Jackie Estacado

Origin

Like all male members of his lineage, Jackie’s father, Danny Estacado, was the wielder of The Darkness power before Jackie. The Darkness is passed on from father to son at the moment of conception, killing the father instantly. Despite this fatal drawback, the Darkness allows the wielder to create anything they imagine as long as they are not exposed to light. Danny was a hitman who used the Darkness power to make a name for himself in the criminal underworld. He used the Darkness power for personal gain, and wielded the power he possessed to kill his enemies in savage and brutal ways. When Danny impregnated a prostitute the Darkness was transferred along with his seed to his son Jackie. Sometime after initial conception Danny died in an alley as he terrorized some gangsters. After the darkness left him the gangsters opened fire on his body leaving him a mangled mess.

Creation

Sonatine first appeared in the first issue of the Darkness published by Top Cow. He was created by Marc Silvestri, Garth Ennis and David Wohl.

Character Evolution

Shortly after being born, Jackie was enrolled in Saint Gerald’s orphanage. He was enrolled on the same hour of the same day as another orphan, Jenny. Jenny’s mother died when she was two months old due to a batch of bad heroin. Jackie developed a sibling-like fondness for Jenny, believing that she was the only good thing in his life. Growing up in Saint Gerald’s was brutal for the orphans. The monks would frequently beat the children in their care.

Acting as Jenny’s protector, Jackie would violently attack anyone that laid a hand on her, hospitalizing anyone including the monks when they hurt her. One day Frank Franchetti, an on-the-rise mob boss came to saint Gerald’s to take Jackie away claiming to be his uncle by marriage. Jackie wanted him to take Jenny as well, but Franchetti refused. Jackie promised Jenny to continue looking in on her, a promise that he stayed true to. Growing up under Franchetti’s wing, Jackie was able to nurture his darker side. Making his first kill for Frank at the age of 16, Jackie became a hit-man for The Franchetti Family.

Jackie was ruthless, knowing exactly who to hit and how hard to hit them to get the job done. Jackie would live his life in the fast lane, indulging himself with expensive clothes, fast cars, and beautiful women. Despite his lifestyle, Jackie continued to look in on Jenny, acting as her protector until she was old enough to leave. After she left, Jackie provided Jenny with a job as a bartender at a club he frequented and continued to provide her protection and assistance. Over the years Jackie continued to feel for Jenny as a sort of younger sister, completely oblivious to the love an affection she harbored for him.

Major Story Arcs

The Beginning

At midnight on his 21st birthday Jackie’s powers first manifested. Jackie was in his bedroom when he began hearing a voice in his head, hinting at his potential and urging him to let the darkness inside himself out. As the darkness began to well from within Jackie’s body, a heavily armed team burst into Jackie’s apartment telling him that they were there to help him by getting him out. Before they could evacuate Jackie a group of six glowing, winged warriors showed up and began battling the others. While blood was being spilled around him, the voice inside Jackie urged him to let it out, telling Jackie that he could create anything that he imagined. As a black aura surrounded Jackie, demon-like creatures poured out from around him and destroyed both groups of unknown assailants.

As one of them lay dying he told Jackie that he needed to get to Liberty. As Jackie stood up he was greeted by a rival hit-man that told him his uncle was already hit by the Marchianni family. Jackie used his new found powers to slay his would be killer, and then went off to take out the head of the Marchianni family as well. The next day Jackie woke up in the dumpster behind the club that Jenny worked at. As Jenny helped Jackie regain his footing the memories of the previous night came flooding back, including one word in particular, “Liberty.” Knowing of only one liberty, the Statue of Liberty, Jackie set out to Ellis Island to see if he could figure out what was happening.

It was there he met with a magician named Sonatine. Sonatine explained to Jackie that he was the leader of a group called the Brotherhood of the Darkness, a cult that followed the Darkness Power. He explained that the Brotherhood of the Darkness was formed centuries ago by Miguel Estacado, a prior wielder of the Darkness. Miguel envisioned of a world where he ruled using the Darkness power. He formed the Brotherhood out of his followers to rule under him. It was here that Jackie would also learn of the two powers linked to the Darkness, the Witchblade and the Angelus. While the Witchblade was a warriors weapon, the Angelus was the opposite of the Darkness, a power based of light.

Choosing to be no one’s pawn, Jackie used his new powers to leave the island. Knowing that the small fraction of the Darkness that Sonatine wields was no match for the full power of the Darkness Jackie was allowed to leave. Jackie would go on to do his favorite nighttime activity–pick up a woman at the club. This woman turned out to be one of the Angelus’ warriors in mortal form meant to seduce Jackie. Angelus planned to allow Jackie to die when he conceived his new child, and then kill the new host of the Darkness, ending the lineage of the Darkness permanently. Sonatine was able to stop Jackie before he made a fatal mistake, and Jackie killed the warrior sent by the Angelus. In order to get Jackie to cooperate, Sonatine had also taken Jenny hostage. With Jenny as leverage, Sonatine convinced Jackie to come with him in order to gain a better understanding of the powers which he possessed. Sonatine took Jackie out into the country during the middle of the day, to a place where Jackie would not have access to his powers. Jackie was enraged at the trickery, but had little time to react as Angelus showed up with several of her warriors.

