Blackheart
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Blackheart is a fictional character appearing in the Marvel Comics universe. He is a demon, the "son" of Mephisto. Created by Ann Nocenti and John Romita Jr., he first appeared in Daredevil vol.1, #270 (Sept. 1989). He is the archenemy of Ghost Rider.
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[edit] Fictional character biography
Centuries of murder in a locale named Christ's Crown drew the attention of a demon-lord, Mephisto, who created a "son", Blackheart, from the energy of the accumulated evil. Blackheart explored the nature of evil under his father's tutelage, clashing with and failing to corrupt Daredevil and Spider-Man. Mephisto and Blackheart soon drew Daredevil, Brandy Ash, the genetically engineered Number Nine, and the Inhumans Gorgon, Karnak, and Ahura into Hell.
Observing these mortals led Blackheart to rebel against his father and seek a newer form of evil; in retaliation, Mephisto diminished Blackheart's powers. Focusing on those who straddled good and evil, Blackheart tried and failed to recruit Wolverine (James Howlett), the Punisher (Frank Castle), and the Ghost Rider (Dan Ketch) to his rebellion. Blackheart also aided Wonder Man against Mephisto and helped a mercenary named Misha by serving as her telepathic "Voice". Returning to Christ's Crown in an attempt to corrupt a young girl named Lucy Crumm, a pure soul with powers including a calming influence and telepathy, Blackheart was once more defeated by Ghost Rider, Wolverine and the Punisher. When Mephisto appeared to express his disappointment in his wayward son, Blackheart apparently slew Mephisto with a dagger touched by Lucy's blood, banishing his "father" from Hell and restored his own powers to full strength.
As Hell's ruler, Blackheart focused on corrupting and tormenting Ghost Rider, one of the Spirits of Vengeance. From his palace in the Burning Flesh district, Blackheart created his own Spirits of Vengeance: his consort Black Rose (the deceased Roxanne Simpson, ex-wife of Dan Ketch's brother, Johnny Blaze), Verminus Rex (a spirit who had battled Ghost Rider during World War I), Wallow (a homicidal mortal suicide whom Ghost Rider had thwarted), Doghead (a downtrodden immigrant), and Pao Fu (who had died in the arms of Ghost Rider as he tried to save her). Blackheart bargained to free Ghost Rider's relatives from their curse; in return, Ghost Rider agreed to lead Blackheart's Spirits. However, the pair fell out and Ghost Rider banished Blackheart from Hell.
While ruler of Hell, Blackheart had tormented the soul of the mutant Stryfe by manipulating the X-Force group, which attracted the attention of the mutant sorceress Selene. After banishment from Hell, Blackheart allied with Selene as the temporary Black King of the evil, chess-nomenclatured Hellfire Club. After defeating Selene's enemy, Alyssa Moy, Blackheart battled the Fantastic Four, Mechamage, Hellstorm, and Margali Szardos; they ultimately defeated Blackheart, binding him beneath New York's Hellfire Club. Trapped there, he continued to aid Selene, opposing X-Force in an attempt to corrupt Sunspot.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Blackheart is a powerful demon of the highest order and possesses vast supernatural powers. He is essentially invincible to anything but the most powerful magic. He has superhuman strength and endurance which, being magical in nature, are potentially incalculably high. His speed is also incalculably high and his intelligence surpasses some of the smartest beings alive nearing him to omniscience. His telekinetic and telepathic powers give him abilities beyond most demons of his level. On one occasion he manipulated an army of over 10 million people into doing his bidding. Also, he once ripped an entire planet apart by an act of sheer will and did not show any sign of strain.
He also has the ability of flight and the ability to combine his superspeed with his flight. His powers also include teleportation and he can make himself intangible at will. Blackheart also has access to the darkforce dimension and can transport beings and himself into it. When Blackheart transports himself into the dimension, he is mentally linked with it and can manipulate anything in the dimension, even living beings.
It had been argued that Blackheart had the destructive powers of the Power Cosmic, but this is not the case. Rather, Blackheart's vast power is mystical in nature. He has the ability to generate a "Dark Energy", which he can transfer into destructive blasts, into a type of "Dark Fire" and "Dark Lighting". He also has the ability to generate a blast of super cold energy used to freeze enemies. He lost his practically infinite psionic powers when he attacked Mephisto and his mind was decimated. When his mind was shattered, he lost all memory of ever having his psionic powers, and was filled with nothing but hatred and greed until he was finally defeated. When he lost the majority of his powers, he became even less threatening to Mephisto and was banished from the hellish dimension Mephisto ruled.
He has the ability to change the size and physical form of himself, which gives him an amazing shape-shifting ability. He can survive under almost any condition, so he doesn't need food, water, sleep or air to survive, and is resistant to temperatures that are as hot as the surface of the sun.
He can assume human form, but prefers to remain in his true form.
He can enter and leave different planes of existence and dimensions at will and has reality warping powers, which have been compared to those of Franklin Richards. He can also summon demons and other supernatural creatures to do his bidding. He can use astral projection to make intangible copies of himself. Then he can use his magic to make them solid, but, their minds are always linked to Blackheart's, therefore, they can never act on their own, only at the control of Blackheart.
Blackheart has the ability to take different forms and confuse the minds of other people, making their worst aspects dominant. He has a more powerful ability to capture souls than Mephisto has, being able to capture souls against the will of the person he is stealing it from. He also displayed an impressive healing ability, regenerating whenever Mephisto tried to "discipline" him. His regenerative properties are amazingly high, being able to regenerate after total particle disintegration. He can also liquify himself. Since becoming the Lord of Hell, it can be assumed Blackheart has all the powers Mephisto once held.
As an interesting side note, he smells unpleasantly of burning ink and roses, and has no discernible heartbeat.
[edit] Appearances in other media
[edit] Video games
- Blackheart is a playable character in several entries in the Marvel VS. Series of video games.
- Blackheart also appeared as a boss in the Super Nintendo game, Marvel Super Heroes - War of the Gems.
- Blackheart is one of the bosses in the game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. In this game, you must either a) defeat Blackheart many times as he can resurrect himself by destroying pillars of glass littered around the arena or b) have the rest of your team battle him while you destroy the pillars so that he can´t use them, and then defeat him before moving on to Mephisto.
- Blackheart also appears as the final boss in the Ghost Rider movie tie-in game in both his movie form and classic demon form.
[edit] Film
- Actor Wes Bentley plays Blackheart in the 2007 film Ghost Rider from Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures. He appears throughout most of the film in his human form, only briefly showing his true form in between. The final form he takes the end of the film is essentially a mixture of his human form and Blackheart's comic book form, calling himself Legion, since Blackheart redeems a contract worth 1,000 souls of a ghost town to aid him in his endeavours. This is a reference to the biblical Legion, a man possessed by a large number of demons. He is defeated after Ghost Rider uses his Penance Stare to burn all the 1,000 souls in his body. Blackheart's father, Mephisto, then returns Blackheart's body to their realm. In this version, Blackheart's touch is deadly and he is extremely powerful, hinting more than once that he is more powerful than his father. As shown in the comics, Blackheart has a stronger ability to manipulate souls, as he does in the film when he tells Ghost Rider that he is now working for the son of the Devil. He does however lack several others powers that the comic version seem to have, such as the telekinesis and invulnerability.
[edit] Action figures
- Blackheart is included in the 13th wave of Marvel Legends action figures, subtitled "Bring on the Bad Guys".
- Blackheart appears in his human form in the first wave of Ghost Rider film toys.
[edit] External links
- MDP: Blackheart - Marvel Database Project
- Knightmare6.com; Blackheart
