Prologue
In the Marvel Universe, Hell is not a single place, but a blanket term for any one of many similar dimensional realms characterized by the common existence of evil demonic beings, and where the physical laws tend much more towards magical, rather than scientific, principles. The origins, structure, and laws of these realms are known to few but the demons themselves. As lies and deception are their stock and trade, they can in no way be trusted in their accounting. Through unknown processes, the souls of dead mortals with some frequency become manifest here after death; sometimes as the result of an agreement during life with one of the demonic beings, sometimes presumably because the soul’s wicked actions in life have imbued it with a resonance in accord with these realms, and occasionally for even more unusual reasons.
The ancient demonic beings that come to dominate any one of these realms are singular entities of god-like power, though this power is greatly diminished outside their home realm, and is clearly drawn from their lordship of it in some fashion. Some appear so bound to their home-dimension that they are unable to leave it all, and each would appear to require some manner of occult conditions to be met before they could enter a dimension like that of Earth with even a fraction of their full power. For reasons unknown, at least some of these beings appear to enhance their power by the existence of the souls of the dead trapped in their realm; and sometimes also through the devotion of mortal beings who are still alive.
This fact provides such evil entities with a strong incentive to maintain at least some influence over the mortal realm. Over the course of relatively recent human history several of these demon lords have found it useful to claim the mantle of the Jude-Christian Satan. Moreover, such powerful demon lords as Mephisto, Satannish, Lucifer, Thog, etc. have seen fit to merge in some fashion as a single entity, Satan, for mysterious purposes.
Origin
One such demon lord, calling himself Satan, Marduk Kurios, seduced and sired a son with a woman named Victoria Hellstrom. The Hellstrom line were a family of dark satanic bent for generations, and sold Victoria to the Chapel of Dresden. This twisted cult sought to dominate mankind by the creation of a half-demonic child who would eventually lead the Chapel of Dresden to mastery of the Earth. To this end Victoria’s womb was tattooed with occult symbols which were to draw Satan to her. The demon lord, Satan, married her in pursuit of his own diabolical ends, and the two produced a child, Daimon Hellstrom. Daimon appeared to live a fairly normal early life to outward appearances, though in place of baby formula he was raised on human blood. When Daimon was three years old, his mother, Victoria, gave birth to his sister, Satana. During Daimon and Satana‘s childhoods, Daimon tended to grow close to his human mother and Satana to her demonic father, as Satana was more drawn to her father’s unholy teachings. Throughout his childhood, Daimon never knew of his dark heritage, instead believing that Satan was merely a child’s story. A short while after Daimon’s thirteenth birthday, his mother was driven mad by the mere sight of her husband’s true visage.
After Victoria was placed into an insane asylum, Daimon and Satana were separated, the brother being raised in an orphanage, while the sister descended to the infernal realm of her father. While visiting her in the asylum, Daimon had thrust upon him an ankh by his mother, who tells him only it can protect him from his father. Shortly thereafter Hellstrom joined the seminary in a monastery, with the intention of entering the priesthood.
When his mother died, Daimon inherited his family’s mansion. Within it’s walls, he discovered his mother’s diary, wherein he learned the truth of his origin. Soon afterward, Satan contacted Daimon, offering him a place to rule by his side, as well as a near limitless source of power and eternal life.
Creation
Daimon Hellstrom was created by Gary Friedrich and Tom Sutton and first appeared in Ghost Rider #1(1973), although his full face was not seen until one issue later.
Mayor Story Arcs
Accepting his Heritage
After much soul-searching, Daimon set aside the ankh and decided to stand against his father. Accessing a gateway to Hell within the mansion, Hellstrom confronted Satan, and despite being impossibly over matched, managed to escape by stealing his father’s Netheraneum trident and a chariot pulled by three demonic horses. The trident was an incredibly potent magical artifact, imbuing the Son of Satan with power leached from his father’s realm, and with it he sealed the gate of Hell with melted Netheraneum.