Angelus had been keeping tabs on Sonatine, and watched him play Jackie right into her hands to a place where he was powerless to stop her from destroying him. Jackie grabbed a gun from one of Sonatine’s henchmen and asked whether she was bulletproof. Sonatine replied that her warriors would be unharmed by gunfire, and Angelus herself even more protected, however the warrior closest to her appeared mortal and was most likely her companion or confidant. Jackie fired upon her, clipping her wings and bringing her down. With a knife at the fallen angel’s throat Jackie and Sonatine were able to get back into the limo with their new hostage and make a hasty retreat for Liberty.

Not wanting to see her most beautiful creation harmed, Angelus allowed them to escape for fear of any harm coming to her lover. Now that Sonatine had the leverage he needed to remain protected from Angelus, Jackie convinced him to give him twenty-four hours to set his affairs in order and afterward he would do whatever they wanted in order to create their new world. Sonatine reluctantly agreed, allowing Jackie to go. First Jackie sought out the Eastwoods, a pair of hit-men who had been revealed to have made the attempt on Uncle Frankie. He tortured information out of the Eastwoods before killing them, and then killed Vinnie an member of Frank’s crew who was responsible for setting up the hit. After Vinnie was killed Frank came out of the coma he had slipped into.

Knowing for the first time in his life that what Frank had told him about his parents was a lie, Jackie asked his Uncle who his father really was. For the first time Frank came clean explaining that he was not actually related to Jackie by marriage. He said that Jackie’s father, Danny, was well known in the criminal underworld. He explained to Jackie that Danny’s particular brand of ruthlessness and pension for leaving his hits more than simply dead. It was for this reason that Frank had not done business with Danny. It was after Danny’s death that on his balcony that Frank was approached by a strange man that Jackie realized fit Sonatine’s description. Sonatine explained to Frank that Danny had a son located at the orphanage, and that if Sonatine were to bring Jackie into their crew he would mean big things for Frank. Frank would not see Sonatine again, however Jackie’s involvement pushed Frank into a position of importance.

Meanwhile Angelus, insane with rage, sent all of her warriors out over the city to destroy Jackie and reclaim her love, who had just escaped her prison on Liberty. She contacted Angelus mentally, and attempted to head to shore. Receiving a call from Sonatine Jackie was able to head her off at the docks. Seeing Jackie she turned around and attempted to fly away but her wings were too wet. She plummeted into the water and was drawn into the propeller of a nearby boat, killing her. Angelus arrived to find her love dead, and Jackie standing on the docks. She battled Jackie, but was pushed back and retreated, swearing threats on Jackie’s life.

Jackie told Sonatine’s henchman Wenders what had transpired who shouted at Jackie up upon hearing the news. His rant gave Jackie an idea, and Jackie created a sentient creature from the Darkness he called Darkus, and told Wenders that the foul-mouthed imp would take up residence in the darkness of his pants. There Darkus would remain safe from the light, and through a connection to Jackie would reveal exactly what Wenders would do and say. He warned Wenders if he didn’t follow Jackie’s instructions precisely that he would know, and he would have Darkus take a bite. When Jackie was finished it was twilight. Angelus was perched on the top of a building and Jackie approached her from the shadows. When she tried to attack Jackie revealed that he was not actually there, but was only learning to control his power better creating a construct of himself with which to talk to her. He invited her to finally end the war between Darkness and light at the foot of the Statue of Liberty.

He had instructed Wenders to inform Sonatine that they would all meet that morning too, and that Jenny was to be present, but did not inform either of his intention to invite Angelus.

The following morning Jackie met with the Brotherhood of the Darkness at the foot of Liberty. Sonatine believed Jackie to be completely powerless in the morning light, but Jackie informed him that he brought company as Angelus arrived. Angelus also believed Jackie to be at a disadvantage, and both groups were taken by surprise as Wenders apologetically hurled a smoke grenade at Jackie and Angelus giving Jackie enough cover from the daylight to pull Angelus into the darkness of the Brotherhood’s lair below liberty. Here Angelus spent all of her remaining power trying to destroy Jackie. Jackie knew his power wouldn’t be able to match Angelus’ power and experience, but as his power was rooted in darkness and the Angelus power was rooted in light he assumed that without contact with the light for a long enough period Angelus’ power would fade. Losing energy, Angelus rotted away before Jackie’s feet. A bird of flame rose out of the ashes and flew out of the island into the city, possibly to its new host. Sonatine had escaped, but Jackie was safe for now, and he had Jenny.

The next morning Jackie had to watch as Jenny boarded a train headed away from the city. She knew that she could never be with Jackie in the way she truly desired, and that with his new power he would be lost to her in a world she did not want to be a part of. Jackie could only stand and watch as what he perceived as the only good thing in his life departed.

