NIGHT TERROR

Real Name: Carl Blake

Identity/Class: Human vampire

Occupation: Vessel for the spirit of Varnae;
    formerly government assassin

Group Membership: Bad Seed, (formerly) an unnamed government agency

Affiliations: Trinity Cabranes, Marie Laveau; Steppin' Razor; Varnae

Enemies: Bible John; Blade; Ghost Rider (Ketch); Wanderer

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Los Angeles, California
                                     (formerly) New York City

First Appearance: Ghost Rider III Annual#1 (1993)

Powers/Abilities: As a vampire, Night Terror seemed to possess most abilities attributed to such (see comments). He had to feed on blood to survive, but could also absorb some of his victims memories in the process.  He could levitate enough to "run" across tree tops.  Night Terror also possessed superhuman strength. 

History:
(Ghost Rider III Annual#1/2 (fb)-BTS) - Carl Blake and his friend Wanderer worked together for an unnamed government agency, even taking a blood oath with one another.

(Ghost Rider III Annual#1/1 (fb)-BTS / (Blade: Vampire-Hunter I#4 (fb)-BTS) - The agency sent Blake to Los Angeles to take down the head of a Yardi drug operation.  There, he found the head, actually a vampire named Steppin' Razor, who saw Blake's contempt for other humans and exploited it by turning him into a vampire as well.

(Ghost Rider III Annual#1/1 (fb)-BTS) - The intelligence agency recovered Blake, only to discover he was now a vampire.  They gave him the code name Night Terror and began to run tests on him, but he escaped.

(Ghost Rider III Annual#1/1) - Two nights later,  while questioning what he was and how he came to be, Night Terror attacked and killed a group of thugs that had attempted to mug him.  Later he attacked another young man, Dan Ketch, and attempted to drain his blood as well.  To his surprise, his victim transformed into the Ghost Rider.  Fleeing the supernatural avenger, Night Terror found himself facing a door in Lincoln Center (leading to a covert intelligence center), one he realized he'd subconsciously gone back to.  Investigating, he was confronted by a security team, only to kill them.  Still trying to evade Ghost Rider, the vampire made his way further and found an office, where he attacked the people he found there.  Draining one of them, he absorbed their memories and learned a little about who he was.  Ghost Rider proved relentless though, and while the two fought, one of the agents set off a self-destruct mechanism in the center.  Running Night Terror through with his mystical chains, Ghost Rider and a surviving agent fled, leaving the vampire behind to be consumed by the explosion.

(Ghost Rider III Annual#1/2) - Having survived, Night Terror then began to search out other members of the unnamed agency.  He found a group of four of them and attacked them.  He killed the two males, but before he could bite the two females, he was stopped by his old partner Wanderer.  Night Terror, with his newfound vampiric powers, easily outfought Wanderer and bit him.  Believing his former friend to be dead, he left.

(Blade: V-H I#3) - At Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, Night Terror attacked another agent, draining her blood and memories.

(Blade: V-H I#4) - Arriving in Los Angeles, Night Terror attacked two gang members. As he fed on their blood, he was confronted by Steppin' Razor, who offered Blake a place in a new vampire empire.  Grudgingly, Night Terror accepted. The two returned to Razor's leader, the voodoo sorceress Marie Laveau.  Having just captured Blade, Laveau planned to resurrect her lord Varnae once again, using Blade as the vessel. 

(Blade: V-H I#5) - Before Varnae could enter Blade's body, the vampire-slayer managed to break the necessary Sigil of Admission.  Laveau ordered Night Terror and Steppin' Razor to take him down.  Unfortunately for Night Terror, he was impaled by one of Blade's swords, and he fell lifelessly to the ground.  As Blade battled the other vampires, Varnae realized he didn't need the Sigil to enter an already-undead body and thus entered Night Terror's.  Pulling Blade's sword from his chest, Varnae/Blake challenged his nemesis to a duel.  Fairly evenly matched, the two continued until daylight began to arrive.  Burned by the sun's rays, Varnae, still in Night Terror's body, escaped into the darkness.

Comments: Created by Howard Mackie, Chris Bachalo and Mark Buckingham.

Another character Mackie introduced and then left to dry.  Thankfully, Ian Edginton used him over a year later and finally resolved his origin.

Standard Varnean vampire powers include: enhanced strength, require human blood to survive, require contact with native soil once a night, immune to conventional forms of destruction, vulnerable to direct rays of the sun + silver + garlic + religious objects wielded by believer + wooden stake through heart + beheading, can be destroyed by Montesi formula, can be mystically revived unless sever head + stuff mouth with garlic + burn head and body in separate places, some can change into bat or wolf, control wild beasts (dogs, rats, etc), transform into mist, hypnotize most humans

Profile by Madison Carter

Clarifications:

Night Terror has no known connections to

• Night Terrors, aka Shadow Thieves, @Iron Fist IV#1
• Terror (Laslo Pevely), golden age hero, @Mystic Comics#5
• Terror, Inc., mercenary who can use others' bodyparts as his own, @Terror, Inc.#1
  
• or to anyone else with "Night" or "Terror" in their name.

STEPPIN' RAZOR

    The head of a Yardi drug operation in Los Angeles, Steppin' Razor was targeted for assassination by an unnamed government agency.  This agency sent their agent Carl Blake to take Razor out.  However, Steppin' Razor was also a vampire (and member of Varnae's Bad Seed), and, sensing Blake's disdain for humanity, turned him into a vampire as well instead of outright killing him.  Years later, Razor sought out Blake, now dubbed Night Terror and invited him to join him in helping Marie Laveau revive Varnae.  After Night Terror was killed and possessed by Varnae, Steppin' Razor was last seen carrying the unconscious body of Laveau, escaping with his master Varnae from the hero known as Blade.





-- Blade: Vampire-Hunter I#4 (Blade: V-H I#4 (fb)-BTS, Blade: V-H I#4,#5)

images:
Ghost Rider III Annual#1, page 9, panel 6 (main image)
Blade: Vampire-Hunter I#5, page 13, panel 1 (possessed by Varnae)