Marvel's Haunt of Horror: April 2006 Archives

In 1993, Marvel Comics brought Daimon Hellstrom back in his own series once again, but it wouldn't be called Son of Satan. Instead, the editors chose the name: Hellstorm! For no good reason, other than the fact that transposing two letters in Daimon's name makes for some cheap excitement. Written by Rafael Nieves and drawn by Michael Bair, it threw out as much of the superhero trappings as possible-a more Vertigo-ized version. The cape and the boots were gone, as well as the metallic trident (he summoned an energy-based version instead) and the demon drawn chariot. But it did preserve one tradition, in that the first issue was a confusing mess involving a doppelganger, while the second issue retold Daimon's origin and recent history. We learned that Daimon had been separated from his Darksoul at the conclusion of his adventures with the Defenders.

In issue #2, we learned that this wasn't your friendly neighborhood Son of Satan. Something's different right off the bat, when Doctor Strange pays a visit and finds Daimon picking up Satanic-floozies in a bar. Daimon is still married to Patsy Walker, but she's insane and spends all her days in bed chanting Satanic verses. A flashback in issue #3 tells us how this happened. Daimon was dying as a result of being separated from the Darksoul. Patsy uses incantations found in a Satanic book to summon the Devil, who instills the Darksoul back into Daimon's body. It doesn't come without a price, as the transformation snaps Patsy's mental hold on reality. After that, the writers didn't really seem to know how to handle Patsy, so they killed her off, but she made her way out of Hell in Thunderbolts Annual 2000.

Len Kaminsky took over as the writer around issue 4, tying up plots that Nieves had started. A lot of these stories involved Daimon fighting demons and blasting away at them with hellfire blasts. My favorite issue by Kaminsky, and possibly the best single story that I enjoyed in this Son of Satan review, is Hellstorm #11. Daimon has fallen down to Hell after trying to break into Heaven. He is greeted by a man who says, "That must have been some fall. I could see you from miles away." Daimon asks who he is, and the man replies: "Simon Garth, at your service."

Since I am the biggest (and maybe only) Tales of the Zombie fan on the planet, I recognized this name immediately. I enjoyed Kaminsky's little nod back to Marvel's black and white magazine era. Garth takes Daimon on a tour of Hell, where we get a nice departure from the typical people-burning-in-caves motif. Some areas resemble various wars throughout history, while another one looks like a terribly industrial city, and my favorite area is a big shopping mall with a store called Nostalgia. "It's not the Devil who judges mankind. Not God who damns them for Eternity. It's themselves." After Daimon sees his mother being tortured, he realizes this isn't Simon Garth at all-it's his father, the Devil.

Hellstorm 11 concluded with father and son meeting face to face, while Hellstorm 12 picks up some time later with a new writer, Warren Ellis. Ellis would reveal a few issues later that Daimon actually killed his father during the confrontation that ensued, and that Daimon was now the ruler of Hell. Furthermore, Ellis proposed that Daimon's mother wasn't the sweet naïve little country girl we all thought. She was the daughter of a satanic cult who prepared her to give birth to Satan-spawn. Daimon's father wasn't really Satan but a Sumerian demon called Marduk Kurios who assumed control of Hell. Despite these revelations, Hellstorm wasn't a good series at all. Too much meandering around, attempts to genre up the horror-satanic angle with X-Files/Millenium overtones, and sub-plots with Satana and Gabriel the Devil-Hunter which went nowhere.

To my amazement, Daimon appeared in various Marvel titles after this series was cancelled. In the four issue run of Druid (also written by Ellis), he kills the titular character in the last issue. He appears in Fantastic Four Annual 1999 by Claremont and Ladronn, where he appears in his original costume. He also appeared in Thunderbolts Annual 2000 when Patsy Walker escaped from Hell, and in the Hellcat mini-series later in 2000. During the latter story, written by Steve Englehart, Daimon's parentage takes an even stranger twist when his father is revealed to the Satannish as the grandson of Mephisto.

