Issue(s): Marvel Spotlight #13
Cover Date: Jan 74
Title: "When Satan stalked the Earth!"
Credits:
Gary Friedrich - Writer
Herb Trimpe - Penciler
Frank Chiaramonte - Inker

Review/plot:
Hellstrom returns home from rescuing Ghost Rider only to learn that his father isn't done with him. He apparently had a gateway to Hell in the basement of his mansion, and although it's been sealed, demons have now broken through.

He fights them off...

...but the attack causes him to re-read his mother's diary. So this is really an origin issue for Hellstrom, providing more detail than we've seen in his introductory appearances.

His mother was seduced by Satan, who was traveling the world in human form "in search of a wife -- secure in the knowledge he would live forever, yet afraid there would be none to take his place should the impossible occur!".

They had a fairly normal marriage, and two kids, and things went fine until mom went down in the basement one day unexpectedly.

Mom went nuts, little sis went with daddy, and Daimon went to a monastery to study to become a priest. Later, after mom died, Daimon was summoned to Hell, but he rejected his father, and fought him (note that Satan says they are "near equals" in power).

Daimon acquired his netheranium trident and chariot, and escaped.

The issue ends with Daimon knowing that his father will strike again soon.

So i've mentioned in the Ghost Rider entries that the Satan appearing there eventually turns out to be Mephisto. But Daimon Hellstrom is of course the Son of Satan, so the Satan that appears in this series is the real deal. Where it gets a little weird is in Daimon's introductory arc, where the MCP lists Mephisto, but starting here they list the actual Satan, even though this story is an indirect continuation of the previous one. I guess Mephisto got pretty mad at Hellstrom interfering with his plans in the previous story so he sic'd his father on him or, somewhat more seriously, you could say that the two are parts of the same entity along the lines of the Holy Trinity. This is probably all spelled out somewhere but i know there's been a number of retcons so i'm not delving too deeply.

The Satan in this book sure talks like he was the same guy as last issue, though.

Herb Trimpe still isn't quite right for this book (that "You're the bride of Satan" panel is hilariously awesome), but he can draw the hell (ha, ha!) out of random demon monsters.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - origin of Daimon Hellstrom (and Satana)

Chronological Placement Considerations: This takes place soon after Ghost Rider #3, with Hellstrom returning home from his appearance in that book.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Essential Marvel Horror vol. 1

This origin is eventually revealed to be false- Ellis explained that Victoria Hellstorm married his father knowing what he was and later went crazy and convinced herself she was an innocent victim.

Is it just me or does "Satan's human form" just remind me of Namor in a suit? I mean, I can suddenly see Hellstorm yelling at Sub-Mariner about his issues and Namor just...well being Namor about it (dependent on period and writer)

I wouldn't exactly trust anything "Satan" says here. The devil will lie for his own purposes so I'm pretty sure "near power" can mean absolutely anything - the truth, future potential, exaggeration, or a complete lie.

The sister must have appeared again, right?

Sure, the sister is Satana.

With the Devil as his father, Hellstorm would be the Antichrist according to who-knows-what, and also according to the award-winning 1968 movie Rosemary's Baby and the top-selling 1967 novel on which it was based. And then there was Hellstorm in the comics...

The theme continued in popular films, with yet another version of the Antichrist featured in 1978's The Omen, followed by a sequel, Damien in 1978, and then 3 more sequels titled III, IV, and V.

So was Damien named after Daimon Hellstrom? Because I have no idea...

@Holt- According to the House of Names website, which gives the origin and meanings to both given names and surnames, the name "Damon" (as well as its different spelling permutations, such as "Daimon" and "Damien") is derived from the Latin for "evil" and/or "that which springs from evil". So it's likely that both the comics and film characters got their given name(s), as well as its close proximity to the word "demon".

@ Brian - what I'm wondering though is whether or not the movie writers might have been inspired by the comic book character. Even if true they might not necessarily cop to it since it might (or might not?) open them up to some kind of unpleasant legal shenanigans. I'm not saying it's true; I have no real idea, and it might easily be just a coincidence that two creators might come up with two such similarly named and themed characters.

@Holt- Considering OMEN director Richard Donner's involvement as director of the first Christopher Reeve SUPERMAN and as a producer on X_MEN, it's highly possible Donner was/is a comics fan, and could have been influenced by this or similar stories.

After re-checking Donner's Wikipedia page, I see he co-wrote at least an issue of ACTION COMICS with Geoff Johns, so that also may help find an answer.

Devil themed stuff had already become part of the zeitgeist or popular culture, at least as far back as 1967, when the Rolling Stones released their By Her Satanic Majesty's Request album, and the antichrist novel Rosemary's Baby was on the top-seller list. There are probably other cultural references that go back further but those were a couple of groundbreakers. Let's see, Wikipedia says The Crazy World of Arthur Brown became a top hit in 1968. Black Sabbath started in 1969. Blue Oyster Cult, 1967. The Exorcist: novel, 1971, film, 1973. I can't think of anything else off the top of my head other than the TV show Bewitched, which was pretty tame by any standards, but dates back to 1964 and was actually sort of a groundbreaker compared to most of the TV content of that era. By the time of The Omen most satantic themes that anybody could think of up to that point had already been well-used and well-worn.

Look no further than Benjamin Christensen's 1922 Danish silent film HAXAN: WITCHCRAFT THROUGH THE AGES, still considered scandalous nearly a century on. Or Universal's THE BLACK CAT from 1934, directed by low-budget master Edgar Ulmer and starring Boris Karloff as a Satanist holding captive the family of psychiatrist Bela Lugosi in a rare good-guy turn (made just before the Hays Code went into effect, I might add).