THE ANGEL OF DEATH
Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Angel
Occupation: Guardian of souls
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Dark Angel, the Guide, the Web Spinners, the Wyrd Sisters (see comments)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: The Darkangel (see comments)
Base of Operations: Mobile across the Universe
First Appearance: Hell's Angel#1 (July, 1992)
Powers/Abilities: The Dark Angel has vast cosmic and psychic powers. His presence can make people feel accepted, calm, unafraid and peaceful, and he can infuse an area with a non-judgmental love and warmth. He can create psychic links and transfer energy to others, but he claimed that if the links were severed prematurely his life force and that of the linked person would run out (this might have only applied during the transference with Shevaun). He can communicate telepathically from afar (see comments). He is immortal and does not age. He can make himself invisible to mortals, although the more sensitive may still see him. He has a shadowy form and can alter his appearance or grow in size at will. He can appear on Earth through shadows, gathering them together to form a presence. He can travel through the cosmos with great ease, time travel, and visit other dimensions.
As an angel (and quite an important one) he presumably has some level of superhuman strength. He likely has many abilities as yet unseen, extensions of his cosmic and psychic powers, and others related to his being an angel.
Although he appears benevolent, he is a master gamesman and appeared to be manipulating Shevaun for his own purposes.
History:
(Hell's Angel#1 (fb) - BTS) - The Angel of Death claims he is the guardian of souls who leave the mortal plane through the door of death. He has a great deal of knowledge on Mys-Tech.
(Hell's Angel#1) - When Ranulph Haldane was killed by Mephisto, the Angel came to Darkmoor Castle to claim him, but arrived too late. He appeared surprised when Ranulph's daughter, Shevaun, could perceive him. He told her of Ranulph's involvement with Mephisto and Mys-Tech. Initially she didn't believe him, so he left.
(Hell's Angel#1 - BTS) - The angel spanned the cosmos and acquired a shred of the fabric of the universe. This held the power of the angels and could place Shevaun above mortal frailty.
(Dark Angel#9 (fb) - BTS) - The angel took the shred from a time that predated the Mys-Tech board, meaning that it was uncorrupted by their evil influence.
(Hell's Angel#1) The angel returned to Darkmoor and Shevaun later on the same evening. Shevaun, having realized the angel spoke the truth, discussed her desire to put an end to Mys-Tech. The angel explained the difficulties involved, and offered Shevaun the shred of the fabric of the universe to give her the power to fight them. Shevaun accepted it, and the shred of the cosmos empowered her with cosmic energy. The angel told her that above all, Mys-Tech must never know of this. His job done, the angel returned to the shadows.
(Hell's Angel#2 - BTS) - Not long afterwards, the angel sent the Guide to contact Shevaun, who now operated under the codename of Hell's Angel. Under the angel's orders, the Guide asked for assistance in preventing the assassination of Takashei Otomo. Meanwhile, according to the Guide, the angel himself was still seeking high and low for the souls of the inhabitants of the Super-Hero Dead Zone. Apparently the angel's intent was to collect their souls once they were complete. Some of the soul fragments aided the Guide and Hell's Angel in their mission.
(Dark Angel#6 - BTS) - Shevaun, busy trying to prevent Mys-Tech from locating her father's soul fragments, discovered that a creature had escaped from her father's laboratory. The angel sent the Guide, who offered to help delay Mys-Tech while she tracked down the creature. Shevaun had a feeling that she was selling her soul to the angel like her father had to Mephisto, but reluctantly agreed. When Shevaun and the super team Excalibur located the creature, she realized that it was actually her brother, mutated by one of her father's experiments. Traveling to Inner Space, she freed one of her father's soul fragments so that it might reunite with its other half and stymie Mys-Tech's plans. Feeling her father's madness upon her like a curse, and that each step she was taking towards defeating Mys-Tech was making her more like him, she decided to change her codename from Hell's Angel as it reflected his infernal nature.
(Dark Angel#6) - In a place far away from Shevaun's reality, the angel had been monitoring her progress. As Shevaun vowed to create her own destiny and take the codename Dark Angel he laughed repeatedly.
