Born the Son of Satan, the human-demon hybrid Daimon Hellstrom denies his infernal heritage, instead becomes an occult expert and demonologist. With his vast magical powers in tow, he battles demonic evil across the realms as Hellstorm, protecting the people of Earth from his father’s evil ways.
Son of Satan
Over 30 years ago, the Hell-Lords—including Marduk Kurios, AKA Satan, Asmodeus, Beelzeboul, Lucifer, Mephisto, Satannish, Thog, and possibly others—desired a son via a human woman to serve as a living battery drawing in mankind’s black energy (sin), storing it as a charge of pure evil. This would empower the Hell-Lords to break through reality’s walls in force and launch an unstoppable assault on man. In an early attempt, the Hell-Lords bond their collective essence within Beelzeboul, who seduces and impregnates Cassandra Dragonmekas, but upon learning his true nature, she magically banishs him back to Hell. Satan subsequently takes human form for their next attempt.
Apparently, unknown to the Hell-Lords, the Chapel of Dresden cult simultaneously seeks to create a half-human, half-demon messiah from the pit through which they could rule mankind. Purchasing Victoria Wingate Hellstrom from her Satanist parents, they tattoo her womb with Satanic symbols, enabling her to bear such a child. Kurios comes to Earth in human form, and drawn to Victoria, he seems to seduce her. Marrying quickly, they move to Fire Lake’s mansion and Daimon is born there a year later, tended by his father’s servants. Despite ingesting human blood and having a pentagram-shaped birthmark, Daimon is more attached to his mother and remains unaware of his father’s true nature; but his sister, Satana, born three years after Daimon, is daddy’s little girl. When Daimon turns nine, Victoria walks in on an animal sacrifice Satana was performing for her father; Victoria is then driven mad and institutionalized upon seeing her husband’s true face. Driving out the memory of willingly mothering the Antichrist, Victoria describes herself as an innocent victim of Satan in her diary. Kurios, Victoria, and their children remain utterly unaware that Devil-Breaker Stephen Loss, an agent of Heaven’s assassins, the Asura, exterminates the Chapel of Dresden.
Satana is taken to Hell to be raised by Satan while Daimon is brought up in an orphanage, having no contact with his father and remaining ignorant of his true heritage. His addled mother gives him an Ankh chain during a visit, telling him that only it could save him. Daimon studies under Father Raymond Gossett at a Jesuit Monastery for over three years, but he leaves abruptly before being ordained upon his mother’s death and learning of his inheritance of Fire Lake. At his family mansion, Daimon reads his mother’s diary, learning of his father’s true nature, and hears his father’s call and promises of power. Following his father’s directions, Daimon removes his Ankh chain, travels downstairs, and accesses the mansion’s portal to Hell. Satan offers Daimon life eternal and power incarnate if he would join him. After hours of deliberation, Daimon decides that since Satan stands for the opposite of everything he believed in, he had no choice but to not only refuse the offer, but also to oppose Satan. Daimon enlists the souls imprisoned in Hell to aid him against Satan’s hordes, but then Satan arrives and commands all others to stay out of the battle between him and his son. Outmatched in power, Daimon steals his father’s trident and uses it to summon Satan’s Demon-Steeds (Amon, Hecate, and Set) and chariot, escaping Hell and sealing the portal behind him.
Daimon spends years studying demonology and wallowing in indecision, using the Ankh chain and isolation to moderate the nightly transformations when his demonic Darksoul would gain ascendance. At some point, he seeks out the venerated Yao, AKA Ancient One, offering to become his mystic disciple. After much meditation, the Ancient One decides that Daimon’s destiny lay elsewhere. He later meets with Yandroth, who would become Daimon’s enemy in the future and who could access all points in his life simultaneously. Eventually Daimon begins to work as an exorcist, assisting the possessed Linda Littletrees, AKA Witch-Woman, which leads to an alliance with the Johnny Blaze, AKA Ghost Rider, against a Satan (likely a gestalt of several Hell-Lords). Now using the alias Son of Satan, Daimon thwarts Satan by threatening to shatter his realm.
