In the X-Men: Storm & Illyana limited series, the demon Belasco corrupted little Illyana Rasputin’s soul, turning her into Magik, the ruler of Limbo and member of the New Mutants. But Illyana isn’t the only hero or villain to have her soul corrupted or used as a bargaining chip!
In the words of rock singer Billy Joel’s famous song, “It’s all about soul.” But in the comic book world, “soul” is relative and some characters just don’t have one – or it’s been corrupted in some horrific or strange way.
We’ll take a look here at five characters – other than Magik – who are either missing that vital piece of essence or have their souls owned by somebody (or something) else.
Spawn (Al Simmons)
Poor Al Simmons! He was a US Marine who saved the President from an assassination attempt and later was promoted to the CIA and a “Black Ops” unit. Questioning the morality of his new assignments, a hit was put on Simmons and he died in a horrific fire.
In Hell – which is where he was sent for taking innocent lives – Simmons made a deal with Malebolgia to exchange his soul for a chance to see his wife again. Simmons did return from Hell – but five years had passed him by and now he had a demonic appearance (and hardly any memory of who he was!) When he finally got his memory back, he found out his wife had married his best friend. How’s that for a crummy deal with the devil?
They say when you make a deal with the devil there’s always a catch, and it looks like Al found that out the hard way.
The Demon (Etrigan)
Etrigan is one of my favorite DC Characters – but technically, Etrigan isn’t a character by himself! He’s really a demon, who in his original incarnation was bonded by the wizard Merlin to one of Camelot’s knights, Jason Blood.
Long-lived because of his bonding with Etrigan, Blood goes on to become a prominent demonologist in Gotham City. Throughout the original adventures of Etrigan, Blood travels throughout Gotham, using the skills he’s acquired through the bonding to work as a hero in the city.
Master Pandemonium (Martin Preston)
Master Pandemonium was one of the few impressive villains that the West Coast Avengers faced during the series’ 102-issue run. He was actually a famous movie producer until a car accident took one of his arms. Not wanting his life as a famous Hollywood producer disrupted by his maiming, he called out to Mephisto to save his arm.
In another really bad “deal with the devil,” Mephisto instead decided to take ALL of Preston’s limbs and replace them with demons. On the plus side, he could control the demons that were now inside him. On the negative side, his soul was split into five parts that he now had to find – and an inverted five-pointed star-shaped hole in his chest was left as a reminder of what he was missing.
Sounds almost like a worse deal than the one Spawn received.
Brother Power The Geek
Brother Power is a good guy – he’s a hippie super-hero created in the late 1960s by comic writer/illustrator Joe Simon. But he’s got no soul – he was actually a store mannequin who was struck by lightning and became animated.
No, really. He was a store mannequin.
It looks like Brother has seen some new life from DC in the last decade, but at the time he wasn’t particularly popular. Brother Power, reflecting the hippie subculture, actually attempted to run for US Congress. The last appearance in his early two issue series saw him being fired into space on a direct order from Governor Ronald Reagan. Let that one sink in for a moment…
And now, our final entry on the “Characters With No Souls List…”
Dennis the Menace
Meet Dennis. He was a Marvel character for a time, “menacing” his way through over a dozen issues during the early 1980s. He was more of a rambunctious troublemaker than anything. So how did a poor little precocious kid wind up in this list of “Comic Characters With No Soul?”
Just ask Mr. Wilson.
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