CHILDREN of JUDAS
Membership: None named; there with 13 members
Purpose: servants of Dracula
Affiliations: Dracula
Enemies: Abraham van Helsing and Elisabeth van Helsing; the people of Wallachia
Base of Operations: Bistritz, Wallachia, @ mid to late 19th Century
First Appearance: Dracula Lives#3/5 (October, 1973)
Powers/Abilities: The Children of Judas were vampires, and as
such had the standard powers and weaknesses, including superhuman strength and
durability, physical transformation, the need to consume human blood, weakness
to sunlight and religious icons, etc.
The Children of Judas all had deep, blood-red hair. They
hunted the mountains, pulling down unwary travelers, killing them and marking
their corpses with three X's, the price of blood: the number of coins Judas
received for his master's life.
History: The origin of the Children of Judas is unknown.
(Dracula Lives#3/5 (fb)) <February 2, 1876--see comments>
Abraham and Elisabeth van Helsing traveled to Bistritz to
investigate his newly inherited title of the Baron of Bistritz. While van
Helsing was out drinking some wine with his lawyers and looking through some
ancient artifacts, the Children of Judas stormed the van Helsing's new manor,
slaughtered the servants, and abducted Elisabeth. Abraham returned too late to
save her, but did manage to track the coven to their Black Mass in a small
clearing in the woods. As this was his first encounter with vampires, van
Helsing was ill-prepared to face the coven. When he saw his wife, chained naked
and helpless to a granite alter, he rushed the group, shotgun in hand, and
ordered them to stop. Dracula instructed the coven to continue and sent one of
its number towards van Helsing. Abraham shot the vampire, blowing it halfway
across the clearing, but was startled when it rose and came after him, despite
the large hole in its chest. Nonetheless, van Helsing continued to fire his gun,
then to use it as a club in a vain effort to rescue his wife, who disappeared
under the fangs of the coven.
Van Helsing would have died himself, but then a group of
soldiers and priests arrived, using crosses and whitethorn pikes to slaughter
several of the Children of Judas, and to drive off the rest. Dracula vanished as
well. However, Elisabeth was already dead. Van Helsing waited the three days to
see his wife rise again, now a vampire, and then destroyed her in the
appropriate manner. These events drove him to pursue the destruction of Dracula
and his ilk for the rest of his life.
COMMENTS: Created by Chris Claremont.
This story was told only in text, and so there are no images available.
Per Degaton tells me that van Helsing did not mention the
Children of Judas in either Bram Stoker's Dracula, or in any of the movie
adaptations, despite the way it might seem from reading this story and its
captions.
Also, per his entry on Abraham van Helsing: Dracula
Lives#3 featured a prose text story "I Was Once a Gentle Man..." by Chris
Claremont which detailed the origin of Van Helsing. Once again, Claremont
slightly ran afoul of Dracula continuity, as the story is told in the from of a
diary entry by Van Helsing dated February 5, 1876-- with Van Helsing noting that
his wife died a few days ago. Tomb of Dracula I#30’s Bismarck story makes it
clear that Van Helsing had become a vampire hunter by the 1860’s,as the story
took place in 1862. However, other than the date (you try getting the year right
after destroying your wife, who had returned as a vampire, you wouldn’t remember
what year it was AD, or after the Hegira) I see no serious reason to exclude
this text story. Hell, Night Raven’s entry mostly deals with text stories!
Perhaps then
the above story should have taken place in 1856?
In Blade III#12 a prophecy was fulfilled that brought back all vampires that ever died. This most likely included the deceased members of the Children of Judas as well. We'll have to wait if they resurface.
--Markus Raymond
CLARIFICATIONS:
No known connection to:
Appearances:
Dracula Lives#3/5 (October, 1973) - Chris Claremont (writer), Roy Thomas (editor)
Last updated: 07/13/03.
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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