Bloodstone is a 2001-2002 four-issue Marvel comic book mini-series written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, with art by Michael Lopez.
Elise Bloodstone and her eighteen-year-old daughter Elsa have arrived in Boston in order to inspect the house of Elise's late husband, Ulysses Bloodstone. Together, they meet the executor, Charles Barnabas, in order to finalize the deal, but deep in the house, Elsa finds something else altogether: a secret cave filled with trophies, including a Bloodgem choker, and the caretaker of the house, a Frankenstein's Monster named Adam, who tells Elsa that her father was a famous monster hunter. Wacky hijinks ensue.
This mini-series is notable for introducing the character of Elsa Bloodstone, who would subsequently appear in Nextwave, but radically different: she went from a blonde, chipper eighteen-year-old who was just starting out as a monster hunter and never knew her father to a snarky redheaded twenty-something who had been taught practically from birth how to kill monsters by her father. This is the characterization that would stick, while her first mini-series can be chalked up to Early-Installment Weirdness.
Elsa Bloodstone made her Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in Werewolf by Night (2022), portrayed by Laura Donnelly.
Tropes in Bloodstone:
- Depleted Phlebotinum Shells: At one point, Elsa kills a vampire using a "Drench-O-Matic" holy water gun.
- Eat Me: It turns out that drinking a Bloodstone's blood is not good for a vampire. It is, in fact, fatal.
- Frankenstein's Monster: Adam, the caretaker. One time, he gets his head chopped off, but he's still able to put it back on.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Charles Barnabas, the executor of Ulysses Bloodstone's estate. He's a vampire, but he's on Elsa's side and actually romantically likes her mother.
- Hunter of Monsters: Her father was one and now so is Elsa.
- Magical Accessory: The Bloodgem choker. It grants Elsa the same powers that her father had.
- Mummy: The third issue is about fighting the revived Pharaoh Rakses alongside N'Kantu the Living Mummy.
- Sequel Hook: The mini-series ends with Elise and Elsa permanently moving to Boston, Elise turning the mansion into a curio shop, and Elsa becoming a fully fledged monster hunter...with the next monster she hunts being the Kraken.
- Shout-Out:
- Charles Barnabas is named after Barnabas Collins, the vampire from Dark Shadows.
- Adam is often the name used for the original Frankenstein's Monster, since he says to his creator, "I ought to be thy Adam."
- Elsa encounters a Frankenstein's Monster in the first issue, Dracula in the second, and a Mummy in the third. The only Universal monster missing is the Wolfman. In fact, in the fourth issue, when Adam teams up with Dracula to fight against a Nosferatu, he says that all they need is Abbott and Costello to make it feel like "old times."
- Trophy Room: Elsa finds her late father's secret cave trophy room in the first issue. The plot really kicks off when she puts on the Bloodgem choker and then accidentally makes a wish with the Djinn.
