Essential Marvel Horror, Vol. 1

Essential Marvel Horror #1

by Gary Friedrich, Steve Gerber, Mike Friedrich

What's it like to be the son and the daughter of the Father of Lies? Find out as Daimon Hellstrom and his sister, Satana, face the worst of two worlds Can they save their souls along with the world? Featuring Exorcists, Cyclists, Nihilists and Ice Demons Secrets of Ancient Atlantis revealed Guest-starring Spider-Man, the Thing and the Human Torch Collects Ghost Rider #1-2; Marvel Spotlight #12-24; SoS #1-8; MTIO #14; MTU #32,80-81; Vampire Tales #2-3; HoH #2,4-5 and Marvel Premiere #27

Genres: Comics, Horror, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Fantasy, Superheroes, Comic Book

608 pages, Paperback

First published May 10, 1979

Reviews

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Storylines: ☆☆ to ☆☆☆☆☆
Artworks: ☆☆ to ☆☆☆☆☆

Maybe storylines and dialogues of late 70s/early 80s stories reprinted inside this cheap massive phone-book black & white omnibus aged not much well, but this old Marvel-Zombie found some priceless gems hidden here.



Daimon Hellstrom's stories are much uneven ones: shifting from very bad ones to not much good ones, full of cheesy male chauvinism and comic book weirdness, but they get better and better, his team up with the everloving blue eyed Thing was a fan favourite of mine when I was a kid, and the two parts one drawn by Gene Colan is a scary masterpiece.





Vampirella Daimon's sister Satana tales collected here are far better ones and artists involved are a real dream-team, sadly character's editorial history was a real nightmare: artists/authors/magazines changes/canceling/turning comic issues into text novelettes (well written ones by Gerry Conway and Chris Claremont) and ending with her first demise in Marvel Team Up #80-81, another fan favourite of mine (Dr Strange turned werewolf scared me for good when I read it first time in early 80s and it contributed without doubt to make me the horror fan I am now) and cherry on cake ending of this volume.



Fans of X-Chris Claremont beware! In Satana's tales collected here you are going to find first appearances of daemonic N'Garai and the strong-willed redhead Daughter of Satan struggling to control powerful and evil Basilisk entity inside her is without doubt a proto-Dark Phoenix Saga storyline! 'Nuff said!



A more than good volume with awesome drawings filled with adult themes and storylines that you are not going to find at all in recent Marvel comics.
If you are a fan of both horror and superheroes give it a try.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the Essential Marvel books (And the DC Showcase Presents books as well.) You get a LOT of very hard to find stories all in one book at a good price. (Even if they are in Black and White.) They seem to have stopped publishing them for now, but I think DC is bringing Showcase Presents back soon.

In this volume we get all of the Son of Satan and Satana stories from Marvel in one HUGE volume. This is important because the stories ran through so many different titles (Marvel Spotlight, Son of Satan, Marvel Two In One, Marvel Team Up, Vampire Tales, Haunt of Horror....and so forth). This is a chance to get them all in one book at about one tenth the cost and probably one percent of the trouble.

As for the stories themselves, I was a little disappointed. The Son of Satan stories started out strong with his appearances in Ghost Rider, and then we even got to see an Exorcist inspired story (these stories started right around the same time The Exorcist was released in 1973.) Then they take a turn for the worse. I understand the character is half human and half demon, and a lot of his motivation is how he's always torn between good and evil. However, when they started making that the basis of every story it got old quickly. Also, the stories became way too metaphysical. He was battling monsters all the time, but it was all in his mind. It wasn't horrible, but it got very tedious to the point I was struggling to finish. The stories were also very wordy, which was a problem in some older comics especially.

Satana was only slightly better. She had some prose stories as well as comic stories, which also seemed a little tedious. Also, her stories were a little darker and as such it made it hard to emotionally invest in them. I think I did enjoy her stories a little more than his, just because hers took place mostly in the physical world (or in Hell.)

The art was not a weak spot. The Son of Satan stories had nice art, and Satana was very sexy as well as eerie. The art was also very spooky as it should have been. (The Dean Gene Colan even does a few issues! Yes!) The art wasn't the problem, it was the overwritten stories.