(Dark Angel#9) - Shevaun confronted the Angel of Death, having recently been close to destroying herself and the universe with her cosmic powers. She suggested the angel might be a cosmic con man, but he refuted this. When asked to prove it, he established a psychic link and a transference of energy took place. Shevaun felt a wonderful warm, loving acceptance of all that she was. She considered that perhaps it wasn't the Angel of Death that was evil but actually the fabric of the universe itself. The angel traveled with Shevaun's astral form to the center of the universe to show her the Web Spinners who weave the fabric of the universe. They were engulfed in a vortex as the web spoke to Shevaun, and at her request showed her a vision of Mys-Tech's latest scheme to find Ranulph Haldane's soul fragment. They overheard Crowe mention that he intended to authorize Shevaun's assassination. Shevaun wanted to leave the web, but the angel warned that to sever their psychic link would cause their life force to run out. The web provided assistance in the form of the Wyrd Sisters, who went to prevent Mys-Tech from locating the soul fragment.
(Dark Angel#9 - BTS) - During the transference, Shevaun earned a cloak of initiation. The transference over, Shevaun's astral form left the Angel of Death in order to return to the physical plane. The cloak gave Shevaun the power of invisibility.
(Dark Angel#12) - When Mys-Tech ordered Shevaun's assassination, she visited her father's soul in torment. The Angel of Death appeared, infusing the are with a non-judgmental love and warmth. This cleared Ranulph's mind, and he agreed to help stop the assassination computer.
(Dark Angel#14) - The Angel of Death warned Shevaun that the Mys-Tech Board had become the Techno Wizards.
Comments: Created by Bernie Jaye, Geoff Senior, and Cam Smith.
Through the Guide, the Angel of Death may have known the inhabitants of the Super-Hero Dead Zone and the Management to whom the Guide reported. However, this wasn't explicitly shown. He at least knew OF them, and vice versa. I've not listed them as affiliations. I have, however, listed Mephisto and Mys-Tech as enemies. While he isn't shown to fight or encounter them directly (with the exception of Ranulph Haldane), he is very active in opposing them.
In his first appearance he introduces himself as Darkangel, with the two words co-joined. Darkangel was used again one other time in the series, though on three occasions the words were separated as Dark Angel. On one occasion it was Dark-Angel. The Angel of Death was used six times, and was the only name used once Shevaun had taken the codename Dark Angel on a regular basis. Though in the angel's case he was normally referred to as THE Dark Angel. He is also sometimes simply referred to as the angel, though I've not listed that as an alias. I've used "the angel" myself in the profile for simplicity, and gone with Angel of Death as the main title for the profile as that is the name he was using most regularly by the end of the series, even if he started out as Darkangel.
The mental communication referred to in the power section
(from #14) was
one of those blink and you'll miss it appearances. As you'll see if you look at
the image, it was accompanied by a
blurry vision of his face which could suggest an astral projection or other
powers... or just be artist interpretation. I probably wouldn't have recognized
him from the visual if it wasn't for the following:
A) Shevaun mentions him by name.
B) He was listed as being in that issue in the Master Guide entry.
Bearing in mind that I nearly didn't find him in that issue, I've scouted all through the Hell's
Angel/Dark Angel series in case there were any appearances that Jeff C missed
when writing the Master Guide. If
anybody finds any that we've BOTH missed, please let us know! We are only human,
aren't we Jeff?
--Yep...a continued effort towards perfection, and there's
always someone, on some corner of the planet, who can pull out some missed
reference or relevant tidbit. Beauty of the internet, and our thanks to everyone
who helps us make everything as complete as possible.
Regarding any unrevealed abilities of the Angel of Death, it's worth bearing in mind that he can presumably do anything that Shevaun Haldane can do, but better. And she had quite a wide range of abilities herself.
Was the Angel of Death grooming Dark Angel to be his replacement? First he gives her the power of an angel. Then, using the Guide as a proxy, he sends her on her first mission against Mys-Tech. This leads to both Shevaun and Mys-Tech discovering about Soul Fragmentation. Shevaun does a lot of his work for him in sending 3,500 soul fragments to Mephisto's realm to reunite with their original souls (not including inadvertently sending Vakume's fragment there). Mys-Tech realize they can still pursue Ranulph's immortality research without Shevaun if they can locate his soul fragment. It was Shevaun's attempts to prevent this that led to her changing her name to Dark Angel and pledging to forge her own destiny. When she does so he watches from afar and laughs, at which point we are informed he is a master gamesman. Furthermore, the Dark Angel had sent the Guide to help prevent Mys-Tech from finding Ranulph's soul fragment before Shevaun could.
