Current Events
After he and his teammates on the Demon Knights successfully defend the town of Little Spring from the forces of the Questing Queen, the team moves on while Madame Xanadu explains the relationship between herself and Etrigan and Jason Blood.
Origin
Little is known of the man known as al Jabr. He is presumably of Arabian origin, and some developments indicate that he may be a practicing Muslim. The princesses of Alba Sarum believe his name is merely an alias, as it is Arabic for “The Numbers.”
Creation
Al Jabr was created by Demon Knights series writer Paul Cornell. His first appearance was in Demon Knights #1 in 2011.
Major Story Arcs
As a new member of the Demon Knights, his first appearance was as one of the rag-tag defenders of Little Spring that would eventually form the Demon Knights, where his main contribution was the construction of siege machinery, which he considered a waste of his talents. It is shown that his appearance leads to some problems for the obvious foreigner, which his future travel-mate Exoristos doesn’t take kindly to.
30 years after the Demon Knights disbanded, Al Jabr is the one to call them all together again. However he leaves the task of find them to lesser men, and Shining Knight, Exoristos and Horsewoman all end up imprisoned under his city of Al-Wadi, the heart of Moorish Spain, some for several weeks. As soon as he returns he has them freed and reveal to them how old he has become, which catches the three immortals off guard, before explaining they are needed again; Cain the vampire has been amassing an army and is heading towards Paradise Island, Exoristos’ home.
Powers and Abilities
Although not really defined, his “powers” seem to simply stem from an advanced scientific knowledge, he has been referred to several times as “The Engineer” due to the incredible war engines he builds, and may be the first of a long line of people to hold the tile within the organization known as Stormwatch. Sometimes his advanced use of science can be mistaken for magic. He is also a skilled hand to hand combatant and is skilled in bladed weapons.
It was revealed in Demon Knights #9 that Al Jabr possesses the ability to electrocute people with what would appear to be a primitive battery, he blasted Vandal Savage with a bolt of lightning using this contraption. He needs time to build up a charge, however, and wires must make contact with his target, so use of this contraption is highly situational. He refers to this as “electrickery”.