Subpages cleanup: Complete Monster

Alrighty then, one last easy one, and then as many as three more potentials.

At this point in the story (issue #24, "Blood, Sex, and Magic"), Jonah is still in the present day, and he and his girlfriend decide to go to the Burning Man festival to have fun at the "weirdo sex festival". While they're there, their paths cross with John Constantine of all people, and things very quickly start going wrong.

Who is the demon? What does he do?

The unnamed demon is a demonic presence who decides to take advantage of all the sin happening at the festival. To do so, the demon sends out legions of Ki'yathe demons to infect the people there, killing them and reducing their bodies to reanimated corpses. After gaining enough power to manifest itself on Earth from the hundreds of bodies it infects, the demon manifests and immediately confronts Constantine, taking him out fast. He then confronts Jonah and begins observing his soul, relishing in the life filled with death our bounty hunter has led. However, the demon soon realizes that Jonah is a literal Hex on sinners, powered by some kind of former Angel - and the terror it causes the demon is just enough of a distraction for Constantine to stab him with a magical knife and imprison him forever.

Without the demon's willpower sustaining the other demons outside, the hundreds of people they've taken over spontaneously combust.

Once again, short, sweet, and working hella fast.

Any mitigating factors? Freudian Excuse?

Demons in the DC Universe have a well-documented history of agency and so we have no reason to assume that this one is any different - if nothing else, Etrigan still exists in the New 52 and maintains his anti-heroic status. Other than that, nothing to speak of here.

Is he heinous enough?

A demon that kills hundreds of people in a single appearance? Easy yes.

Final verdict?

Not exactly exciting, but a keeper - what about you?

Easy Yes to Clem, Stanley (EDIT: and the demon lol) and Williams himself, great work y'all!!

Edited by Ravok on Sep 27th 2021 at 12:04:55 PM

Yes to the Demon...Deus ex Machina aside.

I guess he'll go on the Hellblazer page as well?

Edited by ACW on Sep 27th 2021 at 3:06:30 PM

Yes to the Demon

Demon

I hadn't thought about that at all so I'll just leave it up to you. For what it's worth, this issue was published after Hellblazer had already concluded (Hellblazer ended in April of 2013, while this issue was published in November)

Edited by STARCRUSHER99 on Sep 27th 2021 at 3:10:03 PM

Wait, no more Hellblazer? So is Constantine just appearing in other comics now?

I mean, according to the comic's page on the DC Wiki

Yes to Clem, Cooper, Doc, and the demon.

Though according to this, there are still Hellblazer comics, so I think I'll add him to the Hellblazer page (ditto Cooper and the Batman page).

BTW, "Blood, Sex, and Magic" is issue #25, though the demon did appear in issue 24.

As a single image that I wasn’t sure if it was worth mentioning, but fair enough - in that case, Clem appears in the issue after his main one as well - so 19 and 20 (“Gold Standard”)

Edited by STARCRUSHER99 on Sep 27th 2021 at 3:26:35 PM

For the main line they have been relaslsing a new series as part of The Sandman Universe. Which is a bunch of one shots and miniseries meant to celebrate the series that spun off or are linked to Sandman. Lucifer, Hellblazer, Books of magic, etc.

Please tell me that doesn't mean we need to do anything with the DC page organization.

After playing through a bunch of short horror games, managed to find one worth talking about

What is the Work?

What Lies in the Fog is a short horror game made by Nichmannn which follows an unnamed protagonist, who ended up in a town surrounded by demonic fog and unnamed pastor gives him a mission to gather all people in the town in his search, supposedly to keep them safe from the fog. In reality though, as revealed in all 3 possible endings of the game, pastor has more sinister goals in mind.

Full walkthrough of the game and all 3 endings can be viewed here:

My candidate is the pastor, who is revealed to be a demon in the end.

Who is the unnamed Pastor demon?

A demon, who serves the Fog (which revealed to be an eldritch creature) and enjoes his "work", he took the form of a pastor in the past and integrated himself in the town. Heavily implied to have leading the Fog to various places to have it devour innocent people, the demon greeted the protagonist at the start of the game in his pastor form and sended him to gather remaining people of the town in his church, as the Fog surrounded the town, leading to supernatural events killing at least two people there. Keeping the sympathetic apperance, the demon, in all endings, reveals his true form to the protagonist at the end.

In the standard ending, after the protagonist gathered all people in the town in his church, demon revealed himself, gloating that now it's time for his master to feast, and traps the people in his church, feeding them to his master, before burning the place down.

In the good ending, protagonist instead gathered the people deep below the well, with furious demon arriving, saying that it doesn't matter, and calling his master there with the intention to have it devour the people there. Fog instead grabbed and dragged away demon himself, supposedly to kill him.

In another secret ending, the protagonist himself can feed the people to the Fog, with furious demon confronting him about it, saying how dared he "steals his job", before revealing his true form and begging the Fog to not replace him, only for the Fog to devour the demon and using the protagonist as his servant, following him around, with intention to devour people whenever he goes.

Do they have any Mitigating Factors or Freudian Excuse?