Shevaun had already been suspicious when it was revealed that her portal has been polluting the matrix microverse that the Dark Angel has played her for a fool (in #5). She even challenged him, but rather quickly accepted his good nature after their psychic link. Did he psychically influence this acceptance? Who knows. As a result of that encounter, however, the angel grants her a cloak which looks very much like his own.
Now, I'm not saying the angel is actually evil per se. Just manipulative. A lot of good things have come about as a result of him empowering Shevaun. The matrix microverse adventure, for example; while it initially started with the Encoder's as villains, it ultimately led to them becoming a force for good as Shevaun's allies. Without the angel's intervention during Mys-Tech's attempted assassination of Shevaun, she may well have died.
Bearing in mind his nature as a gamesman, when he seems surprised in #1 that Shevaun can see him despite being mortal I suppose there are at least two ways it could be taken. Firstly it could simply be that she is more sensitive due to her exposure to magic whilst living with one of the Mys-Tech board members. Secondly, perhaps he is pretending to be surprised but actually allowed her to see him as he was already planning to empower her. Which wouldn't have got far if she couldn't sense him.
The characters of Mr. and Mrs. Link could have been potential enemies to the Angel of Death. They appeared in Dark Angel#8. Claiming to have made a promise to Ranulph Haldane to take over Shevaun's training in the event of his death, they became aware that somebody had beaten them to it. They believed they would be more than a match for the person who had usurped their role. They are either talking about the Angel of Death or the Guide (who works for the Angel in any case). They never appeared again after that so whether or not any confrontation took place between them and the Angel of Death or the Guide took place is entirely in the realms of speculation.
This profile deals only with the Angel of Death as seen in the Hell's Angel/Dark Angel comics. However, this could be the same Angel as Azrael/Lazaer, as noted in his profile in Wolverine Weapon X Files. That profile notes that "it is unclear how or if Azrael may be related to the Angel of Death who empowered Dark Angel (Shevaun Haldane), or other death avatars such as John Kowalski". The Angels profile in Marvel Zombies: The Book of Angels, Demons & Various Monstrosities also says that Shevaun's Angel might be Azriel, the biblical Angel of Death. I don't see any reason why they couldn't be the same (or aspects of the same). Likewise, I don't see any reason why they can't be different characters. Either way works for me. Speaking as a fan now, if they were the same it would be interesting if Wolverine found out that his friend Shevaun had been empowered by an enemy of his. The Angels profile also lists some common traits among angels. They can often fire bolts of heavenly fire from their hands or summon burning swords at will. Many can generate illusions and compel humans to obey their will, and some can resurrect the dead by sharing their own divine essence with the deceased. These aren't abilities shown in the Hell's Angel/Dark Angel series, however.
Profile by Changeling.
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Angel of Death AKA the Darkangel has no known connections to
images: (without ads)
Hell's Angel#1 , p5, pan3 (main image - shadow form)
Hell's Angel#1, p5, pan4 (face)
Dark Ange#9, p2, pan1 (a variant of his shadow form)
Dark Angel#14, p2, pan2 (face/telepathic communication)
Other Appearances:
Hell's Angel#2 (August 1992) - Bernie Jaye, Geoff Senior, Helen Stone (Colors
AND Editor), Paul Neary (Editor in Chief)
Dark Angel#6 (December 1992) - Simon Furman, Gary Frank, Andy Lanning, Helen
Nally, Gary Russell (Editor), Paul Neary (Editor in Chief)
Dark Angel#9 (April 1993) - Bernie Jaye, Dell Barras, Helen Stone, Bambos
Georgiou (Editor), Paul Neary (Editor in Chief)
Dark Angel#12 (July 1993) - Bernie Jaye, Salvador Larroca, David Hine,
Bambos Georgiou (Editor), Paul Neary (Editor in Chief)
Dark Angel#14 (October 1993) - Bernie Jaye, Salvador Larroca, John Stokes,
Bambos Georgiou (Editor), Paul Neary (Editor in Chief)
Last updated: 08/24/13
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and
© 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you
like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com
Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!