HELEN PURVISHELEN PURVIS
Real Name: Helen Purvis
Identity/Class: Human vampire; magically-empowered
Occupation: predator, agent of Belasco and the N'Garai;
former secretary
Group Membership: Unidentified (and possibly unnamed) vampire coven (including Carla Spelvin and Gordon)
Affiliations: Belasco, N'Garai, Carla Spelvin;
formerly Dracula, Mel Gibson (her pet cat)
Enemies: Dracula, Mel
Gibson, Mel Gibson the cat, X-Men (Cyclops/Scott Summers, Phoenix/Jean
Grey, Rogue/Anna Marie, Storm/Ororo Munroe, Wolverine/James
Howlett/Logan);
indirectly Excalibur (Colossus/Piotr
Rasputin, Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner, Kitty Pryde, Amanda Sefton)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None, although she inhabited and influenced Rogue for an extended period of time
Base of Operations: Currently unrevealed;
formerly an unidentified deconsecrated and abandoned church in Natchez, Mississippi
First Appearance: X-Men: Soul Killer (1999)
Powers/Abilities: As a vampire, Helen presumably had superhuman strength (typically enhanced human) and required regular blood meals to survive; when fully fed, she could likely heal rapidly from non-fatal wounds. Further, feeding on a human victim would turn that victim into a vampire, depending on the extent of the feeding and other circumstances.
Helen could transform into either a bat, a bat-human hybrid, or possibly both. In whatever bat-form she took, she could fly.
She presumably possessed vulnerability to religious icons, sunlight, and a wooden stake through the heart. She presumably had the standard vampire vulnerabilties, including garlic.
Belasco granted Helen the ability to fly in her human form; additionally, she was empowered so that when she touched Rogue, her mind would begin to dominate Rogue's mind, and their bonding would persist, rather than fade in a short time as normally did the minds and powers of those Rogue touched. Belasco also enchanted her to immolate Rogue's gloves when she prepared to strike her, forcing unintended skin-to-skin contact and persona/ability absorption.
Height: Unrevealed
Weight: Unrevealed (she was described as angular, so she was presumably lean, but we have no reference to her height)
Eyes: Presumably red; original color unrevealed
Hair: Brown
Never pictured, she was described as a homely, scrawny, prim-looking woman in her late 30s, with stooped, angular figure, lank, mousy hair, and pinched sallow face. She wore a lacy blouse, navy suit, with sensible flat-heeled shoes. She reminded Rogue of a spinster librarian or a teacher in an old movie.
History:
(X-Men:
Soul Killer Chapter 1 (fb) - BTS) - Helen envied lithe, pretty women, worked as a
secretary, and had her Siamese cat, Mel Gibson, as her only friend
while she lived in her cramped efficiency apartment.
(X-Men: Soul Killer Chapter 1 (fb) - BTS) - After becoming a vampire, Helen tore apart her cat to celebrate her metamorphosis. Her new nature rendered her previous envy of other women's beauty absurd.
She hoped to stalk and kill the human Mel Gibson someday, as this seemed like it would be a lot of fun to her.
(X-Men: Soul Killer Chapter 1 (fb) - BTS) - Helen would have paid any price to be rid of her vampirism.
(X-Men:
Soul Killer Chapter 14 (fb) - BTS) - Appreciating that the Agamotto-placed wards
imprisoning his masters in their realm were weaker from the Earth's
dimension, Belasco resolved that if he could somehow get some of his
masters (the N'Garai) into Earth's dimension, he and they could break the barrier and
allow his masters to return to Earth. Belasco determined he could do
this by bringing the X-Man Rogue to his masters' realm and having her
touch his masters, via which they could possess her form and exit their
realm in that fashion.
He decided that he
could manipulate Rogue into entering his masters' realm by mystically
bonding her to a vampire under his sway
(X-Men: Soul Killer Chapter 1
(fb) - BTS) - Belasco enslaved Helen's vampire coven in Natchez, Mississippi;
sensing him to be of human origin, the vampires initially resisted, but he
broke them to his will, after which they came to adore him for his
power and cruelties, though it was a tainted worship laced with envy
and resentment. They made a base in an old, abandoned church, and Belasco
made them share his goal of releasing the N'Garai masters from their
extradimensional prison so that they might rule Earth as they had in
the past.
Belasco had the vampires replace the church's imagery, including adding a reeking, maggot-infested corpse drooped from the big oak cross, which they hung upside down; and monstrous marble statues -- scaly, tentacular figures so convoluted and alien that it hurt the eye simply to look at them -- flanked the altar, a massive basalt block carved with hieroglyphs and encrusted with the dried blood of human sacrifices.