In closing, the stories weren't terrible, they just didn't seem to reach their potential. If you are a fan of 70s Marvel Horror, it's probably worth reading just for the nostalgia. I don't regret reading this one, just probably wouldn't read it over again.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great collection of the Son of Satan stories from across many of Marvel's titles. Nice art and writing from some of marvel's top people of the 1970s. Enjoyable read. Recommended

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

A heaping helping of Marvel Spotlight and Son of Satan issues featuring Daimon Hellstrom along with some rare Satana stories from various b & w Marvel horror magazines made for some interesting reading. I was getting Warren magazine Vampirella vibes with the latter stories featuring some incredible art by Vicente Alcazar.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very fun read in high school. Ghost Rider’s first appearance and Daimon Helstrom (real creative name there) the Son of Satan! Great horror shorts and genuinely spooky themes. Good writing and fantastic art!

[Jean-Pierre Vidrine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here Marvel collects the earliest appearances of their Satanic siblings from the seventies. We start with the Son of Satan. His brief appearances in the first two issues of Ghost Rider are all too appropriate, even if we don't get to know him very well. Once we get into his solo stories, we learn more about Daimon Hellstrom; but we still don't get to know him. Even when writer extraordinaire, Steve Gerber takes over and the stories become more interesting, we still never get a real grasp of who Daimon Hellstrom is. Between his conflicts with his father and his conflicts with himself, maybe Daimon never really knew who he was either. If this is what the writers were going for, the idea is there. It just seemed like something was missing. Also included are the team-up stories: an unlikely one with the Human Torch, and an inevitable one with the Thing (at this time in Marvel, nearly everyone was bound to run into Ben Grimm). For whatever it is they lack, the Son of Satan stories make up for it in sheer guts.
Then we move onto Satana. Created as Marvel's answer to Vampirella (they admit this freely), Satana's story is told in a mix of non-code approved comics, text stories (also non-code approved), and a few code approved comics (including a cross-over with her brother's book that appears earlier in the collection). These different formats give us a chance to get to know the character in different ways. Including them all here, they form a tapestry that shows her dark beginning; her winding journey through encounters with people who are pious, dangerous, beautiful, and ugly; and . . . I won't say. Her team-up with Spider-Man might seem unlikely, but it was probably inevitable. This is a comic book universe, after all. Ultimately, Satana's stories are more solid, and her character is for more developed than her brother's.
After the stories published here, the Son of Satan wound up in the Defenders, where his presence led to some great stories involving his father. After that, things got checkered for Daimon. Some appearances in West Coast Avengers watered him down. The series, Hellstorm, in the nineties was an attempt at updating him that started off with some strengths, but ultimately lost its appeal for me. After that, I kind of fell out of following him. I haven't heard anything very positive about his Marvel Max mini-series. His role(and new armor look) in Last Defenders was great, and almost captured the magic of those earlier stories. Too bad he's since forsaken the armor for the shirtless flaming head look he sports in current Marvel arcs.
As for Satana, I really haven't followed her too much at all. She was part of the Witches mini-series and had a one-shot with the Legion of Monsters revival. Perhaps I'll pick these up sometime. I can, however, definitely recommend her appearance in Deadpool Team-Up. Do I have to give you a reason? It's Deadpool Team-Up!
I've given this collection five stars, not because the stories are all gems, but simply because the book is exactly what it should be: all of the earliest stories featuring the Son of Satan and Satana, the Devil's Daughter.

[Fizzgig76 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reprints Ghost Rider #1-2, Marvel Spotlight #12-24, Son of Satan #1-8, Marvel Two-In-One #14, Marvel Two-In-One #14, Vampire Tales #2-3, Haunt of Horror #2, #4-5, Marvel Premiere #27, Marvel Preview #7, and Marvel Team-Up #80-81. The Son of Satan fights his hellish origins while his sister Satana embraces them. The Son of Satan stories are very underdeveloped. Marvel seems to have wanted to create a character with a Satanic background in the big horror boom of the 1970's, but they had no where to go with it since they were writing for an all-audience comic. Satana is underdeveloped but mostly because it feels like her series never got wings. It was written for Marvel's magazine lines and kind of a rip-off of Vampira, so it could be darker than the Son of Satan, but the magazines folded and Satana was killed before her character could develop.