When he discovers that the Fire Lake portal to Hell had reopened, Daimon travels to St. Louis’ Gateway University at the request of parapsychology professor Katherine Reynolds, driving off Ikthalon, the icy demon of stagnation, and his Legions of Boreas. Daimon stays there for a time, befriending Reynolds and divinity student Byron Hyatt. While celebrating his birthday, marked by a battle with his father’s agent Baphomet and the merging with his Darksoul, which ends his nocturnal transformations and inverts his pentagram.
Hellish Magic
Hellstorm possesses vast magical power, enhanced by the number and faith of his worshippers. He can fly or transport himself and other beings and objects (even buildings) across the planet and to other realms via travel through Hell; he can even travel through time. He often travels across space or dimensions via his Demon-Steed drawn chariot, appearing with a thought. Daimon’s Demon-Steeds are actually carnivorous demons bound into equine form and forced to serve as transport via the Satanic Chariot.
He can project true fire; hellfire, which is able to cause spiritual pain; and destructive energies able to devastate a house or slay even beings of great magical power. He can form and shatter mystic shields, tear thoughts from minds, and heal injuries and ailments in himself or others. Though he is not superhumanly strong, his powers can amplify his strength to higher levels. Hellstorm has pointed ears and a circled inverted pentagram birthmark on his chest.
He initially transforms from a seemingly normal human form to his “Son of Satan” form at night, but he eventually gains control of this transformation. He can alter his garments and appearance at will, taking on a more demonic appearance, sometimes including hooves, fangs, and wings. As a Hell-lord, he can manifest a black halo at will, though he generally keeps this hidden so as to more easily associate with various costumed adventurers. His powers, formerly dependent on the Darksoul within him, are greatest within his own realm of Hell.
Hellstorm is highly intelligent and an expert in the occult, specifically in demonology and theology. He can perform complex and powerful magical rites.
Hellstorm wields a trident, formed of a Nether metal (“Netheranium,” a bane to other demons) and summoned and re-formed at his will, which serves as his power focus and symbol, though he can discharge his energies without it. Hellstorm also possesses a number of magical artifacts, such as the Necromanteion (a magical scrying crystal) and the Grimorium Verum (an ancient arcane text). He sometimes uses a cane due to a left leg injury from the arcane Breathing Gun.
His Fire Lake mansion contains a portal to Hell, but possesses wards blocking unwanted entry of demons or angels.
Hellraisers
Hellstorm often goes up against his father, Satan, and occasionally his sister Satana since he uses his powers for good. Satan is relentless, offering his son eternal life and promises of power. Hellstrom eventually sacrifices himself for others to remain in Hell with Satan, but Satan is eventually defeated and Hellstorm becomes the Lord of Hell.
Kthara is a demon that faces off with Daimon and Satana when she possesses people on Earht. Daimon with the help of Satana and later Benjamin Grimm, AKA The Thing, defeat her. Daimon himself is possessed by Raphael Zoran, AKA Possessor, but is staved off by Daimon’s Darksoul.
Denying his infernal heritage, Daimon battles other Hell-Lords and demons alike including but not limited to Asmodeus, Baphomet, Basilisk, Dormammu and Dracula’s Daughter Lilith.
The Side of the Angels
Hellstorm is a part of the Hell-Lords, being born from one and then later rises in their ranks. He aides the costumed adventurers, the Defenders, in releasing their members from demonic possession and ends up joining the team to protect others from the alien Nebulon the Celestial Man, as well as the demonic Six-Fingered Hand and Sons of the Serpent, to name a few.
During his Defenders membership, he falls in love with and marries Pasty Walker, AKA Hellcat. When he loses his powers, the couple operate as paranormal investigators on the West Coast. Hellcat’s attempt to restore Hellstorm’s powers and save his life results in her losing her mind and committing suicide. Once his full abilities are returned to him, Hellstorm slays his father, takes over Hell’s throne, and uses his newfound abilities as King of Hell to trick Clint Barton, AKA Hawkeye, into resurrecting Hellcat.