(X-Men: Soul Killer Chapter 1 (fb) - BTS) - Dracula sensed Belasco's usurping one of his covens, but other matters distracted him from following up on this.
(X-Men: Soul Killer Chapter 1 (fb) - BTS) - Belasco summoned the coven to the church.
Like the rest of her vampire coven, Helen was surprised by a psychic summons to their church from Belasco, but they attended nonetheless.
(X-Men: Soul Killer Chapter 1) - Helen Purvis hungrily awaited the meeting. When fellow vampire Carla Spelvin, who had apparently read her thoughts, voiced how it was typical that after rushing there they were left cooling their heels for hours, Helen agreed, noting that this was another way of reminding them who was in charge. Helen suggested that if they wanted to show their master he couldn't treat them so cavalierly, they could leave and go hunting, and Carla noted that while this idea was worthwhile, she liked her skeleton where it was.
From 30' away, Helen felt the dark magic crawling in Belasco's sword. Unable to see him come or go, she wondered how long he had been there and how much of their conversation she had heard.
Helen joined the others in speaking their litany to Belasco, noting that the world was broken because the gods were in prison, but that they would free them. After Belasco elaborated how the gods would scour the Earth and make them as demigods, the coven was shocked to hear him announce that they would begin tonight and release the dark ones within days. Helen and the others reaffirmed that they believed in him, after which he summoned Helen and Carla to the altar. As they walked forward, Helen sensed Belasco's fierce gaze, but also noticed the faces of the other coven members: Some were relieved Belasco had not called on them, others were jealous, and a few recently-vampirized members felt pity.
As they reached the altar, Belasco motioned for them to ascend the steps to the dais and stand beside him; he named them as the anointed ones, the chosen instruments of the gods. He asked if they were afraid. Carla said she was not, but Helen was certain she was lying. Helen admitted she was afraid but further noted that she trusted Belasco, and she wanted to live in the world he promised; she wanted to be a demigod and she wanted more power. "Power is the only thing that's ever done me any good."
Belasco noted his pleasure with their strong resolves, and he told them their paths would not be easy, as they would suffer and see their very natures altered (and likely perish); as they had experienced this sort of change before and risen anew, they would be resurrected by the gods in the world to come.
As both women obeyed his order to kneel, Helen felt lightheaded from the stench of the crucified corpse, and she then kissed Belasco's sword upon being instructed to worship it, though they masked the nausea and revulsion they felt upon touching it. Belasco then ordered Helen to lie on the altar, after which he told her how the key to their success would be furnished by a band of heroes (the X-Men). Raising the sword above his head and telling her to brace herself, he then plunged the sword through Helen's torso, pinning her to the stone. She screamed in agony.
(X-Men:
Soul Killer Chapter 1 (fb) - BTS) - To prevent the mutants from discovering her
true nature prematurely, Belasco granted Helen the ability to fly;
additionally, she was empowered so
that when she touched Rogue, her mind would begin to dominate Rogue's
mind, and their bonding would persist, rather than fade in a short time
as normally did the minds and powers of those Rogue touched.
Belasco informed Helen how Rogue and Storm would be in Natchez trying
to stop a storm he was going to generate, and then told her of his plan
to have her mind possess Rogue's; he assured her that neither Rogue nor
Storm had better vision than a normal human.
(X-Men: Soul Killer (fb) - BTS) - Belasco generated the a powerful storm in Natchez, knowing that Storm and Rogue would arrive to try to stop it.
(X-Men: Soul Killer: Chapter 1) - Helen took to the air, noting how odd it felt to fly by willing it, rather than by beating leathern wings. She wondered if the new being she was going to bring into existence would actually still be her, or if she was preparing to commit a bizarre form of suicide. After ascending for half a minute, she spotted Rogue and Storm in the air, and she had to suppress her hunter's urge to pounce; instead, she stayed in the darkness, watching them from afar.
Once Rogue separated from Storm to look around, Helen dove at her with outstretched hands reaching for her face, and Rogue caught a glimpse of her out of the corner of her eye in time to dodge. Rogue was underwhelmed at Helen's harmless appearance until she grinned, exposing her fangs. The next time Helen dove at her, Rogue shifted to the side and threw a punch, but mid-punch her glove magically burst into flame and vanished, so that she struck Helen's jaw bare-fisted. While Rogue gained another's powers, abilities, knowledge, and sometime varying degrees of his or her personality, in this case, Helen's essence raged into Rogue's mind, forcing her thoughts and powers on her. Unconscious, Helen's body body fell towards the water below, where Rogue/Helen imagined it would be turn to dust once exposed to the sun.
