[4]

When he investigates a series of killings with reporter Maggie Carle, they are captured by Allen Barr.[18] It's revealed that Barr's cancer cure never worked, it's a ploy to kill vampires. Barr is a vampire himself trying to wipe out the competition, using a process that involves turning hobos into monsters to create the serum. Carle reveals herself to be a vampire, and they escape with the antidote after leaving him unconscious in his burning laboratory.[19] Bennett's next adventure takes him to Gotham City where he meets Batman. They team up to take down a vampire crimelord named Johnny the Gun working to claim Gotham for the Blood Red Moon.[20]

Edward Trane reappears after seventy years to take revenge, believing that Andrew Bennett turned him into a vampire. Deborah and Andrew are imprisoned together, but they escape and stake Trane before Andrew explains that it was the Blood Red Moon who were responsible and not him.[2] They meet Dunya Mishkin again when she's running the American Crusade, an extremist religious movement led by Reverend Warnock. Warnock is staked and the movement is dissolved, but they lose Dmitri when he goes to find his mother.[21] Tracking Dmitri down to Moscow, they meet a KGB officer named Yuri Rashnikov trying to use a formula to replace the Russian high command with vampires. Dunya Mishkin attacks Rashnikov's compound, and they learn that Dmitri has been turned into a vampire as well.[22] They are cornered by the Blood Red Moon in Dmitri's childhood home, but they slay every vampire in the attack. Deborah shoots at Dunya with a solar weapon and Dmitri leaps in front of his mother to save her. When Dunya scorns him and moves to kill Deborah, Dmitri stakes his mother before succumbing to fatal wounds. With his last breath he remarks that the monster was no longer his mother.[23]

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Finally in the throes of death, with Deborah by his side.

Bennett takes Rashnikov's experimental formula, designed to create vampires without bloodlust or their usual weaknesses. He finally becomes a man again, able to eat food and enter sunlight. Andrew and Deborah enjoy one night together, but he is captured by the Blood Red Moon when his body begins to experience rigor morties.[24] Mary explains that the untested serum was not meant to be taken by existing vampires, as it causes their bodies to rapidly age and decay. She forces the immobile Andrew to watch as she turns Deborah into a vampire as well. Deborah reveals that she has taken the formula with no such drawbacks, and the two women fight to the death. Mary is defeated in combat and dragged into the sunlight where she explodes into flame. The now immortal Deborah returns to Andrew, holding him as he finally slips into peaceful death.[25]

Lords of Order

 Main article: Doctor Fate: The Night of Brahma

Some time later Andrew Bennett is revealed to have survived, but now tires of living and has lost his compassion.[26] He explains that his body reformed after the first death, and he has tried to commit suicide several times since then but immediately resurrected. Revisiting Master Shoju at the Temple of the Ineffable Tao, he participates in a mass sunrise suicide with the vampire monks and still fails to die.[27] The Lords of Order ask him to help bring about mahapralaya, the end of Kali Yuga to usher in a new age of prosperity. This "sleep of Brahma" will mean the end of all mankind, but he agrees as a way of killing himself.[28] They enhance his powers to remove the vampire weaknesses for his travel, and send him to find the Holy Grail in Eustania.[29] It is protected by a vampire apostle named Azzarene who allows him to drink from the grail, purifying him to become a vessel for Brahma. Doctor Fate and Nabu hunt him down in India but are too late to stop him, as Bennett plays a flute signifying the end of the world.[30] The world momentarily blinks out of existence, leaving Bennett and Fate to witness the full love and glory of creation unfold. Bennett's faith in existence is restored and he ignores the Lords of Order, allowing mankind to survive. Now at peace, he plays the flute into the sunrise and accepts that either through death or rebirth he'll be in good hands.[31]

Day of Vengeance

 Main article: Day of Vengeance

During Infinite Crisis he is seen at the Oblivion Bar talking to Doctor Occult and El Muerto about the Spectre's rampage.[32] Later he is enlisted to help in the conflict by the Shadowpact. He is one of the many magic-users Enchantress uses to channel energy into Captain Marvel during his fight with the rampaging Spectre.[33] Later he is seen in the Oblivion Bar talking to Jennifer Morgan when Kid Devil is kicked out.[34]

Team 13

 Main article: Doctor 13: Architecture and Mortality

I Vampire 0011

A heated exchange with Doctor Thirteen.