[Printable Tire · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title is a bit misleading, as this book really only collects Marvel's Son of Satan & Satana stories, rather than a cumulative oeuvre of the entire Marvel horror canon (I was especially disappointed to find it only contains the Santana stories in the Vampire Tales and House of Horror magazines included. When's there gonna be an Essential Gabriel the Devil Hunter ?) Anyway, tonally the SOS & Satana stories are pretty different (SOS is more a traditional comic, whereas Satana is more sleazy mature European comic) so I'll talk about them separately.

I was only tangentially aware of Son of Satan before this, him being a pretty fringe character in the Marvel universe. Let me tell you, I wasn't missing anything. Right from the getgo, he's somebody Marvel didn't really know what to do with. He has all the trappings of a superhero (confusing transformation, incredibly silly and unnecessary costume, stupid super powers, a mansion that would make Bruce Wayne blush) but I have to imagine he's for older readers, because what God-and Charles-Manson-fearing parent would let their child buy a comic book where Beelzebub appears on almost every cover? I mean I know this came out before the great Satanic Panic and everything, but 'cmon. (BTW, I think it's a real artistic mistake to show Ol' Scratch; he just comes off as a grumpy old dad, and it would've been better to leave him to the reader's imagination). At any rate, Son of Satan's tormented battle between his good side and evil side would likely be too confusing for a younger audience (it is for me, at any rate) and it usually just exhibits itself with him turning into a huge jerk and slapping around some woman who's invariably in love with him for no good reason.

So, as you might've figured out, SOS is pretty alienating. Not even the wackiness of writer Steve Gerber can save him from his aloof unlikability, nor can moving him cross country from Massachusetts to (hilariously) St. Louis, where he battles all sorts of kooky characters like the Lantern Guy from the Stairway to Heaven Poster, who talks in hippie jargon and runs a group of anachronistic nihilists, who believe in nothing.

SOS does reach his peak here, though, in a string of exorcist-themed issues that really milk the atmosphere and motifs of The Exorcist (the movie) for all its worth. There's also some pretty nifty-designed tarot-themed issues that got me into tarot again for a couple of days. I also think it's great that SOS has a hip divinity student for a sidekick for awhile.

But then Gerber leaves and John Warner helms a confusing reboot full of too much new age mush. Every issue turns into a confusing psychedelic passion play which is pretty cool to look at but a chore to read.

Now, Satana.

Satana looks like she stepped out of Barbarella, complete with leg warmers and a ram's helmet. She's a succubus, and she sends the souls of men she, uh, sucks, to hell, in the form of butterflies, which is really neat and hippyish, even though for aesthetic reasons I wish she ate them instead. She's a breath of fresh air after her brother, because whereas SOS is always in serious torment about the state of his soul, Satana is just unabashedly evil and doesn't give a fuck. By happenstance she does good sometimes, such as in one story where she befriends a group of satanists in order to use them for her own nefarious means and actually ends up saving one of their souls when the girl dies trying to protect her new friend (Satana). I love it when comic books tackle characters who by ambivalence or chance actually cause good things to happen (see Conan, The Hulk, Man-Thing).

Unfortunately, Satana is more cool sleazy concept art than a coherent character study. She has too many writers that want to do too many sundry plot arcs with her, and while the art remains consistently awesome, the stories are a jumbled, tedious mess (the text stories are especially wretched). I can't overstate how extremely annoying these stories are: any time you get a handle on who her enemies/cast of characters are, a new kid comes along and wrecks everything and we're back to scratch. Chris Claremont has some interesting ideas about how to turn Satana "straight," but in an included essay even he admits they were poorly executed. It's pretty frustrating to think of all the missteps with this character due to either aloof European artists missing deadlines or missing their air mail.

TL, DR: Wasted potential!

[Dubzor · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF. I got maybe three issues from the end of the Son of Satan content before bowing out. Steve Gerber's were really the only issues worth reading. The concept is charming, but not sustainable obviously. An entertaining enough collection that is very much of its time.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

fun book, great 70's strangeness

[J.L. Lamastus · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit hit and miss. Some good stories, some not so good. Some art was good, some was only so-so.