Not even bothering to watch her former body hit, Helen took stock of her new body and powers and hungered to devour someone's vitality. As she flew towards Storm, whose concentration in ending the storm had prevented her from noticing the confrontation, Rogue's mind briefly rebelled at the idea, but Helen's will overwhelmed her, and she touched Storm's arm, draining her power and rendering her unconscious. Rogue's personality was able to force her to let go of Storm before she drained her permanently or took her whole life force, and Storm began to fall.
(X-Men: Soul Killer: Chapter 3 (fb) - BTS) - Pained by Helen's hunger and challenged by her will-power, Rogue nonetheless resisted the urge to feed on anyone.
(X-Men: Soul Killer: Chapter 3 - BTS) - Storm survived the fall.
(X-Men: Soul Killer (fb) - BTS) - Belasco shielded Storm and Rogue's minds to prevent the other X-Men from locating them.
(X-Men: Soul Killer (fb) - BTS) - Belasco further put a curse on the X-Men, causing them to be on edge and easily provoked, leading to in-fighting and counter-productivity.
(X-Men: Soul Killer: Chapter 3 (fb) - BTS) - As Rogue's mind struggled against Helen, she suffered periodic blackouts; during one of these, she made her way to a satellite antenna atop a two-story building.
(X-Men:
Soul Killer: Chapter 3) - Wracked with vampiric hunger, Rogue/Helen
sensed the blood moving through the vessels of a father and son
departing the building, and she subsequently tormented and intended to
drain the life force from the mother before regaining her senses and
fleeing into the sky. Nonetheless, Rogue sensed Helen growing
progressively stronger as well as progressively permeating Rogue's own
thoughts rather than acting as a separate persona; additionally,
Helen's influence did not fade in the daylight, as Rogue had hoped it
would. Rogue thought to contact the X-Men, but then realized that this
is what Helen wanted, and stopped herself, fearing repeating what she
had done to Storm.
Belasco then contacted Rogue;
appearing only indistinctly, he claimed to be a friend, and led her to
believe he was an angel. He told her he could end her pain and lead her
to a glorious destiny. Telling Rogue that Storm had perished at her
hands, Belasco advised Rogue she must hurry before her vampiric
possessor took control of her. Rogue nearly agreed to meet with him,
but then realized he was likely the cause of her possession and
resisted. Before he departed, Belasco warned her that Helen's spirit
would eventually overwhelm or destroy her.
(X-Men: Soul Killer: Chapter 5 - BTS) - Possessing Rogue's form, strength, durability, and flight powers, Carla began attacking and killing innocents to turn the public and authorities against them.
(X-Men: Soul Killer: Chapter 8 - BTS) - Aided by a mini-cerebro, Jean sensed Rogue (although her mind was somewhat different and was blocked) and she, Cyclops, and Wolverine tracked her to an abandoned former carriage tour facility. As they approached, Wolverine sensed that her scent was rank.
(X-Men: Soul Killer: Chapter 8) - They found Rogue curled up in one of the stalls, and she told them to go away as she could not control herself and that she had to follow the red angel's call. Jean Grey tried to read Rogue's mind, and saw only images of the predatory persona tearing apart victims before being cast out. When they asked her about Storm, she told them she had consumed her and that she had fallen to her apparent death. Rogue then fired a lightning bolt with the powers she had retained from Storm before leaping at Jean with bare hands; Jean blocked her with a telekinetic shield, and Rogue eventually punched out Wolverine and tried to absorb his powers. When Cyclops blasted her away, she suspended him in midair via wind and then told the others to flee while she fed on Cyclops. Jean called out for Rogue not to hurt her friend, and Rogue fired a lightning bolt at Jean and then broke out of the building and flew off.
(X-Men: Soul Killer: Chapter 12 - BTS) - The X-Men observed SAFE (Strategic Action For Emergencies) footage of Rogue (actually Carla) slaughtering innocent people. Wolverine observed that this Rogue wasn't wearing gloves, while Rogue's gloves had been destroyed before she attacked Storm. Forensic reports revealed that all those injured and killed had been victims of brute force, and there was no evidence of anyone having their life energy drained. They further appreciated that she had neither fangs nor red eyes. This information convinced them that the Rogue commiting the assaults was an imposter.(X-Men:
Soul Killer: Chapter 13) - The Helen-possessed Rogue fled into
the country where there would hopefully be fewer potential victims.
