Get Behind Me, Son of Satan

They just don't make heroes like Daimon Hellstrom anymore.

Horror comics were, for a brief period in the ‘50s, all the rage. Books like TALES FROM THE CRYPT, VAULT OF HORROR, and THE HAUNT OF FEAR flew off shelves and into the eager hands of impressionable youth across the nation. But, when priests and politicians discovered the gruesome scenes depicted in these four-colored confections, tongues began to wag and the Comics Code Authority was put into place to keep America’s children unsoiled in their innocence. Leave that for the wars Uncle Sam’s nieces and nephews would have to fight, right?

Under the guidance of this new self-regulated authority, comic book publishers were restricted from including vampires, werewolves, zombies, or even criminals who got away with their misdeeds. Horror comics dried up and, in their place, kids were left with heavily sanitized superheroes, talking animals, lovestruck teenagers, and Westerns. Cut to 1971, though, and Marvel decided they wanted to address the drug epidemic affecting America’s youth. The problem? Comic books weren’t allowed to even mention the existence of narcotics. The solution: Stan Lee directed Marvel Comics to break from the Comics Code Authority for an issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN in which Peter Parker discovered his best friend Harry Osbourne was an addict.

When the Spider-Man book was released and the world did not end, Marvel quickly realized they no longer had to be tied to an outdated moral corset and decided to go hog-wild. Marvel dipped their toes back into the horror pool by introducing Morbius, a scientifically-created vampire and future movie meme incarnate, into the pages of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. Buoyed by the success of those issues, Marvel quickly followed Morbius with Dracula himself in the new book TOMB OF DRACULA. From there came WEREWOLF BY NIGHT, FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER, and - of course - GHOST RIDER.

Before long, Marvel was sitting high on a whole line of successful horror books. Stan Lee, ever the businessman, decided Marvel needed to keep pushing them out. But where do you go when you have books starring vampires, werewolves, zombies and demons? Straight to the source - that’s where baby. In GHOST RIDER # 1, Marvel would tease a new series called THE MARK OF SATAN. This Stan Lee-proposed series would see the Devil embark on a series of adventures. The actual Devil. As in Lucifer. The Fallen One. The dude who rules Hell.

While Lee was ready to go full-blast in his attempt to welcome America’s children into the warm embrace of Satanism, Marvel editor Roy Thomas suggested that maybe the book would be more commercial if it followed, say, Satan’s son.

Introducing Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan.

Slight tangent: Despite my ignorance in assuming that Hellstrom’s first name is a reference to the Richard Donner film THE OMEN, Hellstrom’s first appearance predates the 1976 film - GHOST RIDER # 1 would feature the first appearance of Hellstrom in September 1973. Damian is a Greek name that means “tame” and “innocent” so - unless THE OMEN screenwriter David Seltzer was a big fan of Marvel Comics - both Seltzer and Hellstrom’s creators (Roy Thomas, Garry Friedrich, and Herb Trimpe) were probably just attracted to the fact that Damian (or Daimon) sounds like “demon.”

Damion Hellstrom is introduced as an exorcist hired by an indigenous supervillain (in reality, Snake Dancer is just a medicine man trying to keep his tribe from being exploited by a traveling carnival - so is he really a supervillain?) to save his daughter from demonic possession. Hellstrom shows up only to reveal that, at night, he transforms into a demonic barechested anarchist. In his first appearance, he teams up with Ghost Rider just because it means a chance to pick a fight with Hellstrom’s father, Satan.

After Hellstrom’s first few appearances in GHOST RIDER, he’d be given his own title - taking over MARVEL SPOTLIGHT from Ghost Rider, who had recently graduated to a solo title. Freed from the burdens of being a guest star in somebody else’s book, Hellstrom was finally given an origin story. It seems Satan had decided to take an Earthly bride and, disguising his true identity married a quiet woman and fathered two children. When his wife caught Satan trying to teach his kids about their cultural identity, she went crazy and the two children would be separated.