None. His loyalty to the Fog is never explored beyond standard henchman stuff, with it being shown that he only follows The Fog due to fear and enjoyment of seeing it devour people.

Do they meet the Heinousness Standard?

While the protagonist himself can feed people of the town to The Fog in the secret ending, i still note that it's the secret ending stuff, and demon himself either feeds the people of the town to the Fog or tries to do it in any case, with stong implication, that this is not the first nor the last place demon leads the Fog to devour people there. With supernatural stuff occuring whenever he goes, which claims the lives of more innocents. If we judge by the number of people in the game, the demon's actions might led to the deaths of at least 8 people, with more being hinted at, as we find decapitated head in the coffin.

Final Verdict?

What do you think?

Edited by VeryVileVillian on Sep 27th 2021 at 10:35:13 PM

Pastor Demon

The Demon

...this is the day of unnamed demons, it isnt?

Stanley Cooper

Clem

Doc

Edited by KazuyaProta on Sep 27th 2021 at 2:37:34 PM

to Creature, Baphomet and Desskari, Anime!Queen Beryl, Izual, Clem Hootkins, Stanley Cooper, Doc Cross Williams, the demon and Unnamed Paster Demon.

As you might remember I’ve put up a few candidates over the years from the SWAT and having just completed the shows fourth season, I think I might have found another one. To give a quick refresher, the series stars Shemar Moore as Sergeant Daniel “Hondo” Harrelson, detailing his and his team’s efforts to confront the worst of the worst threats to plague his city.

Now amongst the many real world crisis’s (and a few fictional ones) the team face throughout the forth season, it also sees them having to deal with the rise of the Imperial Dukes, a neo-Nazi domestic terrorist group who in their minds are fighting a holy crusade of preserving America status as white Christian nation, with the intention of starting a glorious race war that would purge all those who they deemed as inferior.

Our candidate being none other than their leader and founder, I give you Marc Stargher.

Who Is he:

Formally the VP of a local political Think Tank and a specialist in crisis handling, Stargher was fired three years before the events of the series after he was caught stealing personal data and manipulating statistics, in the attempts to prove his white supremacist ideology.

Going underground Stargher used his expertise in media and technology to found the Imperial Dukes, reaching out online to other white supremacists and disenfranchised and vulnerable individuals, sucking them in with conspiracy theories and the belief they were being marginalised. He carefully set up the Dukes to operate within independent cells of no more than eight members, with himself coordinating their efforts anonymously online.

What Does He Do:

Founding the Duke cells in his native Los Angeles, Stargher had them stockpile weapons and prepare for the upcoming attacks. Even having a former marine build them a series of military standard training courses to prepare and hone their skills.

Starting off in “Crusade” Stargher has one of the local cells with begin a series of attacks on minority owned businesses within the area, with the MO of initially appearing to just be a robbery then the assailant would then non fatally shoot the person who gave them the money and toss in a Molotov cocktail setting the establishment alight as they made their escape, leaving the person to burn to death. By the events of the episode four people have been killed and three more hospitalised in these attacks, with the team managing to save the next victim from burning to death quite by random luck that they were close enough to the events after apprehending the Duke who committed the previous murder.

Events escalating further, two of the remaining cell members attempted to enact mass shootings the first of a hairdressers in a black neighbourhood and the second an Jewish Community centre. Both attacks were thankfully thwarted. The team likewise managed to find this cells meeting centre at a local tattoo parlour. Unfortunately in their attempts to apprehend the cells final member who had hauled themselves up in his home, their newest member Erika Rogers was fatally shot dead.

Undeterred Stargher turned his attention to another cell, specifically the one that handled online propaganda and media manipulation for him, and gave them orders to prepare “the reckoning” a mass attack that would draw an enormous amount of attention for their cause.

Finally ready in “Reckoning” the Cell steals a large amount of industrial chemicals, that when vaporised becomes an extremely lethal gas (to the point that even inhaling a little causes complete corrosion of the lungs, giving the feeling of being burned to death from the inside). The plan being they set off the canisters (which they had disguised as outdoors gas heaters) at an event the local university was holding to rename one of their buildings after a famous Californian Civil rights activist. Hoping to kill everyone who attended (the key note speakers being several prominent activists themselves).

Thankfully whilst they were able to set off the gas, the team managed to evacuate nearly all the civilians in time and disable it before anyone was killed. Afterwards Stargher himself personally sent them a message (knowing they had now infiltrated the servers the Duke’s used to covertly talk online) telling them it was not too late for the police to join him against the real enemy.

Personally taking over the running of the final cell in the city Stargher embarked on his most ambitious plot yet in "Veritas Vincint". The city already on a razor edge due to racial tensions (partially down to Hondo himself exposing the LAPD covering for several racist cops), Stargher planned to escalate the tensions into full blown riots, believing it would kick off the great race war he dreamed off.

Having a member stalk the outspoken Black Justice Advocate Kevin Hilliard, until they had all the information they needed on him, Stargher hired a lookalike to dress as Hiliard and drive a car of the same make and model as him to drop off a bomb at the 17th police station. The desk officer noticing it in time meant no one died, although multiple officers were injured. Stargher having the lookalike murdered the moment he turned up to collect his payment.

