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DOLORES DE TOLEDANO

Real Name: Duchess Dolores de Toledano (nee Ibanez)

Identity/Class: Human mutate (vampire) (17th Century; 18th & 19th Century; early 20th Century) (Spanish/possibly Portuguese)

Occupation: Captive hunter;
   formerly duchess;
   formerly wanderer/hunter posing as a countess

Group Membership: None;
   formerly Spanish nobility

Affiliations: None;
   formerly Duke Fernando de Toledano

Enemies: Count Ramon de la Cruz, Baron Diego Mendoza

Known Relatives: Duke Fernando de Toledano (husband)

Aliases: Countess Dolores Ibanez

Base of Operations: Secluded glen near Brihuega, Spain;
   formerly Portugal (possibly)

First Appearance: Captain America's Weird Tales#75/4 (February, 1950)

Powers/Abilities: As a human vampire, Dolores de Toledano needed human blood for sustenance, although an animal sufficed if she was very hungry. She transformed into a creature with a very large bat body and a malformed human head with fangs when she needed to feed; if she fatally drained a human victim of blood, she spread the vampire curse on. She was very agile at night time, particularly at full moon, and easily scaled vertical walls, as well as floated in a semi-mist but still human form. She appeared to have an aversion to sunlight as she was only active at night, indoors and in shaded wooded areas. When she was "killed" by a blade, she permanently and fully transformed into an oversized bat that needed any type of blood to survive, and was confined to a small area as if cursed. When in human form, she called herself Portuguese and was fluent in Spanish; however, her Portuguese heritage is questionable. She has no audibly human language skills as a full bat and is long-lived.

Height: Variable: 2' in final full bat form; 5'3" in original adult human form
Weight: Variable: from virtually 0 lbs. in mist form to 125 lbs. in solid human form
Eyes: Variable: red in full bat form; black in mixed bat-human form; brown in human form
Fur/Hair: Black

History:

(Captain America's Weird Tales#75/4 (fb) - BTS) - The human vampire Dolores Ibanez stayed in a glen in Guadalajara province, Spain, on the grounds of Duke Fernando de Toledano. At one point in the very early 17th Century, a wild boar wounded from the Duke's hunt charged into the glen. Unseen, Dolores fed hungrily on it, draining its blood.

(Captain America's Weird Tales#75/4 (fb)) - The Duke reached the fallen beast and discovered Dolores, unaware of her true nature. She (apparently) fainted and the kind Duke took her back to his castle where she soon recuperated. She introduced herself as a countess from Portugal.

(Captain America's Weird Tales#75/4 (fb) - BTS) - Fernando and Dolores quickly fell in love (suggesting she may have had a mesmerizing seductive glamour over him as part of her vampiric powers). Fernando's friends voiced concerns over her vague background and lineage, but he pushed forward with a swift but grand marriage that drew in Spanish nobility, including his best friend and neighbor Count Ramon de la Cruz.

(Captain America's Weird Tales#75/4 (fb)) - Ramon was initially charmed and danced with Dolores but soon after, Ramon discovered she was a vampire (possibly attacked by her in a secluded area). Ramon desperately tried to warn Fernando that his new wife was a vampire, but the Duke was outraged and killed his friend in a duel a week later. Months passed uneventfully and the loving couple visited Baron Diego Mendoza in his castle. The Baron's habit was to sleep with windows open, so that night, Dolores surreptitiously crept out and easily scaled walls to attack the sleeping Baron in her half-bat/human head form for feeding. But the Baron woke suddenly and screamed, so Dolores fled back to her room and feigned sleep when her husband returned after investigating. However, his suspicions concerning Dolores had begun.

(Captain America's Weird Tales#75/4 (fb) - BTS) - Dolores began secretly feeding on her husband as he slept, weakening him greatly. His doctors ordered he retreat at his seaside Barcelona estate and the couple moved there, but he still grew weaker and noticed she would disappear at night.

(Captain America's Weird Tales#75/4 (fb)) - Fernando saw Dolores gliding in the air between buildings like a ghost. Later, he saw that her pale cheeks had become flushed and her teeth shiny as she slept. Fernando kept getting weaker until one night he woke to find the large bat smothering him as she fed on his blood. He grabbed his epee blade and stabbed the giant bat; Dolores transformed back into her human form and confessed her true nature. He despised her then but she was satisfied as he slowly died, revealing that he would turn into a vampire too. Dolores thought that she was dying as well and they both transformed into full giant bats. They were mystically bound to the glen where they first met and stayed there for centuries, fighting each other for the blood of anything that ventured there.

(Captain America's Weird Tales#75/4) - Just over three centuries later in 1927, two American tourist Grace and Michael were warned by Brihuega innkeeper Phillipe not to venture into the glen and he regaled them with the story of the vampire betraying the Duke. Dismissive of the warning, the couple wandered close to it; Michael feel asleep just outside while Grace fell asleep inside the glen, only to be woken by the flapping of giant batwings. The couple fled back to the innkeeper, who then showed them from his window afar the two bats fighting in the moonlight.

