On the edge of good and evil, Satana Hellstrom is a half-human, half-demon hybrid and succubus that drains souls to survive. She often dispenses justice by targeting predators.
The Devil’s Daughter
Satana is the daughter of the archdemon Satan. Her story begins over 30 years ago when a coalition of demons ruling various Hells—including Marduk Kurios, Asmodeus, Beelzeboul, Lucifer, Mephisto, Satannish, Thog, and possibly others—desire a son via a human woman to serve as a living battery drawing in mankind’s black energy (sin), and storing it as a charge of pure evil. This offspring would empower the Hell-Lords to pierce reality’s walls in force and overwhelm humanity. In an early attempt, the Hell-Lords bond their collective essence within Beelzeboul, who seduces and impregnates Cassandra Dragonmekas, but upon learning his true nature, she magically banishes him back to Hell. Kurios (usually known as Satan) subsequently takes human form for their next attempt. Apparently unknown to the Hell-lords, the Chapel of Dresden cult simultaneously seek to create a half-human, half-demon messiah from the pit through which they could rule mankind. Purchasing Victoria Wingate Hellstrom from her Satanist parents, they tattoo her womb with Satanic symbols, enabling her to bear such a child. In human form, Kurios becomes drawn to and seems to seduce Victoria. Marrying quickly, they move to Fire Lake’s mansion, where their son Daimon is born a year later. While Daimon becomes more attached to his mother, he remains unaware of his father’s true nature; but his sister, Satana, born three years later, is daddy’s little girl. Like her brother, she ingests human blood and her father’s servants tend to her needs. Even as a toddler, Satana pleases her father by killing birds or other such behavior.
Both Satana and Daimon are home schooled, as their father does not want them to be defiled by the townsfolk. When Satana is six-years-old, Victoria walks in on an animal sacrifice Satana was performing for her father, which drives her mother mad and upon seeing her husband’s true face, she’s institutionalized. Driving out the memory of willingly mothering the Antichrist, Victoria describes herself as an innocent victim of Satan in her diary. Kurios, Victoria, and their children remain utterly unaware that Devil-Breaker Stephen Loss, an agent of Heaven’s assassins, the Asura, had since exterminated the Chapel of Dresden.
Satana and Daimon are eventually split up to be placed in homes, but the car carrying Satana disappears en route along with the driver and the young nurse escorting her. Taken to her father’s Hell realm, Satana learns more about the use of her demonic powers, some of which she inherits, while others Satan grant to her. Satan also bonds Satana’s soul to the immensely powerful Basilisk demon.
At ten years old, Satana recievess her costume by Dame Aramanthe of Eleom, and soon after, Satan gives her a feline familiar, Exiter, and she’s tutored in warfare by the ancient demon Dansker. The demon Zannarth is forced to become Satana’s companion and slave, and he begins to resent her after she jokingly steals his soul. As part of a graduation test of sorts, Satana battles Dansker, landing a few good strikes before he easily humbles her, showing her he is her master and could have slain her.
Satana the Succubus
Satana is a succubus, draining souls to survive, though how long she can go without taking a soul is unrevealed. She prefers to feed on men, kissing each victim as she draws forth his soul, causing his body to shrivel. The soul then takes the form (visible at least to Satana) of a butterfly-like being, which she would crush in her fingers, seemingly disintegrating it, but actually absorbing its psionic energy. After she feeds on the soul’s power, the spirit is cast down into her father’s Hell realm.
After her death and while in Hell, Satana learns she can increase her power by consuming more souls than she needs, and by partially feeding on a man, she can enslave him. She also learns that by impregnating weapons with her body fluids, she can gain the soul power of victims slain with those weapons. It is unclear whether this ability is only true when said weapons are used by her servants.
Satana can fire soulfire, which causes intense psychic or spiritual pain, but can also be perceived by its target as heat or physical force if its wielder so wills it. She can also form shields, levitate (though she apparently cannot fly), cast illusions, mesmerize others and strip away others’ false images, laying bare their souls and forcing them to see themselves as they truly are.
She has superhuman strength (Class 10), durability, longevity,y and other physical abilities. She is resistant to conventional disease and does not require food, air, or most other human needs. Even if she dies, her spirit is sent to her father’s Hell, and she can be reincarnated on Earth under various circumstances.
