Angelus (comics)

The Angelus
Cover of The Darkness #3, art by Marc Silvestri
Publication information
Publisher	Top Cow Productions
First appearance	The Darkness #2 (1997)
Created by	Marc Silvestri David Wohl Garth Ennis
In-story information
Alter ego	Danielle Baptiste
Notable aliases	Lauren Franchetti, The Bride of Inti
Abilities	Light Control, Immortality, Burning Touch, Creation, Flight, Strength, Speed, Endurance, Healing Factor, Invulnerability, Flame Breath, Teleportation

The Angelus is an American comic book antagonist published by Top Cow Productions which first appeared in The Darkness comic in 1997. The Angelus has been featured in comics with her enemies The Darkness and the Witchblade.

She plays a prominent role in the First Born limited series and had a one-shot by Ian Edginton released in December 2007 as part of the Top Cow Pilot Season event.

The Angelus

The Angelus is one of the two constants in the universe, dark (The Darkness) and light (The Angelus). A female entity of light which represents order, she has been in a war with her natural male counterpart, The Darkness. However she and The Darkness created a sexual truce and conceived a child, The Witchblade.

Like The Darkness, The Angelus replaces the soul of a host (which can only be a female) in order to carry out her life's mission on Earth. Her main goal is to rid the world of evil and darkness regardless of mortal rule or law. This has put her at odds with the current Darkness host, Jackie Estacado. Eventually The Angelus was defeated by Jackie, and was hostless for some time until Sonatine tried to convince the entity to join with Appolonia Franchetti. Because Appolonia desired the entity too much, The Angelus chose her catatonic mother, Lauren Franchetti, instead. Soon after, the newly reborn Angelus was fooled into thinking she had finally killed The Darkness after Jackie made a copy of himself. She soon fled with Appolonia to an ancient temple in the Amazon rainforest, where Lauren gave herself completely to the Angelus entity. The Angelus came in contact with The Magdalena, Sister Mariella. Magdalena was seeking to reforge the Spear of Destiny which had been shattered during her first encounter with The Darkness. The fight ended with no clear winner but The Angelus ordered Appolonia to leave because she was touched too deeply by The Darkness and that should they meet again she would kill her.

The Angelus that possessed Lauren would once again attempt to kill The Darkness and would also come into conflict with the new Magdalena (Patience). During the fight, Appolonia ran the Angelus through with the Spear of Destiny. The Angelus temporarily takes possession of Patience, but the spirit is forced out of Patience's body.

During the time the Angelus was without a host, her followers sensed that the balance between the Light and Darkness has been tipped in favor of Jackie Estacado, and have begun preparing for war while the Angelus searches for a new host. She first takes possession of Velocity but is forced out by members of Cyberforce. She then takes possession of convicted murderer Celestine. Shortly after the birth of Hope Pezzini (daughter to Sara Pezzini and Jackie), the Angelus claims her only to have a mystical explosion occur. After the event, only Angelus and her foes remain. Celestine and The Angelus now co-exist as separate entities, with Celestine now able to become The Angelus as needed but retaining her own free will. Celestine, however, knows that The Angelus does have the ability to submerge her will at any point, but The Angelus has chosen not to after her encounter with Sara Pezzini's daughter.

Celestine later returns to fight Jackie Estacado. While caught in the middle of a fight between the hosts of the Glacier Stone and Ember Stone, Celestine is decapitated with the Bloodsword wielded by Jackie Estacado.

The Angelus was once again without a bearer until she came across Finch, friend of Danielle Baptiste, and possesses her. During a fight with Sara Pezzini (currently hosting the Darkness portion of the Witchblade and corrupted by it), she attempts to kill the bearer of the Angelus portion of the Witchblade, Dani. After emerging victorious (or so she believed), she absorbing the remaining half of the Witchblade into her being while still being corrupted. Sara was on the brink of killing Dani when an Angelus-infested Finch swoops in to save Dani from death, and the Angelus transfers hosts from Finch to the old bearer of the Witchblade. Strangely, however, Dani is able to resist the Angelus' possessive personality, and instead of killing Sara, she is able to use the powers of the Angelus to purge Sara of the corruptible forces of The Darkness. The fact that the Angelus would allow Dani to retain her free will caused come unrest among her followers, particularly her lieutenant, Sabine, who desired for the Angelus to choose her as a host.

Powers & Abilities

The Angelus grants her host all of her powers and abilities, including the ability to create objects and sentient beings of pure light. The host is also granted enhanced strength, longevity, self-propelled flight, and most importantly, the memories of all the previous Angelus hosts.

She has been seen to breathe fire, melt magical armor with her touch, channel blasts of light from either her weapons or hands, teleport both herself and others, withstand the full heat of a sun for 13 years without harm or nourishment, and move at speeds "besting the hands of time".

However, The Angelus' powers are limited since functioning in complete darkness quickly drains her of her powers, and anything she creates turns to dust in the dark.

External links

• Angelus at the Comic Book DB