[Jason Luna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the sum of two different reviewable things, in essence, because they tried to encapsulate the full "prime" runs of Son of Satan and Satana, technically related siblings but entirely different siblings. I think they're both good because they apply the basic Marvel storytelling of quick cuts and decent art and sort of irony and jokiness.

SON OF SATAN
Highlight: Steve Gerber jumping on the "Marvel Spotlight" run for almost the entire way. It was typical Gerber stuff. TERRIBLE LUCK in getting romantic leads together, strong pathos. Also colorful bad guys and insights into mental and emotional torment. Also a strange point of view, almost obsessive highlights of things in St. Louis. It was a kind of a superhero mag, it was kind of goofy, it was fun! Gerber knows how to do this stuff.

Lowlight: Oddly, the effort dropped when "Son of Satan" became a real magazine and all. I can understand (although never enjoy) the whole "look, Horror art" crap they do, but the writing was worse. John Warner kept the intricate nature of Gerber's writing and intricate storylines, but tried to make it ONLY about how tortured souls are, how terrifying things are. Throwing demons' names out isn't a story.

Also, solid inserts from Ghost Rider 1-2, its pretty much a Ghost Rider story with Son of Satan cameos, but they're great! Jim Mooney/Tom Sutton being awesome as usual. The "Marvel Team-Up" and "Two-In-One", while having the basic Marvel charm, sort of seemed to phone in the Son of Satan universe. Streamlining elements and making it into a generic beat em up. And not even great beat-em-ups.

SATANA
Highlight: Well, not really a story, the highlight is a Chris Claremont article thing about the failure of Satana's development as a hero. Her failure despite Vampirella being the sexy vampire equivalent of her sexy demon for a million years, also some strange infrastructure issues at Marvel in terms of getting her stories done. Claremont points out he had a lot of beats to express her character as a personality, but never got the chance. It's very insightful.
Highlight 2 (actual story): She got one primetime adventure story in "Marvel Premiere" (by Chris Claremont and the confusingly named art group "The Tribe") . It seemed to rush through the perfunctory introduction and seemed to drop bad guys out of nowhere, but it showed she really could be an anti-hero who battles her demon/human balance.

Lowlight: All those text stories instead of actual comics, not to mention all that wonky Marvel Horror art, sort of shadowy photorealism in original B&W. Kind of ugly and usually a cop out to have less panels in a comic!

Back to Claremont's "I wanted to develop the character more" thing. She gets the short of the stick over her entire run. Most of her adventures are in these truncated short stories, all text, hard enough to communicate her identity, that are dependent on playing up her sex appeal and that she can kill humans for their souls. Not exactly a personality.

She never got a chance, like the Incredible Hulk or some other tortured soul, maybe Ghost Rider, to kind of float back and forth on her identity, like she's in control and human, or full demon. They get years to tell their stories, Satana is always self-contained as introducing herself in each individual story every time, which is insane. Chris Claremont managed to rush out one double-issue in the back of Haunt of Horror or something, but even as good as it sort of is, it's dependent on introducing a human character that actually has Satana trapped inside her, and tries to work through all these issues of if Satana is a good guy or a bad guy. (SPOILER) They similarly killed her talking cat and priest buddy in an earlier thing. (SPOILER)

It's like "slow down, tell a story over time". It makes it VERY unclear if her character has made any choices, or if she is constantly confronted by their appearance.

The Marvel Team up two story piece is a noble attempt to finalize the Satana character and make it more important, but it makes it seem rushed, forced, and unnecessarily. A Dr. Strange monologue does not a character make!

A solid read though, especially Son of Satan's stuff. Definite for people interested in the history of Marvel comics, as the 70s horror boom is arguably the most insane thing Marvel ever tried. But be sure to take breaks while reading those damned (pun intended) Satana text stories!

