Issue(s): Hellstorm #16
Cover Date: Jul 94
Title: "Down here"
Credits:
Warren Ellis - Writer
Leonardo Manco - Penciler
Leonardo Manco - Inker
Kevin Somers - Assistant Editor
Marie Javins - Editor

Review/plot:
With this issue, we finally begin to get an account of what happened during the gap before the start of Warren Ellis' run (which jumped ahead after the cliffhanger of Daimon confronting his father, Satan, in Hell). Along with that comes a revision to Daimon's origin. This issue also introduces information about Satan, saying that "Satan" is just a name shared among many demons.

Stephen Loss, the man that we saw getting a radio signal from (the deceased) Hellcat last issue, rings Daimon's doorbell.

This coincides with Jaine Cutter - whose mission is to kill both angels and devils - worrying about Daimon's transformation last issue.

When Loss gets his audience with Hellstrom, Loss says that he considers Hellstrom an enemy. But he says that he'll never make an "effective adversary" until Hellstrom knows everything that Loss knows.

Hellcat's message:

I died a week ago. Longer, maybe. I couldn't live with my guilt, you see. A good man came to end it. And me.

...

Tell [Daimon]... the place I'm in... I can leave it... get a new body....

As I said, he was a good man. When I feel ready to return to the world, he will arrange it. But I won't come back to a world with a creature like my husband in it. Tell him that. And tell him that I loved him.

The "good man" would seemingly be Deathurge.

Loss then tells Hellstrom about his mother. Daimon currently believes what we learned in Marvel Spotlight #13, which is that his mother unwittingly married Satan and went insane when she found out (after discovering her husband and her daughter Satana performing an occult ritual on the family cat in the basement).

But Loss says that Daimon's mother was in fact "designed" to be his mother by occult magicians.

Loss also informs Daimon that Satana is back in the world.

But getting back to Daimon's mother, Loss says that she was always insane, and the stuff that Daimon learned from her diary was just a fantasy that she constructed.

Loss is also aware that Daimon has killed his father, and he says that he knows that everything Daimon has been doing since his "rebirth" (presumably when he got the Darksoul back some time prior to Hellstorm #1) has been part of a plan.

Before Daimon confirms anything, Loss also says that Hellstrom's father isn't necessarily "The" Satan. It's just a name shared among many demons, although Hellstrom's father uses the name more than most.

Hellstrom acknowledges all of this, first by telling Loss how he got his father's true name, which was from a woman named LaVoisin.

His dad's real name is Marduk Kurios.

Using that name, Hellstrom was able to kill his father.

In doing so, he took the "Black Halo", the mark of regency.

Loss also warns Hellstrom about other things that are going on, including Gabriel the Devil Hunter's alliance with the Asura, and the vengeance quest of "policeman Herod" (presumably Detective Gunyon).

A lot of revelations here, and unfortunately delivered almost as pure text exposition thanks to Leonardo Manco's style of art, which provides big portraits that feel more like background art than illustrations of the story. But still, some interesting stuff. It's worth noting that every revelation here is actually a retcon: Daimon's origin is a retcon, the nature of the Marvel Universe character "Satan" is retconned, and even the idea that everything Daimon was doing in the pre-Ellis issues of this series was part of a plan to confront his father is a retcon.

The "Satan" retcon is actually helpful, since in the early days of Ghost Rider's series Ghost Rider was dealing with "Satan" but that Satan later turned out to be Mephisto, while Daimon remained the "Son of Satan". It's a little frustrating (but unsurprising for a comic not in the Mark Gruenwald sphere of Marvel) how unspecific this revelation is - i.e. which appearances of Satan were Marduk Kurios as opposed to Mephisto or some other demon - especially since Ghost Rider and Hellstorm seemingly interacted with the same "Satan" in their early appearances.

In terms of Mrs. Hellstrom, the original story fit very well with the prevalent 1970s Satanic horror phenomenon, with the psychological horror of finding out that your husband is Satan. And it's kind of a shame to lose that artifact. The new story, with the tattooed womb and all that, is just as much a product of its time: very much 1990s Vertigo-esque horror, and very Warren Ellis. So i guess it's a fitting replacement. And if all we had to go on originally was mom's diary, i guess there's no factual reason to object to the retcon. On the other hand, the sources for all of the revelations in this story aren't exactly reliable narrators either.

Ultimately this issue will only hold up if what Ellis does with the revelations is worthwhile, and we'll have to look at the rest of the series to determine that.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - revelations about Daimon Hellstrom's origin and the nature of Satan in the Marvel universe

Chronological Placement Considerations: This issue begins "two days" after Daimon and Jaine return home after the events of last issue. For what it's worth, Hellcat's message (recorded those "two days" ago) says that she died "a week ago. Longer, maybe".

References:

• Hellstorm confronted his father in Hellstorm #11.
  
• The Zahgurim from Hellstorm #12-14, as well as the Bailiff and Inanna from last issue, all tried to claim portions of Earth from themselves because they knew that Satan's rule had gone lax, but they were unaware that Daimon had taken his place.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Unfortunately, we don't get to see anything more about Patsy until THUNDERBOLTS ANNUAL 2000 and AVENGERS ANNUAL 2000 by Busiek and Nicieza, respectively. But she gets her own 3-issue mini right after that by Englehart and Breyfogle. Still enjoy reading that from time to time. Not sure what Ellis had planned for her.

Ellis establishes in this issue that Daimon's grandparents were worshippers of his father that were occultists associated with Hitler. Previously in Doctor Strange, the occultists Hitler was associated with were shown to be worshippers of Dormammu. It's easily explainable- either Hitler was associated with more than one group of mystics in the Marvel Universe or Daimon's grandparents originally served Dormammu and later became followers of Daimon's father. But unfortunately, this might have inspired Englehart's "Daimon's really the son of Dormammu" retcon in the Hellcat limited series, which was later explained away.

I believe Patsy came up with the theory that he was really the son of Satannish, not Dormammu if I’m remembering the Hellcat mini correctly.

She came up with the theory that they were both his fathers.