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<\/a><\/figure>\nJust in time for Halloween the Super-Blog Team-Up is back and this time out we\u2019re going to Hell! Our group of bloggers and pod-casters have decided to go to hell so we\u2019ll be writing and talkin\u2019 about demons, devils, and super-hero adventures in the netherrealms. For my journey to Hades I\u2019m going to take a look at Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan himself.<\/p>\n
The Daimon Hellstrom first appeared in Ghost Rider #1, 1973, and was quickly spun out to his own story in Marvel Spotlight, issues #12 \u2013 25. The Son of Satan is not just a clever name for a superhero who performs exorcisms and battles demons, in the comics he is literally the spawn of Satan himself, along with his sister Satana. It should be made clear that in this case the Satan being referred to is not the same as the Mephisto character that frequently tangles with other heroes in the Marvel universe. Nope, we\u2019re talking about the big daddy ruler of Hell himself, and his kid, who really has some father issues.<\/p>\n
My first experience with Daimon Hellstrom was in the pages of the Defenders, one of the earliest superhero comics I can remember reading. This was when I was still very young and buying comics from the local stationary store after church or school. In those days the Defenders were the greatest non-team of heroes around. Characters like the Hulk, Black Hawk, or the Silver Surfer were routinely brought together to battle some adversary or stop a disaster without having the benefits of an organization like the Fantastic Four or the Avengers. For that reason the characters came and went pretty regularly, which was appealing because they could be rotated in and out of the group pretty regularly and the creators could use folks like Patsy Walker, the Hellcat, or Daimon Hellstrom only when they wanted to.<\/p>\n The reason that I wanted to write about the Son of Satan for this SBTU entry was because he has always felt a little illicit to me, taboo, maybe something not quite appropriate. I should explain that both of my parents are Methodist ministers. They were not fire and brimstone conservative \u201cbible-thumbers\u201d that are often depicted in movies, tvs, and stories. In fact I don\u2019t recall Satan, Hell, or eternal damnation coming up at all on Sunday mornings or in Sunday school when I was growing up. Unlike Bart and Millhouse in The Simpsons, \u201cBart Sells His Soul\u201d, I was never threatened with my tongue being torn out by ravenous birds while sitting in a lake of fire. And yet despite the lack of fear being instilled in me about the devil I still knew enough that Daimon Hellstrom was different from the Hulk and Silver Surfer.<\/p>\n I have a memory of visiting some Episcople minister friends of our family that had moved to New Jersey, and being in a guestroom where some comics had been left, I\u2019m guessing to amuse my brother and I while the adults did their own thing. In that stack of comics were either issues of Marvel Spotlight or the short lived Son of Satan series because I can remember seeing that big blazing Son of Satan logo and being fascinated by it. I\u2019m not trying to say this all led me down the road to heavy metal music, ritual sacrifice, or devil worshiping, no, it was all harmless comic book fun with a character that I was intrigued by. And it did not last long either. At the time when my brother and I were getting into superhero comics we\u2019d eventually became mostly DC exclusive, reading the All-Star Squadron, Teen Titans, Captain Carrot and the likes. I would not get back into Marvel comics until a few years later when I started checking out Spider-man and Daredevil. I would not revisit the Son of Satan again until I was an adult and the stories became available in reprints and trades, like the one above that came out in 2016. Now, let\u2019s take a look at who the Son of Satan really is, in the excellent facsimile edition of Marvel Spotlight #12.<\/p>\n Marvel Spotlight #12<\/strong> The story in this comic picks up directly from events in Ghost Rider issues one and two. Satan is after the soul of Johnny Blaze (the Ghost Rider) and in this effort he has possessed a young Native American woman Linda in order to get to Blaze. Linda\u2019s family has contacted Damien Hellstorm in Massachuestts from an ad they found in the newspaper to help the young woman and perform an exorcism.