DRAC DE FERRO

Real Name: Unrevealed 

Identity/Class: Extradimensional (Earth-99101) extratemporal technology using human;
   citizen of Spain 

Occupation: Adventurer 

Group Membership: Avengers (Earth-99101)
   formerly Iberia, Inc-99101 (Aquaviva/L'nn R'nai, Dolmen/Pere Allyon, Duna/Celeste Ayala, Lobisome/Jacinto Larran Olea, Melkart, Traka, Trasnu, Trueno/Miguel Angel Roldan)

Affiliations: Avengers of multiple realities (including Reality-616, 776, 982, 9602, 9811, 9930 ("Killraven's Avengers), 9997, 86501, 98120, 730784), Libra-616 (Gustav Brandt), Jaume Serrat i de la Casa, Kang the Conqueror, Rick Jones-616, Rick Jones-98120, Sirio-10

Enemies: Avengers of multiple realities (including Reality-689, 8410, 9105, 99315), Death's Head (Minion), Captain Ultra (reality unrevealed), Immortus, Mascheratta (Alondra, Arlequín, Belva, Dux), Sloth, Time-Keepers (Ast, Vort, Zanth) 

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Iron Dragon (English translation of name)

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
   formerly Alto Ampurdán, Spain; Isla de la Cartuja, Seville, Spain, Earth-99101

First Appearance: Iberia, Inc.#1 (Laberinto, December 1996);
    (Marvel) Avengers Forever#12 (February 2000)

Powers/Abilities: Drac de Ferro's armor is composed of a liquid metal which can be made to shift its shape to change form - growing bat wings, or claws on the hands and feet, or other, more shocking configurations - its shifting shape leads some people to assume it is alive, and the gargoyle-like features often terrify opponents. It can fly at over Mach 5, and is strong enough to handle attacks from tanks and fighter planes. It is equipped with plasma beams, and can emit ultrasonic blasts. Fully computerized and able to link to computer networks, the armor can also teleport.

Height: (Out of armor) unrevealed; (in armor) 6'1" (by approximation)
Weight: Unrevealed
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Unrevealed

History:
(Iberia, Inc) - Several years into the future an unidentified female stole a suit of liquid metal armor from the villainous Mascheratta group, who had in turn taken it from the corpse of the fallen hero Drac de Ferro, a.k.a. the Catalonian aristocrat Jaume Serrat i de la Casa. Traveling back in time to the modern day with the armor, the woman became the new/first Drac de Ferro and joined Iberia, Inc. Keeping her identity (and gender) a closely guarded secret, she took the young Jaume under her wing as her protege, leading some to mistakenly believe he is the man behind the mask. However, Drac de Ferro alone knows the full truth; she is trapped in a time loop, her days numbered, and one day soon she will die, passing the armor on to her successor/predecessor Jaume.

(Avengers Forever#11 (fb) - BTS) - At some point Drac de Ferro and her teammate Trueno joined their reality's Avengers.

(Avengers Forever#11 - BTS) - Drac de Ferro and Trueno were among the Avengers from timelines "that didn't go sour" summoned to the Citadel at the End of Time by the combined Destiny Force powers of Rick Jones-616 and 98120 to oppose Immortus, the Time-Keepers, and their army of Avengers from evil timelines.

(Avengers Forever#12) - Drac de Ferro joined the battle to save all of history, battling Captain Ultra, until Captain America-616 destroyed the Forever Crystal, returning all the summoned Avengers back to their own realities.

Comments: Created by Rafael Marin and Carlos Pacheco, snuck into Marvel by the latter.

    Drac de Ferro originally appeared in the Spanish comic Iberia, Inc., published by Planeta's Laberinto imprint, with an additional appearance in the sister title Triada Vertice; members of Triada Vertice similarly made a cameo in Avengers Forever#2. Carlos Pacheco was her co-creator, and when providing art for Avengers Forever, he snuck a cameo for Drac into the mass crowd scene of interdimensional Avengers in the series' climactic battle. As a fan of comics from around the world, I absolutely love stuff like this!

   It's worth noting that Drac turning up as an Avenger from another timeline is extremely appropriate, since in another timeline, that is exactly what she would have been! The team Iberia, Inc. were originally conceived as being not only like a Spanish version of the Avengers, but actually to be a Spanish branch of the Avengers. In the 1980s the Spanish publisher Planeta were reprinting Marvel titles for the Spanish market, and editor Antonio Martín asked Rafael Marín and Carlos Pacheco to create a group of home grown superheroes who could appear as a supplement in one of those otherwise reprint titles. Since the Avengers had been one of both men's favorite series since childhood, that provided their initial inspiration. However this proposal stalled when Pacheco jumped ship to work for Marvel U.K., but the two creators continued to develop the idea of a Spanish superteam and were almost ready to launch it as part of Marvel U.K. just before that imprint died abruptly in 1993. Skip forward to 1996, and Martín got permission to launch Planeta's Laberinto (Labyrinth) imprint, publishing numerous new series mimicking the style of American comics (monthly publication of a single 24 page story, rather than the more common-to-Spain album format) including Pacheco and Marín's Spanish Avengers, now revamped as Iberia, Inc. Sadly the imprint didn't survive for long, closing in 1999, so Iberia, Inc. only enjoyed a single six-issue miniseries run plus one Databook (a Handbook by any other name...). The influence of American comics is clear in both the team and their foes and supporting cast: mace-wielding god Melkart is a visible tribute to Thor; Drac de Ferro is not unlike what you'd get if Batman went down Iron Man's power route (with a side nod to the T-1000's liquid metal); opponent Loup Garou is literally Batroc with the serial number slightly scrubbed off; and foe Lince Dorado is so like Lex Luthor that he even phones his pal "Lex" in one issue for a chat and has DC's Sandman (Morpheus)'s stolen helmet in his collection of occult artifacts!

   Apart from his appearance in Avengers Forever, Drac is only depicted in color on the covers of Iberia, Inc. issues. I've approximated her height from the ASSumed height I picked for Trueno, so if I am off there then she'll be wrong too - she's a little shorter than him. Given the unusual metal of her armor, I've no clue about estimating her weight; I assume the armor is probably fairly light.

   ASSumptions for this profile:

   The Avengers Index's entry for Avengers Forever#12 identifies Drac de Ferro only as one of "2 Spanish heroes" (the other being Sirio-10), noting "Carlos Pacheco again includes characters resembling those he drew for Spanish comics amongst the crowd scenes." The Index did know exactly who she was, but had to hedge round explicit identification because of potential copyright concerns.

Profile by Loki.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Drac de Ferro has no known connections to:

images: (without ads)
Avengers Forever#12, p2, pan 1 (main Marvel image)
Iberia, Inc.#1 back cover (Laberinto image)
Iberia, Inc Databook#1 cover (with wings extended)

Appearances:
Iberia, Inc.#1-6 (December 1996-August 1997) - Rafael Marín and Carlos Pacheco (writers), Rafa Fonteriz (art), Antoni Guiral (editor)
Iberia, Inc. Databook (May 1997) - Rafael Marín and Carlos Pacheco (writers), Rafa Fonteriz (art), Antoni Guiral (editor)
Triada Vertice#2 (April 1998) - Rafael Marín and Carlos Pacheco (writers), Jesús Merino (art), Antoni Guiral (editor)
Avengers Forever#11-12 (November 1999-February 2000) - Kurt Busiek and Roger Stern (writers), Carlos Pacheco (pencils), Jesús Merino (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)

First Posted: 01/18/2019
Last updated: 01/18/2019

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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