She has extensive knowledge of black magical lore, and she can add magic to technological devices, for instance utilizing a tracker of electromagnetic energy to locate a specific soul in Hell. She occasionally casts spells, but her magical abilities are undefined.
She is sometimes assisted by her familiar, the demon cat, Exiter. She’s bound to the Basilisk, an immensely powerful archdemon capable of slaughtering virtually any who encounter it. It’s contained within Satana (or a pocket realm accessed by her), and released only at her discretion. It grows stronger, more powerful, and more willful with each use, and its life force is tied to hers.
Infernal Foes
Satan, though gifting his daughter Satana powers, desires her to collect souls for his realm: Hell. Since she is a succubus, this is an easy task for her, but Satana often does not see eye to eye with him, especially when he tests her loyalty and tricks her.
Hellish Alliances
Satana’s brother, Daimon Hellstrom, AKA Hellstorm, is her ally in that they both share feelings of distrust for their infernal father, Satan. But when Hellstorm seemingly betrays her, she threatens to take his soul.
Satana’s alliance with Dr. Stephen Strange, AKA Doctor Strange, is also tenuous—they often ally with one another out of convenience until their interests no longer align. Satana joins S.H.I.E.L.D.’s monster strikeforce, the Howling Commandos, the Witches, and later the Thunderbolts to fight the forces of evil and dispense justice.
To Hell and Back
As a young woman, Satana was banished to Earth and Zannarth to a netherworld, all seemingly the work of a cabal known as the Four, though Satan was secretly behind it. Arriving in Manhattan, Satana attracted a would-be human predator, but smoothly led him into an alley and consumed his soul’s power.
Tracking the Four, Satana relocated to Los Angeles, where she saved the Church of the Dark Father’s members by dispersing a frenzied mob rallied by politician Harry Gotham. She befriended the Church’s Ruth Cummins (who apparently carried Satan’s mark), but when Gotham sent assassin Darkos Edge after Satana, he unwittingly slew Cummins instead; Satana subsequently consumed Edge’s and Gotham’s souls.
After moving in with Church member Gloria Hefford, Satana was reunited with Exiter. Continuing to feed on men she encountered, such as Hank Johnson, Satana identified Miles Gorney as the Four’s leader, then seduced and sent former soldier Rich Corbett to assassinate Gorney. Too late, she learned Gorney’s sacrifice at her hands was the Four’s real goal and would power the Four’s spell to close a portal to Hell she might have used to return home; frustrated at her own stupidity, she drained Corbett’s soul. Using the hidden Cave of the Seven Winds to reach a netherworld from which she hoped to access Hell, she found Zannarth and coerced him into assisting her. After battling the Four’s demons, they found the corpse of the bull-headed Trachos, the Four’s apparent true leader. They were then attacked by the rest of the Four: Lion-headed Karath, hawk-headed Raga, and snake-headed Ellin, the latter of whom slew Zannarth. Satana sought to distract her assailants by forcing them to see their inner selves, but this caused the Four great agony and reverted them to human forms, which Satana fed upon in rapid succession. Arising, Trachos revealed himself to be a still- living Miles Gorney and vanished, laughing. Satana felt the Four’s barrier fade, but returned to Earth to gain answers and perhaps vengeance.
Monsignor Jimmy Cruz, a secret member of the Camarilla of the N’Garai (a demon race who long ago battled Lucifer, whom they identified as her father, and worshipped the spawn of the Elder God Chthon), sent an army of soldiers who savagely beat Satana; she called to her father but found the portal to Hell closed again. Exiter saved Satana by leading surgeon and former priest Michael Heron into the alley to help her. Exiter then slaughtered a man who returned to confirm her death and brought Satana a man on whom to feed, regain her strength, and heal her wounds. Upon awakening, Satana tried to feed on Heron as well, but he resisted her call—the first ever to do so. Cruz led a squad to kill Satana, but she escaped, and they abducted Heron instead. Exiter reached Cruz first, but he summoned the N’Garai who slaughtered the cat. Forewarned of this, Satana later ambushed and fed on Cruz before he could summon his masters. Parting ways with Heron, Satana gave him the Azshiran, a ring that could protect him from any demon born of Satan.
