NOSFERATA
Real Name: Purple Hayes
Identity/Class: Vigilante
Occupation: Independently wealthy, finances own war on crime
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Freda (personal
assistant/butler-ette),
Howard the Duck, Razorback, She-Hulk (Jen Walters),
Dan Slott (or John Byrne)
formerly Lexington Loopner
Enemies: Adrenazon, Jack Serious
Known Relatives: Dr. Timothy Hayes (father), Blaire Hayes (mother) (both deceased)
Aliases: The She-Bat, the Dark Princess
Place of Birth: Visigoth, Massachusetts
Base of Operations: The Nosferattic, Visigoth, Massachusetts (has traveled to New York City as well)
Education: Self-taught criminologist and chemist
First Appearances: Sensational She-Hulk#19 (1990)
Powers: None. She uses a wide variety of bat-based weapons and equipment, such as her Nosferatarang and her car, the Nosferauto. She is based at the top floor of her mansion in the Nosferattic, which has advanced computers and what-not. She is a reasonably skilled fighter, but prefers to rely on the element of surprise to throw her foes off-guard.
Height: 5' 10"
Weight: 140 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown
History:
(Sensational
She-Hulk#19 (fb)) - Purple Hayes's parents were
killed in front of her at a young age, after which she immersed
herself in criminology. When she became an adult, she attempted
to go out and defend others, and received a beating at the hands
of a gang of criminals who caught her off-guard. She decided to form an identity to strike
terror into evil-doer's hearts, and was inspired by a rubber bat
that was thrown at her by a disgruntled homeless person. She
hired Lexington Looper to perform a massive
publicity/merchandising campaign, warning that crime would soon
"suck sidewalk."
(Sensational She-Hulk#19-20) - In her first public appearance, she, with help from She-Hulk, prevented a delivery of Serious Gas to head of Dorkham Asylum, Jack Serious. Serious then captured She-Hulk, planning to experiment with the effects of his gas on her. Nosferata arrived in time to save Jen and learn that Serious was the same guy who killed her parents. Serious fled from the two and ended up as a victim to the inmates of the asylum.
(Marvel Comics Presents#123/2-126/2) - Nosferata later aided She-Hulk against the Adrennazon, who had framed the She-Hulk for murder.
(She-Hulk II#3) - Nosferata was plucked out of time, appearing at the She-Hulk's time infraction trial, presumably speaking on Jen's behalf at some point. She was seated in the back between Dan Slott (or John Byrne) and Howard the Duck, and she heckled Razorback's misguided attempts to help She-Hulk's case, "Nice going, Pighead."
(Civil War: Battle Damage Report) - Tony Stark considered Nosferata as a potential Initiative recruit.
Comments: Created by Steve Gerber and
Take a big guess what movie was a hit at the time of her first appearance. The story in MCP was actually better. Nosferata was a character with a little bit of personality instead of one-long forced joke.
In case you don't know Nosferata takes her name
from Nosferatu, which was another name for vampire-like
creatures.
Here's the real truth behind that, courtesy of our real world
history guru, John McDonagh:
as per Elizabeth Miller's book Dracula: Sense and Nonsense,
there actually is no such word as Nosferatu in Romanian or any
other language. Bram Stoker relied on faulty scholarship,
unfortunately.
On Wikipedia and a few other sites I found that Nosferatu came from the Old Slavonic word "nosufur-atu" which was derived from the Greek "nosophoros" (disease-bearing). I don't know how much truth is behind this info.
--Markus Raymond
Clarifications: Purple Hayes has no connection to:
images: (without ads)
Sensational She-Hulk#19, Cover (main image)
Other appearances:
Sensational She-Hulk#20 (October, 1990) - Steve Gerber (writer), Bryan Hitch (pencils), Jim Sanders III (inks), Bobbie Chase (editor)
Marvel Comics Presents#123-126 (1993) - Kelly Corvese (writer), Dave Hoover (pencils), Robert Campanella (inks), Terry Kavanagh (editor)
She-Hulk II#3 (February 2006) - Dan Slott (writer), Juan Bobillo (penciler),
Marcelo Sosa (inker), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Civil War: Battle Damage Report (2007)
Last updated: 01/15/06
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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