Issue(s): Marvel Spotlight #18, Marvel Spotlight #19
Cover Date: Oct-Dec 74
Title: "Madhouse!" / "Demon, demon -- who's got the demon?"
Credits:
Steve Gerber - Writer
Gene Colan - Penciler
Frank Chiaramonte / Mike Esposito - Inker

Review/plot:
Some time back when i first heard that Hellstorm's original series involved him being an exorcist, i imagined hundreds of stories like this one, which is almost a direct replay of 1973's Exorcist movie.

In practice, the series is generally just Hellstrom fighting his father directly or investigating strange mystical phenomenon, so an occasional story like this is fine, especially if Gene Colan is providing the art. Not a lot to say about it, though, except that if Daimon really is a "near equal" to his father in power, you'd think fighting random devils wouldn't be a major challenge for him.

This story also has a cute moment that raises the problem of Hellstrom having a public identity when he goes to a party and people start asking him all sorts of questions.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• One of the questions at the party refers to Marvel Spotlight #14.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Essential Marvel Horror vol. 1 (#19 is an original)

FOOM#9 announced that Tony Isabella would take over Son of Satan after Gerber finished his run, but I'm guessing he got bumped in favor of John Warner after Warner's proposed Bloodstone regular series didn't make it.

Forgive me if you've addressed this elsewhere, but why do you refer to Daimon by the anachronistic name "Hellstorm," which as far as I know won't appear for something like 20 years?

It seems to be coming up lately. I just think of the character as "Hellstorm" due to the Warren Ellis series, and the difference in name is so minor i barely see the difference when i read these comics and similarly fail to make the distinction in the entries.

Hellstrom is actually a not-uncommon real life last name in the Nordic Countries, originally written with the dotted o (which the site doesn't allow me to reproduce), 'strom' meaning 'stream'. In America they of course don't write the weird Scandi letters, but "Hellstorm" still feels a needless sad americanization that ignores the wondrous mystery where in the hell did the son of Satan and Victoria Wingate land himself on a Swedish last name in the first place.

To this day I don't know if Hellstrom/Hellstorm's first name is Damon, Daimon, or Damien. It's Daimon Hellstrom, right? That means he has a real, respectable Scandanavian last name but a first name that's just an English transliteration of the Greek word for "demon." It's like Satan couldn't decide whether he wanted his son's name to be puny or literal.

Just imagine the layers if confusion I experienced reading Hellstorm 1 in the '90s, where Daimon battles a doppleganger with a different permutation on the name. I think it was the doppleganger that was actually called Hellstorm, even though that was the title of the comic.

Oddly enough, my first issues of Defenders when I was about 5 years old were the ones with Daimon and his duplicate (the same one) and Miracleman, who I thought was meant to be the same guy as the doppleganger somehow.

It's all truly fiendish.

Damien would have been too obvious name choice if it weren't for the saving fact that the premiere of Daimon Hellstrom predated the movie Omen by three years making such a blatant rip-o..., I mean, homage impossible.

Though when thinking about it, changing the name to Hellstorm to match up with the 90's sensibilities kind of makes sense. It's not like "Daimon Hellstrom" wasn't totally aiming for the cool factor with the original 70's paranormal investigator.

Personally, because of a slight coloring error in a Paul Smith era Uncanny X-Men, I initially thought that Moira MacTaggert had powers to change into the white squirrel-like creature ie. Miss Hepzibah. In afterthought I have felt that being unwarnedly introduced to Claremont's X-Men, #199 and forwards, I felt a LOT like the Donkey did in the first Shrek movie when seeing the introductory clockwork puppet show upon entering Dulac: it was incomprehensive and to-tal-ly awesome.