ARMAZIEL

Real Name: Presumably Armaziel

Identity/Class: Extradimensional (Heaven) Angel / magic user

Occupation: Emissary to Hell

Affiliations: Angels of Heaven; possibly the Asura;
Soulfire (pawn)

Enemies: Hellstorm, Sammael (adverary), Satan

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: The Treasury of Light, Heaven;
frequents the game table in a branch of Hell (within Satan's realm)

First Appearance: Hellstorm#7 (October, 1993)

Powers/Abilities: Armaziel's full abilities are unknown. She can teleport from Heaven to Hell, and presumably to other locations as well. She is presumably immune to age and conventional disease and injury. Her offensive abilities are as yet undetermined, but she may possess sufficient power to blast Hellstorm--in full acceptance of his darksoul--from the gates of Heaven and down into the depths of Hell.

History:
(Hellstorm#7 (fb) -BTS) - Armaziel has been engaged in a struggle--as represented on a chess-like table--between the forces of Heaven and Hellfor over three decades

(Hellstorm#4 (fb) - BTS) - As part of one of their games, the two manipulated the life of the young Jason Maldonado

(Hellstorm#4, 5) - An unnamed on nearly un-brained demon unwittingly grabbed a few pieces from the table, infusing them with his energies. The plans of Heaven and Hell were both upset, and Maldonado became Soulfire.

(Hellstorm#7 (fb) - BTS) - Sammael restored the board's equilibrium after this tampering, and introduced several new pieces to replace those that were made unusable.

(Hellstorm#7) - Armaziel journeyed to Hell and accepted the changes made by Sammael. Armaziel made his place, which involved the birthright of the prodigal incarnate. Sammael responded in kind (see comments), and the round was thus completed. At this point, Armaziel recognized that the game had reached its penultimate stage, and he returned to the Treasury of Light, to prepare for the consequences, until checkmate.

(Hellstorm#10) - When Hellstorm brought the souls of Joseph Gerhardt and Lisa to Heaven, they were admitted, but Hellstorm was refused entrance by an angel looking exactly like Armaziel. Hellstorm forced his way in to get a look at Heaven, but was then blasted back out by that Angel, and he fell down to Hell.
Actually, all of the Angels in that issue looked exactly the same.

 Comments: Created by Len Kaminski and Peter Gross.

As the Angel blasted Hellstorm out of Heaven (and down into Hell), Daimon thought: " Something about her...almost...familiar..." The next issue was the last in Kaminski's run, and this point was never explained.

In the succeeding issues, at least as revealed by Warren Ellis in later issues, Hellstorm (the Son of Satan), slew his father and took over his realm, which can be construed as achieving his birthright, which may well have been the move played out by Sammael. One can only guess what the consequences of the move played out by Armaziel were/are.

It was not until Ellis' work that the Angels opposing Hellstorm were named as the Asura, nor was it until then that Hellstorm's father was identified as Marduk Kurios. Nonetheless, the stories flowed consistently from one writer to the next (with the inclusion of the flashback revealing Kurios' death), and I'd say that Armaziel almost certainly was an agent of or associated with the Asura, and Sammael was an agent of Marduk Kurios.

For his punishment for interfering with his game, Satan sentenced the demon to five millennia of licking flaming bile out of the Netheranium latrines while Satan could then conceive of a more suitably severe torment.

I say it every time: While Ellis' work on Hellstorm remain some of my favorite, I definitely enjoyed the work of Kaminski as well. Interesting sub-plots in expansion on otherwise taboo material--wish we'd get more of that in the Marvel Universe now.

CLARIFICATIONS:

Sammael has no known connection to:

• Samuels, Moon Knight's butler, @ Marvel Spotlight I#28. Because, you know, they're a lot alike!
• or any other "Sam" characters

Sammael

(OHotMU Horror 2005/OHotMU A-Z HC#6 - Lilith) - According to legend Samael, later calling himself "Satan", once was an angel, who started a rebellion against Heaven. His consort Lilith and her sister Na'ameh joined him, but when the rebellion failed they were all cast down to Hell. Seeing no future with him Lilith left Samael.