Lady Death

Origin

Originally the antagonist of the Evil Ernie comics, Lady Death is the impetus that sent Ernie on his quest to achieve Megadeath–that is, to kill every human being on Earth. Initially, Lady Death appeared to be nothing more than a figment of Ernie’s imagination, but as his story continued on, it became clear she was more than that. In reality, Lady Death is the sovereign ruler of Hell. She seeks an avatar to carry out her will in the mortal realm and selects Ernie for the task of spreading death and destruction.

Before becoming Hell’s queen, Lady Death was an ordinary young woman named Hope in medieval Europe. Her father, Matthias, was a demon-worshipping warlord and practitioner of witchcraft, whose crimes against his people caused them to turn against his daughter. She was falsely accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake, but before the flames consumed her, she recited an incantation she overheard her father use, calling forth a demon. She brokered a deal with it to enter hell in exchange for her willing renouncement of her humanity.

Once Hope is banished to hell, she sets about gaining the means to kill her demonic father. Lucifer grants her powers, crafts a sword for her and clothes her in her the demonic raiment that becomes her most iconic costume. During her time in hell, Hope’s humanity slowly drains away, leaving her taller, stronger, more buxom with pearl white eyes, deathly pale skin, and hair.

Comfortable in her inhumanity, Lady Death turns on Lucifer, intent on overthrowing his kingdom. She defeats him in single combat and takes his throne. However, her victory comes at a price: Lucifer lays a curse on her. Lady Death may never return to the mortal plane so long as the living walk the Earth. Thus, her reason for employing Evil Ernie as her agent of destruction becomes clear: without him to do her dirty work, she can never return home.

With Lucifer cast out, Lady Death re-models Hell in the image of the Endless Graveyard, a place for all the souls she will reap in her bloodthirsty question to return to Earth.

Creation

Lady Death is undoubtedly the child of Brian Pulido: the head of Chaos! Comics and principal writer for the company he founded to develop and explore his characters. Visually, Lady Death was given her form by the talented and sorely missed Steven Hughes, Pulido’s long-time collaborator, who designed and drew so many of Chaos! Comics now-iconic characters.

Character Evolution

Chaos Comics

Lady Death had her beginning in the black and white pages of Evil Ernie’s first series published by Eternity Comics. Her initial designs by Steven Hughes became the template for her look for the vast majority of her time with Chaos Comics. It was only towards the end of Chaos Comics that Pulido branched out into different areas with one-shot re-imaginings of his characters that she was given a makeover and also with the sad passing of Steven Hughes other artists stepped in and took her look in different directions.

The DVD film “Lady Death The Movie” also suffered from the end of Chaos as it was in production over the time of the split and necessitated the removal of major characters from the back-story as they were sold off to various publishers.

CrossGen Entertainment

Her story has spread from her medieval beginnings to ruler of Hell, savior of the universe, avatar of death and even back to life. With the collapse of Chaos Comics the properties were sold and Pulido went with Lady Death firstly to CrossGen Entertainment where they pursued a new medieval origin story that was necessitated by the splitting of the tightly interwoven characters of Chaos Comics being sold to different publishers and so no longer practical to weave into her story. The slight change in artwork style was not well received and some felt a reduction in quality as well as more grounded storylines less grand and epic in scale.

This was not hugely popular, as one of Chaos Comics most popular aspects as a company was its strong cast of supporting characters. A supporting character in one characters arc would have its own primary comics and story arcs that interwove elegantly with many others. Of course as a marketing strategy it was brilliant as to get the complete picture of one character you really needed to follow the others but you were also rewarded with insight into motivations that enrich, rather than retcon, every other storyline.

Avatar Press / Boundless Comics

A mere two years later CrossGen filed for bankruptcy and she was sold on to Avatar Press (and had enjoyed a resurgence). The Avatar/Boundless run was meant to be the return of the original Lady Death in style and attitude, though Pulido wanted to pull back from the more cosmic style of storytelling in the original Chaos comics stories. While she would enjoy a similar style and background to her original rendition, these tales would mainly take place in a dimension similar to Hell called the Blacklands. Pulido was providing “scriptments” for the stories, and another writer would flesh out the scripts.

Parallel with this they were also maintaining a Medieval Lady Death series that roughly continued the CrossGen Medieval Lady Death, with a few minor retcons between the end of her Crossgen run and the beginning of this new run. The artwork with Avatar seems to meet with the approval of the the original fans more and the stories grander scales and return to bigger cross-series arcs also proved popular.

Due to issues with Boundless trying to eventually cut Pulido out of the process in working on Lady Death, and after various lawsuits by Pulido, the Avatar/Boundless version of Lady Death ended with the “Lady Death Apocalypse” series.

Coffin Comics

The character rights were finally given back to Pulido, and the tales and adventures of Lady Death are now being continued with Pulido’s new company, Coffin Comics. There was a Kickstarter campaign created, which resulted in the recently released Lady Death Chaos Rules, which sees the return of Lady Death descending back into the depths of Hell itself. While at this point the truth of her background remains a bit of a mystery, we find Lady Death being awakened with altered memories of her past.

The new story sees the return of a few familiar faces from her original Chaos comics run, and of course a brand new sword, Chaos. There is a follow up that is currently in the works, Lady Death Damnation Game.

Major Story Arcs

Chaos Comics Era

The Reckoning

Lady Death was born in medieval Europe, the daughter of nobleman Matthias and his wife Marion, a woman of viking heritage. Ten years after her mother’s death Hope lives with her father and on a night witnesses him feeding subjects souls to demons. Months later Matthias is recruiting men for his many seemingly arbitrary campaigns and against her wishes, Hope’s friend Niccolo is conscripted.

In spring Matthias returns from battle and as always all the new recruits are dead, Niccolo among them. Rats follow the retuning army home and bring plague to their town. On hearing that Agnes, the castle maid, is infected Hope goes to her. Remembering Niccolo’s words, she lances the swellings and saves Agnes’ life.

This is against the Christian teachings of the time and the already dissatisfied villagers start whispering of witchcraft. This is the last straw, along with the plague, their lord’s battles and their dead sons. A mob is whipped up by the local priest, they find Matthias consorting with demons and he is killed. He thanks them for this and goes to hell to be lord to the army of souls from his village, that he led to slaughter on Earth. Hope is found guilty of witchcraft and sentenced to burning at the stake. In desperation she recalls the incantation her father used to summon the demons and chants it on the pyre as the flame rose. The demons answer the call and offer her passage to hell for a renouncement of her humanity. With no choice she accepts and falls to Hell.

In Hell her father casts her into the pit as a soul to add to his army but she mysteriously doesn’t perish. Lucifer saves her and offers Hope some of his power to oppose Matthias. In her rage she accepts but feels little different. She is attacked by two large wolves, her new power helps her defeat them. They accept her as an Alpha and become her first followers. She dubs them the Nameless Wolves. Walking through Hell she is attacked by Cremator, the blacksmith to the arch-dukes of hell, who also becomes impressed by her power and joins her cause. His first act for her is to forge her a sword and train her, so she can kill her father. He presents her with her new sword Darkness and the garb Lucifer had made for a creature named Purgatori. In her time in hell she has been slowly growing taller, stronger and her hair, skin and eyes becoming white. With the new outfit and sword in hand her change is complete, and she renames herself, Lady Death.

Following Matthias’ defeat of Lucifer in battle, Lady Death learns that her father did not truly defeat Lucifer but is possessed by him. She confronts Lucifer and defeats him in single combat. The battle is fierce but Lady Death wins and absorbs his soul. In one last act Lucifer curses her to never return to Earth while the living walk the surface. She uses her new found power to dismantle Lucifer’s hell and reform it into the Endless Graveyard, one grave for every soul on earth that has to die so she might return.

Knowing her mother’s spirit is in Hell, Lady Death sets out to find her. During the quest, she and Cremator are possessed by a demon and, driven to madness, they decide to split up and purify themselves separately. Lady Death completes her journey, but Cremator is lost and Lady Death is no nearer to her goal of finding her mother’s spirit. Eventually Lady Death finds a cathedral in her graveyard that she did not create and finds Niccolo inside. Twisted by hell, he has Marion’s spirit trapped within the Nexus to give it balance. Lady Death destroys her former friend and releases her mother’s spirit to Heaven’s gates.