Thereafter, Daimon was afflicted with the manifestation each night of his “Darksoul”, an infernal aspect to his spiritual make-up which was the source of much of his power, and which manifested as an inverted pentagram on his chest or could cause him to take on a more demonic appearance. Apparently, the ankh given to him by his mother could mediate the effects of his father’s heritage, as he struggled against his own dark nature.
In the process of achieving self-knowledge, Daimon’s studies led him to become an accomplished demonologist, occultist, and exorcist. After several more battles with his father and his agent Baphomet, Hellstrom merged fully with his Darksoul and came into full understanding and possession of his formidable power.
Defender of Earth
Eventually, the Son of Satan joined the Defenders, fighting such foes as the demonic sorcerer Asmodeus, the Sons Of The Serpent, and Nebulon. Amidst a prolonged battle against a league of powerful demonic entities known as the Six Fingered Hand, Daimon Hellstrom was instrumental in freeing Hellcat and Gargoyle from the domination of their demonic masters, and they too joined the Defenders. To prevent the Six Fingered Hand from merging the dimensions of Hell and Earth, the Son of Satan was forced to agree to return to Hell to study under his father there, though he later returned to Earth and was once again a mainstay of the Defenders for some time.
At some point Daimon began calling himself Hellstorm, fighting alongside the Defenders and other heroes, until he fell victim to the machinations of the Miracle Man, who managed to wrest from him his Darksoul and place it into the Hellfire Serpent. Daimon was largely disempowered by this act, and after marrying Patsy Walker (aka Hellcat), the two became paranormal investigators. Meanwhile, his Darksoul was used to empower another demon/human hybrid – Mikal Dragonmegas – in another infernal power struggle. It soon became apparent that Hellstrom would die without the Darksoul, causing Hellcat to summon Satan to Daimon’s aid. Though the Darksoul was restored to Hellstorm, Hellcat was temporarily driven mad by seeing Daimon’s true spiritual aspect, reminiscent of the fate of Daimon’s mother.
Hellfire and Beyond
After learning the True Name of his father, Marduk Kurios, Hellstrom was empowered by this knowledge sufficiently to use it against Satan and defeat him in his own realm. Thus, the Black Halo passed to him and he replaced his father as a Lord of Hell. Subsequent to a conflict with Blackheart, Daimon also became the White King of the Hellfire Club. Yet in this case he was more of a prisoner to Selene who was leader of the Hellfire club at the time. He was later freed from them by the Fantastic Four during a party at the Hellfire Club. As of recently he was attacked by the Hood in which both would be up for Doctor Strange’s title as Sorcerer Supreme. He now is on a mission to find a human-breed Anton Satan which is a version of the anti-Christ which would be his half-brother. Daimon found him and is now teaming-up with Johnny Blaze, The new caretaker Sara, Danny Ketch, and former love interest Jaine Cutter to put a stop to Zadkiel.
Marvel Zombies 4
Also, as of right now, he is the newest member of the Midnight Sons fighting along side Morbius, Jennifer Kale, and Werewolf against a zombie infected men-fish threat on a cruise liner. He is the one member of the team that Morbius is unsure of because of his attitude and methods. An example of this is when he destroyed the cruise liner killing all of the men-fish but not considering if there were any human survivors left on the ship. He would then get into a fight with both the Hood again. This time accompanied by the Night Shift.
After being wounded by Needle by getting stabbed in the heart, he healed his wounds and attacked Tatterdemalion. He later takes refuge with the Midnight Sons escaping a zombie infected storm cloud. Later on, the zombie version of the Night Shift attack the Midnight Sons and fends them off. Hellstrom engages Jennifer Kale, who is possessed by Dormammu, fiery Lord of the Dark Dimension.