I... Vampire joins Doctor Thirteen's Team 13 when they fight the Architects. This team includes Anthro, Captain Fear, Genius Jones, Infectious Lass, Pryemaul and Traci Thirteen.[35]

Reign in Hell

 Main article: Reign in Hell

Bennett is one of the many demonic heroes and villains called in to fight during Neron's battle against Satanus, as Hell calls in its debts. At the time he is in Prague, where they free him of his nighttime restrictions.[36] The Outsiders bust up a ceremony held every three years by the Blood Red Moon on Halloween to resurrect Mary. It's revealed that the mastermind is Deborah Dancer, who succeeds in resurrecting Andrew Bennett now angry that his curse is restored.[37] He is later involved in a prophecy by Doctor Fate surrounding the Starheart during The Dark Things. If Alan Scott's children Jade and Obsidian come into contact, Scott will lose control of the faerie race in Starheart City and they will declare war on vampires. Bennett will be forced to create a new Blood Red Moon in self-defense, turning and recruiting heroes across the world. This leads to a chain-reaction where Lex Luthor eventually destroys the sun.[38] In another adventure, the new Batman and Robin help him take out a Blood Red Moon nest where he's been imprisoned.[39]

Powers

  • Vampirism: In addition to the various mental and physical benefits that vampires are heir to, they also possess the ability to turn others into vampires as well. Each new vampire is traditionally subservient to the one who "turned" them, but some strong-willed vampires have been known to rebel against their masters.
    • Enhanced Senses: A vampire's senses are enhanced far beyond those of a normal human being.
    • Immortality: So long as vampires continue to consume blood, they will not age beyond the physical state they were in when they first became a vampire.
    • Invulnerability: Vampires are invulnerable to most forms of injury (certain exceptions apply). Bullets, blades and blunt objects do little to no damage to a vampire's body.
    • Regeneration: In addition to being virtually indestructible, whatever damage a vampire does in fact suffer can be healed through the consumption of human blood.
    • Superhuman Strength: A vampire's strength level is several times that of a normal human being and they are considered superhuman.
    • Superhuman Speed: A vampire's speed level is several times that of a normal human being and they are considered superhuman.
    • Superhuman Stamina: So long as they continue to consume human blood, a vampire can function tirelessly without rest or relaxation. However, a vampire's stamina wanes the closer it is to sunrise.
    • Psychokinesis: Most vampires possess some form of psychokinesis. Some are clairvoyant, others can communicate telepathically, some possess mind control. Particularly powerful vampires can control the minds of several people at once.
    • Transformation: Vampires often possess the ability to transform into a variety of creatures or effects such as bats, wolves, rats or even mist. While their physical attributes may fluctuate during such states, a vampire's mental acuity is the same as that when they are in their human shape. A vampire who transforms into an animal may also benefit from that particular animal's attributes including razor-sharp claws, fangs or the ability to fly. Vampires also often demonstrate the ability to alter their appearance at will.
  • Hunger Resistance: For reasons unknown even to himself, Andrew Bennett is one of the only vampires able to retain his human morality and resist his dark urges.[40] While he can go mad with hunger and attack innocents should he be starving, he has managed to avoid such a scenario.[41] Aside from turning Mary, Bennett has never fed on a human in his long life, relying instead on donated blood.[2]
  • Sunlight Immunity (Formerly): At several points, Andrew Bennett has been made temporarily immune to the vampire's greatest weakness. The first of these is when he first took the Rashnikov Formula, removing all of a vampire's weaknesses;[42] after his death by the formula and revival, this no longer applied. The second time was when the Lords of Order empowered him to act as their agent; when he turned against them it was removed.[43]
  • Resurrection: When killed, Andrew Bennett automatically revives after a period of time, his ashes coming back together to recreate his body.[44] He even survived the end of the universe, though this seemed to be at the will of the creator of reality, perhaps hinting that his revivals were always at the creator's behest.[45] It is unknown if he retained his ability after Deborah Dancer's spell.[46]

Abilities

Weaknesses

Equipment

Transportation

  • White Hearse: Frequently commanded by his companions Dmitri Mishkin and Deborah Dancer in order to move his coffin during the day.[48]

Weapons

  • Wooden stakes: Bennett occasionally wields wooden stakes to expedite vampire slaying.


Related

Footnotes


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