All Hallow’s Evil

One Halloween in the Nexus she finds the demon that brought her to Hell and witnesses how the villagers who condemned her are preparing a ceremony. The demon says that he can only transport her spirit for few moments to earth, but this is all she needs.

She pretends to be a goddess who can help the villagers grow crops, but requires a sacrifice. She names the priest who branded Hope a witch and they sacrifice the priest to her. The villagers plant their seeds and the next morning the villagers are surprised to see full grown crops. However, Lady Death cursed the seeds and pumpkins rise out of the ground and slaughter the villagers.

Dragon Wars

Dragon Wars takes place five years after her descent into Hell. Lady Death uses the same demon again to travel through the Nexus and, suspecting he had more power than he showed, she thinks it might lead her back to Earth. She ends up in the Dragon Realm and is attacked by the red dragon clan but, with her powers waning, she was no match for them. The clan’s leader recruits her to his campaign to battle the green dragons and their demon leader. She is rewarded with armor made by the dragons she slew. During the battle she realizes that the red leader and the demon have planned to lure her to participate in the war. She helps the green dragons win. Forcing the demon to take her home, she is returned to her Endless Graveyard. Furious, she kills the demon.

During an uprising in Hell Lady Death is again pulled to Nexus, the Black-Rift where the rulers tried to make her a slave. The rulers there promised to send her back to Earth if she will assist them to win a war but she becomes suspicious. Accompanied by a brave warrior, she discovers the overseers recruit random people through Nexus and let them do battle for their amusement. Lady Death sets a trap and confronts them but them being powerful creatures they simply send Lady Death back to Endless Graveyard. However, before she made it through the Nexus she saw her trap sprung and the Black-Rift was destroyed in a massive explosion.

Between Heaven and Hell

400 hundred years after her fall she was no closer to returning to Earth than before. To make her dream real she searched for suitable humans who would be willing to kill and found one who showed potential, Ernest Fairchild. She visited him by use of the dream-probe and, once resurrected, she could travel briefly to earth through the corpses of his victims as they expired. For many years the renamed Evil Ernie killed for her but Lady Death started to lose control of her realm and suffered tormented dreams. The psychic link between Evil Ernie and Lady Death was severed and her memories were twisted by Purgatori, who had returned from Necropolis where Lucifer had banished her.

Purgatori used Lady Death’s mother’s image in an attempt to drink her blood but went too far. Lady Death saw through her deception and struck her down only for her to escape. Purgatori, now intimate with Lady Death’s memories, sought the lost Cremator and dug him out of an obscure region of the Endless Graveyard. Possessing him, she ordered him to forge her a sword too and to attack his former mistress. Lady Death overcame him and restored his memory. He aided her as she faced Purgatori in single combat. Purgatori revealed her plan to release her loved Lucifer’s soul and drink his blood. To everyone’s surprise Purgatori found not a trace of Lucifer inside Lady Death. In the River Styx Lady Death forced Purgatori to speak the truth: she revealed she captured Marion’s soul a fraction before she was able to pass through Heaven’s gate. She used it, as Niccolo had, to anchor the Nexus as a bridge between one plane and another. As Lady Death prepared to destroy Purgatori, Lucifer appeared before them and forced Lady Death to submit to him.

A broken Lady Death, having lived a lie for 400 years, is consumed by her inner darkness and emerges as a new being, the Lady Demon. As Lady Demon she fought Purgatori for Lucifer’s amusement and give herself to him as his concubine. Purgatori’s punishment for defeat was banishment back to earth to feed on disgustingly powerless humans. Following her Nameless Wolves, Lady Death finds her mother’s soul again, and Marion swayed what remains of her daughter to turn from Lucifer. Marion infused her soul with Lady Death’s. The angelic energy, that is Marion’s heritage as a decadent of vikings, battled with her darkness and almost destroyed her, but restored her faith and identity. Lady Death returned to Lucifer in demon form and seduced him before changing back into her classic look and channeled the angelic energy directly into his heart. Lucifer survived but is weakened and she flees on Vassago in panic. But at the last moment, as she considers fleeing through the Nexus, concocted a plan and threw Lucifer though the Nexus to Heaven’s gates. As an unworthy being he was instantly destroyed and Lady Death became the new ruler of hell.

Chaos Quarterly

The demon jester of hell, Pagan, knew a prophecy that a descendant of Heaven and Hell will bring a judgment era in Hell. He planned to get rid of Lady Death by goading one of the Hell lords, Hydra, to drag Lady Death through the Nexus to oblivion. The plan worked and Lady Death was trapped in the void between worlds, unable to return to Earth or to Hell.

Straight to Hell

It was then she was pulled to earth by machine built by Mary Young. Her stay was brief but she got to connect with Evil Ernie for the first time in an age and finally managed to be with him long enough to make love to him. She knows he is getting near to completing his assigned task of Megadeath. Her coming to earth released a wave of arcane energy that became known as the Pandora Effect that tore around the earth resurrecting those that died at the moment the energy passed, creating numerous monstrosities and several beings that would play immense roles in the near future in the end of the universe. Not wanting to destroy earth she re-exiles herself in the void at her own request.

The Odyssey

In the void Vandala anonymously sends a weakened Lady Death on a series of quests. First is Manicore where a fallen angel called Agony had taken over the world, and its source of power to prevent her grave injuries from killing her, and covered the world with ice. In hell, Asteroth arises as Lucifer’s avatar of revenge, and tracks Lady Death through the Nexus to avenge his masters death. Pandemonium showed Lady Death the location of Agony, where she fights and defeats her. Vandala sends Lady Death to her next trial in the realm of Telemach where she is immediately trapped by slave traders and sold at the market. With her powers so weak she is unable to maintain her image and her classic clothing is in tatters.

She is purchased by the conjoined fallen angels Macabre and Malady who wish to use her voluptuous form in a sculpture they are creating. Lady Death defies them with a weak blast of her angelic energy that slowly breaks down their illusion of angelic forms. Their plans are ruined as the forms melt and Macabre’s delicate hands become their, demon clawed, true forms also releasing Lady Death. But not before they start the sculpture by giving her her new uniform a metal, bone inspired warrior bikini. The souls of those trapped in the sculpture reek havoc on the land and they kill Macabre but Malady escapes.

With Lady Death still failing to show any marked improvement in her outlook, and indeed openly defying her tormentor to teach her lessons in compassion, Vandala sends her to the Cremation Grounds, the realm of Hindu Gods, where Kali recognizes the coming of death. Kali learns the location of Lady Death and attacks her personally, determined to avoid her realms Armageddon. The battle is ended by Kali’s fellow gods and is washed away into the Abyss.

Done with the lessons Lady Death rejects her warrior ways completely and the paths chosen for her. Vandala wants to explain in person the reason of this odyssey but is intercepted by Asteroth during the transportation and Lady Death falls through the nexus to a random realm. She is delighted to find a world not unlike her home when she was alive and she is adopted by a king and queen where she defends the castle with her rebuilt powers.

She had found peace at last on an earth like world and retaken the name Hope. After many happy months Asteroth locates her and destroys the city, killing everyone, while she was away swimming in a lake. The loss of her loved ones again reignites the warrior in her and she ferociously battles Asteroth only to find him immensely powerful. She leads him to the lake and bathes him all her angelic power while surrounded by water and destroys his living form. Lady Death meets Vandala and finally accepts her position as the herald of the Judgement War (a war she created by killing Lucifer) and agrees to face her destiny as she travels to Asgard.

The Crucible

The men of Asgard do not respect Lady Death as a savior until she gives them a violent show of power. She meets Queen Frigga who gains her trust by revealing she knows her family and Marion in particular. Marion had two children before she was captured by the Christians and married to Matthias, Vandala and exiled leader of Valkyries Vulnavia.