Hellstorm also aides other heroes in battling occult threats Johnny Blaze, AKA Ghost Rider, and the Avengers West Coast team. He later joins S.H.I.E.L.D.’s strike force, the Howling Commandos unit and goes undercover to spy on the Lords of the Living Lightning, eventually garnering their inner council’s trust.
After becoming a professor at St. Louis University, he sets up Hellwalker Parapsychological Investigations (AKA Hellstrom Investigations, Inc./Hellstrom and Hellstrom Paranormal Investigations/Hellstrom & Hellstrom Occult Investigations) to investigate the occult and help defend humanity.
Hellstorm, along with allies Margali Szardos, Dr. Alyssa Moy, AKA Alyssa Moy, Mechamage, and the Fantastic Four, go up against Selene and Blackheart who create a demonic version of the Hellfire Club. When they are defeated, Hellstorm joins the Hellfire Club’s Inner Circle as the White King to balance good and evil.
He later puts his talents into teaching the next generation of sorcerers at the Strange Academy, named after Dr. Stephen Strange, AKA Doctor Strange. He joins headmaster Jericho Drumm, AKA Doctor Voodoo, alongside a staff comprised of the most exceptional magic users and occult experts, such as Zelma Stanton, Ancient One, Mindful One, Nico Minoru, AKA Sister Grimm, Wanda Maximoff, AKA Scarlet Witch, Illyana Rasputin, AKA Magik, Michael Twoyoungmen, AKA Shaman, and Agatha Harkness.
Antichrist’s Account
To end the threat of the fiery serpent Kometes, Daimon traveled back in time to pre-Cataclysmic Atlantis, where he encountered King Kamuu, Queen Zartra and the legendary sorceress Zhered-Na, and destroyed Kometes via an encounter with Adam K’ad-Mon, AKA Spyros, the first man on Earth. Working locally and distantly, Daimon exorcised the demon Allatou, one of Satan’s court, from the Manners family; destroyed the evil Madame Swabada who resented his fame and tried to slay him using tarot manifestations; assisted the Defenders against Satannish’s human mystic Charles Benton, AKA Asmodeus, and later the racist Sons of the Serpent; defeated a plot of his father’s agent Dryminextes with the aid of Johnny Storm, AKA Human Torch; and encountered the enigmatic Father Darklyte and his Legion of Nihilists, the former exploding into a shower of cockroaches at battle’s end. Daimon subsequently left Gateway, encountering and assisting Satana (now fully grown and active on Earth) against Satan’s agent Kthara of the Outer Dark, earning Satana’s enmity in the process when he unwittingly nearly slew her.
Daimon joined The Thing, against another plot of Kthara, assisted Ghost Rider against Mephisto, and even joined forces with Satan against the Raphael Zoran, AKA Possessor, who thought to conquer Hell. The Possessor actually absorbed Daimon into himself and used his powers against Satan until Daimon unleashed his own demonic Darksoul, which ravaged the Possessor’s mind and spirit, incapacitating him and releasing Daimon. When Daimon revealed that he had saved his father, Satan cursed him, sealing the gateways between Hell and Earth until the day Satan chose to return, which he claimed would be the day he slew Daimon.
Feeling apart from humanity but wishing both to dwell among others and to move on with his life, Daimon sold the Fire Lake mansion and relocated to Washington, D.C.’s District University. There, Daimon taught parapsychology; defeated Silas Warden, AKA Mindstar, who tried to use him against the Egyptian god Anubis; befriended the bizarre Proffet the Celestial Fool; and became more than friends with wicca Saripha Thames. Summoned to investigate the ditzy psychic Winda Wester, Daimon crossed Hitler’s alleged dentist Dr. Reich and corrupt cult leader Reverend Joon Moon Yuc, leading to Daimon’s Darksoul briefly possessing Howard the Duck before returning to Daimon. The Son of Satan also helped free the vampire hunter Eric Brooks, AKA Blade from Deacon Frost’s control and participated in the “Defenders for a Day.” After capturing the same juvenile delinquent twice while patrolling with Kyle Richmond, AKA Nighthawk’s squad, Daimon and most of that Defenders squad quit.
