Character description.[]
Velkan Valerious was a Roma prince, son of the deceased king Boris Valerious, and the brother of Princess Anna. He is a secondary but prominent character in the 2004 Universal Studios "Monster-Mash" movie "Van Helsing", and the possible incarnation of "The Wolf Man" in this movie, instead of "Larry Talbot", the original Wolf Man.
Biography.[]
One year after their father went missing, Anna and Velkan became the last in their bloodline and continued hunting monsters under Dracula's command. With the help of a group (possibly ordinary townspeople), they hunted a Grey Werewolf, with Velkan acting as bait to lure it into the trap, which gets jammed leaving him vulnerable. Anna tries to distract the werewolf and gets it stuck in their trap but Velkan gets stuck in a tree and drops his gun, loaded with silver bullets. The hunter's gunfire starts breaking the ropes on the cage and crashed it, setting the werewolf free and rampages after Anna. The beast chases Anna towards a cliff where Velkan saves his sister by pushing her to saftey and shoots the werewolf with a silver bullet his own gun, but gets pulled off the cliff and bitten in the proccess, yet ends up being consumed by the curse and survives.
Velkan survived his fall and became the next werewolf under Dracula's servitude, who sent him out to find out who the new visitor is. Velkan returned home to the Valerious Castle and at first startled his sister because he was now the Wolfman, but when the moon was hidden he returned to his human form and told Anna that Dracula has a secret but was cut short by his next transformation when the moon unveiled. Velkan became the Wolf Man again and fled the castle when Van Helsing walked in and headed into the village. Van Helsing follows the Wolfman into the village and ambushes him as he's talking to the grave digger. Van Helsing takes a shot at the Wolfman but Anna interrupts him, prompting an argument that he knew the Wolf Man was Velkan who will kill people with the command of Dracula, but Anna knows of a cure and is set on finding it to save her brother for giving his life for her. Velkan meets with Dracula in Castle Frankenstein and fails to tell him what he was sent for and assures him he'll take the secret to his grave, preferring to die instead of helping, but Dracula reminds Velkan after the 12th stroke of midnight he will remain a Wolfman and serve him. Velkan discovers that his father was the test subject to bring Dracula's children to life which failed, so Dracula plans to use the werewolf venom flowing through his veins for a better benefit. The werewolf venom in Velkan's body works as power source for Dracula's children but it doesn't have permanent effect. Anna tries to set her brother free but he insists she leave him strapped down, but he begins to transform again. The Wolf Man tries to chase after Van Helsing and Anna as they escape Castle Frankenstein but he snaps the grapple line and falls into the lake below. Dracula then sends the Wolf Man to hunt the two hunters down and kill them both. He spots them the next morning in the windmill ruins with Frankenstein's monster and flees to tell Dracula about the monster's survival.
On the road to Rome, the Wolfman chases the hunter's carriages to retrieve the monster for Dracula, but ends up setting the cart on fire and forces the passengers to jump. Van Helsing shoots the Wolfman with silver bullets but ends up passing on the werewolf curse by biting him. Anna finds Velkan lying on the road nearby, who asks her for forgiveness before dying. Distraught at the loss of her last family member, Anna kisses her brother goodbye promising she'll see him again.
After Dracula was finally killed by Gabriel Van Helsing, he watch as Velkan was at last able to rejoin with Anna and his family and enter heaven.
Physical Characteristics.[]
Velkan was a middle-aged man, stocky, with long brown hair, probably of average height. He is shown as a good man, who seeks with Anna to defeat Dracula to rid his deceased family of purgatory (as a result of an oath made by his ancestor, Valerious the Elder), and also rid the world of the evil of Dracula . After being bitten by a werewolf, the curse makes him obey Dracula, and go being consumed by the curse, so after dying he is relieved and at peace to be finally released.
As a the Wolf Man.[]
After his first transformation into werewolf, he tries to resist obeying Dracula uselessly. Then the curse consumes him, becoming a murderous beast servant of Dracula. It is shown as a huge lupine humanoid, with dark brown fur.
Powers, abilities and weaknesses.[]
In his human form, he is very agility, probably for a training.
In his Wolf Man form, he got others powers and abilities.
- Superhuman Strenght: As some werewolves, he probably is strong like 20 men.
- Superhuman Stamina: He pursued and reached transylvanian horse carriages very fast from many kilometers without getting tired.
- Superhuman Senses: As a werewolf, his senses become very enhanced, especially hearing and smell.
- Supernatural Resistance: Nothing can kill him. Only silver, and Dracula's antidote can cure him,
Trivia.[]
- In spite of being called "The Wolf Man" in Van Helsing, it is not the only werewolf shown in the film, since at the beginning it appears a Nameless Gray Werewolf that infects it, and Velkan in turn infects Gabriel Van Helsing, becoming another werewolf.
- In the official video game of the movie for PS2, Velkan appears as a constant boss. Here it is shown as a huge werewolf about 10 feet tall. When defeating it for the last time, it thanks to Van Helsing to free it, and when knowing that a werewolf can kill to Dracula, infects Van Helsing, so that he (Van Helsing) as a werewolf, annihilates Dracula.
- Jakks Pacific released in 2004 movie figures. Velkan appeared in the "basic series" of 4 inch, as a human, along with an accessory of the castle of Frnkenstein. The second figure represents Velkan with a skin of its lycanthropic form, to introduce it into the skin, and become "The Wolf Man". Interestingly, there were no 12 inch in the figures series werewolves.