Origin
Initially the entity known as the Candlemaker was an egregore created by unconscious tensions that surround historical crisis moments. In other words, it’s the avatar of such possible menaces of 20th century as World War III and nuclear bomb. It somehow discovered the way to Dorothy Spinner‘s unconscious which connects physical plane of existence with the astral one, squeezed into it and found itself trapped there by her psychic powers. However, this being didn’t cease to exist, but took the form of the Candlemaker – one of Dorothy’s imaginary friends. When Dorothy was a little child, she was afraid of dark, so she made up a story about the Candlemaker – man who make candles for the kids that afraid of dark. But his image in her mind was terribly twisted when the butcher told her that people are making candles for the dead. So, main goal of resulted being from her dreams was to kill all people to make candles for them. The personification of human fears integrated itself into the Candlemaker, but was inactive for long time. First time he manifested himself when Dorothy was angered by boy named Bernard Muller. He was constantly making fun of her, ridiculed her appearance and did a lot of other bad things. So, one day her patience was exhausted, and she heavily desired to do something really horrible to him. Then she found herself in cold and darkened room near the table with the candle on it. The Candlemaker was sitting at the table. He told her to make a wish and blow out the candle. She did it, thus setting the Candlemaker free, but only for short time – to fulfill her wish. After this he returned to Dorothy’s mind, and soon people found Bernard’s mutilated corpse. Then Dorothy realized how horrible it was and shut the door to this room and swore to never open it. She soon forgot about this case and didn’t remember until the events in Pentagon. The Telephone Avatar, even in his weakened form, was too strong for Flex Mentallo, so, fate of whole Doom Patrol depended on Dorothy. She dared to step into the Candlemaker’s room again and made a wish to save her friends. When she regained consciousness, the Telephone Avatar was dead – he hung up. From this moment the Candlemaker began to haunt her everywhere – she saw him in dreams, in mirrors. He was seducing her to make a wish again, so he can escape from her mind one and for all. Dorothy was strong enough to confront his luring, but soon she become tired of it and told about it to Joshua Clay – her only true non-imaginary friend. Her story concerned Joshua, so he decided to take her to the Chief. When they arrived to Doom Patrol’s old headquarters (where Niles’ laboratory was situated), Dorothy suddenly started to writhe in pain and Joshua was forced to rush into laboratory, where he was shot in the chest by the Chief. Some time later, Dorothy, wandering in the corridors of their old headquarters in search of Joshua, stumbled upon his corpse. She was dazed and immediately made a wish to resurrect him. The Candlemaker fulfilled last wish and finally escaped from her mind to physical plane of existence. Joshua came back to life, but it lasted for a few seconds – the Candlemaker’s touch killed him, leaving only his empty clothes. At the same time, the Chief was telling to Robotman about his experiment – artificially created organic form of life. Candlemaker, still not used to this physical plane, took over this body, tore off Niles’ head, ripped apart Cliff’s brain and then escaped.
Doom Patrol – Young Animal
Candlemaker returns as an antagonist to The Doom Patrol.