Now 27 years old, Daimon joined the Defenders in saving Eternity and the entire universe, and in opposing the alien Nebulon, as well as the demonic Six-Fingered Hand (Avarrish, Fashima, Hyppokri, Maya, Puishannt, Unnthinnk) who threatened to conquer Earth. The Defenders (including Daimon) teleported across the planet to fight the demons' agent Isaac Christians, AKA Gargoyle, who enabled the possession of the Defender Hellcat—both were seemingly purged of demonic influences and Gargoyle joined the Defenders—the vampire Gordski, whom Daimon exposed to premature daylight via time manipulation; rock singer Asmodeus Jones; David Kessler, a would-be Messiah, and the possessed Man-Thing. Ultimately, the Six-Fingered Hand were revealed to be pawns of the major Hell-Lords, led by Mephisto (who had manipulated them as Maya), Satan, Satannish and Thog, who threatened to merge Hell and Earth, enabled by the damage to the dimensional walls caused by the threat to Eternity and their multiple teleportations. Aware that Daimon had secretly fallen in love with Hellcat, Satan transformed her into a demon, but after a pitched battle between father and son, Daimon agreed to stay in Hell to study under his father; in return Satan cancelled the invasion of Earth and freed Hellcat from his influence, leaving the Defenders to wonder if Satan had achieved his true goal after all.
After months of trying to purge his humanity, Daimon rebelled against and abandoned Satan, who surprisingly expressed pride and revealed his multifaceted nature. Daimon rejoined the Defenders, saving the life of Hank McCoy, AKA Beast’s girlfriend Vera Cantor, foiling the corrupting spirit within the Resurrection Stone, and fighting the Secret Empire. To save the Brunnhilde, AKA Valkyrie’s life, Daimon sought the Rose of Purity from the Wasteland dimension, but found he could not steal the Rose, a god to residents Damask and Zaffer. After aiding the Squadron Supreme on Earth-712 against Null the Living Darkness, Daimon expressed his love for Hellcat, who initially rebuffed him. Leaving in a rage, Daimon returned to District University where he found that a demon from Satan’s realm (having remained on Earth following the Hell-Lords’ “Hell on Earth” plot) had usurped his identity. Daimon defeated the interloper, but left him in peace when Saripha revealed her love for the demon.
Daimon sought solace at Father Gosset’s new monastery, but the Miracle Man stole his Darksoul, which was ultimately cast into a serpent that seemed to slither off and die. Seemingly free of his demonic half, Daimon married Hellcat, despite interference from the Secret Empire, and they moved out to San Francisco to work as occult investigators. Daimon’s pentagram returned soon after and he showed intermittent mystic power, sometimes using the alias Hellstorm and donning a garish costume. He and Hellcat joined the Defenders against Minerva Bannister (who sought vampiric immortality); aided the Avengers against Allatou, Master Pandemonium, the Cat People, Todd Arliss, AKA Tiger Shark, and David Cannon, AKA Whirlwind; and helped resolve the dual possession of Hamilton Slade, AKA Phantom Rider, by his ancestors, the heroic Carter and the maddened Lincoln.