Family Ties

A war between the mafia and the yakuza spills onto the streets of NYC with Jackie being at the center of it. After assassinating a prominent oyabun, the yakuza sends the murderer, Tora No Shi to retaliate against Jackie. They attack him at his apartment just before Detective Sara Pezzini is about to question him regarding the war. Jackie manages to subdue and steal a motorcycle from one of the attackers, and then encounters Tora just after crossing over to the New Jersey side of the Holland Tunnel. Because the attack was during the day time, Jackie does not have access to the powers of the Darkness. Even without the Darkness, a tired and fatigued Jackie is able to fight to a standstill with Tora No Shi before the Mafia arrive to help him capture Tora. Jackie asks his Uncle to eliminate Tora, but his uncle responds by telling him that Tora is worth more alive then dead.

Tora betrays the yakuza and goes to work for the mafia who send him to the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art to kidnap the Setsuke, the daughter of the top oyabun in New York. In order to stop the war and gain revenge, Jackie waits until Tora thinks of himself the “star of the show” before arriving with the Darkness to confront the Tiger of Death. Tora becomes fearful before being shredded torn to shreds by the Darklings. Jackie finishes off the murderer by grabbing him by the throat.

Appolonia

From here certain events take place, one notably is the coming home of Uncle Paulie‘s daughter and Jackie’s half-sister Appolonia. At the same time Wenders comes to the door of Jackie telling him he might have a solution for the little sex problem, he tells Jackie he can’t have sex because of the possibility he might conceive a child. However, he does not have that problem if he were to have sex with a man and offers himself. Disgusted by the idea Jackie tosses Wenders out the window into a garbage container, from there he’s picked up by one of Appolonia’s henchmen and brought to her place.

After this little ‘encounter’ Jackie meets up with his half-sister and notices there’s still a lot of resentment between them, she demonstrates her hatred for him when she kills her own cat, which she raised from birth, in front of his eyes just to send a message to Jackie. From there on, Appolonia with the help of a master torturer questions Wenders, and after a lot of torturing he finally tells her all he knows about the Darkness and the Angelus. Interested by this information she seeks the help of the Angelus force for herself. But not before she is approached by a dark man who offers his help to her, Sonatine.

Franchetti organizes a banquet for Jackie and Appolonia and her mother to enjoy. But it is rudely interrupted by Sonatine who plunges a dagger into Franchetti‘s hand and knocks him unconscious. Jackie is outraged and summons the Darkness to kill him but is sucker punched by Appolonia and is knocked out. Appolonia explains her actions, she did it because she wanted revenge on her father for what he did to her mother. It seemed he tortured her mothers lover when she cheated and made her watch which made her lose her mind, as a vegetable sort of speak. When Jackie wakes up he’s in a room filled with sunlight and gets tortured till sunset where he gets to escape thanks to Wenders closing the curtains. In the meantime Sonatine summoned the Angelus force for Appolonia, however the Angelus force didn’t choose her for a new host but her mother. While hugging her mother, she gets to endure tremendous pain because her mother hasn’t learned to fully control the Angelus force yet. She herself becomes a vegetable now. This enrages the mother and flies out of the mansion, only to return in a few hours to take revenge on Jackie.

In the meantime Jackie sends everyone out of the mansion including Franchetti with the only explanation that he has to do it by himself. Jackie takes on the Angelus force and makes a doppelganger of himself which Angelus kills. Thinking she had defeated Jackie she leaves the battlefield.

The Magdalena

We see the Magdalena getting briefed on her first assignment by Cardinal Innocent. He gives her the Spear of Destiny, one of the 13 artifacts, and gives her the name of the person she must kill. In the meantime we see Jackie visiting Appolonia in the hospital with Franchetti, however she does not seem to be in the right state of mind, better said, no mind at all. When Jackie goes back into his apartment, he is sneak attacked and knocked back against the wall by the Magdalena. She keeps hitting him but the only thing she says is ‘The power of Christ compels you’ to which Jackie responds ‘yeah blah blah blah..’. In the meantime Cardinal Innocent builds up a friendly relationship with his underling Jasper, saying that he’s chosen to take responsibility for a task he’s going to do. Jackie and the Magdalena are still fighting however and Jackie breaks the Spear of Destiny, something the Magdalena had never thought was possible. The fight is taken through the city to a department store where eventually the police comes in to apprehend the two. Jackie disposes of them but when he turns his head the Magdalena is gone. When the church finds out the Magdalena was send out against Jackie while she wasn’t ready yet they immediately call for Cardinal Innocent, he blames Jasper and unknowingly takes the blame for his trust in Cardinal Innocent.

It seems Cardinal Innocent hoped the Magdalena would die for his own profit. The Magdalena however had escaped her first encounter with Jackie and was now hiding in the church where she was awaited by the sisters of the order of the Magdalena. They helped her learn a new power, Jackie learned of her whereabouts however and busted into the church. Magdalena uses her new found powers on Jackie, a power that shows him all the sins of his life. However the glow coming from her hand with this power also created shadow, Jackie managed to resist the power and attacked her with his Darkness powers saying ‘Where there’s light, there’s shadow, and where there’s there will always be Darkness’. After this, he quickly disposed of them and nailed them to the cross. The tip of the Spear of Destiny however, somehow managed by a strange twist of circumstances to make it’s way under Appolonia’s pillow in the hospital and glowed up blue.