After the attempt on Vandala’s life, Lady Death joins the battle in north and turns the tide of war. She defeats the general of opposite army, Sinestra, but lets her live to report back her failure to Genocide. The next day Scorpia lays siege to Asgard and begins her attack. Lady Death is put on a mission to bring help and is introduced to Bedlam, who leads her to Niflheim. There she raises an undead army from the troops Genocide previously slaughtered. Lady Death arrives with reinforcements just as the Asgard gates fall but her arrival again heralds a turning the tide of the war.

Friendly Commander Tyr is envious that a woman is stealing his victory and impales her with his sword. The enemy rallies at the fall of Lady Death and destroys Asgardian army. Lady Death and the Valkyries are captured and brought to Wrathworld and placed into the base of Genocide’s Hammers, the constructs he built to end the universe. During their confrontation Lady Death is impaled on a spike and the power of her Valkyrie sisters is used to power the machine which is pointed at the Nexus in order to simultaneously destroy all the realms and end the universe.

Tyr, wishing to redeem himself jumps onto the lens and the beam fired misses the Nexus and instead sends the local sun into nova. With the chain reaction setting the universe burning Lady Death recovers her new sword Nightmare, forged by Asgardian Brock from the shattered hilt of Darkness. Vandala gets her Valkyrie’s home while Vulnavia and Lady Death finish off Genocide. They escape just as the nova hits Wrathworld. Back in Asgard Lady Death becomes infatuated with the demon blade Nightmare and with its influence she decides to reclaim Hell as its ruler.

Lady Death Monthly: Death Becomes Her

On the way back to hell Lady Death is drawn to the remains of Wrathworld and meets the grim Reaper who has watched her progress with interest. He wanted Lady Death to accept and understand him as an entity that is neither good no evil. She blames him for taking her loved ones before their time and she herself died before her time. To that Reaper replies “Who said you are dead”, revealing she renounced her humanity and went directly to hell without ever dying and therefore is killable. Her existence was prolonged by forces beyond his control.

Death shows her a vision in which Marion never died and instead she slew Matthias. The vision ends with a happy and powerful Hope in the love of her family despite the trials of the plague and Christianity. Lady Death remains angry and once again humiliated by powers directing her life of which she is not aware and attack it again, her warrior instinct quashing her rational mind. the Reaper calm leaves in the knowledge they will have to meet again..

Lady Death Monthly: Wicked Ways

Lady Death finally returns to hell and finding it a leaderless shambles she starts to reestablish her name that in some part has become a myth. First she releases her Nameless Wolves followed by her steed Vassago. A demon lord by the name of Vulbogliagh resides in her mansion where he deliberately desecrates all that was once hers. Lady Death beheads him and takes back her throne. Cremator returns shortly after having lost his mistress he stalked Lady Demon who it seems has a life of her own still. He joins her in the quest to re-conquer hell and they raise the dead from the graveyard and march on Lucifer’s eldest son Thanatos. Lady Demon intervenes and attempts to re-meld herself with her namesake to fill the void of her soulless existence, but is rejected.

Nightmare cuts Lady demon and Lady Death finds she is similarly wounded. Lady Death then battles Thanatos beheading him with little trouble. She sends his head as a warning to the other Arch Dukes not to stand in her way. Lady Death attempts to separate from Nightmare at Cremator’s insistence of its hold over her but is weakened by the separation and takes it back up until hell is regained. She marches on the Arch Dukes but Leviatha’s meddling with Lady Demon strikes her down, she is only saved by Nightmare taking over her body and threatens to devour everyone who comes close. Only after Nightmare has killed all but Cremator does Lady Death awake. Black winged hell’s angels mob her, sent by Leviatha, and she falls under her telepathic attack and is teleported away. When at last Lady Death meets Leviatha face to face she is turned back into human form as Hope once more.

Lady Death Monthly: The Harrowing

Being human again she is immediately sort by hell hordes and attacked and far too weak to beat them back for long. Vulbogliagh learns of Lady’s transition and as she walks back to her mansion . As Hope she is susceptible to human limits once more: tiredness, hunger, etc.

As she travels home she is attacked by Shrill and skewers her with Nightmare only for Vulbogliagh to return and attack as well, even in human form she dispatches him as quickly as before and lets Nightmare feast on his blood. Next comes heaven’s assassin, Uriel who traps her. Hope orders Nightmare to create her armor which last long enough for her to win the battle. Hope travels to the river Styx and regains enough strength to battle once more. Uriel tells of his mission to destroy hell and he’s there to stop her from doing the same before it’s time.

Hope reveals herself to be chosen one who decides the outcome of Judgment War and that his mission is in contradiction, he concedes and departs. Hope returns to her fortress and renounces her humanity once again. Heaven’s second assassin, Santa Gloria, reveals herself but is interrupted by Michael. Hope is offered the Death Scythe but refuses and wants to win the battle on her own. After Michael leaves Hope was faced with Santa Gloria’s creations. Hope avoids the traps and meets with Pagan once more; they have a score to settle over her exile and cuts him to pieces. When Hope turns her back to Pagan he pulls himself together and spears Hope. She is dying when Michael returns and disposes Pagan and Santa Gloria. Hope agrees to pick up the Death Scythe and regains her alter-ego Lady Death form and faces heaven’s final assassin, Galilean.

Lady Death uses hell to pull Galilean into the ground and, recreating her fortress, she releases her allies from Leviatha’s magic. Galilean rallies an army and the two clash as Lady Death uses hell itself as a weapon. Having won and hells forces again followed her, Lady Death is faced with the problem of hell’s disappearance. Séance contacts Lady Death in the hope he can teach her how to create, the only way to save hell. But hearing Lady Death’s answer he concludes that teaching would take too long, and hell would be gone by then, he then takes his leave.

Lady Death Monthly: The Covenant

Lady Death tries to remove the eradication wave, but fails. Realizing that she is unable to fight it, she transports herself and Cremator to Endless Graveyard. But only Cremator reaches the destination, Lady Death was transported to Transdaemoniium. Nightmare starts to rebel against Lady Death, she has had it with the sword and tries to cast it aside. She meets Purgatori there and she wanted Nightmare to herself, but the sword clung to Lady Death. She then returns to Endless Graveyard, the only place that survived from hell’s destruction. She is confronted by her father Matthias there; he wants to sway Lady Death to submit to the dark side.

While fighting Matthias, Lady Death wounds Cremator with the Death Scythe and he dies. Lady Death plays along and when the opportunity arises, she blasts her father into the eradication wave, and throws Nightmare through him, getting rid of both of them. Lady Death returns to her mansion to rest from the Nightmare’s addiction. She is visited by newly recreated Lucifer. The two fight with words and in the end Lucifer sends Lady Death to earth and separates her from Hope.

Lady Death Monthly: Inferno

On her way to earth she is halted by other Horsemen of Apocalypse, they try to teach her what means to be death. She gets a choice, to let human Hope live or let her die; Lady Death decides to let her live and also rejects the burden of being death. When Hope wakes in the hospital Lady Death essence is pulled there and they are joined once more. Hope’s last memory is burning at the stake. She is attacked by the Horsemen there, to draw out Lady Death in her. The hospital is destroyed in the attack, and Hope helps the survivors, but when children see the Horsemen, Hope fears for them and transforms to Lady Death. Lady Death fights the Horsemen one by one, and defeats them all. She however still rejects to be death and also forfeits the Death Scythe. right after that she recognizes Leviatha from one of the billboards and flies to Las Vegas. There, Lady Death is confronted by Cremator, again alive, but his memory has been tampered with and he doesn’t remember his Lady. Lady Death beats Cremator until he remembers who he once was. But as Lady Death calms down, she transforms to Hope again. At that moment Leviatha decides to attack herself.

Leviatha uses magic and froze the blood in Hope’s veins, Hope refused to feel fear and let Lady Death out, and it killed her. But Leviatha saw death as being too easy on Lady Death, so she merged Hope and Lady Death into one being again, so they might suffer for eternity. Lady Death again alive, she continues to fights, but doesn’t fare very well against Leviatha’s superior power. Cremator arrives with Séance and gives Lady Death his newest weapon, Apocalypse. Séance blinds Leviatha, because she doesn’t fit into Lucifer’s plans. Lady Death learns that Las Vegas is now hell, and uses her powers and her new sword to defeat Leviatha.

