Origin
Cullen Bloodstone is a member of the famed Bloodstone family, related to Ulysses Bloodstone and Elsa Bloodstone. He has a reputation as a formidable fighter. One of his Braddock Academy classmates describes him as “brilliant in a frowny face sort of way”, and that “he goes out of his way to be unpopular”. Next to Apex, he seems to be the most intelligent of Braddock Academy students trapped in the Murderworld.
Creation
Cullen Bloodstone was created by writer Dennis Hopeless and artist Kevin Walker. He first appeared in Avengers Arena #1.
Major Story Arcs
Avengers Arena
Cullen, along with fellow Braddock Academy students Anachronism, Apex, Kid Briton, and Nara is among the 15 teenage superheroes kidnapped by Arcade to fight to the death on MurderWorld, where only one is slated to come out alive. Cullen remains with his Academy classmates, and actively advocates against violent solutions, such as when Kid Briton and Nara want to execute Death Locket. He is shown to have a strong friendship with classmate Anachronism, the two often being seen together. After Anachronism kills Kid Briton, in order to save his crush Nara from his wrath, Cullen approaches Cammi, Nico Minoru and Chase Stein, who had been watching events unfold from a distance, and offers to split the food from a supply cache with them if help to bury Kid Briton. Following the burial, while the teens are getting to know one another, Cammi is able to tell that Cullen has a crush on Anachronism and another, much darker secret.
Later on, Apex, whose body was now being controlled by Katy’s twin brother Tim, and Death Locket run into the group while being chased by Juston Seyfert in a version of his Sentinel Mark IV, which had been destroyed by Apex’s earlier attacks, and X-23. When trying to decide whether or not to kill Tim in order to eliminate Katy as a threat, Cullen was one of the five contestants who voted for sparing him. When Katy retook control and attacked the group, after killing Juston and claiming his sentinel for her own, Cullen was one of the five survivors to make it through Nico’s escape portal, alongside Cammi, Nara, Anachronism, and X-23. The portal transported the group to another safe zone, which was occupied by Avengers Academy students Hazmat and Reptil.
While in this safe zone, Cullen and Reptil argued over whether or not Reptil should have pushed Hazmat into trying to save her fellow contestants, instead of hiding on beach while others died. He is also the second contestant to agree to return to the mainland and try to find and help Nico, who didn’t teleport behind them.
However, once they reached the mainland, the group quickly lost momentum. Becoming lost in the forest zone, Reptil tried to see the terrain by changing into a pterodactyl but never returned. He and Cammi realized that Arcade was manipulating the sun’s position in order to confuse them. Hazmat and X-23 later ran off into the forest after Hazmat saw her deceased boyfriend, Mettle. Losing all hope, Cullen verbally lashed out at Cammi and punched Anachronism. Luckily Nara broke up the fight and took Aiden into the woods where she informed him of Cullen’s crush. Meanwhile, back on the beach, Cammi revealed to Cullen her past with Drax the Destroyer. Cullen also revealed that he had been abandoned in an alien dimension for twenty-seven months, of which he only remember the first six, after his father, Ulysses Bloodstone, took him there on a hunting trip but died before he was able to return for him.
Unfortunately, Cullen was interrupted by Arcade who flooded the area with Trigger Scent, causing X-23 to try to kill Nara and Anachronism. Seeing his crush about to be killed, Cullen removed his Bloodstone Ring and unleashed the Glartrox, a mystic parasite bonded to his soul. The monster savaged X-23, nearly killing her if not for the timely arrival of Reptil, Nico, and Chase. Growing stronger, the Glartrox seemed unfazed by the contestants attacks, including some of Nico’s spells. With hope dimming, Anachronism revealed that one way of defeating the monster was by killing the host body: Cullen.
Before he can go through with this though, his girlfriend Nara manages to locate the Bloodstone ring, which could also be used to defeat the monster without killing Cullen. Making a desperate stand, Nara touched the ring to the monster’s skin, causing it to morph back into Cullen. Sadly, the monster managed to cut Nara, which caused her to bleed out and die in Anachronism’s arms. In a fit of sadness and rage, Anachronism attacked Cullen, swinging his axe into him. Only Cammi’s timely intervention saved him from being killed by his best friend. Accepting the situation and realizing that compassion got her killed once already, Nico grabbed Cullen and flew off, seemingly to kill him.
Nico first tries to drown him, but Cullen’s ring makes that next to impossible. She apologizes, stating that he deserves better than this but that she’ll try and make his death quick and painless. Cammi, now equipped with the Darkhawk Amulet, stops Nico from killing him. The two end up in another fight after Nico mistakenly believes Cammis killed Chase for the amulet. Cullen is left on the beach and forgotten about.
When Death Locket kills Apex, who had taken control of Murder World after Arcade had fled, and ends the game, Cullen agrees to a pact of silence with the other surviving teens. He was last seen being loaded onto a helicopter while Captain Britain and Aiden looked on. One week after leaving the island, Arcade, in an undisclosed safe house, uploads the footage of what happened in Murder World to the internet. He uncorks a bottle of champagne as the video gains popularity and his reputation is restored.
