But in 1973, Marvel introduced perhaps their weirdest hero ever, the Son of Satan. By day, he went by the not-very-clever secret identity of "Daimon Hellstrom," and posed as a freelance exorcist. A freelance exorcist who advertised his services in classified ads in newspapers (today, he'd probably be on Craigslist).
By night, he'd transform into the Son of Satan, a maniac with a glowing red pentagram on his bare chest, the bangs of his hair styled into horn-like projections and a pitchfork in his hand.
Parents must have loved to see their kids bringing copies of a comic called Son of Satan home from the drugstore.
Over the years, Marvel equivocated on just how Satanic the character actually was—later it would be revealed that the Son of Satan wasn't literally Satan's son, but the son of a demon that claimed it was Satan. S.O.S.' first solo series didn't last long, and afterward when he was absorbed into the greater Marvel Universe, he went by the name Hellstorm.
To help them blow the dust off their anti-Christ antihero, Marvel has enlisted help from outside the comics industry, tapping A Scattering of Jades novelist Alexander C. Irvine to script a new S.O.S. series, as the popular author's first foray into the comics field.
The new series, which launched last week, bears a title that splits the difference between the daring one of the '70s and the more conservative recent one—Hellstorm: Son of Satan.
The first issue finds Daimon acting as a sort of demonic private eye. Wearing a sporty jacket and Hollywood stubble, he's trying to solve a supernatural mystery in post-Katrina New Orleans. The disaster itself and the feeling of having been abandoned afterward summoned a great many demons to the city, we're told, and they all appear as the red-skinned, horned and hooved devils of cartoons. Less elegantly written (and thus making for much more audacious reading) is the original Son of Satan saga, which Marvel has just republished in a 600-page, phone book-sized tome entitled Essential Marvel Horror Volume 1 (note the lack of the word "Satan" in the title). The black-and-white book, which features work from such giants of the time as Gene Colan, John Romita Sr., Herb Trimpe, Ed Hannigan and Russ Heath, includes the entire run of Son of Satan, as well as the character's '70s appearances in various Marvel anthologies, where he rubbed elbows with the likes of Ghost Rider, Dr. Strange and the Thing from the Fantastic Four.
Also included are stories starring Satana, the Devil's Daughter.
The characters' need to verbalize everything that's happening to them and the purple narration, both typical of mainstream comics during the day, can make the book a pretty tough slog for modern readers (not to mention that monster page count). But for those who can take it, it's a fascinating read, a sort of Easter Passion Play in pen and ink, where the hero is the son of the other guy instead of the Son of God. Ultimately though, the message is a deeply Christian one—Daimon becomes a hero despite his parentage, and conquers the temptation to become like his dad by praying to God.