The Rapture

Lady Death hunts down a priest who lived and condemned her for being witch 500 years ago. She kills him for betraying death, and by doing so, one of the seals is broken. Lady Death then returns to her fortress Oblivion. Lucifer sends some archdukes from seventh circle to pester Lady Death, their deaths are quick. But while she fights; Heaven and Hell agree that it’s time for final war, The Rapture. When Lady Death confronts Lucifer on his last act, she is attacked by Aquiessence and Demonatrix. Aquiessence represents Heaven and Demonatrix Hell.

As a chosen one, Lady Death needed to decide who she serves, but Lady Death is known for her stubbornness, and rejects them both. Now a battle was in order to decide the side. Lady Death won the battle in her own way, not to get branded by either side and she forced her enemies to brand each other. The Rapture was over and Lady Death remained a wild card. After defeating the furies, Lady Death is surrounded by the military and the leader reveals himself as Asteroth. Lady Death proposes that loser of the battle shall serve as winner’s slave, Asteroth accepts and the battle begins.

Lady Death and Asteroth still battle, when heaven and hell try to get as many souls as possible. Lady Death is finally able to beat Asteroth, and claims victory and his servitude. Having defeated another raid by demon army, Lady Death is approached by Heaven’s Host, and made offer to join forces to defeat hell. Lady Death stays adamant on her decision to serve no master but herself. At the same time Azrael descends and offers Lady Death the Death Scythe. Lady Death allows Azrael to stay and keep the scythe for time when she of her own free will takes it. After the Heavenly Host leaves, Lady Death summons her army from Endless Graveyard that still exists where hell once stood. Taking the war to hell, Lady Death leads her army to Inferno, Death Scythe as her emblem. When the tides of war turn against her, she takes the Scythe. As she has touches the hilt, the remaining Horsemen arrive and join Lady Death in her battle.

After defeating all the forces and forcing Lucifer to retreat, Lady Death announces that she now has made the prophesied decision in Judgment War; she chose to wage war with both hell and heaven. And the victor would be none other than herself. When the signs of Armageddon‘s coming appeared, Lady Death link with evil Ernie was returned. Finding a calm moment between battles, Lady Death decides to find her love. She catches up with him in New Orleans, and they share an intimate moment together. Returning to her fortress, Lady Death ponders on the irony of Evil Ernie’s creation. She compares it with Lucifer and her own creation. In the meantime Cremator has created a new armor in the captured hell forge.

Judgement War

Lady Death’s battles have been easier from the moment she picked up the Death Scythe, as its power allows to kill thousands with one strike. After yet another battle, Lady Death is pleasantly surprised when Vandala arrives to her fortress, but she is bearer of bad news, Asgard has fallen to Purgatori and she along with Grimnir and Brock are sole survivors. Lady Death grants her refuge and swears to avenge the destruction of Asgard. Lady Death gets an opportunity to face Lucifer in single combat, and she takes it. But all does not go as planned, the armor created in Lucifer Engine could be controlled by Lucifer, he used it to bind Lady Death with her own armor.

Lady Death still managed to kill one of his minions by throwing Apocalypse through him. Then Lady Death was carried to pleasure chamber. Lucifer wants Lady Death to submit to him, but she still refuses. Lady Death uses the link between her and Apocalypse, and commands it to free itself and then her, the sword obeys. Lucifer tries to stop it and claim it as his own, but the sword lets only Lady Death wield it and burns Lucifer. Lady Death then strikes air and creates a portal to her fortress. There, her allies are under attack by the Lucifer Engine, and she enters it for its destruction. She is overcome with illusions for a brief time, but then she is able to destroy the machine. Doing so she released all the soul gathered by Hell.

Then she finally understands what Reaper asks of her, she is to release all souls captured by hell and heaven so that natural order, death, could continue. She immediately starts to plan the attack on heaven to destroy their machine. Vandala tries to stop Lady Death doing it, but in the end says that she can’t stop her, but she also won’t be taking part of it. Azrael brings the Horn of Gabriel, an artifact that creates a portal directly to heaven’s gates. Lady Death’s plans are interrupted by Purgatori who grew bold enough to attack her in her own fortress. Purgatori’s army is winning and the blood curse spreading to Lady Death’s army, converting it. But when Lady Death is gaining upper hand, Purgatori summons most of the blood from her allies, releasing them from the curse. Lady Death then uses the Death Scythe on Purgatori and kills her. Only few of her troops remained under the blood curse and fled the battlefield, sadly one of them was Vulnavia.

When Heaven’s Host attacks Oblivion, Lady Death uses the horn to move her forces to heaven’s gate. Angelic Host returns and a bloody battle is fought in front of the gate. Being defeated in combat, Michael says that Lady Death can’t enter the gates without the invitation. Lady Death then brings down the walls, and goes around the gates. Main forces defeated; Lady Death rushes to Jehovex Machine. The she is confronted by God, but Lady Death sees trough the deception and breaks Lucifer’s illusion.

Lucifer has taken control of the machine and increased his power again, he asks Lady Death to join him. Lady Death agrees, only to lure Lucifer closer to herself. Being in striking distance, Lady Death uses Apocalypse to cut Lucifer down, being a sword of chaos origin, it was able to kill Lucifer. Séance and Pagan, who had killed one of her Nameless Wolves, escaped after seeing Lucifer’s defeat. Lady Death destroys the Jehovex Machine and releases souls gathered by heaven. Heaven falls to earth and the Judgment War is won.

Armageddon

Lady Death however can’t rest, Armageddon threatens all creation. Lady Death joins others who had gathered near Armageddon, to fight against his might. During the battle she feels how Evil Ernie dies. Then Oblivia arrives and names the things she needs to kill Armageddon. When she needs Smiley, Lady Death protests, but Rick Young reasons with her, and says that even Evil Ernie would want to defeat, Armageddon. Oblivia attacks and kills Armageddon, but he releases the un-creation wave.

Aftermath / Dark Millennium

In the new worlds, created by Lord Chaos, Lady Death appeared on earth dubbed as Dark Millennium. She has put to sleep for months by the Reaper, to rid her of 400 year long Lucifer’s influence. It is Reaper himself who awakens Lady Death from her slumber. Reaper explains that, Lady Death can’t summon the fires of hell anymore; neither can she summon the undead army from Endless Graveyard.

However she can commune with recently dead and with spirits who refuse to leave earth. He wants her to resume her duties as avatar of death. Lady Death refuses and battles Reaper, but it is task not possible. Being in his mercy Reaper turns her into goddess once more. Reaper then calls a vision that shows Lady Death the fate of her friends, and the one responsible, Nocturne. Angrily she released burst of her powers, they were noticed by Vandala, who had sought her for long. Lady Death heard Vandala’s telepathic call and rescued her.

The next day Lady Death and Vandala depart to search her other allies. They meet a thief on their travels who wishes to join them. Lady Death tired of roaming aimlessly sends out magical searchers to find her friends faster. While waiting for their return, she decides to continue her travels. She meets with Ravenheart a grim warrior who cursed with the touch of death, he was previously known as angel Azrael, but he holds his identity a secret. Lady Death’s seekers return: confirming that Cremator is still alive, and the location of Brock and Grimnir. Lady Death decides to save Brock and Grimnir before going after Cremator.

The thief then suggests that they seek allies from Demon Lords against Nocturne. Lady Death agrees and they travel to meet the lords. There she meets Asteroth who has taken the crown and his court Séance and Pagan, who was still wearing the skin of the nameless wolf. Lady Death wants to punish Pagan for that, and Asteroth agrees, only when blood is not spilled. Lady Death then transforms Pagan to a half-wolf. Asteroth reveals what he knows of Nocturne’s location and Lady Death takes her leave.

Passing the Armageddon’s grave Lady Death is attacked by Nocturne’s legion and they are overpowered by the numbers. They are transported to Nocturne’s castle, and closer to their goal. Learning that the legion doesn’t survive in the light, Lady Death releases blast her powers, she and her allies are freed from the prison. Lady Death transforms some of her power to her allies, so they would be protected, they then Split up and search for Cremator.

