MADAM ANGELA

Real Name: Angela DiPalma

Identity/Class: Human vampire (1930s era)

Occupation: Brothel Madam

Group Membership: Madam Angela's brothel (Christina Lawrence, others)

Affiliations: None

Enemies: Leroy Hayes, Conrad Jeavons, Hodiah Twist

Known Relatives: None (see comments)

Aliases: Miss Angela

Base of Operations: Madam Angela's brothel, Lower Manhattan

 

First Appearance: Vampire Tales#2/6 (Oct. 1973)

 

Powers/Abilities: As a vampire, Angela possessed the standard powers and weaknesses, including superhuman strength and durability, physical transformation (able to assume the form of a bat), the need to consume human blood, weakness to religious icons, etc.

 

Height: 5'10" (by estimation)
Weight: 140 lbs. (by estimation)
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Blonde

  

History:
(Vampire Tales#2/6 (fb) - BTS) - Angela DiPalma was a vampire who ran a brothel in lower Manhattan under the title "Madam Angela." She and her fellow vampires preyed on some of the clients who visited the premises, seeing it as an ideal hunting ground since the victims came to them, eliminating the need to risk stalking their prey in more dangerous locations. Angela maintained her own private quarters at the back of the building.

 

(Vampire Tales#2/6) - When Leroy Hayes visited the brothel to win a bet with a friend, Madam Angela greeted him at the door, then let him in when one of the girls, Christina offered to spend some time with him, promising to warm his blood. Chuckling at the hidden meaning behind the comment, Madam Angela retorted with amusement that Christina was an absolutely wicked girl, then told her to have her way with their new client.

 

    Christina took Leroy to her room, and after she took the first bite the other vampires joined her to feast on poor Leroy, draining him dry (see comments).

  

(Vampire Tales#2/6 - BTS) - They then disposed of his corpse by dumping it in a warehouse on the wharves.

 

(Vampire Tales#2/6) - Following up on information from Leroy's friend that the unfortunate man's last known whereabouts had been Madam Angela's, the detective Hodiah Twist sent his friend Conrad Jeavons into the brothel posing as a client, in order to provide Hodiah a distraction while he broke in to search for clues. Though it was close to dawn, Christina told Madam Angela that she was famished and so would be willing to accommodate the late arrival.

 

   Madam Angela returned to her private quarters to find Twist, who had ascended via the fire escape and smashed bodily through her window, in the middle of searching for clues. Unsurprisingly angry at the intrusion, Angela challenged him, but Hodiah countered by accusing her of being so full of hatred towards men that she had turned to murder. Shocked at this suggestion, Angela angrily corrected him, stating that she was a vampire and that he would not leave the room alive. With the normally observant Hodiah seemingly choosing to ignore the fact that Angela had no reflection in the room's mirrors, Hodiah rejected her claim, insisting she was merely delusional and acting out her fantasy of being a vampire on the men who visited the brothel. Extracting his fob watch, he held it up intending to hypnotize Angela out of her "delusion," prompting derision from the vampire at his belief he could best one for whom mesmerism was an innate power, and the pair began a struggle of wills as each attempted to hypnotize the other.

 

(Vampire Tales#2/6 - BTS) - Whether protected by his remarkably strong will or his own form of insanity, Hodiah prevailed, and though Angela remained aware her actions were not of her own choice, she found herself compelled to do as Hodiah instructed.

 

(Vampire Tales#2/6) - Seeking to prove to her that she was merely insane, Twist made Madam Angela walk outside to face the dawn sunrise. Jeavons, who had suffered his own ordeal besting the other vampires, spotted them and shouted to Hodiah to stop, but the sunlight struck Angela, who rapidly and painfully was reduced to ashes, surprising the amateur detective. Looking at the burning remains, Jeavons decried the fact that now they had no evidence to show to the inspector to prove what had really happened.

 

Comments: Created by Don McGregor (writer) and Rich Buckler (penciller) and Carlos Garzon & Klaus Janson (inkers).

   Since most of the vampiresses who joined Christina in feasting on the unfortunate Leroy Hayes were partially transformed, it's uncertain whether Madam Angela herself took part in the feasting. However, when Jeavons is attacked there only seem to be four female vampires pursuing him, including Christina, and the panel where

   One of the other vampires refers to Christina Lawrence as "sister Christina"; however, in the context used it was probably simply an indication that the vampiric women viewed other members of their coterie as siblings, rather than actual familial relationships. At a guess, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Angela had turned Christina and her fellows into vampires.

   Angela's surname was revealed in the Appendix of the Vampires Handbook; the headshot of her in that same Appendix provided her hair color.

   In Blade III#12 a prophecy was fulfilled that brought back all vampires that ever died, presumably including Madam Angela.

Profile by Loki, expanding on the sub-profile first written by Jean-Marc Lofficier for the Hodiah Twist entry.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Madam Angela should not be confused with

Vampire prostitutes

  

 

As well as Angela and Christina, around three additional unidentified female vampires resided at Madam Angela's and enjoyed feasting upon clients. When the unfortunate Leroy Hayes made the fatal error of visiting the brothel, Christina lured him to her rooms and enjoyed the first taste, and as Leroy recoiled in shock and horror the other vampiresses burst into the room to devour him as a group.

 

 

  The next night, as dawn approached, Conrad Jeavons visited the brothel posing as a client, and was similarly led up to Christina's room, but when the vampire horde burst in Jeavons fled out the fire escape and fled across the rooftops. In bat form the vampires pursued, but Jeavons evaded them momentarily by hiding behind a chimney, and as one bat flew over him, he impaled her with a weather vane, then dropped her over the side of the building he was now atop onto a cross lit with neon.

  

 

   As Christina and the other remaining vampires shrieked in anguish at the loss of one of their own, Jeavons fled down to street level via another fire escape, alerted by the neon-lit cross that the building he was now at housed a Salvation Army mission. As he ran inside, Christina and the others raced in after him, in their haste failing to spot the Salvation Army sign and that Jeavons had dodged to the side of the door they were now entering. Before they could take in their surroundings, their prey slipped back outside and pulled the door shut behind him.

 

 

   As the pastor spotted them and decried the presence of creatures spawned sand damned in Hell, Christina and her fellow vampiresses suddenly realized they were in a room adorned with dozens of crosses, making escape virtually impossible, with large windows about to let in the light of the imminent sunrise, and Christina wailed that they were doomed.

  

 

--Vampire Tales#2/6

  

 

images: (without ads)
Vampire Tales#2/6, page 61, panel 6 (main image)
Vampire Tales#2/6, page 68, panel 6 (headshot)
Vampire Tales#2/6, page 68, panel 5 (confronting Twist, no reflection)
Vampire Tales#2/6, page 71, panel 5-10 (Madam Angela's death by sunlight)
Vampire Tales#2/6, page 71, panel 11 (burning remains)
Vampires: The Marvel Undead Handbook, Vampire Appendix, p4, pan1 (colorized from Vampire Tales#2, page 71, panel 5, colorized headshot)
Vampire Tales#2/6, page 62, panel 7 (other vampires of Madam Angela's, some partially transformed)
Vampire Tales#2/6, page 69, panel 5 (Christina and others vampires in full bat form)
Vampire Tales#2/6, page 70, panel 8 (the vampires trapped in the Salvation Army hall) 

Appearances:
Vampire Tales#2/6 (October, 1973) - Don McGregor (writer), Carlos Garzon (pencils), Klaus Janson (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)

First Posted: 10/24/2021
Last updated: 10/24/2021

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
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