<\/p>\n I\u2019d like to mention that these stories are from 1975 and came out less than two years after William Freidkin\u2019s The Exorcist made its thrilling debut in the movies. Interest in the horror, the occult, and science fiction was at peak levels and comics were cashing in with loads of great horror comics like Tomb of Dracula and House of Mystery. Now back to our story.<\/p>\n The issue begins with Daimon locked in a room and banging on the door. In Ghost Rider #2 he had asked Linda\u2019s family, the people that called him to save their daughter, to confine him to her room and lock him in a chain of Ankhs until morning. Only now he is demanding freedom in order to complete his tasks. He has transformed from a simple exorcist to the pentagram marked Son of Satan.<\/p>\n He assaults his clients because at this point they think he\u2019s up to no good and is not really going to help Linda. And can you blame them? This guy has no shirt, a tattoo on his chest, a cape and trident. As he explains his actions, trying to tell these folks that he really does want to help he summons his chariot pulled by demonic horses. I hafta say that he\u2019s not going to convince anyone that he really wants to stop Satan when he pulls these kind of shenanigans.<\/p>\n After he leaves Linda\u2019s father and boyfriend he comes across the biker gang that has been harassing Roxanne Simpson, Johnny Blaze\u2019s girlfriend. This also picks up right from the events in Ghost Rider issue number two. After some big talk and trident throwing, Daimon scares off the biker gang. He then tries to comfort Roxanne by telling her how pretty she is and how nice her blond hair is. I guess the Son of Satan expects answers pretty quickly because he suddenly and viciously grabs Roxanne\u2019s hair and demands to know where Satan is. Through her tears she says that Satan was not there, instead it was a woman who called herself Witch Woman and that she took Johnny. Witch Woman must not be the most clever alias because Daimon knows that is one his pappy uses frequently.\u00a0<\/p>\n Daimon leaves Roxanne on her own in the desert while he does a walkabout eventually finding the gateway to Hell in a plateau. Down he travels to the netherrealm, in the center of the Earth mind you, to find his father, Johnny Blaze, and Linda. Daimon threatens his father despite being on his home turf. They go back and forth a bit until Daimon reminds his dad that he commands the \u201cSacred Trident \u2013 made of Netheran-ium\u201d which will drain Satan\u2019s power. Unlike Oedipus, Daimon is not able to kill his father because while the trident might mean bad news for Satan it does not mean quite as much against the demon horde that Satan commands to stop his son. A battle ensues and eventually the Son of Satan get to \u201cThe Bridge\u201d that apparently is the structure holding everything together down here.<\/p>\n Daimon threatens to destroy the bridge which will apparently bring everything crumbling down unless Satan calls off his minions and releases Johnny and Linda. Satan reluctantly agrees and off the three of them go. Satan says that he is disowning Daimon and that he is going come after him so he better sleep with one eye open. Once the trio is topside at the plateau in the desert Daimon once again summons his chariot. He takes off with Johnny and Linda and there is a volcanic eruption from the entrance to hell, sealing it forever, at least at this location. The Son of Satan ditches Johnny and the still unconscious Linda in the desert only thinking to himself that he\u2019ll come back in the morning as mild mannered exorcist Daimon Hellstrom and pick them up.<\/p>\n That concludes the first solo story of the Son of Satan. In the next issue of Marvel Spotlight we\u2019ll learn the awesome origin of Daimon Hellstorm and how someone who looks a lot like Namor the Submariner got his mom pregnant.