Asmodel
4000 BCE - Asmodel, King Angel of the Pax-Dei & General of Heaven's Bull Host, begins his plot to one day overthrow the Throne of Heaven.
4 years ago - Asmodel's plan to ally with hell to overthrow the Throne of Heaven is discovered by Zauriel. He chases him to Earth and initiates his rebellion, but is ultimately defeated by Zauriel & J'onn J'onzz, and is sent to hell.
2 years ago - Asmodel attempts to usurp control of the Spectre to escape hell and regain his seat in Heaven. The Watchtower & Shadowpact reach out to Zauriel for assistance in going into the afterlife to find Jim Corrigan so that he can reclaim the Spectre, He disincorporates Asmodel as punishment.
There are plenty of characters out there that are really derived just from one story. Lots of them will continue to appear elsewhere, but often the best way to really do right by that character is to recognize that original purpose. Similarly, a character might exist entirely in service to another one. Asmodel is certainly both of those things. but he's also just a pretty cool creation all on his own, just by virture of the stories he's in and how he was written. We just need to make sure we do it all justice.
Asmodel's Comic HistoryAsmodel's first appearance was technically in JLA # 7 in 1998, but you should really read issue #6 first, as these two issues tell the story Grant Morrison's new guardian angel character Zauriel and his fall to earth, and the Bull Host angels following him. Asmodel, the general of the Bull Host appears in issue #7, fighting the entire Justice League as he attempts to reclaim Zauriel. We soon discover that Zauriel has learned of Asmodel's plans to stage a new rebellion against heaven (to succeed where Lucifer failed), and that is why he is persuing him with such violence. In the end, Asmodel is defeated, and Zauriel is able to introduce himself to the mortal woman he was in love with...
A story that was immediately picked up in a very cool three issue miniseries, JLA: Paradise Lost by Morrison's frenemy and fellow Scot, Mark Millar. This follow's Zauriel's relationship with his mortal charge and, oh right, the rebellion against heaven by Asmodel and his allies from Hell. These two stories were basically published on top of each other, all meant to Introduce Zauriel to Morrison's JLA, but in doing so they introduced a really cool new limited-use villain to DC. Asmodel benefitted hugely from the near-prose that Morrison used to define him; "Imagine a being whose every heartbeat is a thousand Hiroshimas, whose gaze can strip flesh from bone. Whose blood is the universal solvent, an acid ten times purer than any on Earth. If you can imagine that, you can just about imagine Asmodel." Asmodel made one more major appearance in another story a year later; the huge crossover story JLA: Day of Judgement, in which Asmodel attempts to usurp the Spectre, and which ultimately led to Hal Jordan becoming it's new host. While he has a few more appearances here and there, these three really make up the whole of Asmodel's actual story. |
Our Asmodel Storyit's fun how much including Asmodel really amps up Zauriel as a character. Neither of them are incredibly prolific characters; but sometimes that's just not that necessary when the story the characters are telling is at once so widely, imaginatively expansive while also being so self contained. We do need to make a few small changes here... mostly just in fitting them into our timeline. The events of the original story of Zauriel falling to Earth and Asmodel both chasing after him and assaulting heaven is all before the Watchtower is even formed. Those stories did heavily feature Martian Manhunter, so we're using him in place of the whole Watchtower since we can always use more Martian Manhunter stories.
So the events that lead to Zauriel joining the Watchtower are actually going to be based on Day of Justice, where Asmodel atempts to escape his lot in Hell by usurping the Spectre for himself. It's a cool crossover, and Asmodel's role in it is pretty great. That story fameously set up Hal Jordan as the new Spectre, which we're not doing, but otherwise this is a really great use of a very singular character, and it makes a cool but obscure character even cooler. |