The Hit

Jackie is attacked by several hit men during the day, most of which he never met before, even in his own house he isn’t safe but each time he managed to survive the attack on his life. After these attacks on his life he listens to his answering machine, his uncle’s voice is coming through the speaker telling he has to pick up Nicoletta from the airport. Jackie’s niece. When he steps out of his apartment he’s attacked again, he interrogates one of his attackers who tells him there’s a hit out for him but only this day. He decides to take him with him as hostage, but the hostage warns him not to get into his car because it’s wired to blow.

After this Jackie buys a car of a pizza delivery boy and stuffs his hostage in the back of the back with a couple of Darklings to keep him quiet. When he drives to the airport he has a flashback, Nicoletta used to be a girl which braces and glasses, a bit nerdy but she always had a crush on Jackie. However, her father, Cristo, was one of the hitman working for Frankie. But when his wife told on the family he was forced to kill her. His daughter Nicoletta however never found out.

When he picks up Nicoletta from the airport however, he finds out that she has grown up in more ways then one. She is now a beautiful young woman but still with a crush for Jackie. However Jackie was told by Frankie not to start anything with her so he didn’t. He takes her to the hotel and continues on his way to questions the guy in the trunk of his car. He tells him the hit went out from a guy in Club Ecstasy. Jackie immediately goes there and after some gun fighting and an explosion he found out that the woman who put a on him lives in the penthouse suit in the Plaza Hotel, the place where he dropped of Nicoletta. When a gunman puts a gun to Jackie’s head it’s Cristo who saves his life and tells him he has to save his daughter Nicoletta. Jackie promised him he would get her back and goes on his way to the hotel. When he gets there he finds out that the woman who put a price on his head is really his grandmother, Adrienne Estacado. She was shot while being pregnant of his father, if he she died the lineage would stop but the Darkness wouldn’t let her die and transferred a little bit of Darkness power to her. She wanted Jackie dead on this specific day so she would get his Darkness powers, however, he survived and was no use to her no. She would wait until next year to try it again.

Jackie tried to use his powers on her but it wouldn’t attack her because she had a little bit of Darkness in her, so he decide to shoot her. But she healed from the shot wound in her head in mere seconds. Then she showed Nicoletta in her helicopter, if Jackie wouldn’t let her go, Nicoletta would die. Jackie let her go, when they were in the air Nicoletta was tossed out of the helicopter and Jackie jumped after he to save her. He managed to save her by growing wings with the Darkness powers and send Nicoletta home. But his grandmother escaped.

Town of Wyrmwood

We see Jenny on the run for what seems to be Darklings in the city of Wyrmwood, she manages to stay out of their hand and call Jackie, but all she gets is his answering machine. She leaves a message saying that she’s in the town of Wyrmwood and she needs Jackie’s help. Jackie is talking with Frankie about a major overhaul in the organization, when Jackie returns to his apartment from his meeting with Frankie he listens to the message from Jackie. Outraged by the thought of someone hurting Jenny he contacts Butcher for help on the location of the town of Wyrmwood, it shows on none of the maps, Butcher tells him it’s basically a legend and if he really wants to know that he should contact Mandolin, a strange man but with great knowledge about the supernatural. Jackie saves him from two corrupt cops and goes to city of Wyrmwood with him. When he finally entered Wyrmwood he was greeted by zombies holding Jenny hostage.

It would appear that Jackie’s forefather Antonio Estacado destroyed the entire city and its residents. But he didn’t have the Darkness power fully under control and a bit of it was left behind. Causing the residents to turn into zombies. Now they wanted Jackie to set them free so they could remake the world Wyrmwood’s image. Jackie didn’t agree to it of course and knew this city was made from Darkness. With his fullest concentration he sucked the entire city into his body with all its residents. After which Jenny said goodbye to Jackie once more as she still needed to figure out her own path in life, but not without kissing Jackie goodbye, after which he felt like he could take on the world.

First Born

The story starts with Butcher torturing a member of the Armenian family who are trying to take over the Franchetti district. Jackie appears from the shadows and tries to ‘convince’ him to tell him where the rest of the Armenians are. However, the Angelus warriors suddenly bursts in and tells him that trying to tip the balance in his favour won’t work and attempts to kill Jackie. The Angelus is not with them because she’s still searching for a new host after her latest defeat which she finds in the form of Celestine. Jackie manages to escape the attack from the Angelus Warriors by taking one of them hostage and escaping through a ‘crawlspace’ and shows up later at Sara Pezzini‘s apartment waiting in the shadows for her to come home. When she finally does, he has some concerning news for her, namely ‘I don’t know that I’m exactly your type Sara.. But I’m pretty sure I’m the father of your baby’.

In the meantime we see Dani (bearer of the Witchblade) flying towards Sara’s apartment to warn her that the Angelus is coming, however she was being followed by the Angelus. Jackie explains to Sara how he knows this, he ‘persuaded’ the Angelus warrior he kidnapped to tell him everything. It seemed that The Darkness had taken control of Jackie, without him ever knowing, and had sex with Sara when she was in the hospital. It seemed that if the Darkness used Jackie to father a child he wouldn’t die. The Darkness apparently hoped that by creating a child with the bearer of the balance (Witchblade), it would produce a pawn powerful enough to finally eradicate the Angelus for good. So the Angelus is now after them to take the child for herself.

