Bloodlines (comics)

Bloodlines was a crossover that spanned all of the annuals published by DC Comics in 1994.

The villains of the crossover were a race of alien parasites that could shapeshift into humanoid form. The parasites' bite was administered to the back of the neck by a mouth-within-a-mouth obviously intended as a reference to the titular creature of the Alien series. This bite usually killed the victim for food but occasionally awakened superhuman powers in the recipient, as this was also the means by which the creatures could reproduce.

Each of the annuals involved in the crossover uses this plot device to introduce a new super-powered character to the DC Universe. The only one of these characters to attain any long-standing notoriety was Hitman, who first appeared in that year's Demon Annual and went on to star in his own sixty-issue ongoing series.