Hell's Prophet is a demon which serves as the apostle of the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, only emerging when the forces of evil are on the verge of overtaking the champions of good. Though the demon spirit can possess anyone, the prophet reaches it's full potential when it takes over the body of a Chosen One.
Hell's Prophet first appeared in Army of Darkness Volume 2 #16 (Hellbillies and Deadnecks Chapter 3).
Biography[]
The details of the earliest known encounters of Hell's Prophet on Earth are extremely scarce, but there is at least one known instance where the demon appeared and possessed a Chosen One "centuries prior" to the 19th Century. During this time, Hell's Prophet was responsible for the destruction of the island of Atlantis and the unleashing of a great plague that devastated part of the world's population. The prophet was ultimately defeated by a team of "protectors" stationed across the seven continents of the globe.
Resurrection In The 19th Century[]
Hell's Prophet returned to the world of the living in 1890 after a member of the British royal family accidentally unleashed Deadites upon London using the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis. The prophet emerged and took possession of a wealthy woman, who led the army of the dead in it's final hours before it's destruction at the hands of three "chosen" warriors: the werewolf Samuel Fenrison, the necromancer Soterios, and The Chosen One of that era. After narrowly escaping their first encounter with the prophet, these three men immediately jumped into action after the demon kidnapped Fenrison's wife Emma during the night. As a trade for the life of Emma to be spared, The Chosen One offered himself to be the new host of the prophet. The demon agreed to the trade, releasing Emma Fenrison from captivity.
Hell's Prophet prepares to kill a lady of the night in London (Army of Darkness Volume 2 #22)
With The Chosen One now harboring Hell's Prophet within him, the demon slowly began corrupting the warrior's soul with it's pure evil composition. During the night as The Chosen One would sleep, the prophet would take control of his body and walk the streets of London to stalk and kill dozens of prostitutes in gruesome ways to satisfy an unquenchable blood lust, earning him the public moniker of "Jack The Ripper". Samuel Fenrison and Soterios discovered The Chosen One's "dual identity" and attempted to stop him, though they were ultimately ineffective. Turning to the dead for advice, Soterios the necromancer consulted with an ancient spirit who aided in the defeat of Hell's Prophet centuries prior, telling him of the protectors and their own battle with the demon. Soterios departed London to seek out the protectors of his time, and left Samuel Fenrison behind to distract "Jack The Ripper" until aid arrived.
After gathering the new generation of protectors, Soterios and his team (now christened "The League of Light") returned to England to put an end to the prophet before his spirit completely overwhelmed The Chosen One. The ensuring battle resulted in the deaths of almost all of the League members, but it was a triumphant engagement nonetheless. The Chosen One was killed to stop the prophet, and his body was obliterated with a raging fire to prevent another possession. The malicious spirit returned to wherever it came from, and would lie dormant for another century.
The Mountain Springs Incident[]
Hell's Prophet moves from the body of Carl Anderson to Ash Williams (Army of Darkness Volume 2 #17)
Hell's Prophet would not be summoned again until the early 21st Century, where it arrived in the town of Mountain Springs, Colorado and took control of a local dentist named Carl Anderson. With Anderson's body, the prophet marched through the snow to the Necronomicon's location and removed it from the makeshift "grave" it had been buried in by Ash Williams (who was in the midst of a self-imposed exile from society to protect the book). Williams discovered the Ex-Mortis was missing and tracked it to the local water bottling factory, where the prophet and a legion of Deadites planned to contaminate the water with raw evil and ship it across the country. After a failed sneak attack from Ash, the prophet grabbed Williams and explained his plan for world domination, and the eventual union between their spirits that will result in the apocalypse. Williams challenged the prophet to go ahead and posses him, robbing the demon of his aspirations of taking Ash's body once it had been beaten to the brink of death in combat. The prophet accepted Ash's invitation and began to take over, but the spirit transference was interrupted by the arrival of two of Ash's associates driving a truck into the factory. Though Williams managed to stop the prophet in Carl Anderson's body, the demon's spirit would slowly reform inside of Ash.
Controlling Ash Williams[]
Though Williams managed to suppress the evil spirit now within him for several weeks, the prophet came out in full-force while Ash was in London to look for the alleged "other Chosen Ones" the demon mentioned. After meeting Brad Fenrison (a descendant of Samuel Fenrison who was also a werewolf), the prophet emerged when Ash had fallen asleep and took off into the London night. Eager to stalk the city as he had done over a century prior, the prophet's reign of terror was short-lived as Ash managed to wrestle control over his right hand and knock his body out.
Learning what sort of danger Hell's Prophet could unleash after reading his ancestor's journal, Brad told Ash that perhaps they need to reassemble The League of Light to battle the prophet when the proper time comes. Ash and Brad traveled the world and recruited the new protectors, all while dealing with a group of relentless masked assassins called The Eradicators and the occasional outbursts from Hell's Prophet taking over Ash. The team traveled for several months before finding the headquarters of The Eradicators in a bunker in the Florida everglades. Inside, the League found a man known as "The Unwritten One", who not only led the Eradicators, but had been actively trying to prevent a series of ancient prophecies from coming to pass with his teams across the world. Using a Soul Dagger, The Unwritten One killed Ash's soul and allowed Hell's Prophet to take over the body of Williams completely.
Hell's Prophet (in the body of Ash Williams) and two corrupted members of The League of Light prepare for the final siege on their former teammates (Army of Darkness Volume 2 #27)
Over the course of five years, Hell's Prophet fulfilled his promise to Ash and unleashed unfathomable horrors upon the Earth, turning it into an oasis for the undead. During this time, the spirit of Ash Williams would occasionally fight the prophet for control of his body, though these attempts were never successful. Eventually, the prophet and his legion conquered and corrupted all of humanity with the exception of four members of the League of Light, who took refuge in a parking garage in Syracuse, New York. As the prophet closed in on the team, Brad Fenrison, his necromancer wife Cybil, and the ghost of Ash Williams gathered in a time machine and went back in time prior to the incident at Mountain Springs to prevent the initial summoning of Hell's Prophet.
Successful in their mission, Ash Williams removed the Necronomicon from the deep grave over Mountain Springs after receiving a letter from his ghostly counterpart, and the six years he would spend with Hell's Prophet inside him would be erased from history.
Powers & Abilities[]
- Levitation
- Pyrokinetic Breath
- Necromancy: While Hell's Prophet could not resurrect a corpse on his own, he did display the ability to control both Deadites and zombies.
- Super-Strength
Gallery[]
Notes[]
- In Army of Darkness Volume 3 #8, The Wise Man mentions a pact made between The Chosen One (Ash) and Hell's Prophet in regards to how the book would speak to him as it would Ash himself. While the details of this agreement is never explained, it's possible that the "altered history" Ash had a run-in with the prophet at some point.