GADRIEL
GADRIEL
Real Name: Gadriel
Identity/Class: Angel
Occupation: Former guardian angel, protector of humanity, weapons-master
Group Membership: Angels of Heaven, Grigori (Armaros, Azazel, Esphares, Ezekeel , Gadriel, Hafaza, Sariel, Tariel)
Affiliations: God, Hellstorm, Punisher (Frank Castle)
Enemies: Olivier, Olivier's Stalkers
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Currently unrevealed;
formerly Heaven
First Appearance: Punisher IV#1 (November, 1998)
Powers/Abilities: An angel of Heaven, Gadriel presumably had a number of unspecified abilities. Presumably immune to aging, conventional disease, and non-magical attack, he could also revive the dead (under certain circumstances, by sacrificing a portion of his own life essence) and imbue magical powers in others. He could fly via the large wings on his shoulders and could summon a magical sword with which to do battle. He may or may not have had superhuman strength.
History:
(Punisher IV#1 (fb) - BTS) - Gadriel was originally Heaven's weapons-master.
(Punisher IV#3 (fb) - BTS) - After Gadriel taught humanity how to make weapons, he was removed from his job.
(Punisher IV#1 (fb) - BTS / Punisher IV#3 (fb) - BTS) - Gadriel was one of the Grigori, angels sent to Earth by God to watch over humanity. However, like many of the Grigori he chose instead to use humanity for his own pleasure. He indulged heavily in alcohol and womanizing.
(Punisher IV#1 (fb) - BTS) - Gadriel was given a another chance and made a guardian angel. He was placed in charge of watching over the family of Frank Castle.
(Punisher IV#4 (fb) / Marvel Preview#1 (fb) - BTS / Punisher IV#1 (fb) - BTS) - Grigori drinking and carousing with women and thus wasn't there for the Castle family the day they were struck down by the Costas.
(Punisher IV#2 (fb) - BTS) - Gadriel had some past experience
with Hellstorm.
(Punisher IV#3 (fb) - BTS / Punisher IV#3 (fb) - BTS) - Gadriel gave up on Castle and gave up on his self. He relaxed his watch over Castle, at which point Olivier -- having no further use for Castle -- sent his demons to feed Castle's despair. Weary of his life's mission, Castle committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.
(Punisher IV#4 (fb) / Punisher IV#3 (fb) / Punisher IV#1 (fb) - BTS / Punisher IV#2 (fb) - BTS) - Having sunken as low as an angel could go, Gadriel decided to help Castle find redemption in hopes that Castle might forgive him, which was the only way he could get back into Heaven. Gadriel rose Castle's corpse from the grave and gave up part of his own angelic soul to restore Castle to life, saving him from Hell and giving him a second chance at redemption.
(Punisher IV#3 (fb) - BTS) - Wandering the streets, lacking recent memories, Castle returned to one of his former safe houses, wherein he found an overcoat left by Gadriel. From within the coat, Castle could draw a pair of guns empowered to kill angels and demons, as well as to act as conventional firearms. He could also summon magical swords.
(Punisher IV#1) - Mortally wounded by Olivier and the Stalkers, the Grigori Tariel summoned the Punisher to his dying form. Tariel told Castle of the Grigori and of Olivier, then told him to seek out Gadriel at the bar Milton's and make him tell him what he needed. As Tariel perished, Castle traveled to Milton's and confronted Gadriel, who was drinking liquor and telling several women how he had told the other Grigori that they were on their own. Castle dropped one of Tariel's feathers in front of Gadriel then shattered his glass in his hand and demanded answers. Gadriel revealed his nature and that it was he who had failed to watch over his family the day they died. Castle pulled him magic gun and told Gadriel to pray.
(Punisher IV#2) - Castle fired his gun Gadriel, but Gadriel,
relatively unharmed, told Castle that the weapons responded to the ones who
wielded them and that if he really wanted him dead that they would have killed
him. Gadriel dodged and tried to explain as Castle continued to fire on him.
When he revealed he was responsible for Castle's resurrection, Castle briefly
paused, but when Gadriel tried to give him direction, telling him not to waste
time on stopping drunken slobs beating their wives, Castle attacked anew,
shooting him down again. Gadriel then fought back, telling Castle that following
his instructions was his only chance for redemption.
Gadriel interrupted the fight upon sensing Olivier's Stalkers
attacking Hellstorm outside, and he flew Castle to his assistance. Gadriel told
Hellstorm of Olivier's plot to conquer the nether realms, and as the Stalkers
threatened to overwhelm them both, Castle arrived and joined the fight. The
three of them destroyed or drove off the remaining Stalkers. As Hellstorm
departed to defend his own realm of Hell, he cautioned Gadriel that he had
better soon tell Castle everything, because he would learn the truth soon
enough, and it would be better if he heard it from Gadriel.
Shortly thereafter, Gadriel questioned a captured Stalker,
but when he began to reveal that he was a former victim of Castle's, Gadriel
destroyed him to prevent him from anything further. He tried to calm Castle,
telling him that demons weren't capable of anything but lies, but Castle
remained suspicious, asking, "What about angels?"
(Punisher IV#3) - Gadriel brought Castle to meet the other Grigori. Ezekeel referenced the connection between Olivier and Castle, but then the Stalkers broke in and attacked them. Castle and the Grigori were all overpowered and captured. When they revived, bound in Olivier's lair, Olivier revealed himself to be have been Frank Costa, the man responsible for the death of Frank Castle's family.
(Punisher IV#4) - Olivier revealed how his death as Costa had sent him back to Hell, and that he had gained each soul slain by Castle as one of his Stalkers, gaining power in the process. Gadriel explained the circumstances behind Castle's death and his motivations for reviving him. Castle then broke free and attacked Olivier and his Stalkers, and Gadriel was released in the process and fought them as well. As Castle fought the Stalkers, Gadriel engaged Olivier directly. Gadriel fell before Olivier and plunged his hand into his chest, but then Castle blasted Olivier back, and demonic tendrils (extending from a dimensional rent that had resulted from the resonations between a swordclash of weapons from Heaven and Hell) grabbed him and tore him to pieces. Castle faced off against the tendrils as they reached for him, too, but Gadriel told Castle that this was his fight, "I'm an angel. It's high time I started acting like one." Gadriel then leapt into the portal and released the last of his angelic essence explosively, sealing the portal off from Earth.
Comments: Created by Christopher Golden, Tom Sniegoski, Bernie Wrightson, and Jimmy Palmiotti.
Milton's is a reference to Milton's "Paradise Lost".
insert anti-religious diatribe from Per Degaton here
;)
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
No KNOWN connections to:
images: (without ads)
Punisher IV#2, p3, panel 5 (face)
#4, p19, panel 5 (flying with sword)
Appearances:
Punisher IV#1-4 (November 1998 - February 1999) - by Christopher Golden, Tom
Sniegoski (writers), Bernie Wrightson (penciler), Jimmy Palmiotti (inker), Joe
Quesada & Jimmy Palmiotti (editors)
Last updated: 12/04/06
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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