Black Comics Month: Day 3

What can I say about Bloodwynd? Well, he's the only character I know who made his first appearance fifteen issues after he joined the JLA.
See, Bloodwynd popped up shortly before the whole Doomsday debacle, and in fact participated in that battle. He was powerful, drawing on the souls of the damned for a variety of abilities. He was quiet and mysterious, which made other Leaguers (specifically Blue Beetle) a bit suspicious. And for good reason, because as Ted found out (just before getting beaten into a coma), Bloodwynd was actually Martian Manhunter.

It's not J'onn's fault, though. See, there actually is a Bloodwynd. His ancestors were slaves held by the cruel plantation owner Jacob Whitney. The slaves performed a ritual each night for a month, in order to create the magical Blood Gem. They imprisoned Whitney's twisted soul in the jewel, and they passed it down from generation to generation, and from generation to generation it became more powerful, drawing on evil and darkness, and driving its protector to crave the same. Eventually, all this evil built up into a creature called Rott, who sucked Bloodwynd into the jewel, and then took over Martian Manhunter, all in a ploy to take the power of the Ray and escape his crystalline prison. Needless to say, he was defeated and reimprisoned, and the real Bloodwynd was released, to finally meet the team he joined months before.

I personally lost track of Bloodwynd after that; but he's only made a handful of appearances since then. It's not hard to see why: the word "blood," the "y" instead of an "i," and the mysterious dark magician angle all mark him as a creature of the '90s. It's pretty clear he was supposed to be an Image-style character, from the flowing cloak to the weird asymmetrical jewelry he wore.

But, unlike most Image characters, I thought Bloodwynd was interesting. Sure, his origin kind of marks him as the black Ragman, but his powers are more like Dr. Strange's. Besides, how many necromancer superheroes does the DCU have? And when's the last time Sebastian Faust did anything? In Bloodwynd, we have a character whose very nature forces him to walk the line between the light and the dark, to constantly choose between vengeance and redemption, and to fight the dark temptations of the burden that fuels his powers. Ever since the Spectre got back into the full-time vengeance game, there hasn't really been anyone playing the conflicted mystical redeemer, and that's Bloodwynd to a 'T.' Plus, despite the jewelry, he has a distinct and very snazzy costume.

With Captain Marvel steeped in brooding introspection, Dr. Fate's helmet bouncing around the universe, and the Spectre sucking it up in his own comic, I can see where Bloodwynd might not be ideal for a solo series right now. However, he's a visually interesting character with a vaguely-defined, yet interesting, set of magical powers, and he's about as close to a blank slate as you can get with a character who has been established for fifteen years. He's crying out for a revival in Tales of the Unexpected or Shadowpact or Dr. Fate.

Hopefully, some enterprising writer will give him the attention and exposure he deserves.