He is mocked by him when Dormammu takes form of his former wife (Hellcat) but manages to exorcise Dormammu from kale’s body and back to his dimension, with the freed Kale in turn managing to contain the zombie virus within Simon Garth’s corpse with the aid of the Black Talon’s Voodoo spells.
Shattered Heroes
In the wake of the war between The Serpent and the Asgardian gods, several childern were caught in coma like dream state. Daimon was traveling the world exorcising the demons spirtes inside them but one night in Krakow, Poland, he was too late and a small girl died. This caused Daimon to consult the demons he had already exersised to tell him who was at the heart of it all. They all pointed to Broxton, OK. This is where Daimon finds Loki, who has come back from the dead as a young boy, among the rubble of Dark Asgard. Not knowing that Loki, was innocence of causing the children’s coma states, Daimon attacks. Loki has lost his magical powers, due to his former self, and Leah comes to Loki’s aid. She is able to convince Daimon that though Loki seems evil he is not anymore.
Daimon listens to Loki tell him about how he himself was effected by the nightmare state and that they should team-up to combat who ever is doing this to the children. Daimon prepares a spell that take him and Loki into Loki’s nightmare, but they get separated.
Daimon dreams about a bar where his glass is empty and the bar tender won’t stop talking so he can order an other. Loki learns that Nightmare is behind the death of the child in Poland. He is taking the Fear Stuff left by The Serpent, and if he takes it quickly the child dies. And now that he learned he can take it Nightmare will kill the rest of the children to get the power faster.
Daimon, Loki and Leah sent off around the world stopping Nightmare before any more kids die. Then is Singapore, while fighting Nightmare, it appears that Loki betrays Daimon and gives Nightmare, Loki’s own Fear Stuff, making Nightmare more powerful. Loki explains to Daimon it was merely a distraction so that Daimon can save the other kids with out Nightmare there.
Daimon then goes and saves the rest of the kids with out another fatality, but he is still untrusting of Loki, even after he learns that Loki later told the Fear Lords about Nightmare’s plan and they strip him of his power. He leaves Loki with a warning that if anything goes wrong he will be back for Loki’s head. Some months later, Daimon is once again asked for by the Asgardians. This time to help stop another kind of evil, the New Gods of Manchester, witch threatens to take over Otherworld.
Powers
Even before becoming a Lord of Hell, Hellstorm possessed a vast degree and array of mystical powers, drawn from his half-demonic heritage, his Darksoul, and the Netheranium trident stolen from his father. He has the strength of a hundred men and is more durable than the average human, and he can use mystic energy to augment these attributes greatly. He commands both earthly fire and soul fire, which can be used as a force blast and to harm an entity’s spirit. He uses the trident to channel this energy, as well as to blast it behind him to enable him to fly. He has an impressive variety of spell-like powers. By inter-dimensional travel through Hell, he can affect teleportation of himself and others.
He has shown an impressive though seldom used power over time; at least once traveling into ancient history, and on another occasion manipulating temporal flow to manifest sunlight when battling a vampire. He can also sense occult energies, heal himself and others, and âtear’ thoughts from the minds of others.
Since becoming a Lord of Hell, he is conceivably as powerful in his own realm as such beings as Mephisto, Satannish, or Thog.
Alternate Realities
Ultimate Universe (Earth-1610)
He is with the super-group the Defenders. a group of wannabe superheroes with no apparent powers save for Giant Man. He was put there by SHIELD to spy on the members, especially to Giant Man.
Other Media
At New York ComiCon in October 2012, it was confirmed Hellstorm would be added as a playable character in playdom’s Final Fantasy/Pokemon styled turn based RPG Marvel Avengers Alliance. This is Hellstorm’s first and thus far only appearance in a video game.
Television
Helstrom (2020)
Hellstorm appears in the 2020 Hulu original live action show Helstrom as a main protagonist alongside his sister Satana. This version of the character is drastically different to his comic counterpart, primarily going by his real name, Daimon.
Hellstorm is played by the English actor Tom Austen.