Thus the police arrested Hiliard leading to his supporters organising a massive protest outside the station (matters made even worse by the fact that Hiliard had hired several of the 20 Street Hammers for protection). Having scoped out the area perfectly, wearing police uniforms Stargher and the two remaining members of his cell would snipe at the protesters from the best shooting positions a top nearby buildings, making it look like the police massacred them and causing the events to escalate into city wide riots.

Thankfully the team managed to discover his plans in time and took out his two other members. However, Stargher getting suspicious that the other two hadn’t already started shooting, tried to contact them for updates. Upon hearing radio silence he realised they had been compromised and ran for it. Managing to get down and out of the building evading Hondo and Deacon, to hide his escape Stargher set off a bomb and stole a motorcycle, shooting at cops through the crowd as he made his escape.

Street engaged him in a high intense chase, with Stargher running over several people trying to lose him, only to be stopped by Hondo crashing his car into him, he then arrested Stargher finally putting an end to his reign of terror.

Any Freudian Excuse or Redeeming Traits:

Nothing given that’s sympathetic. Stargher is at heart just a white supremacist with delusions of grandeur, who sees society changing as an attack on himself and wants to rid America of everyone he deems inferior. He’s never shown to have any close relationships, suffered any personal tragedies or shown any signs of care for any of his followers.

Now being fair despite being a threat throughout the entire season Stargher only appears quite briefly. Making his first appearance in the final episode just before he attempts to enact his plans, he likewise doesn’t get much dialogue or focus. However, we do get plenty of insight into his personality and motivations from the focus on the other Imperial Dukes and their official manifesto and propaganda throughout the season, so I don’t really think that’s an issue.

Now it’s also true that Stargher wasn’t personally involved in any of the attacks up to the last one. But whilst each Imperial Duke cell is relatively independent (deliberately so, simple to make it more difficult for Law enforcement to bring them down) it’s also made clear that Stargher is the one who was giving them orders for each attack and is implied to be the one who radicalised a large number of the members to begin with.

Heinous Standard:

Now the series has had the squad facing a few terrorists and thwarting a number of serious attacks. However, it is still quite a pretty rare opponent. Likewise most of them amount to attempting on serious attack that would kill some many people for one reason or other.

The closest opponent to compare Stargher to would be “Cinque” the Big Bad of season two and the leader of the Emancipators. Now both are leaders of their respective terrorist organisations and amongst the shows few recurring threats. However, Stargher easily comes out the worst of the two of them. The Emancipators were a very left wing group with their focus being on attacking big business, the upper classes and corrupt politicians (granted with a level of self-serving hypocrisy) and thus whilst willing to commit terrorist attacks generally avoided mass murder (the worst they do is attempting to blow up part of City Hall in their final appearance).

Stargher by contrasted is a twisted supremacist, whose entire goal is to kill as many people he considers inferior as possible. Whilst the team managed to thwart most of his attacks, the sheer amount of death he was attempting to accomplish is incomparable with anyone else in the series (save for that warlord who had too much off-screen).

Conclusion:

Not the most interesting or well developed antagonist, but I think Stargher is a keeper.

Edited by MGD107 on Sep 27th 2021 at 1:24:04 AM

Both unnamed demons and Stargher

Edited by Ordeaux26 on Sep 27th 2021 at 1:03:44 AM

pastor demon and Stargher

Yea to both of these! Though let's maaaaybe wait an hour or two for any others now

Demon #1, Demon #2, and Stargher

Yes to Stargher.

Yea to the Hex guys since I last posted mine, as well as Stargher. My final guy is from issue 3 of the 2006 run.

Who is the sheriff of Kent? What has he done?

The seemingly-honest lawman of the town of Kent is actually a greedy, racist bastard who resents his job isn't paying him enough, so he decides to have his little brother and his gang start framing attacks on the Apache.

The sheriff has wagon trains massacred, nobody spared. The women are raped before they're killed. Hex finds out of these slaughters and dialogue indicates the sheriff is planning for many more such "Apache" massacres across the region. With that he plans to kickstart a full on race war to eradicate the Apache, all for the sake of profit. When Hex captures him, and drags him to the Apache who scalp him alive and screaming—"you pay good money for our scalps, we pay good money for yours."

Any mitigating factors?

The sheriff's reaction to seeing his dead kid brother among the bodies is something close to "mild annoyance" at worst—the brother's a minion and a particularly disposable one Likewise, he does spare the survivor of his massacre and his wife, but for purely pragmatic reasons to keep up his image as lawman intact—he mentions "survival and silence" go in equal measures, with the clear indication that if the man and his wife do talk, they're dead.

Beyond that, for heinousness? The dude tries to kick off a genocidal race war through mass slaughter and rape. He's fine with hundreds, maybe thousands of people dying, white and Apache alike, because he's not satisfied enough with the money he already has. Even with the stiff standard of the New 52's run, he passes, especially for a completely human baddie.

Conclusion?

Keeper.

Edited by Scraggle on Sep 27th 2021 at 2:12:40 AM

to the Sheriff of Kent.

Sheriff

Marc Stargher.

This day is pretty active

The scumbag sheriff of Kent