Meanwhile, the Hellfire Serpent, recipient of Daimon’s Darksoul, was used by Shreck, AKA Terror, to empower Mikal Drakonmegas as Hellfire to oppose Beelzeboul. Daimon’s powers faded, and he retired, but he soon began to die without his Darksoul. In desperation, Hellcat used the Grimorium Verum to summon Satan, who restored Daimon’s Darksoul so that father and son might continue their struggle. Helcat was driven mad upon seeing Daimon’s full demonic spirit, and Daimon brought her back to Fire Lake where Isaac Christians cared for her. In preparation for the final battle with his father, Daimon took a road trip, defeating Satan’s Somnambulist and his pawn Ervil Allred in Nevada, then befriended occult experts Al Shaitan and Avram Siegel. From the witch Lavoisin he learned his birth father’s true name—a source of vulnerability to demons—for the price of donating his seed to her. Satan located Daimon’s former imposter, sending him to resume the identity and lead the Satanic Black Church. Daimon slew the demon and promised his father their next battle would be their last.
Severing ties with longtime Defenders ally Doctor Strange, Daimon battled the Black Church’s Jack Riley alongside Jason Maldonado, KA Soulfire, initially intended as Satan’s pawn; punished the lethally abusive father of Lisa Beckman; and allied with the Souls of the Damned, spirits from Hell restored to Earth by Satan via misguided would-be faith-healer father Joshua Crow. Daimon successfully fought to bring the few redeemed Souls to Heaven, but his Demon-Steeds were apparently slain in the process, and Daimon was cast down to Hell as punishment when he approached Heaven’s gate. After learning the alleged secrets of Heaven and Hell, Daimon invoked the name and symbols of Marduk Kurios, granting him the power to slay his father. As Satan perished, the Black Halo of Satanic regency passed to Daimon, making him new Lord of Hell.
As Daimon mandated secrecy amongst his new minions and pondered these changes, high-ranking demons noticed the laxity and sought to increase their domains, while the forces of a division of Heaven, long associates and rivals of Kurios, saw this as a chance to win the eternal struggle with Hell. Daimon slew the Armorer, who wore the organs of murdered sorcerers and sought to give Manhattan to the demon Zahgurim as a dowry; along the way, Daimon fell in love with occult terrorist Jaine Cutter, eventually taking her as his consort, while Hellcat regained sanity only to commit suicide under Oblivion agent Deathurge’s influence. Working alongside occult network head and Satanist Anton Devine, Daimon and Jaine destroyed the demonic Antimuse Inanna and her Bailiff of Madness; drove mad the angel Tzadqiel; and destroyed Heaven’s homunculus agent Stephen Loss, driving his agent Gabriel insane in the process. Daimon had Isaac care for Gabriel, and he learned that Lavoisin was expecting a boy—a child he knew would be his reborn father, Satan.
Daimon subsequently slew rogue mystic Anthony Druid, AKA Doctor Druid, when his powers and motives threatened earthly existence, resurrecting the mutant witch Nekra Sinclair, AKA Nekra, in the process; warned James Howlett/Logan, AKA Wolverine, of a mysterious box long thought lost in the nether realms; and assisted the mystically empowered Frank Castle, AKA the Punisher, against rival Hell-lord Olivier. Daimon also began utilizing a new trio of Demon-Steeds, Hegal, Malah, and Zulum. He was rescued by the Fantastic Four and sorcerers Margali Szardos and Mechamage from rival devil-spawn Blackheart’s apparent imprisonment, allegedly gaining standing as the White King to Blackheart’s Black King of the Hellfire Club in the process. During this time, Daimon adopted another super-hero-like costume in order to set his heroic peers at ease, rather than forcing them to confront his true nature.
Daimon later manipulated the Thunderbolts into recovering Hellcat’s spirit from Mephisto’s Hell, resurrecting her. When Satannish united with the extradimensional Dormammu to conquer all of Hell, Hellstorm joined with Mephisto, Pluto, Hela, and Hellcat to foil this plot. Afterwards, Patsy openly theorized that Daimon was actually the Son of Satannish, and by extension a sleeper agent of Dormammu. Seeking to keep Patsy distant from the horrors of his current life, Daimon took on a malevolent aspect and seemingly confirmed her claims, though Mephisto provided her safe transport back to Earth for her help.