<\/p>\n Now I had intended to also take a look at Defender\u2019s issue 100, a story where Daimon Hellstorm is pretty helpless from stopping Satan and a possessed Patsy Walker, aka the Hellcat, from defeating the Defenders but I could not find my copy. Instead I\u2019ll wrap things up here. It has been a long time since I was that kid who thought the Son of Satan was a little naughty and taboo and in that time I have since come to think that he was really just a cool character, maybe a little melodramatic, who came about in a time when horror and the occult comics were selling really well. Were the mature themes maybe too much for an eight year old kid? Probably, but I\u2019m sure that most of it went over my head.<\/p>\n By the time I read any of these stories in the late seventies and early eighties horror comic sales were starting to wane. The kids who read these comics when they were on the newstand were getting older, and their interest was turning to things like Dungeons and Dragons and video games. Mazes and Monster came out in 1982 and we were at the beginning of what would be called \u201cthe Satanic Panic\u201d. I don\u2019t recall any of the concerns about those kinds of things when I was growing up.<\/p>\n I expect that my parents and the folks who left Defenders and Son of Satan comics laying around thought that young kids could experience them and make their own decisions about how they felt about them. I\u2019ll never really know though, I\u2019ve asked both my parents about those years and they don\u2019t know what I\u2019m talking about. It doesn\u2019t really matter at this point. I turned out okay, I didn\u2019t grow up consumed by a fantasy world that only existed on the pages of a comic book or in the steam tunnels of the university. I think it is a testament to the folks that wrote and drew the Son of Satan in the pages of Ghost Rider, Marvel Spotlight and the Defenders that they came up with stories that made such an impression on me when I was young and that I still find worth reading all these years later.<\/p>\n Now that I\u2019ve concluded my journey to \u2026 Hell why not check out the other awesome blogs and podcasts that I\u2019m sure are going to send chills up your spine!\u00a0 Happy Halloween from the Super-Blog Team-Up gang!<\/p>\n Between The Pages Blog<\/strong> \u2013 Hostess Comic Book Ads Were Hot Stuff Magazines and Monsters<\/strong>: Bonus Episode! \u2013 Marvel Spotlight 12 & 13 (Damon Hellstrom)- with Charlton Hero!\u00a0 The Telltale Mind<\/strong> \u2013 Patsy Walker \u2013 To Hell and Back (and Back and Back\u2026) Source Material Comics Podcast <\/strong>\u2013 Batman\/Punisher \u201cLake of Fire\u201d \u2013 Evan Bevins and Jesse Starcher Mark Radulich<\/strong>: Alternative Commentary on Hell Comes to Frogtown Ed Moore:<\/strong> News Print Commando Rex Zombie Killler from Bad Dog Ink\/Panda Dog Press 2013 Dave\u2019s Comics Blog<\/strong>: Superman: The Blaze\/ Satanus War In My Not So Humble Opinion<\/strong> \u2013 Savage Dragon Goes To Hell Asterisk 51 Blog <\/strong>\u2013 Sunday school with\u2026 Hellboy?!?!? Superhero Satellite<\/strong>: Spider-Ham in the world of Licensing Hell! <\/a><\/a><\/figure>\n
Creators:<\/strong>
Writer \u2013 <\/strong>Gary Friedrich
Artist \u2013 <\/strong>Herb Trimpe
Inker \u2013 <\/strong>Frank Chiaramonte
Letterer \u2013 <\/strong>J. Costanza
Colorist \u2013 <\/strong>Severin (I assume Marie)
Editor \u2013 <\/strong>Roy Thomas<\/p>\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/a><\/a>
https:\/\/www.betweenthepagesblog.com\/2022\/10\/hostess-comic-book-ads-were-hot-stuff.html<\/a><\/p>\n
https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/magazines-and-monsters\/id1459643898?i=1000583919620<\/a><\/p>\n
https:\/\/thetelltalemind.com\/2022\/10\/26\/patsy-walker-to-hell-and-back-and-back-and-back<\/a><\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.spreaker.com\/user\/5870686\/sm-batman-punisher-lake-of-fire<\/a><\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.spreaker.com\/episode\/51571432<\/a><\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.comicbooknoise.com\/tnc\/2022\/10\/26\/rex-zombie-killer\/<\/a><\/p>\n
https:\/\/davescomicheroes.blogspot.com\/2022\/10\/superman-goes-to-hell-blaze-satanus-war.html<\/a><\/p>\n
https:\/\/benjaminherman.wordpress.com\/2022\/10\/26\/super-blog-team-up-savage-dragon-goes-to-hell\/<\/a><\/p>\n
https:\/\/asterisk51.blogspot.com\/2022\/10\/sunday-school-with-hellboy.html<\/a><\/p>\n
https:\/\/charltonhero.wordpress.com\/?p=6853<\/a><\/p>\n