Professor of Archeology Louise Hastings doesn’t miss the chance for firsthand occult research. She forms the Darkhold Redeemers alongside psychic Victoria Montesi and Interpol agent Sam Buchannan, and together they track down the Darkhold pages scattered across the world to protect humanity from their demonic dangers.
From Barbados to Oxford
Hailing from Barbados in the Caribbean, Louise Hastings grows up to become a leading occult specialist and professor of Archaeology at Oxford University, England. She has a daughter named Caprice who stops speaking to her after high school, and through her a grandson, William Hastings, AKA Jinx.
While she consults on the Donald Walsh murder case in New York, Johnny Blaze and Danny Ketch, AKA Ghost Rider, approach her with a warning that she and others revealed to him in a vision are the next targets of Lilith, the Mother of Demons and Queen of Evil.
While returning to the crime scene on Long Island, she comes upon Interpol agent Sam Buchannan who holds her at gunpoint. Louise immediately recognizes the woman with him as Victoria “Vicki” Montesi. Shocked at seeing her alive after she heard about the bomb at her apartment, Louise and Vicki embrace. Vicki introduces Louise to Sam as professor, occult expert, and the only friend of her father’s that she ever loved. Louise explained to them that the police flew her to Long Island to help investigate an ancient parchment at the murder site. She informed them the parchment is one of the lost pages of the Book of Sins known as the Darkhold. Louise continues to inform them of the Darkhold’s origin, that its author was none other than the Elder God Chthon and during Medieval days, its pages were scattered to break the book’s power. Just then a worm-version of Mr. Walsh attacks Buchannan and Blaze and Ketch arrive to stop it. Walsh tries to depart, but not before Buchannan grabs some remnants and Louise suggests an idea to contain him. They call upon Walsh and he tells them about the Dwarf who delivered him a page containing a language he didn’t recognize, but he read it anyway and it turned out to be a spell that summoned the Other. The Other offered Walsh immortality, and Walsh accepted and it transformed him into a rotting pile of chameleon worms that could shift back into his human form.
Though Walsh escapes and tries to capture Vicki. She runs as the group chases after them. Lilith shows up and attacks the group. They fight back while Louise, seeing birds in the vicinity, stops Sam from firing upon their assailants as the sound would scare them away. The birds then attack and expel the Walsh worms. Blaze shoots Lilith and she runs off into the night with her Lilin minions. With Walsh gone and Lilith out of the picture, the danger ceases but Louise, realizing there could be other pages out there and Victoria having had a vision confirming it, Vicki and Sam elect to remain together in hopes of opposing the Darkholders. Directed by Vicki’s visions, they embark on a series of harrowing adventures, becoming known as the Darkhold Redeemers.
Occult Expert
Louise earns her Ph.D. in Archeology and becomes a professor at Oxford University. She is also a leading expert in the occult.
With knowledge in how to wield a gun, Louise is unafraid to use the weapon when in need. Often she uses it to threaten others but will fire it out of defense.
Devilish Dangers
Louise’s foremost enemy is the Mother of Demons, Lilith, and her hellish spawn known as the Lilin who seek to shatter the walls between Earth and the supernatural realms. Seeking the ancient pages of the Darkhold, Louise uses her knowledge of the occult to keep Lilith at bay.
While Louise goes up against many other demonic foes, she ultimately perishes at the hands of a possessed Dr. Michael Morbius, AKA Morbius, the Living Vampire.
Close Allies and Family Ties
When repeated use of the Darkhold weakens the dimensional barrier, Chthon sends the mysterious Dwarf to Earth. Obtaining original Darkhold pages separate from the bound tome, the Dwarf offers people pages as a solution to their woes. To oppose this, occult scholar Louise Hastings joins with Interpol agent Sam Buchanan and family friend and psychic Victoria Montesi. As the Darkhold Redeemers they track the pages’ use, which Victoria could magically sense, and collect the pages to prevent further usage.
As the Redeemers, they go up against cultist Donald Walsh and his Chameleon Worms with assistance from Ghost Riders Danny Ketch and Johnny Blaze. They also team up with the riders alongside the Midnight Sons, and battle Lilith as she opens a dimensional rift and begins turning their group into her subservient Lilin. Louise suggests they shut the rift and the plan works. Their ally, Dr. Stephen Strange, AKA Doctor Strange, mystically sends them to safety.
The group eventually meets their mysterious benefactor: Modred the Mystic whose previous experience with the Darkhold over the centuries of his long life comes in handy. A reformed villain, he seeks to help the Redeemers in their quest to protect humanity.
While not close with her daughter Caprice and grandson William, Louise is there for her upon her death, which happens to be caused by a Darkhold page. Afterward, she takes her grandson into her care and he becomes a part of the Redeemers crew.
A Researcher’s Record
The Darkhold Redeemers battled Lilith and her Lilin, traveled to South Carolina to ally with Sabretooth against the N’Garai, fought Rev. Styge alongside the Frank Castle, AKA Punisher, and joined with Doctor Strange, Wanda Maximoff, Scarlet Witch, and Agatha Harkness against the Pearl Harbor bombing “Memory Spell” of Mr. Haywood.
While on a flight to Los Angeles, the Redeemers ran into Louise’s daughter, Caprice, who worked as an airline attendant. Victoria experienced a strong vision indicating someone had used a Darkhold page on the plane—fellow passenger Sarrah Roberts who used a wish spell that summoned the Wish-Demon, an hellish entity that fulfills wishes in the most violent way possible. During the chaos, Caprice died but not before entrusting her mother Louise to look after her son, William. Louise then used the wish spell page to summon the Other, but only to tell it she refused to fall for the trick of using it to revive her Caprice. Louise brought Caprice’s son William into her care and he joined their growing team.
The Redeemers later battled Switchblade, actually a Darkhold-empowered/corrupted Eric Brooks, AKA Blade, the Vampire Hunter. Switchblade killed all of the Redeemers save Louise in the battle, but she used the Darkhold to revive them, tainting her soul. After Victoria used a Darkhold page despite the Montesi family’s supposed incorruptibility, Hastings investigated Victoria’s past with the intention also of finding the gateway that powers the Darkhold pages. She traveled to Rome to visit the Occult Library with The Vatican which is run by Vicki’s father. With some assistance from Diabolique, Louise learned that Vittorio Montesi was sterile and had used a Darkhold spell to conceive Victoria, who was actually Chthon’s child.
When Switchblade claimed the original Darkhold, it activated a protective spell of displacement, which tried to pull the book into a vortex where Strange could later find it; aided by Ghost Rider, Hastings prevented its departure.
When Louise discovered that Morbius changed from an infection of Lilin blood, he attacked and killed her. Louise’s ally and occult investigator and Nightstalker member Frank Drake who found her dying. Before she died, she uttered “mo” but when Drake heard her, he assumed Modred. The group reeled from the loss of their trusted friend and disbanded shortly afterward.