Lady Death managed to find her old friend, but he is in bad shape, the living fire in him has been drained. Others too return, and Lady Death asks Brock to see if he could restore Cremator’s powers from the machinery. Brock starts to work and Lady Death attacks Nocturne. Having defeated her and Cremator got his powers back, Lady Death summoned the Death Scythe and destroyed Nocturne’s fortress. Back home in Winterhaven, Lady Death learns from stolen grimoire that Nocturne was not the true enemies, it was Abaddon.

Tribulation

A year has passed and Abaddon’s forces has grown and taken over more and more lands. Lady Death still fought against him as she could. Lady Death has sent Vandala to search the Living Chalice of Light, an artifact that could push back Abaddon’s darkness. Lady Death was approached by Séance, who offered his help in deciphering the Nocturne’s grimoire, to defeat Abaddon. Lady Death accepts his offer. Soon after that Aquiessence and Demonatrix came and pledged themselves to Lady Death’s service.

Vandala having found the Living Chalice of Light inside herself and informed Lady Death that she plans to recreate Asgard and not use the power to defeat Abaddon. Lady Death is furious and swears to kill her; her allies try to sway her from doing it, but fail. Lady Death learned Vandala’s location and used her sword to teleport there. While Lady Death is fighting Vandala, Nocturne’s grimoire is stolen. Ravenheart interrupts the battle to inform Lady Death of it and names who was behind it, Purgatori. Lady Death hates Purgatori more than Vandala, seizes the battle, summons her horse and flies in Purgatori’s direction.

During her battle with Purgatori, Lady Death tries to summon death scythe, but it will not appear. Then Lady Death is distracted by Pagan who wanted to kill second nameless wolf, she saves her wolf but is defeated by Purgatori who then infects her with her blood. Vandala arrives, saves Lady Death from death and transports her back to Winterhaven. Séance uses his arcane knowledge to help defeat the blood infection in Lady Death.

While Lady Death is in her sickbed, Vandala contacts all possible allies to fight against Abaddon. Meeting with new allies on battlefield Lady Death leads the attack against Abaddon and Nocturne. When she made her way to Abaddon she used Death Scythe to kill Abaddon’s mortal form, Pagan who was host to its form however survived and escaped. Having won the war and Abaddon’s veil of darkness was lifting from earth, Lady Death returned to her fortress. The joy of victory didn’t last long, as Lady Death collapsed from the strain of blood infection.

When Lady Death came to she was not in her fortress Winterhaven, she was on a new earth. Hearing a cry for help, Lady Death instinctively jumped down from a roof. She fought off men with guns and saved the girl they were after, Sarah Wilson. Lady Death had trouble remembering who she had been before, only vague memories, but in return she has all human feelings. In the new city she also met a ghost by the name of Virgil Solomon.

Having brought Sarah home, Lady Death heard how the girl was hit, but before she could act she was attacked and captured. When she awoke, she was bound and about to be branded by a man, who made slaves of beautiful women. Lady Death remembered that she had been in this situation before. She fought the man and let the man brand himself, confusing his psyche. Lady Death then returned to Sarah’s home, she didn’t find her there but found her brother and uncle. The uncle hit the boy in front of her and she somehow saw what was in his soul and showed the man what he was.

Lady Death went to search Sarah on her own; the Ghost Virgil helped her with locations where she could be. Being in one of the homeless shelters, she was offered food. Feeling weak and exhausted she was also offered that she stayed a night, she accepted it. While she slept, she had dreams of hell, rejecting them, she awoke. She was then confronted by Aynguish being who fed on misery. Lady Death fought with her, and realizing how to weaken her she woke the homeless who lived there, most of them rejected her, and Aynguish was indeed weakened. Lady Death used the opportunity to strike her with Apocalypse and killed her.

When wanting to learn more of her powers she discovers the astral realm, she sees how Virgil is in need of help and uses her sword to find a way to him. Virgil was trapped by Soul Eater, a demon. Lady Death fought him and released his hold over Virgil. Immediately after that both of them feel a dark presence. They follow it and find the Dark One trying to convert Sarah. Lady Death battles him but doesn’t fare very well, when the Dark One is about to strike a death blow, Reaper himself intervenes.

The Dark One banished, Lady Death frees Sarah and Virgil. However Sarah doesn’t breath, Virgil then instructs Lady Death how to give CPR. Lady Death saves Sarah from death, but things again turn to worse, Sarah had swallowed the dark matter and now she wasn’t feeling very well. When the fear overcame her, she transformed into Shriek a creature that controlled fear. Lady Death was blasted by her and she lived through her fear to be controlled by the Reaper. She fought herself free of that fear, and followed Sarah. When she caught up with her in police station, Lady Death fought Shriek. Soon the Shriek persona disappeared and Sarah regained her own mind. Lady Death then took her back to her sanctum in abandoned church.

Lady Death with the help of Virgil decides to take Sarah back home, so she could be with her family. While being there she wanted to rid her uncle of his demons, tried as she might, she could not do that. Frustrated, she went out to search an outlet of her fury. She found one chaos spawn by the name of Vile, and killed him. Wanting to keep her promise to Virgil, Lady Death returns to soul eater’s lair, to find a way to release trapped souls. Virgil had been back there before and noticed a locked grimoire. Thinking that it might help them, Lady Death unlocks it.

The grimoire is in fact a jinn, who says that she knows all about Lady Death, but the jinn is still caged. He asks to release him and in return he would tell everything there is to know of Lady Death. Not remembering her full past, Lady Death agrees. Lady Death learns the hard truth that she was the cause of death for millions on earth; she sees herself as a monster and flees from the building. When Virgil finds her, he has bad news; Sarah’s uncle is in her sanctuary and wants to kill Sarah and her brother. Lady Death rushes to help them, but is possessed by Sanctity. She fights her in her mind and is able to get rid of her. She tries to stop Vile, who came to get the kids, but is knocked out. Having misplaced her sword, Lady Death goes back to Grimmoire. She retrieves her sword, but the Grimmoire says the sword will do no good, that he would help her but he needs to get something in return.

Lady Death then makes him an offer, “my soul or the souls of my enemies”. Grimmoire is intrigued by that offer and gives Lady Death a soul sphere. Virgil having located Vile; comes to Lady Death and leads her to him. Lady Death gives the soul sphere to the kids’ uncle who had tried to stop Vile on his own. Sanctity wanting the kids’ souls for herself, joined the battle. Just then the uncle throws the soul sphere and traps Lady Death and her two enemies in it. But the soul sphere is brought to the Grimmoire and Lady Death was released from it, as the deal was her soul or her enemies’ souls. Lady Death felt disappointing that she was released from there, as she still saw herself as a monster, and deserving to be locked up.

Lady Death Vs Bad Kitty

Lady Death met a named Lucky and her mistress Bad Kitty, who was looking for her cat. Lady Death had just had a feeling that something bad is about to happen and thought she and Bad Kitty should work together on this one. They followed the cat, and ended up near Sarah Wilson’s house. They were attacked by zombies that were after crooked cops. Having learned the station number, Lady Death and Bad Kitty went to save the cops of 23rd precinct. But they are unable to save them all, the building blows up and purifies to corrupted ground.

Lady Death is pulled to help some girl; an artist who had joined some bad crowd. Lady Death tries to enter the exhibition she was part of but she without the invitation was denied of entrance. She started to fight to security, and she was joined by Chastity. The owned was amused by their fight and let them enter. The exhibition was about death, and the works of art were bodies. Lady Death and Chastity worked together to save the girl Lady Death was looking for. Lady Death used the souls of tortured spirits to subdue the main evil behind the art works.

Lady Death: The Goddess Returns

After a while Lady Death was marked by Chaos lords and Sore was sent after her, Sore was the opposite of Eros and brought out the hate in humans. In Lady Death it brought out the pale version of her and wanting megadeath. Lady Death overcomes her hate and goes to help Virgil; she destroys the black hole of hate Sore made when he got hit by one of his own arrows. Lady Death then takes off to be on her own for a while. When she returned to her sanctum, Virgil wanted her help to seek his murderer.