All these events, in my opinion, left the Son of Satan character in pretty bad shape--almost as bad as Hawkman once was over at DC. Perhaps at some future date, Daimon Hellstrom will be revived again. In the meantime, if you take a vacation in Fire Lake, watch out for mysterious underground passageways, they might just lead you to Hell. Nuff said.

See also:
Part I: Daimon Hellstrom, The Son of Satan!
Part II: Dealing with Darksouls
Part III: Teaming Up With the Marvel Universe

External Links:
Hellstorm Son of Satan

Technorati : Marvel Comics
Del.icio.us : Marvel Comics
Ice Rocket : Marvel Comics

Daimon Hellstrom made various appearances throughout the Marvel Universe, as did many horror characters from the 70s. His first pit stop was in Giant Size Defenders #2. This was probably his best guest-starring role, by the team of Len Wein and Gil Kane. This was the first time I ever remembered liking Gil Kane's artwork (though I grew to appreciate it as I grew older) due to the dynamic inking job of Klaus Janson. The Hulk is tricked into going to Hell via another underground route-this time in the basement of an old building-the NY housing authority wasn't very good at the time. Dr. Strange has no means to rescue the Hulk other than to bring Daimon Hellstrom into the team.

I think I liked Daimon much more in the early Defenders tales than I did in his own series. Daimon later joined the Defenders in issues 23-25 to help them fight the Sons of Satannish. Despite the name, they had little to do with Satan. The Sons were Marvel's version of the Ku Klux Klan, but they were powerful enough to knock out Doc Strange for two issues, leaving Daimon in charge to save the day.

The Son of Satan also appeared in Marvel Team-Up, but with the Human Torch instead of Spider-Man. I guess the writer must have loved the idea of the human fireball working together with Daimon's hellfire powers. The story ends with Johnny letting Hellstrom walk off alone: "Whatever it is he is going through, it must be Hell."

Not to be outdone by Johnny, the Thing needed some Satan-time as well. Daimon stepped into Marvel Two-In-One #14 to help Ben Grimm fight a demon. At the end of this adventure, Grimm says: "I hate to end and run, Hellstrom, but I've seen enough of the kind of parties you hang out at to last me a lifetime! I mean...I kinda got the gist of what your act is...and I don't need it, fella! Be seeing you."

My second favorite Daimon Hellstrom guest spot occurred after his series was cancelled. Steve Gerber was making Howard the Duck into a runaway hit, and took Howard on a road trip with unpredictable results in HTD 13-14. Issue 13 has Howard locked up in a mental institution, where he meets the rock group K.I.S.S. (a promotion for the KISS Super Special that Gerber wrote). Daimon has been summoned to the hospital to exorcise a demon from Howard's friend, Winda. As Daimon transforms into the Son of Satan, the change is interrupted by another mystic and the arrival of Howard. Howard becomes…the Duck of Satan! I love the cape, minature trident, and the pentagram on Howard's feathered chest.

Daimon eventually settled as a permanent member of the Defenders, where he met Patsy Walker. Patsy had an interesting history: she was a female version of Archie for Marvel's line of comics aimed at younger readers during the 50s and 60s. In the 1970s, Steve Englehart transformed Patsy into a superhero called Hellcat in the Avengers. Hellcat eventually moved over to the Defenders, and it must have been irresistible to have the Son of Satan fall in love with her. It happened in the mushiest of ways, culminating in this backup story in Marvel Fanfare 59, where Daimon travels to Patsy's childhood home in the South.

Daimon and Patsy faded off into Marvel limbo, waiting for a writer to revive them. In Part 4, we'll see the Vertigo-ization of Daimon Hellstrom. Nuff said.

See also:
Part I: Daimon Hellstrom, The Son of Satan!
Part II: Dealing with Darksouls
Part IV: Who's Daimon's Daddy?

External Links:
Hellstorm Son of Satan

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?