HELLHOUND OF RAVENFLIGHT MANOR

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Supernatural monster, possibly demon (see comments)

Occupation: Ravening beast

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: None

Enemies: Conrad Jeavons, Hodiah Twist

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Moors near Ravenflight Manor, possibly in England (see comments)

First Appearance: Amazing Adventures#32 (September, 1975)

Powers/Abilities: Powerful fangs and claws, and likely keen senses; despite the visible claws, it seemed to only bite victims, not scratch at them. It also seemed to be of varying solidity, as the tracks it left behind varied in depth, suggesting its weight was increasing as it came into phase with the mortal world to attack victims, then reduced again afterwards as it faded back into whatever hellish realm it originated from. This shift in solidity may have been it changing to and from a shadow form (see comments).

Height: 5' (at shoulder, by approximation)
Length: 9' (by approximation)
Weight: 590 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Yellow
Fur: Black

History: (see comments)
(Amazing Adventures#32 (fb) - BTS) - A seemingly demonic beast stalked the moors around Ravenflight Manor, leaving a string of savaged corpses in its wake. Though many believed the creature to only be a legend being exploited by someone to cover up murders carried out by very human culprits, those who believed in the creature dubbed it the Hellhound of Ravenflight Manor.

    Detective Hodiah Twist and his friend Conrad Jeavons traveled to Ravenflight Manor to investigate the killings, and while out on the moors on a night with a full moon they discovered the remains of the Hellhound's latest victim.

(Amazing Adventures#32 (fb)) - As Twist examined the area around the corpse, he disparaged the possibility that the killer might be a supernatural beast, noting that the victim had only been bitten and not scratched, and that the "Hellhound's" tracks were of varying depths, which he felt indicated they had been faked. As he explained his hypothesis to Jeavons, the shadowy hound bounded rapidly closer to the two men, and was finally spotted by Jeavons only a split second before the now very solid and real Hellhound leapt on top of Twist, driving him to the ground, and menacing him with its vicious-looking fangs.

Comments: Created by Don McGregor (writer) and P. Craig Russell (penciller) and Dan Green (inker).

    The Hellhound of Ravenflight was part of a Virtual Reality Hodiah Twist adventure experienced on Earth-Killraven in Amazing Adventures#32. Whether it actually existed on Earth-616 (the mainstream Marvel reality, where the "real" Hodiah lived) remains unconfirmed. We only see a brief excerpt from this story, and it's hard to be sure whether the VR participants are controlling the characters as if in a game, or merely experiencing a set story from the perspective of the characters. As such how accurate any aspect of the tale is to "real" events in Twist and Jeavons' lives is impossible to say. Heck, given that the VR ends with Twist apparently about to be savaged to death by the wolf-like Hellhound, the VR drama might be a massively inaccurate portrayal of Twist's actual demise while battling a werewolf, shifted by the simulation from a crowded Manhattan El train to the desolate English countryside.

    As should be obvious to anyone with a passing awareness of Sherlock Holmes, the Hellhound of Ravenflight Manor is the Holmes-homage Twist's equivalent to the Hound of the Baskervilles. How far the parallels go remains unrevealed, as we only saw two pages of the Hellhound's story; if it was like the Baskerville version, only genuinely supernatural, then it may have been preying on victims on the moors for centuries prior to it attacking Twist. Though not outright stated, the landscape it inhabited resembles the moors seen in various adaptations of Hound of the Baskervilles, implying that the normally Manhattan-based Twist and Jeavons had traveled to England.

    Shadow form? Some panels depicted it as if it were a living shadow, and it's hard to know whether the artist was merely hiding the beast's monstrous features until its dramatic reveal when it attacked, or (given the mention of the varying depths of the paw prints) whether it was changing from a shadow to a solid form. 

Profile by Loki, expanding on the sub-profile first written by Jean-Marc Lofficier for the Hodiah Twist entry.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Hellhound of Ravenflight should not be confused with:

images: (without ads)
Amazing Adventures#22, page 24, panel 1 (main)
Amazing Adventures#22, page 23, panel 2 (shadow form - or maybe just in shadows)
Amazing Adventures#22, page 24, panel 2 (menacing Twist)   

Appearances:
Amazing Adventures#32 (September, 1975) - Don McGregor (writer), Craig Russell (pencils), Dan Green (inks), Len Wein (editor)

First Posted: 10/24/2021
Last updated: 10/24/2021

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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