[Edward Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume tells the story of two of my favorite Marvel experiments in the 1970s...the Son of Satan and Satana, the Devil's Daughter. Whether or not you think the stories hold together for Daimon Helstrom or not, the fact is that these stories are every bit as experimental as when Marvel first began ten years prior to these stories' being published. I found these stories refreshing on various levels, as they manage to separate themselves from the whole superhero universe without fully making them happen in another continuity. As for the comments I have seen that they get progressively harder to read, apparently those reviewers aren't looking at these stories in the light of the experimental vein that they are presented in. While they aren't frightening or chilling or the least bit creepy by today's standards, they helped push the envelope in what comics could be able to do. In my assessment, the Son of Satan and Satana, the Devil's Daughter brings an added and welcome dimension to the Marvel Universe that questions the existential aspects of the continuity in ways that Doctor Strange always has.
Daimon Helstrom I found to be a very distinct personality in the Marvel Universe. He's infinitely more than an anti-hero by the very nature of who and what he really is. The fact that the character is still adventuring in the Marvel Universe is testament that, no matter what you may personally feel about the stories collected in Marvel Horror Volume 1, the experiments they represent were more successful than fans often given them credit for. I appreciate the stories for what they are and what they try to do for the greater story that is Marvel. No matter how convoluted the stories actually got within these pages, they were considerably easier to read and digest than a lot of the Marvel experimentation of a decade prior to this. Silly? Maybe. Fun to read? Definitely. One needs the right frame of mind, the kind that appreciates PHANTASM as a film (because if you want to talk SILLY, no "horror" movie gets this bad and off the rails of plausibility as PHANTASM does in an oddly entertaining and mesmerising way). It's the frame of mind that has the reader have every bit as fun with the subject matter as they can with the premise.
I personally found the stories featuring Satana to be a bit more thought out and engaging. Perhaps this was because most of the stories featuring her were churned out in more of a literary fashion (and anyone who finds this to be a tarnish for a collection of comic stories apparently won't appreciate early issues of Wonder Woman where there was more writing involved in the presentation of the character; reading is actually what makes the Marvel comic at its best an experience worth while so I can fully appreciate the presentation of Marvel stories as written fiction a diversion worth taking). I found Satana to be a character who had more potential in a lot of ways than her brother. Unfortunately the volume ends with her demise, albeit with her redemption as well. If there was one thing that left me with a bitter taste in my mouth, it was how later writers treated the characters (particularly Satana) rather than how the characters actually evolved.
All-in-all, I recommend this tome (which is thicker than a lot of other Essentials and worth the price of what you actually get in return for your hard-earned dollars) for anyone who wants to see Marvel in what I consider to be its second-stage of experimentation (which,for me, includes Man-Thing, Ghost Rider, Golem and [Adam] Warlock). THe Marvel Essentials offer not only the chance to read a character's adventures from the beginning, but it also allows comic geeks like me the opportunity to experience how the Marvel Universe evolved over time from its initial inception. THis, more than any other reason, is why I highly reccomend the Essential Marvel Horror, Volume 1 to everyone. Not only that, but the stories are wild, far-out and weird in ways that only the 1970s could spawn and should be required reading for everyone who loves comics.

[Matt Sautman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of stories serves as Marvel's meditation upon evil within the 1970s. Centered around two siblings, Damian and Satana Hellstrom, the narratives largely relate to the nature vs. nurture debate. Seeing as the two are half human offsprings of the devil, these characters are given an opportunity to wrestle within politics of human identity and choice. Not all stories within the volume are created equally, but together they tell a narrative that takes place across Arizona, St. Louis, Hell, and back. Even in black and white, much of the art is stunning. My chief complaint lies within the absence of page numbers.

[Dominick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Daimon Hellstrom (really) is the devil's son by a human mother. His sister Vampirell Satana has the same parentage. This volume collects a good chunk of the comics in which they appeared (all of the ones for Satana) and they're all pretty much junk. There's the occasional nice bit of art by hands such as Colan, Romita, and Maroto, but the stories are ridiculous, derivitave and over-written nonsense.

[Devero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Graficamente altalenante la parte di Son of Satan, decisamente buona quella di Sàtana.
Un bel viaggio nel fumetto horror anni 70, con storie non per bambini.
La Marvel non ne fa più di storie simili, purtroppo.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

The series starts out strong with some great writers and artists and continues to get more outlandish and convoluted (and not in a fun way).

[Ravenhats · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars