DARKLOVE

Real Name: Oscuram

Identity/Class: Demon (class two)

Occupation: Making people kill their loved ones

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Many human pawns (see enemies);
formerly many demons and especially the Spohrrinox

Enemies: Ghost Rider (Dan Ketch/Noble Kale), Harmony Young, Harmony's lover, K.C., Ken, Luke Cage, Marisol, Mephisto, Taxidriver, Toby,
all citizens of NYC

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: New York City;
formerly Darkhold (trapped in a page within it)
formerly Hell (Mephisto's realm)

First Appearance: Marvel Comics Presents I#131/3 (1993)

Powers/Abilities: He had vast telepathic powers. His powers enabled him to read minds and possess humans. He also used a bow and arrows of hellfire as a weapon.
He could transform back into the page he was imprisoned in anytime. In the form of the page he flew on the wind.
His telepathic powers grew with each murder his human pawns committed. The more people were killed, the more he could control.

History: (Marvel Comics Presents I#135/3 (fb) ) - Millennia ago Darklove was part of Mephisto's army. He was in love with a beautiful demoness, but Mephisto didn't like the feelings between them and made her his betrothed. Darklove waged war against his former master to free his beloved from the betrothal and after centuries of war he seemed victorious. With Mephisto's head in his hand Darklove celebrated the victory with his followers only to learn that he was tricked by Mephisto. His beloved standing next to him turned into Mephisto and the head in Darklove's hand became the head of his former love. Mephisto laid a curse on Darklove to always perform the opposite of love and imprisoned him in a "love spell". The page became part of the Darkhold and Darklove stayed within the book for a very long time.

(Marvel Comics Presents I#134/3 (fb) - BTS) - A group of smugglers brought the page with Darklove to New York City and sold it to someone, who soon summoned Darklove.

(Marvel Comics Presents I#131/3 (fb) - BTS) - Darklove began to possess different people in New York and made them kill their lovers. Ten days later he had already murdered four people. The last of those victims was the super-model Harmony Young who had strong ties to Luke Cage. Another woman was not far away from death because her lover Ken was already in Darklove's possession for five days.

(Marvel Comics Presents I#131/3) - Ghost Rider tried to save Marisol from her possessed lover Ken. Darklove took possession of Marisol too when Ghost Rider tried to get her out of the car. Ken and Marisol died in a car crash and the heroes Luke Cage and Ghost Rider saw Darklove for the first time when his spirit rose from the burning car.

(Marvel Comics Presents I#132/3) - Darklove attacked the heroes. Ghost Rider grabbed the hand of Darklove with his chain and stopped the demon from touching Cage. Darklove tried to possess Ghost Rider through the chain, but he failed to do so. In this moment a psychic connection was established between Ghost Rider and Darklove. At the same time he made Luke Cage go to his knees by making him remember all the deaths of his loved ones. Darklove took possession of the homeless woman K.C. and got away while the heroes were down. He was just killing K.C.'s lover Toby when Ghost Rider found him again through their psychic connection. Darklove hit Ghost Rider with an arrow of hellfire which knocked the hero out. Meanwhile Cage was investigating the crime scene of the first murder. He saw the page of the Darkhold, heard the voice of Darklove and suddenly it became dark.

(Marvel Comics Presents I#133/3) - Luke Cage was once again tortured by Darklove with memories of his past. Cage caught the Darkhold page and Darklove told him that only people who were in love could read it and Luke only knew hate. Ghost Rider found them through his psychic connection with Darklove which him unable to turn back into Dan Ketch. Darklove fled and told the heroes that he wouldn't get away so easily the next time.

(Marvel Comics Presents I#134/3) - Ghost Rider and Cage found the smugglers who brought the page which contained Darklove to NYC. Ghost Rider tried to get answers from them, but Darklove took possession of all the smugglers before any could tell Ghost Rider where the caretaker of the Darkhold was. He overpowered the heroes and told Cage that he didn't want to possess him because he was too entertaining for him as he was. Darklove took Ghost Rider with him in his page of the Darkhold and they flew to the World Trade Center.

(Marvel Comics Presents I#135/3) - From the WTC Darklove started to take possession of all the citizens of NYC. He made Cage's taxi driver crash into a gasoline truck and told Cage once again that he couldn't bluff a telepath. Meanwhile Darklove told Ghost Rider his origins and explained his plan to steal the souls of all New Yorkers from Mephisto by possessing them while they killed each other. Darklove thought that Ghost Rider would understand him, but he didn't.

(Marvel Comics Presents I#136/3) - Darklove tried to possess Ghost Rider once again to get him out of his way. He fought within Ghost Rider's mind against Dan and the Spirit of Vengeance and defeated him. Cage arrived on the rooftop and saw that Darklove was now in Ghost Rider. He wanted to stop Darklove by killing his new host, but Darklove heard Cage's beeper and realized the threat to his existence. He took over Cage who tried to contain him within his mind, but Darklove was too powerful for him. Darklove celebrated the start of his reign and didn't pay attention to his defeated foes anymore. Ghost Rider took the chance to use his penance stare against Darklove. The psychic connection between the archdemon and Ghost Rider was broken and Darklove exploded when he experienced the pain he had inflicted on all his victims.

