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The summer of 1973 saw the debut of one of the whackiest Marvel heroes ever created: The Son of Satan! The character was actually first suggested by Stan Lee, and the original title was "The Mark of Satan". The motivation to create such a character was driven by the popularity of films like The Exorcist (as I mentioned in my first rememberance of Marvel 70s horror) and the runaway success of the Tomb of Dracula series.
Marvel's original concept for the SOS was to make him a dual-natured character, much like the Hulk. By day he was supposed to be Daimon Hellstrom, a priest. By night his Satanic heritage would take over, endowing him with destructive powers. There was clearly an attempt to market the SOS to the Dracula fans, as you can see by the cover to Marvel Spotlight #12. Despite the cover blurb, it's not an origin issue!
The first page to Spotlight #12 shows Daimon Hellstrom locked up in a room at night, hands bound by "Chains of Ankhs" which supresses his demon powers. This is much like how Bruce Banner used to lock himself in a cave during the early Hulk adventures, and oddly enough, this first issue is drawn by Hulk artist Herb Trimpe. Once the chains are removed, Daimon's powers are realized, complete with a red cape and trident fork! At this point in time, we associated trident forks with the Satan...was it because of that Harvey comics character, Hot Stuff?
Marvel Spotlight #12 was the concluding chapter of a story begun in Ghost Rider. Johnny Blaze and an Indian girl (Linda, who had been possessed by Satanic forces) were now imprisoned in Hell. Herb Trimpe tried his best to bring a sense of scope to the story with this splash page illustrating the arrival of Daimon's Demon-Drawn Chariot of Satan. What the heck, it was better than the Satan-mobile. The SOS pieces together the clues by travelling around the southwest desert and interrogating Indians and motorcycle gangs. Jack Bauer has nothing on Daimon Hellstrom's interrogation techniques: "Consider yourselves fortunate! Had I not been in need of information from you--it would have been nothing for me to destroy your entire village--and yourselves along with it!"
Daimon routinely visited Hell during his adventures. The pathway to Hell was usually some underground passage (in this case a cave tunnel), leading us back to the Greco-Roman myth that the underworld is below the Earth's crust. Daimon and his father have their first familial spat, which shows you how Marvel first intended the Son of Satan concept to work. Even though Daimon, acting at night with his darkside persona in control, was destructive, his actions were always determined to bring down Satan's empire. Thus, Daimon would act on the side of good, but for very selfish reasons. I found this to be an interesting premise, but Marvel changed this a few issues later.
Daimon's first adventure concludes very quickly. Satan sends a bunch of minions to attack his son, and Daimon outwits his father easily. Satan is forced to send Daimon back to the surface with Johnny Blaze and Linda with their souls safely intact. What cracked me up was that even though Satan lost, he's beaming with fatherly pride!
While the series had varying degrees of quality, there are several factors that would never be again duplicated in Marvel comics. One factor is that Satan was actually a character in the comic (as he was in Ghost Rider). In later years, Marvel has tried to remove Satan entirely from its mythos and replace him with Mephisto in the origin of Ghost Rider. The other is simply the title of the comic itself, which generated little protest. If Marvel tried to publish this today, would be instantly under attack from Christian groups. I'll revisit Daimon later on with more Marvel memories. Nuff said.
See also:
Part II: Dealing with Darksouls
Part III: Teaming Up With the Marvel Universe
Part IV: Who's Daimon's Daddy?
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