However, she repeatedly blacked out, and when she regained her wits
found herselfhaving headed back towards Natchez.
(X-Men:
Soul Killer: Chapter 13) - Agonizing with hunger for
others' life forces. Rogue approached a family's home, considering that
the people might drown in the potentially impending flood, and that it
wouldn't hurt if they were already dead by the time the flood came. As
she regained her wits and dropped to the ground in tears, Belaso
appeared to her again as her "angel," encouraging her to come to him
and end her pain. When she resisted, he told her that the bond of love
and trust she felt was her true self, and that the revulsion towards
that was from the foreign invader. Briefly dimming Rogue's hunger, he
had her look through the window and see footage of herself (actually
Rogue Carla) slaughtering innocents. which further weakened Rogue's
resolve. Additionally, he showed her a false vision of Cyclops, Jean
Grey, and Wolverine, dead at her hands from their previous battle. Her
horror was overwhelmed by Helen's glee at the sight, and she agreed to
come to Belasco, now trusting him and knowing he wouldn't hurt her.
(X-Men: Soul Killer: Chapter 13 (fb) - BTS) - A news report showed "Rogue Carla" slaughtering more innocents, and a reporter announced that 72 people had died at her hands.
(X-Men: Soul Killer: Chapter 13 - BTS) - Wolverine located "Rogue Carla," allowing Storm to confront and defeat her. Dracula forced Carla to return to her original form, exonerating Rogue, and Jean Grey broke down Carla's psychic barriers, but Belasco destroyed Carla before Jean could learn anything from her.
(X-Men: Soul Killer: Chapter 14) - Alongside Belasco, Rogue entered Belasco's church, acknowledging his true identity and that he was her masters before encountering and regarding with pride the other vampires who were jealous for her privilege. He then opened the portal that led to the realm of the N'Garai masters; en route, Rogue impressed him with her retaining awareness when she asked about why she was needed to free his masters. He explained it to her and then brought her into the dark gods' realm, but when the monstrous beings reached for her to bond with her, she realized how wrong that was, and she attempted to flee. Nonetheless, the gods caught her with tentacles and pulled her back. Their essences overwhelmed both Rogue and Helen's identities.
(X-Men: Soul Killer: Chapter 14 (fb) - BTS) - Belasco returned to the church with the N'Garai masters-possessed Rogue, her body almost equally fluid, constantly oozing and flowing, changing color, putting forth limbs and organs of unknown function, and then drawing them back in again. Only the tattered uniform and shock of brown, white-streaked hair made her recognizable as Rogue.
They/she began voicing a spell to break down the barrier imprisoning them in their realm, their/her voice changing from second-to-second from a roar to a buzz to a shrill whine.
Combining their abililites and affinities on various levels, the X-Men located Belasco's base.
(X-Men: Soul Killer: Chapter 14) - The X-Men entered and, while most fought Belasco's demonic and vampiric servants, Amanda focused her power to delaying the dark ones' spell. When the N'Garai-possessed Rogue proved utterly immune to Cyclops and Wolverine's assaults, Jean Grey touched Rogue, causing her to absorb her mind and powers.
Jean's psi-powers allowed her to retain her will and identity within Rogue's mind. As she observed the dark ones and sought out Rogue's submerged persona, she encountered Helen's persona. Helen attacked her, but Jean stunned her with a mental bolt, fought off her efforts to hypnotize her, and then impaled her with a wooden stake she had manifested. Helen's essence exploded into a shower of dust.
(X-Men: Soul Killer: Chapter 14 - BTS) - Jean located Rogue's psyche and guided her to destroy the dark ones' representations within her mind, freeing them of their influence and restoring her to normal, although severely weakened.
Colossus destroyed Belasco with his magic sword.
Comments: Created by Richard Lee Byers and Leonard Manco.
There are NO images of Helen Purvis. The three images included here are when she has possessed Rogue, so it just looks like Rogue...she was at least well described in the text.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Helen Purvis should be distinguished from:
images: (without ads)
Chapter 3 - Belasco appearing before possessed Rogue
Chapter 8 - possessed Rogue - from rear
Chapter 13, pg. 201 - possessed Rogue battling Belasco
Appearances:
X-Men: Soul Killer (1999) - Richard Lee Byers (writer), Leonard Manco (art), Keith R.A. Candido (editor)
Last updated: 08/16/16
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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