(Journey Into Mystery I#627 (fb)) - Darklove attended the Devil's Advocacy to talk about the Serpent (Cul)'s actions on Earth.

Comments: Created by Karl Bollers, Freddy Mendez & Jonathan Holdredge

The events of the main story in NYC happened between the 1st (first kill in #131/3) and 15th (destruction of Darklove in #136/3) of February.

The media thought that the killings were done by a Cupid Cult which was not true. There was no cult involved in the slayings, but the media continued to bring it up throughout the story.

Spohrrinox's name was revealed in Marvel Zombies: The Book of Angels, Demons & Other Monstrosities. Darklove's real name was revealed in Mephisto's One More Day profile.

Profile by Markus Raymond

Clarifications:

Darklove has no known connections to

Toby has no known connection to

K.C., Ken, Marisol and the nameless characters have no known connection to

Spohrrinox

She was in love with Darklove, but Mephisto didn't like that and made her his betrothed. A war began for her between the army of Darklove and Mephisto. In the end she was decapitated by her own lover Darklove who fell for the illusions of Mephisto.

--Marvel Comics Presents I#135/3 (fb)

Harmony's lover

He was a big fan of Harmony Young and wanted to become her lover. He paid smugglers to bring him a mystical page with a "love spell" on it. He used the spell and became Harmony's lover, but he also freed Darklove by doing so. The lover boy killed Harmony in the most brutal way when Darklove took possession of him. He had to be taken to a hospital afterwards because Harmony gave him a hard fight. Luke Cage visited him and saw that he wasn't a killer. It is not known what happened to Harmony's lover after the events of this story.

--Marvel Comics Presents I#133/3 (134/3 (fb), 131/3 (fb), 133/3

K.C. and Toby

They were a couple of homeless people. K.C. came under the possession of Darklove. K.C. strangled her lover Toby when Ghost Rider arrived. Darklove defeated Ghost Rider through K.C. with a psychic attack. It is unknown what happened to K.C. and Toby afterwards.

--Marvel Comics Presents I#132/3

Ken

Ken was the lover of Marisol. He began to abuse Marisol when Darklove took possession of him. He attacked Dan Ketch in a cafe when he offered Marisol his help. Ken dragged Marisol into his car and drove away with her. He killed himself and Marisol on purpose in a car accident.

--Marvel Comics Presents I#131/3

Marisol

Marisol was a former co-worker of Dan Ketch at a messenger service. She was twenty years old and loved fairy tales. She found her "Prince Charming" with Ken and they lived happily for awhile. Then he changed and began to beat her up. She didn't recognize Dan when she met him in cafe, but he offered her his help. Marisol didn't want his help and Ken took her to his car. Dan tried to get her out of Ken's car as Ghost Rider, but Darklove took possession of her too and she died with Ken in a car accident.

--Marvel Comics Presents I#131/3

unnamed Taxi driver

He was a normal taxi driver in New York City. He drove Luke Cage away from the graveyard and got a lot of money to follow Ghost Rider after he drove over the taxi driver's car. He watched the crash that killed Marisol and Ken and saw the first fight between the heroes and Darklove. He continued to drive Luke Cage around his taxi afterwards. Darklove took possession of him when he was driving Luke Cage to the WTC. The taxi driver crashed into a gasoline truck and died. His burning skeleton still walked around under the possession of Darklove until the demon left it.

--Marvel Comics Presents I#131/3 (131/3, 132/3, 135/3

images:
Marvel Comics Presents I#135, barcode side, p4, pan3 (body shot)
    p6-7, pan10 (head shot)
    p6-7, pan3 (Spohrrinox)
Marvel Comics Presents I#133, barcode side, p6, pan4 (Harmony's lover)
Marvel Comics Presents I#132, barcode side, p7, pan2 (K.C. & Toby)
Marvel Comics Presents I#131, barcode side, p7, pan1 (Ken)
    p4, pan2 (Marisol)
    p3, pan4 (taxi driver)

Marvel Comics Presents I#131 (June, 1993) - Karl Bollers (writer), Freddy Mendez (pencils), Jonathan Holdredge (inks), Terry Kavanagh (editor)
Marvel Comics Presents I#132-133 (July, 1993) - Karl Bollers (writer), Freddy Mendez (pencils), Chris Ivy & Ken Branch (inks), Terry Kavanagh (editor)
Marvel Comics Presents I#133 (July, 1993) - Karl Bollers (writer), Freddy Mendez (pencils), Malcolm Jones (inks), Terry Kavanagh (editor)
Marvel Comics Presents I#134 (August, 1993) - Karl Bollers (writer), Freddy Mendez (pencils), Frank Percy (inks), Richard Ashford (editor)
Marvel Comics Presents I#135 (August, 1993) - Karl Bollers (writer), Freddy Mendez (pencils), Scott Koblish (inks), Richard Ashford (editor)
Marvel Comics Presents I#136 (September, 1993) - Karl Bollers (writer), Freddy Mendez (pencils), Scott Koblish (inks), Richard Ashford (editor)
Journey Into Mystery I#627 (November, 2011) - Kieron Gillen (writer), Richard Elson (art), Ralph Macchio (senior editor)

Last updated: 08/16/12

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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