Avengers Undercover
Three months after escaping from Murderworld and the footage being uploaded to the internet, Cullen and the other survivors are infamous celebrities. Whilst the others tried to resume their interrupted lives, Cullen decided to give up on his old life, leaving Braddock Academy in order to hunt down and kill his still-living captor, Arcade. As he hunted him, Cullen made various recordings of his exploits, including one in which he located Arcade’s mansion home and blew it up with a laser gun. He tried searching the blazing ruins for a body, but couldn’t find it due to Arcade having not been there. This caused to Cullen to demolish the camera in a blind rage.
The video was sent by his former best-friend and secret crush, Anachronism, to fellow survivors Cammi, Death Locket, Hazmat, Nico Minoru, and Chase Stein. The group met up at the late Ulysses Bloodstone‘s home, wherein Cullen had been living after leaving school, in order to decide what to do. Once there, Aiden revealed the last time anybody had seen or heard from Cullen and played another video taken three weeks prior to the meeting. The video showed Cullen removing his Bloodstone Ring, thereby unleashing the mystic parasite known as the Glartrox, and throwing himself down into Bagalia, home of Baron Helmut Zemo‘s Masters of Evil. Having not heard from him since then, the group assumes Cullen is being held captive and decide to enter the city in order to find and rescue him. unbeknownst to them, Cullen was seen attacking a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility in Brazil in his monster form, alongside Helmut Zemo, Madame Masque, Constrictor, and Hellstorm, the latter of whom is seemingly able to control Cullen’s Glartrox.
Upon arriving in Bagalia, the group track him to Arcade’s bar, The Hole, and Aiden rushes in by breaking a window, drawing the attention of the bar’s super-villainous patrons. Luckily, Cullen informs the bar-goers as to the identity of the others and stops a fight from breaking out. Surprised to see him unshackled and free, Cullen explains that in Bagalia he isn’t pressured to supress what Arcade did to him; he’s allowed to be himself without the social expectations that come from being a victim of a madman. When Aiden tries to question him further, Cullen shuts him down by bringing up the fact that he attempted to murder him after Nara‘s death and leaves. Nico follows him to a private lounge where Cullen is having drinks with Hellstorm, albeit of the non-alcoholic variety for the former. Cullen reveals to Nico that he has been working with Daimon in order to control the parasite and displays his newfound control by summoning a tentacle to grab a drink from a passing waitress. Daimon offers to teach Nico about magic just like he has been helping Cullen.
Four hours later, Cammi pulls the group out of the bar and tells them they’re leaving but are free to return after they’ve gotten out. Cullen appears to the group, who initially believe he has betrayed them, with Daimon, Madame Masque, and Constrictor. Cullen assures them he is not going to hurt them, but insists that he show them all something. At this, Hellstorm teleports the group away from the bar. When they reappear, the group are wearing new clothes, black suits and dressed for the men and women respectively, and are at party. While the others try to question him about their location, the hostess finishes her toast, at which point Arcade appears. Cullen then reveals that their reason for being at the party is to kill Arcade and take vengeance on him for their kidnapping and subsequent torture.
The group decides to take out their anger on Arcade, and it appears as if they’ve killed him. Unfortunately, Arcade always keeps cameras rolling, usually as a part of his sadistic games, and to the world it appeared as if the group had murdered Arcade in cold blood. While they tried to make their escape, a team of SHIELD agents, including SHIELD necromancers, arrived to take them into custody. Cullen is visited in his SHIELD holding cell by his sister, Elsa, who reprimands him. Moments later, the entire group is teleported out of their holding cells by Hellstrom.
Death of Doctor Strange
After Doctor Strange is killed in his own home, the barrier from his world to other mystical planes weakens, allowing a number of different entities to escape. One such entity is Cullen’s long lost sister, Lyra, who their father had sacrificed ages ago to imprison a rival.
Due to her being imprisoned away, she gained a hunger for magic and started draining artifacts of their energy to the chagrin of Cullen. She was able to fend off Cullen’s monster form and attempted to reason with Elsa, blaming sorcerers not monsters for the ills of the world.
Just then, they are attacked by Krakkan the Jailer, the being she was sacrificed to imprison. Elsa and Cullen joined forces to keep Lyra safe. After fighting off Krakkan and his goons, they combine their bloodgems with Lyra’s nullgem to create the Domain Defilia, a void where magic is nullified. They were even successful in banishing Cullen’s monster form there, freeing him.
Powers
Cullen is possessed by an entity called a Glartrox, a mystical parasite that feeds off the hosts fears in order to grow stronger. The entity is able to take over Cullen’s body and morph into a giant, clawed monster. While in this beast form, the Glartrox has full control over Cullen’s actions and Cullen himself has no memory of what he may or may not have done. The Glartrox appears to be immune to some forms of magic, as is demonstrated by Nico’s attempt to banish it having no effect. Cullen is able to keep his monstrous form under control through the aid of a bloodstone ring given to him by his older sister Elsa Bloodstone. As long as the ring is touching his skin, the Glartorox is kept at bay, however, the second the ring is removed Cullen will immediately transform. By working with an admittedly guilty Daimon Hellstrom, Cullen has been able to demonstrate more and more control over the Glartrox, even partly transforming to use the Glatrox’s powers for his benefit. He has been seen to extend Glartrox “tentacles” from his back and direct them to attack his enemies.
Cullen also possesses a high intellect, which is demonstrated when he realizes that Apex has been controlling Death Locket’s actions.