Lady Death thought that Ralph, Sarah’s uncle could help them as he was a cop once. Having learned who investigates Virgil’s murder, Lady Death wanted to question them at police station. It was pointed out to her that her attire isn’t suitable. She then takes Sarah and they go for shopping with Chastity who Lady Death recently met. Having bought better garment, Lady Death returned to her sanctum, and sparred with Chastity to see how she would move with them.

When Lady Death and Sarah return to her home, they discover Sarah’s brother and uncle dead. Lady Death raises Ralph and learns that Dark one and his new ally Morgana is to blame and they search Lady Death in her sanctum. Lady Death full of anger goes to hr sanctum and faces Morgana and her sword molded from Virgil’s soul. In the battle Morgana breaks Lady Death’s arm and as she lies there, Reaper arrives and tries to stop them, but is unable to interfere directly, so he creates portals and summons Lady Death’s old allies: Cremator, Vandala and Ravenheart. Cremator picks up Lady Death and orders others to retreat through the portals. Back at Winterhaven, Lady Death meets with Vandala, but does not remember much of her, even her nameless wolf is uncertain who she is. Cremator wants that; Lady Death would return to her world and, leads armies again; but Lady Death is not sure that the army would follow her.

With her allies help Lady Death learns of Morgana’s past and plans to use it against her. She summons Reaper and let’s herself transported back to her sanctum. There Lady Death pretends to serve Morgana as she defeated her and now owned her. Morgana killed Tommy Wilson as a test, and Lady Death let her do that, Then Morgana drank his soul. To that Chaos Lords protested as they had wanted the boy’s soul for their own.

The Dark One faced ultimatum, serve Morgana or serve Chaos Lords, he chose the latter and was killed by Morgana for it. Just as Chaos Lords were taking Morgana, Lady Death revealed her deception and pulled the Virgil sword from Morgana’s hands. Then Lady Death summons Apocalypse and lets Reaper give her back her memories and immortality with the threat to end her life. Reaper is not pleased with her action, but obeys and Lady Death is goddess once more.

Dark Alliance

After Lady Death’s return she let Cremator and Brock rebuild the portals of the old church’s windows. When Sarah came around she blamed Lady Death for not saving her brother and ran away leaving Lady Death feeling protective of her and let Virgil seek her out. Virgil found her at one of CODA (Church of Divine Ascension) shelters.

Lady Death was about to enter that building, when she saw Pagan. Lady Death chose to follow him instead, she met hell’s newest recruit, Slaughterhouse. While fighting him, Chastity and Sarah arrived. Slaughterhouse’s attention was pulled to Sarah, who then angrily yelled that she wants his soul to burn. Suddenly, Slaughterhouse dropped to the ground, and his soul was gone.

Chastity fills Lady Death in on the Coda subject and they agree to seek out Morgan Gallows. They arrive to Oblivias’ when the battle rages in full force, Lady Death joins the killings. When only allies are standing they move the meeting to more private location, to Lady Death’s sanctuary. Back at the sanctuary, they share information and learn that a drug called Xercist was sold with orders of hell’s archdukes. Bedlam started to teleport more allies to Lady Death’s sanctuary. The first to arrive was Vulnavia, now free of the blood curse.

At first Lady Death wanted to strike her down, but stayed her hand when Vulnavia asked to make amends of her actions. The second is Purgatori, again Lady Death raises her sword, but she is stopped by Gallows who told her that he saw Purgatori in his vision. Their bickering was stopped by the images in portals; Asteroth, Séance and Pagan attacking major cities. The allies divided into teams and stepped through the portals.

CrossGen Entertainment Era

Following the collapse of Chaos Comics the properties were sold to various publishers and Lady Death went with Brian Pulido to CrossGen Entertainment where they re-booted the character in Medieval form. The main issue they had was with the characters split over different companies they could no longer easily share a history anymore so new directions were sort.

Lady Death Reimagined

Burgundy, France 1296. A girl named Faith is about to be married. She witness how her father interrogates Templars of the location of Holy Grail. Faith plans to stop him at all costs. Stealing some armor from the barrack, she disguises herself as one of the soldiers. In the battle her love Angelo saves her life, but gets himself mortally wounded.

Faith doesn’t let the loss of her love to stop her. She knows that if her father drinks from that grail, he will become immortal and then there can be no peace. She rushes to the grail and battles her own father. Not able to defeat him, she drinks from that grail herself.

But the Templars had put a curse on the Grail, Faith lost her soul. Faith then kills her father and renames herself; Lady Death. She was cursed to search and kill for her soul for eternity.

Medieval Lady Death

On the year 1207 in Novgorod during a slaughter; a woman shared bed with Eldritch, nine months later she bore a daughter named Hope. Eighteen years later Hope wants to know of her past and she goes along with her mother Marion back to Novgorod. When buying bread from the market, one man witnesses how Hope’s eyes turned white like that of the Eldritch; he also recognizes Marion. Later at night Marion confesses to Hope that her father is an Eldritch. She is unable to reveal the name of the father though, as Henry, who saw Hope’s eyes earlier has riled up villagers. The villagers enter their room and attack them, Hope wanting to help her mother gets cut, and the wound heals instantly.

Having proof; the villagers then carry the women to the river, when Marion tries to escape, Henry hits her with a stone and she dies. Hope is dragged into the water and drowned. On the next evening Tvarus comes to the river and tries to revive them, thinking them to be dead he leaves. After Tvarus has left Hope is revived by his magic, and she swears revenge. Hope returns to town with her mother’s body, finding the men responsible drinking in merriment, Hope attacks them. When the villagers over power her, and want to burn her, Wolfram Von Bach intervenes. He takes Hope and the body of Marion and rides away.

When Hope regains consciousness in the woods, Wolfram had buried her mother. Hope pays hr respects and Wolfram takes her to abandoned church. Wolfram tells Hope all he knows of Eldritch and teaches her to fight, as she must chose a side to fight for humans of Eldritch. One night Hope is attacked by Greelum, Hope fights them and asks Wolfram to throw her the sword he was making. Named Blackheart the sword felt as it was meant to be in her hand. She hacked the Greelum viciously; the survivors escaped and named Hope to Lady Death.

Hope went to sleep and when she woke a new blade had appeared next to her. Getting dressed she went to search Wolfram, but he was nowhere to be seen. Stepping out of the church she was confronted by knights. They wanted to test her if she is Eldritch or human. She passes them all as human would, but the knights still wanted to kill her. Hope fights the knights but is bested by them in the end. Wolfram comes out of the hiding and tries to sway the knight to let them go. Knights still saw her as Eldritch and captured them both and brought before Archbishop.

Considered guilty Hope is imprisoned along side with Wolfram, who has been named a traitor. In the prison Hope uses her magic to burn through the bars, and they escape. When running into dead end, Tvarus appears bearing Hope’s weapons. He cloaks Hope with an invisibility spell and wants her to leave with him. Hope however doesn’t want to leave Wolfram behind and attack the knights who had arrived. Making her father chose between cloaking the lowly human and uncloaking her; Tvarus cloaks Wolfram and they all leave.

Out of down in the forest, Hope orders her father to heal Wolfram. Tvarus wants to take Hope away from humans, but Hope decides to stay. Stealing horses for a stall, Hope and Wolfram return to Novgorod. Hope wants to kill the men responsible for her mother’s death. Hope can’t fill her promise however, Wolfram is chased by his brother Cai Von Bach and Scarlet Riders. When battling things turn to worse, Eldritch army attacks. Hope makes her decision and stands with humans. She challenges the new leader of Eldritch to a single combat and she wins he is to take his army and leave.

Hope bests Thorm Gara and the Eldritch retreat. After the battle Hope finds Henry again but spares his live. Hope then aids human to save the wounded, she even risks her live when she rescues some from burning church. At night Hope was visited by her half-sister Caprice. She sought help to rescue their father from felf holes, Hope agrees to help. On their way to Aglarond, they are approached by vindicators and presented an invitation to see archbishop. Hope declines, and vindicators attack, as they were ordered not to take no as an answer. Having defeated them, Hope and Wolfram cross the bridge of realms.

