Real Name: Odette ByelaiODETTE BYELAI
Real Name: Odette Byelai
Identity/Class: Human vampire
Occupation: Former ballerina
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Anatoly (choreographer), Greg and Helen (fellow dancers)
Enemies: Dracula
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Uncertain, possibly New York City;
possibly in the
pre-modern era (see
comments)
First Appearance: Tomb of Dracula II#5/3 (June, 1980)
Powers/Abilities: Odette was originally a skilled
ballerina; As a vampire, she gained the standard powers and weaknesses,
including superhuman strength and durability, physical transformation, the need
to consume human blood, weakness to religious icons, etc.
She managed to redirect her transformation from the usual bat
into the more beautiful swan, or a human hybrid thereof.
History:
(Tomb of Dracula II#5/3) - Odette was a dancer who was seduced and vamped by
Dracula. She resisted Dracula's control and tried to continue her dream after
becoming a vampire. She managed to transform into a beautifully winged form, but
soon after she found that she had lost all ability to appreciate music, which
drove her to succumb to her bloodlust and to take a human victim. After
revealing what had happened to her to her choreographer, he trained her to work
her swan and bird-woman transformations into a beautiful dance. This lasted a
short time until during Swan Lake, her childhood favorite, when Dracula--who
attended the play--forced his will onto to her altering her transformation into
a horrid bat-winged creature. Realizing her will was no longer her own and she
could never again have her dream, she smashed her hand through the stage and
staked herself with a large wooden fragment.
The audience--thinking this to be part of the
performance--applauded, as did Dracula, who was impressed with her will.
Comments: Created by Peter Gillis and John Buscema.
Stories such as this, which use no other characters locked into the modern era, can be easily fit into the real time in which they were published. I'd like to place this story as having occurred in 1980, to fill in Dracula's adventures in the pre-modern era.
In Blade III#12 a prophecy was fulfilled that brought back all vampires that ever died. This most likely included Odette as well. We'll have to wait if she resurfaces.
--Markus Raymond
CLARIFICATIONS:
Not so much
Appearances:
Tomb of Dracula II#5/3 (June, 1980) - Peter Gillis (writer), John Buscema (pencils), Bob McLeod (inks), Lynn Graeme (editor)
Last updated: 07/13/03
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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