Still seeking Gorney, Satana slew Walter Dean, a Hollywood producer/director who had aspired to Camarilla of the N’Garai membership. The demon Agathon then subdued Satana and brought her before Gorney, who had captured Heron and cut off his ringed hand. Slaying Agathon and the other demons upon awakening, Satana recognized Gorney as her father, as no one else could have injured a man wearing the Azshiran. Satan revealed that everything involving the Four had been a test to prove her power and loyalty, but she turned her back on him by allowing Heron to die and pass on to a higher plane without her consuming his soul. Furious, Satan banished her to Earth until the time of her death.
Gloria Hefford later unwittingly summoned and was possessed by the demon-mother Kthara, attracting the attention of both Satana and Daimon Hellstrom (who had since accepted his identity as the Son of Satan, though he still opposed his father). As Gloria, Kthara duped Daimon into believing that Satana was the threat, mystically goading him into combat with his sister and enhancing his power. Daimon’s hellfire consumed Satana, but the Basilisk restored her just as Kthara was about to slay Daimon in a ritual sacrifice that would free her ravagers to claim the Earth. Unable to oppose Kthara’s power, Satana summoned the Basilisk to slaughter Kthara. Satana refused Daimon’s apology, threatening to take his soul when next they met. Magical energies subsequently drew Satana north to Chandler, California, where men were about to burn the witch Deborah Hirsch, who was secretly possessed by Satana’s former tutor Dansker. The assaults on Hirsch enabled Dansker to take control, and he slew his attackers and stunned Satana, then prepared a spell that would physically transport him to Earth. Satana defeated Dansker (whose power was limited in this form) and summoned the Basilisk to slay him.
Realizing that slaying Satana outright would release the Basilisk, which might destroy the entire world, the Camarilla of the N’Garai mystically transformed Satana into the mortal Judith Camber, complete with false memories of her past life with her family. However, within an hour of the transformation, the Basilisk rebelled against these constraints and slew Judith’s family. Their deaths devastated “Judith,” which briefly allowed Satana’s personality and form to become dominant. While Camber was confused by her dual memories and personalities, the Camarilla extracted Satana’s spirit from Camber, planning to sacrifice it to the N’Garai; however, realizing that would end her own false existence, Camber tracked the Camarilla to the Church of Dis and unleashed the Basilisk. The archdemon destroyed the entire church and slew the Camarilla. Regaining her true form and memory, Satana destroyed the soul of the Camarilla’s leader, Brian Abelard, before it could pass on to any final resting place.
Having grown in power and will due to its frequent use, the Basilisk sent a wolf-demon to possess Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Stephen Strange. Sensing this, Satana allied with Peter Parker, AKA Spider-Man, to cure Strange. She mystically transported the trio to an astral plane, where they fought the Basilisk’s demon legions as they neared Strange’s soul. Satana summoned her full power to destroy the demons and shatter the casing containing Strange’s soul; but the effort exhausted her, and the Basilisk broke free from her and struck her down from behind with its sword. As Satana died, however, so did the Basilisk, which had become intrinsically attached to her soul. In death, Satana returned to her father’s realm of Hell.
Years later, the Rev. Joshua Crow began having dreams in which the Lord seemed to speak to him; in reality, it was Satan who had contacted him. Crow had visions of innocent souls trapped in Hell, and the voice charged him with rescuing them from the eternal fires. Going to New York, Crow used his new power to summon these souls from Hell and placed them in the bodies of people in a seemingly hopeless comatose state. Crow performed six such “resurrections” over the following three weeks, unaware that Satan intended to use the souls Crow had reincarnated as “lightning rods for evil”—focal points Hell would use as anchors to their reality as it tried to take them back. Through them, Hell would begin to manifest itself on Earth, escalating as it gained strength. Daimon (now Hellstorm) dealt with five of these “Souls of the Damned,” but was unable to locate the sixth, secretly Satana, who had taken the form of Julia Lenksy. Realizing what he had done, Crow was praying for forgiveness when Julia thanked him with a kiss, draining his soul and sending it down into the abyss.
