BLACKHEART

'Blackheart' is a fictional character appearing in the Marvel Comics universe. He is a demon, the "son" of Mephisto. Created by Ann Nocenti and John Romita, Jr., he first appeared in ''Daredevil'' (1st series) #270 (Sept. 1989). He is the archenemy of Ghost Rider.

Contents

Fictional character biography

Powers and abilities

In other media

Film

Video games

External links

Fictional character biography

Centuries of murder in a locale named Christ's Crown drew the attention of a demon-lord, Mephisto, who created a "son", Blackheart, from the energy of the accumulated evil. Blackheart explored the nature of evil under his father's tutelage, clashing with and failing to corrupt Daredevil and Spider-Man. Mephisto and Blackheart once tormented Daredevil, Brandy Ash, the genetically engineered Number Nine, and the Inhumans Gorgon, Karnak, and Ahura, manipulating their emotions and tricking them. They were soon drawn into hell for worse torments. Brandy Ash did not survive.
Later, in an attempt to be free of captivity, Blackheart made contact with Misha from the group Warheads and became the source of her pre-cognitive visions. Eventually Misha's squad, Kether Troop, invaded Hell itself and freed Blackheart, who was temporarily in the disguise of Doctor Strange.
Blackheart would return to Christ's Crown and tempt Ghost Rider, Punisher, and Wolverine to the town itself in an attempt to corrupt them. The group would eventually follow Blackheart back into his own realm for a final confrontation.

Powers and abilities

Blackheart, like Mephisto, is a powerful demon of the highest order and possesses vast supernatural powers possibly equal to those of his father. He is essentially invincible to anything but the most powerful magic. He can survive under any condition, so he doesn't need food, water, sleep, or air to survive, and is resistant to temperatures that are as hot as the core of the sun.
He has superhuman strength and endurance which, being magical in nature, are potentially limitless. His speed is also incalculably high and his intelligence surpasses some of the smartest beings alive nearing him to omniscience. His telekinetic and telepathic powers give him abilities beyond greatest demons of his level. On one occasion he manipulated an army of over 10 million people into doing his bidding. Also, he once ripped an entire planet apart by an act of sheer will and did not show any sign of strain.
He also has the ability of flight and the ability to combine his superspeed with his flight. His powers also include teleportation and he can make himself intangible at will. Blackheart also has access to the darkforce dimension and can transport beings and himself into it. When Blackheart transports himself into the dimension, he is mentally linked with it and can manipulate anything in the dimension, even living beings.
It had been argued that Blackheart had the destructive powers of the 'Power Cosmic', but this is not the case. Rather, Blackheart's vast power is mystical in nature. He has the ability to generate a "Dark Energy", which he can transfer into destructive blasts, into a type of "Dark Fire" and "Dark Lighting". He also has the ability to generate a blast of super cold energy used to freeze enemies. He lost his practically infinite psionic powers when he attacked Mephisto and his mind was decimated. When his mind was shattered, he lost all memory of ever having his psionic powers, and was filled with nothing but hatred and greed until he was finally defeated. When he lost the majority of his powers, he became even less threatening to Mephisto and was banished from the hellish dimension Mephisto ruled.
He has the ability to change the size and physical form of himself, which gives him an amazing shapeshifting ability. He can assume human form, but prefers to remain in his true form.
He can enter and leave different planes of existence and dimensions at will and has reality warping powers compared to those of Franklin Richards. He can also summon demons and other supernatural creatures to do his bidding. He can use astral projection to make intangible copies of himself. Then he can use his magic to make them solid, but, their minds are always linked to Blackheart's, therefore, they can never act on their own, only at the control of Blackheart.
Blackheart has the ability to take different forms and confuse the minds of other people, making their worst aspects dominant. He has a more powerful ability to capture souls than Mephisto has, being able to capture souls against the will of the person he is stealing it from. He also displayed an impressive healing ability, regenerating whenever Mephisto tried to "discipline" him. His regenerative properties are amazingly high, being able to regenerate after total particle disintegration making him totally indestructable. He can also liquify himself. Since becoming the Lord of Hell, it can be assumed Blackheart has all the powers Mephisto once held.
As an interesting side note, he smells unpleasantly of burning ink and roses, and has no discernible heartbeat.

In other media

Film

Blackheart was the main villain in the film ''Ghost Rider'', where he was portrayed by Wes Bentley as a demon in the form of a pale-skinned human. In the movie, he unites with three fallen angels in order to overthrow his father and create hell on Earth by acquiring the Contract of San Venganza, an entire town whose evil inhabitants sold their souls to the Devil.
In the film, his main power which he uses to kill his victims is poisoning their body with sulfur by touching them. He also displays supernatural strength and durability on a similar level as Ghost Rider, as well as demonstrating various random paranormal effects, such as causing lights or candles to flicker on and off. When he corporeally manifests on Earth he causes sulfur to fall from the sky.
Later, after acquiring the contract, Blackheart calls himself Legion, since he had all of the thousand souls enter his body. As Legion, Blackheart gains the distinct red eyes and dark blue skin of his comic book incarnation, as well as small spikes around his face, but remains largely human in appearance and able to regenerate even after being blown to bits. However, the transformation made him vulnerable to the Ghost Rider's ultimate weapon, the Penance Stare. Initially lacking a soul, the Stare was ineffective on Blackheart, but with the souls of the contract, he was able to feel it one thousandfold. After he was killed, his father took his body back to his realm.

Video games

★ Blackheart appears in the Ghost Rider video game as one of the main villains, alongside Scarecrow and Vengeance. In this game he appears in both his movie form and comic book form.

★ Blackheart appears in '' as a villain, voiced by David Sobolov. In the game at Mephisto's realm, he captures Jean Grey and makes the heroes battle him. When the team fights him he can resurrect himself once using pillars around him. If the player destroys the pillars he will go down one life. When he is defeated it is presumed he is dead (because his carcass can still be seen where he died), but he continues his evil as he has already placed Nightcrawler and Jean Grey above the Infinity Vortex in cages, forcing the players to allow one of the heroes to die to save the other.

★ Blackheart is a playable character in '', ''Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter'', and ''Marvel Super Heroes'' arcade fighting games.

External links

★ - Marvel Database Project

★ Knightmare6.com; Blackheart