History ComicBook / LadyDeath

!!Tropes:

* BreakoutCharacter: Lady Death started out as a supporting villainess in ''ComicBook/EvilErnie'', essentially the LadyMacBeth to its undead SerialKiller protagonist, before getting her own title that also retconned much of her motives and background. Nowadays she's probably far more well-known than Evil Ernie himself.

* BigBad: Lady Death herself served this role in the original Evil Ernie comics, being the driving force behind the eponymous VillainProtagonist. In her own titles, she faced various threats:

* BreakoutCharacter: Lady Death started out as a supporting villainess in ''Evil Ernie'', essentially the LadyMacBeth to its undead SerialKiller protagonist, before getting her own title that also retconned much of her motives and background. Nowadays she's probably far more well-known than Evil Ernie himself.

** Lady Death's outfit consists of black leather thigh-high boots, opera gloves, lingerie adorned with skull emblems, and a cape. She's pretty consistently portrayed with a domineering personality, going from a LadyMacBeth in her first appearances in ''Evil Ernie'' to a DarkActionGirl in her own series.

* DressedLikeADominatrix: Lady Death's outfit consists of black leather thigh-high boots, opera gloves, lingerie adorned with skull emblems, and a cape. She's pretty consistently portrayed with a domineering personality, going from a LadyMacBeth in her first appearances in ''Evil Ernie'' to a DarkActionGirl in her own series. ''The Rapture'' has the aptly named Demonatrix, the representative of Hell who wore a corset and chains on her [[MultiArmedAndDangerous four arms]] and was depicted as very aggressive.

* ADateWithRosiePalms: The Death Queen does this with fire of all things.

* HornyDevils: Both Lucifer and Purgatori.

* FrenchMaidOutfit: Lady Death is forced to wear one of these by Leviatha in ''Lady Death Annual 1''.

** The end of "Extinction Express" introduces Chaotic [[spoiler:Lady Death's daughter]] who fights with a weapon resembling a kusarigama. Hers has a pommel on the other end.

* AdaptationDistillation: "Kill all humans" was completely removed from this version, playing her as a straight hero like her [=CrossGen=] and Avatar counter. Additionally, her father Matthias and Lucifer were made [[CompositeCharacter the same person instead of two characters fighting each others]].

When Crossgen folded in 2004, Creator/AvatarPress picked up the license, and not only continued Creator/CrossGen's take with ''Medieval Lady Death'', but also created a new series that returned the character to her roots. A young woman named Hope was the daughter of Mary and Marius. Marius was a crusader who had a tendency to return from battles without any of his peasant levies, only his most loyal soldiers surviving with him. Hope came to realize the evil that her father was doing, and along with her mother followed him to secret tunnels where they found him summoning dark wraiths, who refer to him as Sagos. Sagos is offering a sacrifice of masses of peasant in exchange for a domain in The Labyrinth, a dark world of the afterlife. When he spots them, Sagos, revealing himself as a being possessing Marius, steals Mary away through a portal, leaving Hope behind. At this point, the peasant rebellion finally catches up, and when they find that Marius has escaped, settle for attempt to execute Hope for his crimes. She utters the incantation Sagos used, and the dark wraiths agree to let her through the portal if she pledges her soul to The Labyrinth. When she passes through, her skin, hair, and eyes become white, the mark of those who willingly go through, and she ends up in a waste called the Blacklands. There she meets a man named Wargoth, who after seeing the natural inclination she now possesses towards magic, agrees to help her in her travels. He also recruits a sorceress named Satasha to teach her, and trains her in battle himself, though every weapon she handles melting due to the uncontrolled magic she possesses slows this process considerably. Over two years, they find that Sagos's army is conquering the Blacklands and turning its denizens to undead, converting them to his cause. They finally track him down, but he is more than a match for all of them, and escapes, leaving them for dead. They survive, and Lady Death not only recovers a sword made for her that can withstand her touch and channel her power through it, but learns great mystic power... and that Sagos not only plans to conquer the Blacklands, not only plans to conquer Earth itself, but has the means to do it.

In 1994, Pulido gave her her own title (or more accurately, several limited-series stories, with one flowing into the next) with his own imprint, Creator/ChaosComics. In this, hers was the epic story of a young woman in Sweden named [[MeaningfulName Hope]]. Her mother died when she was young; her father, a warlord named Matthias, was callous and brutal, and even consorted with dark powers, which eventually provoked a rebellion from the people. When he escaped by summoning a demon, she was included in the mob's ire, and was burned at the stake. In desperation, she uttered an incantation she'd heard him use, summoning a demon who offered her a bargain: serve the powers of Hell and renounce humanity, and he would spare her from death. [[FromBadToWorse She woke up in Hell, in the midst of a civil war between Lucifer himself and her own father.]] Corrupted by her surroundings, her skin, hair, and eyes turning white, Hope sought allies, at first finding only an exiled blacksmith--one of Hell's finest. In preparation, she set aside entirely her mortal name and self, and declared herself Lady Death, before leading a rebellion against the lords of hell. She rebelled, and [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu defeated Lucifer]] by casting him through a gate to Heaven, assuming the throne of Hell as Queen of the Damned. Or did she...? In any case, as a last curse, Satan told her she would never be able to return to Earth as long as the living walked. She decided to circumvent this pronouncement, and declared she would exterminate every living thing on Earth if she had to.

** Lady Death and Salacia express attraction towards [[MrFanservice Azlando]], but its implied he is either [[AmbiguouslyGay gay]] or [[{{Asexuality}} asexual]].

* TooDumbToLive: In ''Oblivion's Kiss'', Karvaka and Demonika capture Lady Death and brainwash Lady Death into being a dancer. They host an auction for her attended by demons who have a grudge against her. One of them points out that they should simply kill Lady Death immediately before she regains control and kills them. This is exactly what happens courtesy of Hanax.

* AdaptationDistillation: "Kill all humans" was completely removed from this version, playing her as a straight hero. Her father Matthias and Lucifer also were made [[CompositeCharacter the same person instead of two characters fighting each others]].
* AnimatedAdaptation