At borderlands they are attacked by low-landers, but when one of them smells that Hope is not wholly Eldritch she stops the fight. Hope is then lead to a seer, who offers to teach her of magic. Hope again declines the offer and continuous her quest to free her father. While going through a mist valley, they are attacked by flesh merchants.

Felling hopelessly outnumbered, Hope is prepared to die. Then a crow leads a way out of the cavers, they were driven into. On the other side they saw Aglarond and a war party leaving it. One of the low-landers revealed himself, and wanted to aid them in their quest. He lead them into the city unnoticed and helped them with their disguise.

In the city Hope again met with Caprice and forced her to join her group. Having defeated the guards, they were about to release Tvarus from his prison. Then Obsidia arrived and killed the low-lander, she also ordered her daughter Caprice to return to the city. She threatened to kill Hope and Wolfram same as she did with the low-lander and orders them to surrender. Hope seeing no other way did that. Obsidia then transported them to the borderland bridge, where humans and Eldritch battled. Then Tvarus arrives, having fought himself free of his prison. Tvarus had changed with the time he spent in felf holes. He wanted to kill Hope and all of human race. Hope battled against him and used the spell cannon constructed by Eldritch mages.

The bridge between the two realms was broken. Hope recovered from the battle quickly, and went to search for Wolfram, who was injured during the battle. She learned that he was again captured as traitor by humans. Hope sneaked into the house he was hold. She also rescued a low-lander by the name of Jinn. Having dressed Wolfram’s wounds they continue to move on, but are attacked by Greelums. Hope fought the Greelum, but she submitted when they threatened injured Wolfram’s live. Greelums were after Hope’s sword, but when they experimented on it, is lashed them with magic.

Greelums then released Hope and her allies and returned her sword. Hope then planned to return to humans’ stronghold and save her aunt and niece. Having succeeded in that, they went to the lake. Wolfram fell under sirens spell and was dragged underwater. When Hope managed to save him, and surface. Henry was back and wielding and unknown power. Hope battles Henry, for a long time but when she was able to defeat him, Wolfram and the women were captured.

Hope catches up with the chariots and rescues Wolfram and her aunt and niece before they are taken to archbishop. She then goes alone to face archbishop Vittorio, but Wolfram still followed her. Doing battle with the archbishop, Henry returned and was adamant on his quest to kill Hope. But the power in him was destroying himself, and he burst into flames and died. Cai having learned that an Eldritch was behind Henry’s powers blamed Hope in front of the villagers. Vittorio saw is as an opportunity and played along. At night Hope visited Vittorio in his bedchamber and gave him a message, that if she wanted to kill him, she would have already, but she is not the monster Vittorio makes of her.

Time has passed and Wolfram with Hope stops by his grandmother’s home. There they are attacked by Skold from assassin guild, hired to steal Hope’s sword. Skold wounds Wolfram’s grandmother and escapes with the sword; but before his portal closes Hope goes after him. However she steps into Greelums’ trap. Skold reveals his wish to skin Hope, but he is unable to do it as Hope is rescued by low-landers and carried into the Borderland. Hope is again brought before the seer, who explains a little of Eldritch magic, if Hope doesn’t perform certain rituals, the magic will kill her. Hope agrees that she teaches her and ask something in return someday. The learning takes some time, and in the end she learns to use the magic without hate.

One day Skold managed to find her and attacked with intent to kill. The seer steps in and casts a spell in Skold’s direction; he doesn’t like interference and kills the seer. With dying words the seer reveals herself to be Hope’s grandmother, and asked Hope to find a person who would turn the tides of coming war. Skold returns and Hope fights him again, she uses her link to her sword to kill Skold. Soon the Eldritch attack Jinn’s city and capture most of them.

Hope faces Tvarus again in combat; with a flash of light they both are gone. Tvarus teleported himself and Hope away from battle. He revealed his plan to attack humans and asked Hope to leave to a land far away. Hope promises nothing and Tvarus leaves. Hope is again reunited with Wolfram. Having no means to travel back to Borderlands, Wolfram convinces Hope to take a breather. Hope finally gave in and they leave the broken bridge behind.

Three months later Hope has made a new live away from killing. She is falling in love with Wolfram, and reveals that she is afraid that is someone gets close to her they die. That night Eldritch attack the village on dragons. Obsidia deceives the villagers to think that Hope was spying on them and started the Eldritch attack.

Archbishop hears of that and sends his troops to capture Hope. Hope goes with them willingly to let them know that she means n harm to humans. But Vittorio is driven to kill Hope this time and binds then in front of the church. But before Hope and Wolfram can be killed Eldritch strike the city in full force. Wolfram takes charge and order troops to attack, while Hope saved archbishop Vittorio. The Eldritch are too well organized, and humans doesn’t stand a chance. Villagers under Wolfram and Hope leadership managed to escape the inferno.

At daybreak they have eluded the Eldritch forces, Hope uses her magic to heal villagers. Suddenly they are attacked by Eldritch assassins. Villagers are pulled underground by Greelum and Hope is captured. Tvarus plans to use her as a weapon and lets strongest of mages to cast a spell onto Hope, turning her into her darker self, Lady Death. Caprice learns that Tvarus is using spells on other Eldritch, and doing that is forbidden. Seeing turned Lady Death, Caprice decides to warn humans. Humans however have difficulties to believe what she says. Caprice then flies to Giligard and wants to stop Hope. Hope uses magic to burn the city. Wolfram and other humans also came to see if Caprice told the truth. Wolfram then uses the love they had with Hope to snap her out of the spell. Hope cuts into herself and expels a dark orb. The day is saved, but war is not yet won. Caprice informs them that Tvarus intends to invade Vatican and kill human faith. Hope thinks that this is the war that the seer was talking about and decides to seek help from there. Caprice and Jinn join her, and they fly away.

On their way to the shadow of the third moon they are attacked by Pigrans. Hope fight as she can but they are still outnumbered. Fortunately the renegade Eldritch arrive and save them. Hope tells them a tale seer told her and asks for their help in the war. At first they decline, but after thinking on the matter they join the war. Hope and the reinforcement arrive a little too late Vatican is already under attack. While the renegades bray, Hope and Caprice join the battle. The renegades channel their power to Hope, and she fights her father Tvarus. When Tvarus is struck down, it is revealed that a Chaos Lord had taken over his body. Hope then announced that the king of Eldritch is dead, and they are defeated and they should return to home as Vatican is now under her protection.

Avatar Press Era

Hope’s Family

Hope was a girl who dreamed to be a warrior. Her father Marius is a Christian knight, every time he came back from another battle, the recruited men were dead. Hope wanted to know what her father was doing in his chamber after every time he returned from a campaign. Hope and her mother, Mary witness how Marius gives the souls to demons. He reveals himself as Sagos, a warlock who had taken over her father’s body.

Then villagers who had enough of the death arrived to their house, and saw how Sagos took Mary and disappeared, leaving Hope behind. Hope was taken to down’s fare and burned as a witch. Having heard how her father read the spell, she chanted it and she was granted passage to Blacklands with the cost of her humanity. She was turned albino as all who came to Blacklands on their own free will. Dropping down to hellmouth Hope met Wargoth, who took her under his wing. He introduced her to Satasha, who also wanted Sagos dead; she is also the one who would teach Lady Death in use of magic.

But before she could set on a quest to save her mother, she was magically spirited away. She was sent through countless realms and pitted against several enemies. Lady Death quickly learned that the one responsible didn’t want her to be killed, and she used it to get away most difficult situations, but refusing to fight. Eventually, she was freed by the girl’s father, and he let Lady Death punish Pariah, the one responsible. Lady Death was then sent back to her camp where she was taken away and she was reunited with Wargoth and Satasha.

Two Years later Lady Death Wargoth lets Lady Death to lead an army against Sagos’ forces. Most of them are defeated before Lady Death starts to think strategically. Then Lady Death, Satasha and Wargoth combine their forces and kill enemies by hordes. Now closer to finding her mother, Wargoth still teaches her with hard lessons.