At that time Dani comes crashing through the window, warning them that the Angelus is coming who attacks just seconds after Dani came crashing through. A fight breaks out, while Dani and Jackie are fighting the Angelus and her warriors, Detective Gleason and Sara make their way to safety. Sara makes a call to someone while on the run, but they are quickly stopped by an Angelus warrior whom stabs Gleason in the chest. Sara quickly disposes of the Angelus warrior by shooting her in the mouth with a gun and make their way out of the building where they now watch the Darkness and Angelus. Jackie has transformed into a huge dragon like beast with Dani riding on top of him. They temporarily dispose of the Angelus, but have to leave Gleason behind while Jackie takes the rest to a hiding place.

They go to a cave far under New Jersey where Jackie explains to Dani and Sara that this used to be a sacred site for the Indians, but is now used as a safe house for the Franchetti family where Jackie himself hid for a long time. They immediately bring Sara into the house because she’s going into labor. But are quickly spooked by someone approaching them from the stairs, however it’s a false alarm as it’s an old acquaintance, namely the Magdalena who came to help them. That’s who Sara called earlier.

While they prepare everything for the birth of the child an Angelus warrior suddenly comes crashing through the window which is quickly disposed of by Jackie. Outside of the house all Angelus warriors are circling around the house, Jackie decides to attack them with the help of the Magdalena, while Dani helps Sara give birth to the child. Suddenly a huge dark sea monster with Jackie riding it pops up from the water surrounding the house and kills one of the Angelus warriors. This is just the first attack as now the battle truly began, Jackie fought several Angelus warriors outside while the Magdalena fought some inside the house but both were overrun and defeated. In the meantime Sara gave birth to her daughter but seemingly died while giving birth to her. While Dani touches Sara’s hand the Witchblade begins to glow and separates between Sara and Dani, now both wielding a half. Just as the Angelus is about to kill Jackie, Sara comes out with Dani holding her baby in her arms in full Witchblade armor and fights the Angelus warrior. However, Sara is quickly defeated by the Angelus and took her baby. With Angelus holding the baby, some sort of chain reaction happens as a large sort of explosion happens which only seemed to affect the Angelus and her warriors. They were all gone, and the Angelus slowly withered away. When they finally get out of the cave all danger is gone and now Jackie holds his daughter for the first time, they decide on a name together for the baby, Hope.

Jackie and Sara share one last kiss together and then Jackie takes off, as there’s now nothing left of his organization. We see Gleason and Sara in the hospital, whom apparently survived the stab in his chest, and the last thing we see of Jackie is him getting on a plane somewhere.

Accursed

With the events of First Born behind him, Jackie quickly established a drug cartel in Sierra Muñoz thanks to the help of Professor Kirchner. With Nightfall, a narcotic made from the Darkness itself, Jackie took control of the small tropical republic, built himself an impenetrable fortress, an army and eventually, even a lover he calls ‘Elle’. But the residents rebelled performing various acts of guerrilla warfare to liberate themselves and in doing so found an ally – The United States. Jackie went to fight the US Army head on until Kirchner betrays him losing control of his power with his darklings turning on him.

Left for dead, Jackie made a deal with the local rebels agreeing to rid the island of the drug. He then learned that Elle is pregnant with his baby. The infant was the incarnation of the Darkness’ consciousness longing to break free from its host. Now fully independent, it killed Elle and Kirchner upon birth and attacked its father with the fight reaching the Earth’s atmosphere. Unfortunately, dawn was breaking and the creature dissolve into nothingness as it was completely made of Darkness. Unfortunately, with the sun rising Jackie was unable to access his powers crashed to Earth and was broken so to speak.

Weakened after the fight with his offspring, Jackie was only able to draw just enough strength to keep himself alive through a number of fights while trying to stay alive as he makes his way back to the United States. At one point, he was abducted by Aphrodite IX and was taken to a being known as The Sovereign, who was a being capable of inhabiting any statue bearing his likeness. The Sovereign revealed that Jackie died fighting his son, separating his soul from his body thus leaving him in such a weakened state.

The Sovereign gave Jackie an offer he can’t refuse: reuniting his soul for some leg work. Jackie was sent on to missions to collect from demons that owe the Sovereign in one way or another. After dispatching a lovely woman wearing a red scarf, he met an old man claiming that he was once wielded the Darkness. Calling himself the “Foreigner,” the old man explained that along with his soul, the power of the Darkness was still completely within him, only held back by his own wish to be without it.

Through a series of insults and physical attacks, Jackie once more drew on the full power of the Darkness, claiming to be sick of people who tried to mess with him. Together with the always talkative darklings, he stated his desire to return home. Jackie then attacked the building where the Sovereign held his base, leaving only one man behind going so far as offering him a job. He then then assembled a rag-tag group of professionals for one sole mission: to destroy all the statues of the Sovereign. The mission took around the world, even hijacking the statue that it stored in Fort Knox. Until two of his people turned on him. Eventually they were able to destroy the last remaining statue of the Sovereign but at the cost of Kim, the first man he hired.