Comments: Uncredited creators.

It seems to me that there was something that already bound Dolores to the glen location, possibly a curse from a witch or god or some such, before the Duke found her there. Potentially her freedom was only won from that natural prison by an act of kindness or love.

Marvel vampire lore doesn't provide for a vampire's death to be a transition into a large bat. But this story is from 1950, well before Marvel's rules for vampire death were established. So if we push aside the writer's perception of vampires, how do we make it fit into the Marvel universe? The story was told by innkeeper Phillipe and this story had been passed by word of mouth over generations, so perhaps facts were mixed with interpretations. Alternatively, it's clear Dolores didn't actually "die" after being stabbed; she transformed (as did Fernando) into giant bats and remained that way for centuries, as if mentally blocked from returning to human form. Or is she just another type of vampire (or maybe a vampire mutant)?

Politically, there was a union of Spain and Portugal between 1580 and 1640 (although it was dominated by Spain), which is the period setting of this story, so Dolores' supposed Portuguese heritage makes a good cover story for her. Indeed, her "shadowy background and hazy lineage" (as quoted from the story) makes her Portuguese heritage, especially nobility, very suspect.

Although the story has a "disclaimer" at the bottom of the first page that "all names and places in this true-to-life story are fictitious", both the small municipality of Brihuega and the province of Guadalajara (in Spain) do exist.

She's a prime candidate to be eliminated by monster hunter Ulysses Bloodstone...

Profile by Grendel Prime.

CLARIFICATIONS :
Dolores de Toledano (nee Ibanez) has no known connections to:

Count Ramon de la Cruz

Count Ramon de la Cruz was the neighbor and best friend to Duke Fernando de Toledano of Guadalajara in 17th Century Spain. He was initially charmed with Fernando's new wife Dolores at their wedding but soon discovered she was actually a vampire. He desperately tried to warn Fernando, who instead took major insult and organized a duel a week later where the skilled swordsman Fernando quickly and angrily killed Ramon. Months later, Fernando realized Ramon had spoken the truth and deeply regretted killing him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

--Captain America's Weird Tales#75/4

Duke Fernando de Toledano

Fernando de Toledano was the Duke of Guadalajara in 17th Century Spain and lived in his ancestral castle. He was one of Europe's top swordsmen and much liked by locals for his carefree good nature and generosity. One day while on a lone boar hunt, he speared a boar and chased it down, only to find it dead and drained of blood in a glen next to a mysterious woman who fainted. Not realizing her vampiric nature, the duke kindly took the woman to his home, where she soon recovered and said her name was Countess Dolores Ibanez of Portugal. Fernando quickly became lovestruck with Dolores and despite the hazy details of her background, they soon married, attracting Spanish nobility, including his best friend Count Ramon de la Cruz. However, Ramon quickly discovered Dolores' true nature and desperately warned Fernando that she was a vampire, but Fernando took great insult and organized a duel. A week later, Fernando quickly killed his friend to end the feud. Months passed and the newlywed couple lived peacefully. On a visit to Baron Diego Mendoza's castle, Dolores took the opportunity to feed on the Baron and flit in giant bat form, but he rose before she could strike. His cries brought Fernando, ready with his deadly epee, but the vampire had already escaped and Dolores resumed her human form, pretending to be asleep in bed. However, Fernando realized that Dolores had not been in bed when he first woke, rousing suspicion in him. A month passed and Dolores had surreptitiously been feeding from Fernando at night, weakening him. He moved to his seaside estate in Barcelona to recuperate, where by chance he saw his wife float outside at night and then another time was directly attacked by her in her half-bat form as she struck and fed on his frail body's blood. Fernando grabbed his epee and stabbed the bat's body; she transformed into her human form and confessed her true nature, but (thinking that she herself was also dying) also revealed that in death, they would now both become vampire bats. At that point, he despised her. Their bodies transformed and they were confined back the area of the glen where they first met. Across the centuries, they stayed in the glen, fighting each other and squabbling over what blood they could find. Eventually in 1927, landowner Phillipe warned American tourists Grace and Michael of the glen. They later saw the creatures still fighting in the moonlight.

 

 

 

 

--Captain America's Weird Tales#75/4

images: (without ads)
Captain America's Weird Tales#75/4, p5, pan5 (main image)
   p6, pan2 (headshot, part bat)
   p8, pan4 (pair transforming into bats in death)
   p6, pan4 (Count Ramon)
   p4, pan2 (Duke Fernando)

Appearances:
Captain America's Weird Tales#75/4 (February, 1950) - uncredited writer, uncredited artist(s), Stan Lee (editor)

First posted: 07/07/2024
Last updated: 07/07/2024

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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