DEVIL'S HEART

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Magical creation, former human magic-user, native of the Sioux Nation

Occupation: Malevolent entity, former Necromancer

Group Membership: None
formerly Sioux

Affiliations: Father Aimes, Paul Carpenter, Stuart (pawns); Father Aimes, Beverly Carpenter, Anton Nyborg (victims);

Enemies: Dracula

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Devil's Lake, North Dakota, USA

First Appearance: Giant-Size Dracula#4 (March, 1975)

Powers: As a human, the necromancer possessed some degree of sorcerous power. He was able to extend his own life span beyond normal.

As the Devil's Heart, it was unable to leave the caverns in which it was imprisoned. After years of summoning its might, it was eventually able to influence and twist the minds of those in the above town. It could cause others to become violent, murderous, and sadistic. It could also compel them to do its bidding. It could reanimate and control the dead, as well. It gave off a palpable aura of evil that certain beings with mystic sensitivity could detect.

Height: 30' 3"
Weight: 156 tons

History: (Giant-Size Dracula#4 (fb) ) - Centuries ago a Sioux necromancer used black magic and ritual deaths to sustain his own life. His specific actions are unknown, but he eventually breached some cosmic balance, opening a portal to another realm, and he was killed. As punishment (by whom is never stated), his essence was imprisoned inside an immense heart beneath a large mound of rock which would become known as the Devil's Heart, in what would become North Dakota.

There the Heart was made to atone, apparently just by isolation, for an unknown period of years, most likely at least a few centuries. In 1933, the Heart somehow gained the ability to control those living in the town above it. It first took control of Paul Carpenter, a farmer, causing him to feel progressively more powerful dark urges. It first forced him to kill a bird he found, then his own dog, and then to kill his own wife, Lindy. Carpenter sent away his daughter, Beverly, to prevent her from falling victim to his dark urges. While she was away, Paul killed another farmer, Anton Nyborg.

(Giant-Size Dracula#4) - Beverly met and befriended the vampire-lord, Dracula while on an Ocean cruise. When she and her fiancé, Stuart, returned to Devil's Heart in summer 1934, her father felt the same urges and feared for her life. Paul went to his priest,

Father Aimes, for help in fighting the urges. However, the Heart had grown stronger over the months and proved capable of controlling the priest within his own church. The Heart forced Father Aimes to attack Paul, who in fighting for his life, killed the priest.

Meanwhile, Dracula sensed the evil of the Heart from thousands of miles away in Transylvania, and believing it to pose a threat to him, traveled to Devil's Lake to confront it. Dracula was reunited with Beverly, who invited him into her home. When her father failed to appear, Dracula took to the skies in search of him.

The Heart then took control of Stuart, who attacked Beverly, and then summoned her father to assist him. The two men easily overcame her, and along with the reanimated Father Aimes and Anton Nyborg, brought her into the cavern by the Heart. Dracula sensed the events and went into the caverns in order to prevent the sacrifice of Beverly. Dracula savaged battered the entranced and undead agents of the Heart, but Paul managed to stab Beverly, killing her. With her death, the Heart finally succeeded in ending its imprisonment, and dissolved into a goo that then disintegrated. Stuart had been killed in the fight with Dracula, and Paul killed himself when his mind returned and he saw what he had done.

Comments: Created by David Kraft and Don Heck.

Sometimes you read a story over and over again, trying to figure out what happened or what the point was. That's not to stay it was a bad story, but it just gives you one of those "What the heck was that all about?" feelings.

Devil's Heart has an entry in Marvel Legacy: The 1970's Handbook.