Now that the Sovereign’s influence has been eliminated, Jackie and the rest of the crew paid their respects for their fallen comrade. Mysteriously, it is revealed that a person in Darkness armor whose faced is faded in black is wrecking havoc in the streets until he was saved by an unknown benefactor stating that he can reunite him with the others and back with the Darkness.

Jackie is now left with nothing to do and now keeps a routine to be amused, he was then approached by the Foreigner telling him that he is again in danger and that the Darkness is now looking for a new host some way, somehow and that his attitude to make everyone his enemy is blinding him from the real enemy which is the Darkness itself. All the while, unbeknownst to Jackie a number of Hitmen were hired to kill him and again an unknown benefactor has been saving him until one got past through.

Broken Trinity

In the start of the arc, it was revealed that Jackie hire a man named Michael Finnegan to keep tabs on his daughter Hope while he was away in Sierra Muñoz. Jackie having survived the against his offspring, he made it back to New York to see his daughter and was caught in the middle of the the fight with the current wielder of Glacier Stone and Ember Stone finally revealing the 13 Artifacts.

Artifacts

Detective Patrick Gleason , Sara Pezzini’s boyfriend, contacts Jackie about a emergency involving Hope, Jackie’s daughter. that that Hope’sHe is informed Angelus Warrior and Darkling guardians failed, Julie Pezzini was killed, and Hope was kidnapped; Jackie rushes to the scene. Sara and Danielle Baptiste, bearer of the Angelus, are already there. Then Tom Judge, bearer of the Rapture, appears explaining that someone took him out of Hell and the Curator warned him about an event that involves the The 13 Artifacts. At the group relocates to a church, where Tom explains further detail about an event involving Hope and the other Artifact bearers, and how this event can end the world.

Then Tilly Grimes, a friend of Toms, walks in saying “saving the world and saving Hope are the same thing” and that they need more help. Jackie and Sara leave inlist Abigail van Alstine, the Necromancer and bearer of the The Heart Stone. The three of them teleport back to church were they find Patience, The Magdalena and bearer of The Spear of Destiny has arrived. After everyone is calmed and introduced Tilly Grimes explains that they need to find the thirteenth Artifact bearer.

Afterwards Sara, Dani, and Jackie the Curator’s store to find more information. Sara and Dani enter while Jackie takes a phone call from Michael Finnegan, bearer of the Glacier Stone and The Blood Sword. Finn tells Jackie that the Blood sword has been stolen, right then the Curator’s building explodes. Jackie, digging in the rumble, finds Sara and Dani in a Witchblade made cocoon that protected from the blast. Sara tells Jackie the Curator said “there is no hope” and Jackie tells them the Blood Sword was taken from Finn. Sara and Jackie agree after reporting back to Tom Judge that they soley will focus on finding Hope.

Back at the church, Aphrodite IV appears and with the aid of Cyberforce attacks the Artifact bearers. The battle ends after Aphrodite is taken down. Cyberforce explains that they were manipulated by Aphrodite IV, and Sara explains the situation to them. Aphrodite reboots and attacks everyone with the power of the Coin of Solomon. Sara attacks her and rips the Coin of Solomon from Aphrodite’s chest.

Personality

Even from his early childhood, Jackie was very violent, ruthless, intelligent, and brave. Despite this, he has a strict set of noble (even heroic) morals and a fierce loyalty to those that earn it. He has matured somewhat over the span of his adult life and his experiences with The Darkness, though his core personality still remains the same.

He truly loved Jenny and was very caring and protective of her, often jumping onto and badlly hurting anyone who abused her at the orphanage, no matter how long it took him. After he was recruited into the mob, he was able to nourish his dark side; developing a taste for fast Italian cars, money, nice white business suits, Italian food and culture, as well as killing.

He was also very prideful, sociopathic, sadistic, and insecure; willing to kill people simply for insulting him or making comments that revealed his true nature to him. Overall, Jackie Estacado is thought to be a murderous bastard to the eyes of his enemies, but the most loyal, caring, and defending man to the ones that earn his full trust. If it is one thing Jackie does not tolerate, it is his loved ones being harmed.

Powers

Jackie is highly intelligent and is a ruthless killer. His life before 21 consisted of being Frankie “Kill the Children too” Franchetti’s top hit-man. Because of this he is a skilled fighter, is experienced with a variety of weapons, and is an expert marksman. Jackie’s upbringing by the mob was hand selected by the Brotherhood of the Darkness to make him an ideal weapon for wielding the Darkness power. As wielder of the Darkness, Jackie possesses a number of supernatural abilities. The Darkness power allows the wielder to create anything they desire. This includes everything from solid constructs such as armor and weaponry to living, sentient beings controlled by the Darkness. One of the most common manifestations of the darkness includes darkness armor around Jackie as well as demon-like creatures to do his bidding. Jackie’s armor has proven extremely durable, enabling him to take high-powered weapon fire as well as blows from super-powered beings. Jackie has also shown the ability to create more advanced creatures such as larger dark monsters as well as dragons that he may ride and control during battle.