Learning she could increase her own might by consuming more souls than she needed to survive, Satana plotted to amass great power and conquer Hell. She created the Body Orchard, a deconsecrated church in which she kept multiple victims chained to the walls and ceiling, wrapped in a spell that continually regenerated their life forces, which Satana constantly fed on. Detective Gunyon, who had lost his job (and much of his sanity) through an encounter with Hellstorm, sought to kill Satana to punish Daimon, but Satana instead enslaved Gunyon. She branded him with a magic symbol, such that all his actions would be attributable to her. She also gave him a box of bullets, each impregnated with her body fluids and inscribed with her mark, instructing him to use them to commit mass murder. Those shot by Gunyon with these bullets would have their souls consigned to Satana, and she intended to grow powerful enough to challenge the supremacy of Heaven and Hell. She rewarded Gunyon with sex, though she consumed progressively more of his soul. Her activities attracted the perverse lust of Stephen Loss, who wrote about her in his Fur Journal, allegedly bound in the skin of the first man, Adam. The outcome of Satana’s efforts is unrevealed, but she apparently perished and/or was sent to Hell again.
Satana was later returned to Earth by Dr. Strange to serve as the underworld representative to assist sorceresses Jennifer Kale and Topaz against the immensely powerful magic-user-slaying Hellphyr, which Satan had secretly manipulated Jennifer’s brother, Andrew, into releasing from the mystic Tome of Zhered-Na; Satan sought to eliminate all potential challengers to his regaining control of his Hell, which Daimon had usurped. Satana initially clashed with Kale and Topaz, but after Satan revealed his involvement and offered Satana a chance to rule at his side, she rejected him again and helped Kale and Topaz destroy the Hellphyr. The three women banded together as the Witches, but split up not long after. Satana was subsequently recruited into S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Howling Commandos monster unit, and she opposed the world-conquering plot of a corrupt Merlin.
After Satan apparently regained control of Hell, Satana began delivering a monthly soul tithe to him; one such soul was Jason Silence. Returning to the Body Orchard, Satana was eventually ambushed by Jason’s sister, Jennifer, who had obtained the Fur Journal, enabling her to use the mystic Electric Pentagram to trap Satana. Jennifer had Satana write a contract in blood to bring Jason back to Earth alive and unharmed, and not to harm any of the Silences or their friends, family, or associates. Upon writing the contract, Satana was released from the Electric Pentagram, but she bound Jennifer to a man near death in her Orchard and claimed the Fur Journal herself. Satana then magically enhanced an electromagnetic sensing device to track Jason Silence’s soul, and traveled to Hell to recover Jason. En route, she was attacked by the Scorpion Queen, who had possibly taken Jason’s soul for herself, and slew the Scorpion Queen and her offspring. Satana returned Jason to Earth, fulfilling the contract, but then killed him again and added Jennifer Silence to her Body Orchard.
Briefly considered as a potential successor to Doctor Strange as Sorcerer Supreme, Satana was later sought out by Parker Robbins, AKA Hood, for aid in managing his bond with Dormammu, ruler of the Dark Dimension, and she became his occult advisor.
When Satana lost her immortal soul, she enlisted Wade Wilson, AKA Deadpool, to help her track it down. He proposed to her and they get married, but it seemed she married him mostly to retain his soul. She later suffused his katana with hellfire and it helped him succeed at retrieving her soul. After getting her soul back, she left Deadpool keeping half of his soul.
She later joined Doctor Strange and Luke Cage on the Thunderbolts team when she found out Ted Sallis, AKA Man-Thing, was a card-carrying member. While on the team, the group’s headquarters moved through time and space due to a teleportation technology error. Satana and the Thunderbolts battled the Nazi’s in World War II, went back further to Victorian London and then ended up in the dungeons of King Arthur’s Camelot. They then found themselves up against a previous Thunderbolts group led by Helmut Zemo, AKA Baron Zemo, but they eventually returned to their future.
Satana returned to rule her own Hell and abducted Doctor Strange. While there, she forced him to eat food from her diner trapping his soul there forever. Though she left Master Pandemonium as Strange’s guard and Strange vomited the food to avoid the trap, allowing him to escape.