On their way to Sagos’ place they are attacked by Kavari, Lady Death was captured by them and she of course struggled, she managed to free herself only when she stopped resisting, and their power waned. In the house they saw Mary, but Sagos was waiting for them, and sprung the trap. Lady Death lied under the rubble. She was found by wolves who dragged her out, but only to be eaten by them. Lady Death fought the wolves back, and they recognized her as their master. Wargoth ordered the team to move on. Moving through the fields of nephilim they are confronted by Thrallkor. Wargoth again teaches how Lady Death should act; the beast wields an amazing power and it would be foolish to attack, but if one shows humility in its presence, they walk by them.

Arriving to the city, Wargoth has a plan to get Lady Death a weapon that wouldn’t melt in her hands. Wargoth pretended to be slave tradesman; Lady Death and Satasha played the slaves. Lady Death and Satasha are sold to the king, who ordered them to be ready for night. When the night came and the king tried to force himself on them, they killed him. Then Lady Death located the sword she needed, but Satasha disappears and Lady Death thought she was played. Though his head cut off, the king was not dead; Lady Death again slaughtered the king and his men. Then Wargoth and Satasha revealed themselves, they also revealed that this was yet another test, even the king who was alive yet again was in on it. Lady Death now had a sword forged specially for her.

With Wargoth leadership they take off in the direction of Fanghorn River. Its water were said to grant knowledge to those who survive, thus far only handful of people has. Lady Death enters the river and becomes one with the Blacklands; she learns where Sagos strikes next; she teleports herself and her allies there. Joining the fight against the undead army, Lady Death displays her new found powers and repelled them. She also lost her knowledge found from the river.

Her quest was interrupted one night when she and Satasha were teleported into another world by Pandora and Gatekeeper. They sought help to get back Pandora’s Box, which had been stolen from her. After a brief introduction two more arrived; Unholy and War Angel. Those two had a history, and a fight broke out. Pandora managed to convince them all to stop fighting, and they moved on with the plan. Satasha and Unholy combined their powers to locate the chest. Learning it had been opened in Jerusalem, they go to battle demon unleashed there.

In the battle Lady Death and her allies are taken over by Seven Deadly Sins. Lord Sinner then sent them to retrieve relics hidden around the world. Gatekeeper managed to free them from sins’ influence and they combined their forces to force Lord Sinner back into Pandora’s Box. War Angel however didn’t want to relinquish the artifact she brought to Lord Sinner Lady Death then cut her hand with her magic sword, and War Angel’s hand turned into flaming bones. War Angel dropped the book and lounged for an attack. Pandora teleported her away and warned Lady Death that War Angel will stop at nothing to get her revenge. They hide the artifacts again and Lady Death is sent back to Blacklands. It didn’t take long for War Angel to find Lady Death; Pandora tried to stop her again, but she was interrupted.

War Angel and Lady Death battle for a long time, but all they mange is a draw. Pandora had recovered and again teleported War Angel away. Just then Pandora was possessed by a demon and she attacked Lady Death herself. During the battle, possessed Pandora teleported them underwater, hoping it would kill Lady Death. Lady Death however discovered that she does not need to breath. Having discovered that the demon had escaped from Pandora’s Box, she forced it out of Pandora’s body. Her sword was enough to vanquish the demon in its real form, and the battle was over. Pandora asked her help in capturing the demons who still were free, but Lady Death refused and ordered Pandora to teleport her back to Blacklands again.

Lady Death learned of an artifact under Catacombia. Satasha entered the cavern, while Lady Death guarded it from the attacking hordes. Lady Death witnessed the explosion, and thought Satasha to be lost. Satasha was fine, her magic had protected her. They then discovered that the blood in the men attacking them was alive; Lady Death struck them all down. The villagers however didn’t saw it as that; they thought they were there to kill the villagers. Wargoth then asked the chance to prove them that there is enemy amongst the villagers. Capturing one of them and with a little persuasion Stigmata showed herself. Threatening to return she took her leave. Wargoth started to suspect that they are only chasing Sagos’ diversions. Lady Death proposed to learn what his true plan was. Trying to strike an alliance with free cities backfired, old hatred can’t be forgotten easily. Just then Stigmata returned and the city was overrun with mere moments.

Surviving the attack, the leaders of free cities agreed to an alliance. Leaving the destroyed city behind the villagers left under Wargoth leadership. Making camp for the night Satasha fell ill, she had used a addictive potion to enhance her powers. Wargoth sent Lady Death to fetch the potion Satasha left at the city. Lady Death took a horse and her two wolfs and rode towards Catacombia. There she was discovered by Sagos’ forces; she fought her way in and back out again. Returned to the camp, she found it empty, immediately she was surrounded by bee-men. Thinking them to be responsible, she attacked them, but overcome with numbers she succumbed.

Coming around Lady Death was reunited with Wargoth, and she was taken to see the queen. Queen has received a message that Thrallkors attack Satasha’s home city. Lady Death convinced queen to lend some forces to aid the city. They were too late however; the city had been leaved by the time they got there. Within the ruins Lady Death again met Sagos and her mother. Tired of chasing shadows she attacked. Sagos blasted Lady Death with amazing force and she fell.

It is unknown how she did survive the confrontation with Sagos and what exactly happened afterward. She had split up from Wargoth and traveled only with Satasha and helped those less fortunate while still searching whereabouts of her mother. One of those incidents was when she was summoned to earth realm, by a Japanese warlord. Lady Death was asked to kill Shi and the reward would be reunion with her mother; Lady Death accepted the offer. Lady Death and Shi fought long and hard, but when the villagers intervened and said to protect Shi with their own lives, Lady Death remembered her mother. Shi managed to convince Lady Death in helping bring down the warlord. They fought countless ninjas on their way to him. They succeed in bringing down the warlord, and Lady Death is sent back to Blacklands.

Another chronicled event was the growing tower, where a woman by the name of Nocturne lived. The tower would consume most of the Labyrinth in a year; Lady Death and Satasha entered it to stop her. They discovered that Nocturne fears of her sister Sacrilege‘s return and only sought to hide from her. Sacrilege indeed came for her and used her powers to turn Nocturne on her side. Lady Death developed a plan, she let Satasha cast an illusion of their mother’s image and used it to get close to them, she them plunger her sword through both of them, ending the threat they both posed.

Powers & Abilities

Lady Death has displayed various powers over the course of her adventures and various incarnations. The most common theme with her powers revolves around her magical ability and what is commonly termed as her “energy arcane” or arcane energy. With her arcane power she has displayed:

• Transmutation
• Telekinesis
• Weather Control
• Flight
• Energy Projection
• Healing/Regeneration
• Tracking Spells
• Necromancy
• Shielding
• Magical Wards
• Death Touch
• Light Projection

Also, depending on equipment she is wielding and the various mantles she has assumed, she has also displayed the following powers:

• Teleportation
• Hellfire control
• Intangibility/Spirit Form
• Holy Power/Blast
• Levels of Invulnerability
• Dimensional Manipulation
• Power Removal/Siphoning
• Soul Manipulation

Physically, her attributes have varied dependent upon the version:

• Enhanced Durability
• Enhanced Strength
• Enhanced Speed
• Enhanced Agility/Reflexes
• Enhanced Senses

While in her original appearances the levels of these abilities were in the more cosmic character tiers, in more modern times, Pulido has pulled away from those levels storytelling wise. Currently he rates her as being roughly at 5 times human levels in her physical attributes.

Lady Death has also been shown to be proficient in hand to hand combat, multiple weapons and is a master swordswoman.

Equipment

• Darkness: Lady Death’s original sword, forged by Cremator.
• Nightmare: Forged by Brock under Odin’s old instructions to defeat Genocide.
• Apocalypse: Forged by Cremator from pure Chaos, it can only be used by Lady Death.
• Death Scythe: When Lady Death was chosen to be Reaper’s avatar, she also received the Scythe.

Other Versions

Lady Demon

Lady Demon is the darker psyche of Lady Death and though she was originally a transformed Lady Death, she was later revealed to be a being of her own, created by Lucifer.

Other Media

Film

Lady Death:The Movie (2004)

Based on a comic book series. A woman burned at the stake in 15th century Sweden actually is Satan (Lucifer)’s daughter – and plots revenge against him.

Popular Recognition

Lady Death was ranked 39th in Comic Buyer’s Guide’s 100 Sexiest Women in Comics list.