After Amanda Sefton, AKA Magik, had her agent Nugent compile a computer program to gather all arcane lore into a single place, this collection took on a life of its own and began slaughtering and conquering the various “splinter realms” of Hell. Magik called a convocation of the Lords of the Splinter Realms in an effort to unite them against this Archenemy, but unwittingly played into its hands by doing so. Ultimately Kurt Wagner, AKA Nightcrawler, destroyed the computer program, neutralizing the spell, and dispersing the Archenemy. Hellstorm would certainly have been aware of this, though it is unknown if he was actually directly involved.
Soon thereafter, Satan (presumably having been reborn through Lavoisin), his powers at their lowest ebb, sought to lower his competition in the mystic arena. Satan plotted to unleash the monstrously powerful Hellphyr to slaughter Earth’s magic users. Like every other magic user associated with Earth, Daimon sensed the Hellphyr’s awakening, though he allowed Satana and her allies Jennifer Kale and Topaz to destroy the Hellphyr. Satana additionally refused Satan’s offer to join him in reclaiming Hell after the Hellphyr had destroyed all other magic users. Satan nonetheless later regained some power and a corner of Hell, receiving a regular soul tithe from Satana.
For reasons of his own, Hellstorm joined S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Howling Commandos unit of supernatural agents, and he was sent to infiltrate the Lords of the Living Lightning as an undercover agent. When a malevolent Merlin returned to Earth, causing the death of several of the Lords’ ESPer agents, the Lords sent Hellstorm to form an alliance with the wizard. Donning his familiar original costume, Hellstorm bargained with Merlin. Unbeknownst to Hellstorm, Merlin’s forces had already invaded the Lords’ base and killed some of them before forcing the others to swear allegiance to Merlin. Merlin told Hellstorm he already knew of Daimon’s allegiances, as he did of Dracula’s Daughter Lilith, who had also infiltrated the wizard’s forces. Though less than pleased by Merlin’s revelations and by being forced to work alongside Lilith, Hellstorm continued by Merlin’s side while their teammates began to build their forces elsewhere. When the Howling Commandos assaulted Merlin’s forces, Hellstorm revealed his true colors and slew Telesti of the Folk, one of Merlin’s enchanted followers. After Merlin retreated in defeat, Hellstorm berated the Commandos’ leader, Clay Quartermain, for wrecking his cover with the Lords of the Living Lightning.
Daimon, again using his original name Hellstrom and the alias Son of Satan, subsequently became part of a new generation of Defenders, allegedly part of the perfect grouping that the Defenders had always been destined to be. He later prevented his father from gaining power from the Egyptian god Osiris’ resurrection, and investigated a massacre of children by devoted Satanists. He subsequently teamed up with Ghost Riders Blaze and Ketch, his old flame Jaine, and Sara the Caretaker, to find the surviving child, Anton Satan. Hellstorm then helped search for the next Sorcerer Supreme, after Strange gave up the role. Jericho Drumm became the new Sorcerer Supreme but soon perished saving Earth against Agamotto. He was later seen assisting the Avengers against the nihilistic thrill-killer Sinthea Shmidt, AKA Sin, who sought the hammers of the Worthy, though he betrays them to achieve his own personal goals.
When the spirit of Daniel Drumm possessed Victoria Hand, he killed Daimon out of vengeance for the death of his brother Jericho. He wasn’t gone long and meanwhile, Doctor Strange reclaimed the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme. With the coming Descent—the day prophesied when one of the Hell-Lords would become the true Devil, and one of those marked by Mephisto would become a demon—Daimon pre-emptively created copies of himself to explore every possible facet of the Descent. He then revealed his uncertainty of self to Flash Thompson, AKA Agent Venom, while imprisoned. He soon joined the Shadow Council’s Masters of Evil, and worked with Baron Helmut Zemo, AKA Baron Zemo.
Following the destruction and restoration of magic, Daimon has taken up teaching the sorcerers of tomorrow at the newly minted Strange Academy in New Orleans, teaching Inferno 101 alongside Illyana Rasputina, AKA Magik.
