Baron Blood

Real Name: Kenneth Crichton

Identity/Class: Vampire

Occupation: Servant of Dracula; former patient, art student

Affiliations: Baroness Blood, Dracula

Enemies: Union Jack (Joe Chapman), Blade, MI13

Known Relatives: Montgomery, Lord Falsworth (grandfather, Union Jack, deceased); John Falsworth (Baron Blood, great-uncle); Jacqueline Falsworth-Crichton (Spitfire, mother), Brian Falsworth (uncle, Union Jack, deceased); Cedric, Lord Crichton (father, deceased), John Crichton (son), Jane, Lady Falsworth (grandmother, deceased), William, Lord Falsworth (great-grandfather, deceased), Katherine Ainsley-Jones (distant cousin, deceased)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: U.K.

First Appearance: as Kenneth Crichton Captain America #253 (Marvel Comics, 1981)

as Baron Blood Union Jack #2 (Marvel Comics, 1999)

Powers/Abilities: Standard vampire powers.

History: Kenneth Crichton was descended from a line of British heroes, from his grandfather, Montgomery Falsworth, who had fought during the Great War as Union Jack, through his mother, Jacqueline, who had been a member of the Invaders during the Second World War as Spitfire, alongside his uncle Brian, who had adventured behind enemy lines as The Destroyer, then later taken on the mantle of the next Union Jack after Montgomery was crippled in battle. Throughout both World Wars, the constant nemesis of the family was their black sheep, Montgomery's brother John, who had become both a vampire and a German agent, Baron Blood. Towards the end of W.W.II Baron Blood was finally staked, and his body locked away in the Tower of London.

Decades later, Kenneth was the only child of the family: his uncle Brian had died in a car crash, and his mother had been widowed under unspecified circumstances. So when it transpired that Baron Blood had been freed and was once more on the prowl, seeking final vengeance against his brother Montgomery, it appeared that Kenneth was the natural choice to inherit the family mantle and bring him down. Unfortunately Kenneth's health had never been good, and he recognised that he would be insufficient for the task. Instead Joey Chapman, a friend of Kenneth's from university, assumed the identity of the new Union Jack, allying himself with the visiting Captain America to end the threat once and for all.

Or so everyone thought. Although John Falsworth was finally at rest, his legacy remained. Before he was killed, Baron Blood had turned a young woman into his undead acolyte. With the loss of her master, she took the name Baroness in his memory, and continued his vendetta. She targeted Kenneth, secretly draining his blood, and leaving the already sickly man dangerously anemic. Her plan was manyfold: to hurt Jacqueline and Joey by taking her son and his friend; to convert Kenneth, the last male of the Falsworth dynasty, to a vampire to replace her lost master; but most radically, to use Kenneth to obtain the Holy Grail, which she thought she had located and which she believed could be used to cure a vampire's traditional weaknesses: inability to cope with daylight and holy objects, and need to imbibe blood.

Kenneth agreed to let her change him, thinking she was curing the illness which had long blighted his life; in a way it did, and he became the new Baron Blood. He stole the Grail which housed it, battling Union Jack (Joey) while doing so. Accompanied by Spitfire, Union Jack tracked down the Baroness, Kenneth, and their undead followers, confronting them as they were about to drink from the Grail at a ceremony performed just prior to sunrise. The heroes were too late to stop the Baroness from drinking, and as the rising sun proved her theories true, she smashed the holy artifact, condemning her fellow nosferatu to death. Kenneth died in his friend Joey's arms, repenting his mistakes, and was buried in the family plot besides his uncle and grandfather. But the family line would continue - the Baroness had escaped, somehow pregnant with Kenneth's child.

When the vampire hunter Blade accidentally resurrected every vampire that had ever walked the Earth, Kenneth rose again, falling under the sway of the vampire lord Dracula, who sent him to confront Spitfire. He apparently succeeded in recruiting his reluctant mother to Dracula's cause, unaware she was feigning falling under Dracula's influence and secretly continuing to report back Dracula's plans to MI-13, who thwarted Dracula's invasion of Britain. The vampire lord's surviving forces fled back to Dracula's lunar castle, but MI-13 agents teleported in to assault the base. Union Jack and the vampire hunter Blade targeted the senior vampire's coffins, tainting them with holy water so the vampires would be unable to return to them; covertly witnessing this, and having seen which way the tide was turning, Kenneth approached the two men, offering his surrender and asking for asylum. Union Jack, happy to regain his lost friend, readily accepted, but Blade swiftly staked and apparently slew Kenneth; much to the disgust of the already upset Union Jack, Blade then revealed he had done so at Spitfire's request.

Comments: Kenneth created by John Byrne, Baron Blood by Ben Raad and John Cassidy.

CLARIFICATIONS: Not to be confused with

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