By [ad_1]
Daredevil may be Marvel’s most notorious devil, but Infinity War’s Hellspawn almost buried Matt Murdock for good.
While it may not be as expansive as that of Batman or Spider-Man, Daredevil has one of comics’ most dangerous rogues gallery in all of comics. Characters like the Kingpin, Bullseye, and even Stilt-Man or wannabe Kingpins like the Hood have all threatened Hell’s Kitchen at one point or another, all challenging Matt Murdock to push himself to the limits to stop them.
Despite the constant battles with dangerous foes, Matt continues to be his own worst enemy with some of the choices he’s made. But events during and spinning out of The Infinity War by Jim Starlin, Ron Lim, Al Milgrom, Jack Morelli, and Christie Scheele made this truer than ever when Daredevil was forced to confront his dark doppelganger known as Hellspawn.
Sent to Earth by the evil Magus, along with other dark doppelgangers of many of Marvel’s mightiest heroes, the creature that would become Hellspawn was originally from the Dimension of Manifestations. Essentially rented out by Magus to battle the heroes of Earth, the creature was mutated by the Magus into a dark duplicate of Hell’s Kitchen’s protector, Daredevil.
The creature was given enhanced strength and agility, as well as razor-sharp fangs, claws, and a deadly devil tail. As a dark replicant of Daredevil, he also duplicated Daredevil’s signature radar sense and, like Matt, he was traditionally blind. In the same way that Venom can avoid the Spider-Sense of Daredevil’s famous wallcrawling friend, Hellspawn is undetectable to Matt’s radar sense and he even has the ability to produce a spiked club from his own body. These abilities came in handy as he battled Daredevil and the rest of Earth’s heroes alongside his fellow duplicates. Hellspawn was also one of the doppelgangers to be defeated and immediately respawn, showing the heroes just what they were facing. One of a few duplicates to survive the series, he would go on to clash with his counterpart as a more personal threat to the Man Without Fear.
Reappearing in Daredevil #310 by Glenn Herdling, Scott McDaniel, and Bud Rosa, Hellspawn is mistaken for Daredevil by the priestess Calypso who kills and resurrects the creature, who escapes only to fend off an attempt by a voodoo priest to bend Hellspawn to his will. Eventually, he makes it to New York, appearing as a recurring villain throughout the “Fall From Grace” storyline by D.G. Chichester, Scott McDaniel, and Hector Collazo in the pages of Daredevil. It was the threat of Hellspawn that partially motivates Matt to don an iconic new suit, complete with armor plating.
Hellspawn raced against Daredevil, Elektra, Morbius, and others as they all sought a mysterious virus that had gone missing in the New York subways years before. This virus would grant Hellspawn a human appearance and life as a real being, motivating his consistent attacks against Matt and others. As the confrontation over the virus escalates, Hellspawn battles Daredevil and Elektra in the sewers, taunting Matt over his inability to see him in combat. When the heroes manage to turn the tables on the creature, driving him to escape as he begins tailing the criminal Daito to find the virus. Hellspawn attempts to take Daito by surprise before he gets ambushed by Daredevil and Elektra. The two force-feed him the virus, granting him his one wish but almost immediately, Hellspawn is slain by a dark doppelganger of Elektra. As he dies, his corpse morphs into an identical copy of Matt Murdock.
Seeing this as an opportunity, Matt uses Hellspawn’s body as his own, faking his death and, not for the first time, assumes a fake identity. He may have posed an incredible threat, but Hellspawn’s strength and cunning only got him so far. Despite his demonic nature, Hell’s Kitchen has room for only one devil, and it certainly isn’t Hellspawn.
About The Author
[ad_2]
