Blood Red Queen of Hearts

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The Blood Red Queen of Hearts is not really one person, but some kind of entity that can move from one person into another, possessing them for a while before she moves on. She is really a servant of the god Chaos, and her mission is to serve up six hearts to the god so she can become his queen. But (for some reason) Chaos always wants Vampirella's heart as the seventh, and whenever the Queen tries to achieve this she ends up failing. As a punishment (in the first story in Vampirella #49) the demon Chaos summoned rips out the Queen's own eyes.

Time passes and the Queen seeks her revenge (in Vampirella #60) by taking Vampirella's eyes in revenge. This time she seems to need ten hearts, but once again she fails and Vampirella is taken to a star ship where her sight is miraculously restored by an alien doctor called Starpatch. The story gets a little wacky about here.

We haven't seen the last of the Blood Red Queen though, because the sister of the original finds her books and secret spells and takes on the mantle (all in Vampirella #102). Once again Vampirella is captured, and once again it is six hearts the new Queen needs, and once again she fails and is killed by Chaos for failing, while Vampirella escapes.

When next we meet the Queen (in Vampirella 25th Anniversary Special) the essence of the Queen is somehow caught up in a playing card and whoever picks it up finds she has become the Queen. Once again Chaos needs ten hearts (not six) and once again Vampirella's is the final one, but this time it must be given in love. It isn't, the Queen finds herself in trouble, and the essence moves on.

In Vampirella vs Wetworks the Queen turns up again as the playing card that must be passed from hand to hand to occupy a body. She tries to inhabit Rachel (one of the Wetworks team) but as Rachel is a cyborg it doesn't quite work and the Queen moves on again, to reappear in Vampirella Monthly #8 helping the Black Bishop destroy the world.

At this stage the plot becomes complicated, and suffice to say that the Queen occupies a number of different bodies (including Vampirella's) to try and ensure the apocalypse occurs. Each time the playing card sort of zaps from person to person, either by entering them or because they pick the card up.

For a while Vampirella herself is the Queen, but luckily Dixie has been reading up on these things and knows an incantation to get rid of her.

Finally, the Queen finds herself dying in a body that she cannot get out of and apparently has gone. For how long we have yet to see.

In some ways the Blood Red Queen of Hearts is a fascinating character because she spans both the Warren era and the Harris story-lines. That she is evil is beyond doubt, but how Chaos fits into the world of Nyx, Lilith and the other characters introduced when we discover Vampirella's true origin is a little unclear.

Whatever, the best thing to remember is that if you see a playing card on the floor from the suite of hearts - then whatever else you do - don't pick it up!

Whatever you do - don't pick up this playing card

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