The Bloodstone Family has been around for centuries in the Marvel universe, fighting against monster hordes for more than 10,000 years as the wielders of the powerful magical object, the Bloodgem. The upcoming one-shot The Death of Doctor Strange: Bloodstone #1 will explore the impact the Sorcerer Supreme's death has on the magical world, specifically Elsa Bloodstone, the infamous gun-toting monster hunter. But who exactly are the Bloodstones, and where do their powers come from?
The Bloodstone lineage starts in the Hyborian Age with Ulysses Bloodstone, who discovered a crashed meteorite in 8,250 B.C. while still a hunter-gatherer. The meteor, controlled by an extra-dimensional demonic entity called the Hellfire Helix, sent an enforcer Ulluxy’l Kwan Tae Syn to collect the rock. When Ulluxy’l Kwan Tae Syn and Ulysses fought, the meteor broke, and a piece of the rock was embedded in Ulysses' chest, giving him vast powers and immortality and letting him get revenge on the Hellfire Helix. About 10,000 years later, Ulysses is a powerful monster hunter with a vast amount of wealth who has two children with his wife Elise: Elsa and Cullen, both of whom become monster hunters in their own right.
Elsa Bloodstone was raised to take on the mantle of her father after he finally died preventing the Hellfire Helix from invading Earth, and her childhood was particularly brutal. Ulysses abusively pushed Elsa to become strong and fearless from the time she was a baby, making her fight and defeat the Blight Beast before she could even talk. Elsa has some natural gifts passed down genetically from the Bloodgem embedded in her father's chest, such as being invulnerable to vampire bites, but she also wears a shard of the Bloodgem on a choker around her neck, which gives her super human strength, agility, regeneration, and the ability to discharge powerful energy blasts.
Elsa is often seen in monster hunting gear sporting a variety of weapons, mainly guns, which she stores in a guitar case. She is well-known for being a teacher at Braddock Academy, engaging in an on-again off-again romantic relationship with Deadpool, and acting as a mentor for the monster-generating mutant Kei Kawade. Elsa Bloodstone was last seen in Black Knight: Curse of the Ebony Blade, teaming up with Dane Whitman to hunt down Mordred for the Bloodgem he possessed so she could revive her father, but instead she gave up this chance to save her fellow heroes.
Elsa is not the only powerful Bloodstone child, though her younger brother Cullen leans closer to "monster" than "hero" whenever he appears. Cullen made his first appearance as one of the teenagers that Arcade kidnapped for his brutal Battle Royale-style Murderworld in the Avengers Arena event. It was revealed that Cullen was brought to another dimension by his father, and was left there when Ulysses died, eventually becoming possessed by a parasitic entity called Glartrox. Cullen wears a piece of the Bloodgem in a ring on his finger, not only to give him its powers but also to help him keep the Glartrox at bay. The events of Avengers Arena hardened Cullen, turning him into what he describes as "a cold-blooded weapons expert who hates people and periodically transforms into a ten-ton indestructible man-eating soul beast." After surviving Murderworld and hunting down Arcade, Cullen learned how to better control Glartrox, and he can now partially release the monster to gain its powers. Cullen was last seen hunting the mutant team Excalibur for sport, unleashing a pack of Warwolves and his Glartrox powers on them.
The Death of Doctor Strange #1, written by Tini Howard with art by Ig Guara, will see Elsa Bloodstone forced to team up with her villainous brother Cullen to fight against the hordes of monsters unleashed by Doctor Strange's death. They will also apparently meet a long-lost sister of theirs who also possesses the power of the Bloodgem and is being hunted because of it. Fans of the Bloodstone Family should be sure to check out Marvel's The Death of Doctor Strange #1 coming out on January 12th.