Origin
D’Spayre was created by the Dweller In Darkness to help him take over Earth, with Dweller using the fear and negative emotions of the destruction of Atlantis. Since then D’Spayre has terrorised many citizens of earth. He feeds on people who are depressed or overwhelmed by negative emotions, hoping to making them kill themselves.
Creation
D’Spayre was created by Chris Claremont and John Byrne and first appeared in Marvel Team-Up #68 (1978).
Mayor Story Arcs
Evil Surfaced
D’Spayre was first seen in the Marvel Universe when he attacked sorceress Jennifer Kale. He captured her and her mentor, Dakimh but where eventually rescued by the mindless Man-Thing and a little help of the superhero Spider-Man.
After his initial encounter with superheroes, D’Spayre was seen some years later attacking the X-Men‘s Cyclops and his companion Lee Forrester. Years before, he had been the one that drove Lee’s father to suicide. When D’Spayre attacked Cyclops, he was fended off by a super-charged Man-Thing, who grew in power due to Cyclops’ resistance to D’Spayre’s mental torment.
D’Spayre even tried to torment the Hulk and Betty Ross with the assistance of fellow Fear Lord Nightmare, but their squabbling caused them to work ineffectively and Hulk was able to destroy their hold on him.
Doctor Strange
D’Spayre has also had frequent run-in’s with Doctor Strange, but has yet to emerge victorious. Although he always seems to be defeated, he has created something that has caused a lot of grief — the drug called D-Lite. He also played a part in the origin of the superhero team Cloak and Dagger, managing to enhance their already natural mutant powers with spiritual energy sources.
During the fated Fear Lord attack on Earth, D’Spayre was able to manipulate Dweller and Nightmare into driving the population so mad with fear that they started to become depressed and emotionally wrecked, which while weakened the pair of them, enhanced D’Spayre’s powers beyond their natural level, and he became strong enough to scare both of them off without much trouble. With all this power, D’Spayre was almost able to convince Doctor Strange to take his life, but failed due to his immense will, and he was driven back into the shadows once more.
At one time, D’Spayre came across Emma Frost, and created a fake Roulette (who was already dead) to confuse her, as well as attempting to torment the rest of the Generation X crew with his illusions, through he was eventually fought off.
D’Spayre for a time corrupted the Golden Age hero Aarkus the Vision and overwhelmed him while abusing the negative emotions caused by the Civil War and Captain America’s death until Doctor Strange banished D’Spayre from existence and freed him.
Cable
D’Spayre later resurfaced again, when he tracked down the X-Men member known as Cable and Lee Forrester. Two characters whom he had a legacy with, since both Cable father’s (Cyclops) as Lee’s father had been manipulated by the evil D’Spayre, even causing Lee’s father to commit suicide. Lee had already seen D’Sparye in action when she and Cyclops met him many years ago. However, Lee turned out to be strong enough to repel D’Spayre once and for all.
Journey into Mystery
D’Spayre has recently been part of the cabal of Fear Lords conspiring to gain the leftover fear created by the Serpent. After Loki helped Nightmare create a crown from that fear, Loki tricked all the Fear Lords, including D’Spayre, to endlessly fight over it, ensuring that none would gain permanent control over it. During this arc, D’Spayre has still been calling the Dweller in Darkness “father.”
Death and Rebirth
D’Spayre was apart of the countless of thousands killed when the Dormammu-fed Galactus started to destroy and feed upon the magical dimensions. When Strange was entrusted by Eternity and the Living Tribunal to rewrite all of reality after Galactus collapsed the current universe, this death along with the rest of them were reversed, so this death did not come to pass.
Powers
D’Spayre is capable of enhancing dread and negative emotions within a individual: his powers are so convincing that even strong willed foes like Spider-Man and Doctor Strange have been reduced to wrecks by his words alone, through he can also use his powers by using a energy bolt to forcefully cause someone to despair, or by physically grabbing someone.
D’Spayre can also read minds and create detailed illusions to trap his victims: usually, he seeks to entice people with hopes of happiness or joy before establishing more cruel or disturbing images in a attempt to make them depressed enough to give up on life. By doing this, he can feed on their life force and make himself stronger in the process. This is a double edged sword as if his subjects become hopeful or overcome his powers, he becomes much weaker (to the point that he can be physically hurt)
D’Spayre is also adept with magic, being able to steal people’s astral forms, melt steel quickly, create telepathic traps, or even fight highly skilled magic users like Doctor Strange and a nameless disciple of Zhered-Na.
Other Media
Television
- D’Spayre appears as the main antagonist of season 2 of Freeform’s Cloak and Dagger series, portrayed by Brooklyn McLinn. This version of the character is a former jazz musician named Andre Deschaine who accidentally gained superhuman abilities from an explosion at a Roxxon facility. The explosion granted the formerly suicidal Deschaine a connection to the Dark Dimension, allowing him to manipulate the emotions of others and feed off their despair. Using these abilities, Deschaine became the head of a sex trafficking ring in New Orleans, feeding on the despair of his victims in order to ease his severe migraines.
Merchandise
- D’Spayre was featured in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line as part of the Rintrah Build-a-Figure wave.