The daughter would be Satana, taken to Hell alongside her father, and taught the dark arts. Damion, on the other hand, was raised by servants, and - as an adult - would enter the seminary to become a priest. It was only then that Damion would discover his true lineage.

For the first year of Hellstrom’s existence, he bounced between writers and, as such, had a convoluted power set and purpose. In his earliest appearances, he was bound by a curse - becoming a different, more Satanic, personality when the sun went down. Think a less scaley Etrigon, The Demon. Hellstrom drove a giant chariot drawn by two demonic horses and his main purpose seemed to be trying to kill his father. Not long after that, though, Steve Gerber (co-creator of MAN-THING and HOWARD THE DUCK) took over writing MARVEL SPOTLIGHT and better defined Hellstrom.

He moved the character to St. Louis (Gerber’s childhood home) and teamed him up with a parapsychologist love interest to fight demons. Pretty soon into Gerber’s run, Satan tricked Hellstrom into merging his two personalities - the pious man of God and the Satanic hothead - and the hero and his alter-ego became one.

The result was a Damion Hellstrom who no longer made any nocturnal personality changes but still had a bit of a temper that, when tested, would lead to Hellstrom making slightly greyer decisions.

My favorite detail that Gerber introduced? The fact that Hellstrom would change into his costume and summon his signature weapon by making the sign of the trident with his fingers. Chef’s kiss!

Hellstrom’s tenure at MARVEL SPOTLIGHT would only last twelve issues before he would be given a short-lived solo series that lasted another eight issues. At least he got to fight Adam, the first man created by God and now cursed to be a deformed guardian of Earth’s spiritual core. Hashtag small blessings.

After that, Hellstrom would make sporadic appearances before becoming a member of The Defenders (written again by Steve Gerber). During his time with this team, he would marry Patsy Walker, one of Marvel’s teen romance characters from the ‘40s and ‘50s who had since become the superhero Hellcat). The two would retire from the team to become paranormal investigators. Unfortunately, this marriage ended badly when Walker witnessed Hellstrom’s “true face” of evil and went insane, eventually taking her own life. Hellstrom since has sauntered around the weirder corners of the Marvel Universe - teaming up with Ghost Rider, Blade, Doctor Strange, and the Conan the Barbarian-led Savage Avengers. He’s been a hero, a villain, a god, a mortal and more. He’s even had his origin story retconned so that Satan wasn’t actually his real dad. It turns out, papa was Satannish (really, that’s his name), the son of Doctor Strange villain Dormammu.

Certain writers have shown an affinity for the character over the years - bringing him in wherever the story could support Hellstrom’’s bare-chested beauty. Besides Geber, who frequently used the character, Jason Aaron in particular has been largely responsible for keeping the character active, using him in runs on GHOST RIDER, THOR and AVENGERS.

Most recently, Damion leaped television via the show HELSTROM (notice the spelling). Created by Paul Zbyszewski, HELSTROM aired on Hulu and saw the character and his sister (Ana Helstrom, not Satana) as two children of a serial killer who turn their back on their legacy by hunting demons. It lasted a single season.

I love the fact that, during one shining moment in Marvel Comics’ history, Stan Lee - the man who co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and Striperella thought it would be a good idea to release a comic book starring Satan. While that series may not have come to fruition, the character we did get is a wild relic of a different time for the industry - a true weirdo who won’t let the Devil (or fashion) get in his way. It boggles the mind that not only was Hellstrom a thing in the ‘70s, he’s managed to last this long. Like a demonically-infused cockroach, Hellstrom refuses to be stopped - even if every series he’s ever starred in (both in print and television) is canceled. Really makes one think about the true power of Satan, right?

I can’t imagine a Marvel Comics series like SON OF SATAN existing nowadays - and honestly, that makes me a little sad. But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe 2024 is finally the time when Marvel just cuts to the chase and releases THE MARK OF SATAN.

A boy (demon) can dream.