SOUL-DARK(Earth-928)
SOUL-DARK
(Earth-928)
Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Alternate Reality (Earth-928 circa 2099 AD) human mutate
Occupation: Prisoner;
former would-be conqueror, criminal
Group Membership: Mutroids of Hellrock
Affiliations: Seeress (Sophia Striker)
Enemies: Dethstryk, Mutroids and other inhabitants of Hellrock
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: The Man without a Soul;
"Lord of Hellrock" (a title he claimed unofficially);
"Fool" (from Dethstryk)
Base of Operations: Hellrock
First Appearance: Ravage 2099#25/3 (December, 1994)
Powers/Abilities:
Even prior to his transformation, the man who would become Soul-Dark
was depraved and corrupt, committing vicious crimes and torturing
others. He enjoyed evil for its own sake.
He had an unholy
fascination with torment...enjoying the hopelessness and vulnerability
of his victims, wishing to see a neck bowed before he broke it.
In his mutated form, his hands were replaced with "threshing flagella,
dark tendrils of
power designed to sear the lifeforce from his victims." He could use
the tentacles -- which could extend to several feet -- to whip,
restrain, crush, or lift others, possessing strength sufficient to slay
even mutated beings. 
He possessed an unspecified degree of superhuman durability, and when he was assaulted by energy that might harm him, he could rechannel/dissipate it into others via his tentacles. It is unrevealed, however, whether he could dissipate such energy into the environment or non-living matter.
There was a gaping maw where his mouth was, "a slopping vacuole that absorbed the energy of his victims into the chill void within him." He appeared to actually consume victims whole.
Soul-Dark grew a little stronger with each victim.
Height: Unrevealed (perhaps 7')
Weight: Unrevealed (perhaps 350-400 lbs.)
Eyes: Solid red
Hair: Brown
Note:
Soul-Dark presumably had a normal human appearance prior to coming to
being transformed on Hellrock, but I don't think it was ever depicted
History:
(Ravage 2099#25/3 (fb) - BTS) - The man who would become Soul-Dark tore the legs off of insects as a child, but as an adult, he (performed acts that Seeress refused to write down. She drew a veil over the unspeakable nature of his worst atrocities).
(Ravage 2099#25/3 (fb) - BTS) - Seeking a being to oppose her corrupt master, Dethstryk, the telepathic Seeress found such a man and then used her psychic influence to cause the man's name to be omitted from the list of criminals scheduled for execution, and to be instead banished to Hellrock.
(Ravage 2099#25/3 (fb) - BTS) - Because of the darkness within him, the man re-directed to Hellrock by Seeress became the monstrous Soul-Dark, gaining powerful tentacles in place of his hands and a gaping maw that could consume/absorb his victim's body and energies.
Growing a little stronger with each victim, Soul-Dark slugged his way
up through the ranks of the depraved, committing his evil acts for the
purpose of evil itself and gaining clarity and shining from his own
cruelty.
(Ravage 2099#25/3) - After Soul-Dark decapitated one Mutroid, two others challenged him, noting that he was not the first pretender to Hellrock's throne; striking savagely, Soul-Dark noted, "Perhaps not, but I am the first to destroy you!"
Soul-Dark traveled to the Watering Hole and approached a family in chains, the father/husband of whom noted they were innocent (most in Hellrock were actually not criminals, but rather people who had fallen out of favor with the powerful corporation Alchemax). Seeress confronted Soul-Dark, informing him that these victims were the personal property of Dethstryk and that he could look but not touch. Soul-Dark countered, "Wrong...they belong to the 'Lord of Hellrock,' and I now claim that title."
As the father/husband asked Soul-Dark to take him but spare the others, Soul-Dark assured them he would take them all. He continued that he saw them as blank canvases, on which his artistic self would paint self-portraits. Other Mutroids present cheered his slaughter, but then Dethstryk arrived and announced that they had been his victims.
Soul-Dark countered that he was the new ruler of Hellrock and that Dethstryk just hadn't realized his own redundancy yet; he punctuated this with a slap across the face while telling Dethstryk, "Consider yourself dismissed."
Dethstryk struck back, punching Soul-Dark across the room while informing him that he was not the first to make this empty threat and that the Lord of the Mutroids was a title won brutally in cruel combat. When Dethstryk fired an energy blast, Soul-Dark absorbed the energy and then dissipated it into a pair of Mutroids, killing them. To prevent Soul-Dark from using such methods to save himself from further assaults, Dethstryk then slew the rest of the Mutroids present.
Impressed with Dethstryk's actions, Soul-Dark nonetheless lifted him into the air by the neck with one hand and told him that he would take his soul now. Amused, Dethstryk told Soul-Dark to take that which he could not have..."the eyes are the window to the soul...stare deep within mine! Look, Soul-Dark...look...and taste total terror!" Soul-Dark stuttered to reply as he was indeed shocked that anyone could be so horrible...so corrupt...so ultimately evil...finding humor and solace only in unimaginable perversity.
It was too much, even for Soul-Dark, who collapsed to the ground. Dethstryk then picked up Soul-Dark, telling him he wouldn't kill him, as compared to himself, Soul-Dark truly was an innocent. Instead, he would leave Soul-Dark in the victim tank as a dreadful warning to the other would-be usurpers.
(Ravage 2099#25/3 - BTS) - Noting that her plan had failed, Seeress told Dethstryk that she had located his enemy Ravage, hoping that this foe could eliminate her master and that she could at last be free.
Comments: Created by Pat Mills, Jerry Skinner, Luke Ross, and Keith Williams.
The purpose of this story seemed to be: See how insanely evil this guy is? Dethstryk is worse.
This profile was completed 7/10/2021, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20th anniversary 's celebratory event.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Soul-Dark should be distinguished from:
Appearances:
Ravage 2099#25/3 (December, 1994) - Pat Mills & Jerry Skinner (writers), Luke Ross (penciler), Keith Williams (inker), Matt Morra (editor)
First posted: 09/30/2021
Last updated: 09/29/2021
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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