The Darkness also enhances Jackie’s strength, allowing him the ability to even go toe to toe with powerhouses like Superman, even damaging the near invulnerable Kryptonian. It’s also shown that while using the Darkness, Jackie can in fact completely remove the top fixture of a tank and then easily cast it aside, with apparently minimal effort. Although the upper limits of his strength cannot be determined, he is at least strong enough to damage the man of steel and rip the skeleton from a human being with little to no effort.

The Darkness also greatly increases his speed; allowing him to move across great distances in little time at all. For example, Jackie’s in the line of sights of a Sniper rifle and within moments, he has disappeared and re-appeared behind the sniper themselves.

A primary weakness of the Darkness is that it only functions in the absence of light. When light hits anything created of the Darkness it vanishes, and Jackie cannot access his power in the light. This leaves Jackie particularly vulnerable to attack during the day. Although, recently, it has been shown that light no longer affects him like it used to. For example, a phosphorous grenade is cast into the air and spreads the immediate room in bright light, resulting in the killing of Jackie’s Darklings but not the removal of his Darkness armour as he states “they’re too weak for that light and he’s too strong for it”.

Jackie, and all wielders of the Darkness, pass on the Darkness to their heirs through sex. Upon the conception of their child they die, so males in Jackie’s family generally die during intercourse. This is quite the burden on Jackie, who lost his virginity at 16 to a female police officer on the interrogation desk. He had also spent his life since then blazing a trail of sleepless nights and womanizing.

However, the rules to reproduction can be altered; for example, the Darkness can take control of Jackie and use him as a puppet to ultimately impregnate whoever it chooses. That means it’s Jackie’s kid, but it doesn’t kill him and the Darkness does not move on a generation.

Characteristics

• Height: 6’1”
• Weight: 195 lbs
• Eyes: Brown
• Hair: Black

Other Media

Video Game

The Darkness

“I remember the night of my 21st birthday, That was the first time I died.”

On the eve of his 21st birthday, Jackie was targeted for assassination by the don of the New York mafia, “Uncle” Paulie Franchetti following a failed task to retrieve money for the latter. While hiding in a cemetery bathroom, the Darkness, an ancient force that has inhabited his family for several generations, awakens within Jackie and slaughters the remaining mobsters, with the benefit of Jackie becoming the possessor of seemingly unholy demonic abilities that feed off the dark. Using these powers, Jackie is able to survive further assassination attempts and track down Paulie, but not before Paulie and the corrupt police chief, Eddie Shrote, kidnap Jackie’s girlfriend, Jenny Romano. They took her to the orphanage where Jackie and Jenny grew up, and murdered her in front of a powerless Jackie, unable to save Jenny due to the Darkness deliberately restraining him. He commits suicide out of sheer emotional stress, finding himself in the Otherworld, the realm of The Darkness with patchwork undead beings in World War I outfits fighting each other, and physical manifestations of The Four Horsemen. He meets his great-great-grandfather Anthony Estacado, who admits that it was he that brought the Darkness into the family, and tells Jackie how to free himself of The Darkness by invading the castle in the Otherworld and facing The Darkness there. Jackie is interrupted in his journey through the Otherworld and brought back to the living.

Once he recovers, he determines that he must dispose of Chief Shrote before he can face Paulie. Chasing Shrote to his apartment and then confiscating a briefcase containing illicit goods in Shrote’s ownership and rigging it with an explosive, Jackie is able to lure Shrote out of hiding, but he is later shortly captured. After overhearing about a shipment of drugs that a Chicago mob is entrusting Paulie to handle, Jackie triggers the explosive, killing Shrote and his men along with himself. Jackie re-awakes in the Otherworld, and lays siege to the Darkness’ castle with Anthony’s help. Anthony is mortally wounded in the attack, but before he can tell Jackie the last steps needed to free himself from the Darkness, the spirit pulls him away.

Jackie faces the Darkness and surprises him by willingly being taken by the Darkness’ power, allowing him to fully control the spirit back in the real world, however the Darkness tells him that while he has control now, each time Jackie takes a life, he will become more consumed by the Darkness. He lays an assault on the drug shipment, causing Paulie to flee to the safety of a lighthouse mansion for fear of retribution from the Chicago mob. Jackie takes advantage of a solar eclipse to raid the mansion and finally kill Paulie. The Darkness revels in Jackie’s murderous spree, and fully envelops Jackie.

In the epilogue, Jackie finds himself in a dream in a park, lying on a bench in Jenny’s arms. Jenny explains that they are only allowed a few minutes to be together one last time to say goodbye. Jackie tries to ask how, but Jenny just quiets him, allowing them to enjoy the last moments together before Jackie wakes up with the screen fading to black.

From here the story skips in time to the present where Jenny Romano is waiting for Jackie Estacado to come to her place to celebrate his almost 21th birthday. However, Jackie has other stuff on his mind as he’s now being chased by the men of his uncle Franchetti because Jackie questioned his drug policy. This in turn made Franchetti seem weak to his man so he had to kill his own hit man, Jackie, to prove a point. Jackie quickly finds out his uncle is behind this as he questions the hit man that attempted to kill him. But new hit men come for him and he’s forced to hide in the graveyard while Jenny is waiting for him. He’s forced to hide from the overwhelming force.

Just as the group of hit men means to kill Jackie the clock strikes midnight, it’s now Jackie’s 21’th birthday and the darkness manifests inside of him. With ease he now disposes of the men and makes his way to Jenny. Just as he wants to tell Jenny about him being a hit man and that he loves her he receives a phone call from Butch, a friends of him who he can trust, and he needs to go. To get back at his uncle Paulie Jackie decides to kill his dealers and he does so with the help of his new found powers, it is here that he finds out his powers don’t work in the light.

Jackie takes the phone from one of the dealers and tells his uncle that he just killed all of them, this in turn enrages uncle Paulie and tells Jackie that he’s going for Jenny. As fast as he can Jackie races towards Jenny but as he got in, he sees Paulie holding a gun to her head. He orders the darkness to kill Paulie but it refuses to do so. It tells him ‘No Jackie, love must die, there is only the darkness’. He decides to pick up a gun and shoot Paulie himself, but the darkness stops him, letting Uncle Paulie kill Jenny. Jackie can’t live without her and decides to shoot himself in the head, the next time we see Jackie he’s in what seems to be hell. A world war one environment only the Germans are now monsters.

Here he meets a man called Hazelgrove, a soldier from the world war. They decide to travel together and when they encounter a large fortress filled with those demons they decide to attack it. When everyone of those monsters is destroyed he questions one that’s still alive. The only he tells him is that he’s passed the test and it’s time to go in German. From that point on he’s back alive somehow and is now talking to Butch at Jenny’s grave about how to get back at Paulie. He goes to a strip club where a drug lab of Paulie is and completely destroys it. Paulie and Captain Shrote, a corrupt cop working for Paulie, manage to get out alive. After this he receives a message from Captain Shrote to meet him in a church, but it was a trap to kill him.

Jackie uses the Darkness to kill most of his attackers until Shrote uses light grenades on Jackie which shuts him of from his powers. When he wakes up in a room filled with light he’s tortured by Shrote. However, suddenly the light goes out and he kills most of them in the room before the emergency generator is back on. Jackie now has a gun pointing for Shrote who tells him he’ll never make it out alive in the light with all guns pointed at him. Jackie agrees and points at some propane tanks shooting at them followed by a huge explosion that kills everyone, including Jackie himself for the second time.

He’s back in hell again and goes to the place he got out before, the destroyed fortress. Here he finds Hazelgrove half dead in a jail who tells Jackie that the main base is probably in the west. Jackie is then attacked by some of the demons he fought before, after a brief tussle Jackie is invited by one of the demons to visit the boss. Jackie agrees and goes with him to a huge dark castle. Jackie summons his darklings to fight the boss but they refuse to attack him and now attack Jackie himself. The boss said he wields all darkness here. But Jackie was not about to give up and defeats his own darklings by chopping them up with a sword.

The boss tells him that the darkness can be used to create life as well as he shows when he created Jenny out of nowhere. But then he destroys his own creation Jenny, saying death is forever. This enrages Jackie and he takes his sword and drives it through the boss’s skull, killing him instantly and now Jackie is the sole wielder of the Darkness of his own bloodline. He returns back to earth and attacks Paulie Franchetti’s base at night.

When they notice Jackie is attacking they switch on all lights around the base to try and limit Jackie’s powers. With his powers he makes a huge flock of bat like darklings who completely destroy the lights and the men guarding it. He kills everyone in the mansion and is now face to face with uncle Paulie. He decides not to kill him yet, but after a unfortunate joke about Jenny that Paulie makes, Jackie changed his mind. The last we see of Jackie is him standing by Jenny’s grave saying it’s a very dark place without her.

Personality

Jackie Estecado is a mobster with a twist, able to kill with little, if any, remorse, while still possessing compassion and selflessness for his friends and “family”. He believed in the original reasons of a crime family, in which all members are considered part of a big family that takes care of itself. He enjoys the freedoms and vices of the job, and is willing to follow orders, but he wasn’t blindly loyal to Paulie, and could tell something was wrong with him from the beginning.

As the new Don, Jackie was more “hands-on” than Paulie, as well as being more forgiving, but was still ruthless and dangerous when enraged.

Powers and Abilities

As host of the Darkness, Jackie possesses seemingly unholy Demonic abilities. The Darkness powers include summoning different types of imp-like Darklings that can attack foes and move cars, using tentacles to impale foes or break down walls, using creeping dark tendrils that sneak along floors, walls, and ceilings to take out foes from a distance, and creating a black hole that sucks anything nearby into it. Over the course of the game, Jackie also comes into possession of the Darkness guns that are more powerful than many conventional weapons but consume some amount of his energy in order to fire. The Darkness guns are held one in each hand, the one on the right being a small minigun, and the other is a sort “one hand cannon” that fires immensely powerful rounds.

The Darkness cannot be used when Jackie is in a well-lit area but become more powerful in darker conditions; he is able to shoot out lights to help increase the amount of dark energy available for their attacks.

Additionally, by ordering The Darkness to consume the hearts of the victims of the attacks, he can further increase the effects of the Darkness powers. In The Darkness 2 Jackie gains more powers such as a black colored armor that protects him, superhuman marksmanship, summoning shadow insects, etc.