Lady Death
Encyclopedia
Lady Death is a fictional character
, a comic book
goddess created by Brian Pulido
and Steven Hughes
. Lady Death first appeared in Evil Ernie
#1 by Eternity Comics
in December 1991. Lady Death then reappeared in the Evil Ernie: The Resurrection mini-series published by Pulido under his now defunct company Chaos! Comics
in 1993. After a 3 year hiatus, Avatar Press
announced that it would create a separate company called Boundless to publish the character beginning in late 2010. The character was also the subject of a full-length animated feature film released in July 2004 by ADV Films.
Incarnations of the character have been illustrated by such comic book artists as Steven Hughes
, Mike Deodato, Jr., Romano Molenaar and Ivan Reis
. Brian Pulido still owns the intellectual property rights to his characters; having optioned publishing licensing through various independent companies, such as Avatar Press.
In addition, Lady Death has been depicted in artworks by a number of well-known fantasy artists such as Dorian Cleavenger, Gerald Brom
, Boris Vallejo
, Joe Jusko
and Julie Bell
.
titles that took the American comic book
industry by storm during the late 1990s
. The earliest issues of Lady Death were written by Brian Pulido and illustrated by the late Steven Hughes. Lady Death was originally conceived as a violent anti-hero
, but subsequent iterations have toned down the more controversial aspects of the character.
At first, Lady Death was extremely popular and sold strongly. In a recent interview, Brian Pulido revealed that the high point of Lady Death's popularity was in August 1995, when Chaos comics sold approximately $980,000 worth of Lady Death merchandise in a single month. However, sales declined rapidly in the later half of the decade due to broader changes in the comic book industry. By the middle of 2001, it was obvious to industry observers that Chaos Comics was in serious financial trouble.
In August 2002, Chaos! Comics filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and the intellectual property rights to Lady Death were sold to CrossGen
Entertainment. Brian Pulido continued to work on Lady Death for Crossgen, creating a new series titled Medieval Lady Death that was released in February 2003. This version of Lady Death made substantial changes to the character in an attempt to capture a larger mainstream audience.
Despite Medieval Lady Death enjoying reasonable sales, CrossGen Entertainment ran into financial difficulties of its own and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 18 2004 in Tampa
, Florida
. During the bankruptcy proceedings, the rights to Lady Death were sold to Avatar Press. The other Chaos! Comics properties were sold to Tales of Wonder.
In 2004, a feature-length animated motion picture based upon the original version of Lady Death was released. Produced by ADV films, the Lady Death animated feature
premiered at Comic-Con International
in San Diego on July 23, 2004. The film received horrendous reviews and was not a major financial success.
In July 2005, Avatar Press
unveiled a new version of Lady Death. Both Medieval Lady Death as well as the Classic Lady Death were published in separate series. Brian Pulido wrote both series, which featured art by several Avatar Press artists, including Juan Jose Ryp
, Daniel HDR, Richard Ortiz
, Ron Adrian, Di Amorin and Gabriel Guzman.
In April 2010, Avatar Press announced that it would create a separate company called Boundless to publish the character beginning later that year. Brian Pulido and Mike Wolfer will be writing the new ongoing series.
by the boy Ernest Fairchild. She promised to "love Ernie forever", love he never had, in exchange for his loyalty. That loyalty was to kill everyone on Earth
. In the beginning, she had no real purpose or personal story except to be the Eye-candy
for Evil Ernie
's comic book drawn by Craig Caimi in 1998, and she was just seen as the evil sadistic woman who would always give Ernie the incentive to kill. As the story progressed, Lady Death detached herself as the girlfriend of Evil Ernie, and began her own story. With the change, her personality changed dramatically from the sexual villain to a full blown hero.
. The woman who would become Lady Death was born a mortal named Hope. Her father was a local nobleman named Matthias who was forcibly conscripting peasants into military service as feudal levies. The exact nature of the war that Matthias was prosecuting is not specified, although evidence from the recent revision of the character by Avatar Press suggests that it may have been one of the Northern Crusades
(also known as the Baltic Crusades).
Unknown to his innocent daughter, Matthias had a dark secret. Although congratulated by the Church for his work against the pagans, he was despised by the common folk as a cruel tyrant. Matthias was outwardly pious, but secretly dabbled in black magic and demonology
. He was actually a descendant of the fallen angel
s who had led the rebellion against God
. By contrast, Hope's mother was a woman so pure and innocent that her bloodline reached Heaven. Hope's mother died when Hope was still in her late teens, and she was left to live with her father.
Eventually, Matthias' cruelty triggered a peasant uprising. Matthias narrowly escaped death at the hands of the rebels by summoning a demon, but Hope was captured by the rebels and accused of witchcraft
. Faced with the prospect of execution by burning at the stake, Hope uttered an incantation that she had overheard her father use. This incantation summoned a demon who offered her a bargain -- he would rescue her from death if she would renounce her humanity and serve the powers of Hell
. Hope accepted the bargain and was transported into the infernal realms.
Once in Hell, Hope became entangled in a civil war that was raging between Lucifer
and an army of renegade devils led by a powerful sorcerer. Hope was devastated when she learned that the ambitious sorcerer challenging Lucifer for the control of Hell was her own father.
Gradually corrupted by the nature of her surrounding, Hope was tainted with evil. She allied herself with an exiled craftsman who forged weapons for the infernal armies. While speaking to him, she declared that the innocent woman she had once been was dead and that she would henceforth only be known as Lady Death.
In her new persona, Lady Death led an uprising against the Lords of Hell. During the final battle, Lucifer cursed her never to return to Earth while the living walked. Lady Death swore an oath that she would circumvent Lucifer's curse by exterminating all life on Earth.
Lady Death finally ended Lucifer's control over her by casting him through Heaven's Gate (a place where evil cannot go), and in doing so became the new ruler of Hell. Many of the beings living in hell believe that the ascension of Lady Death signaled the beginning of the age of judgment - the final battle between good and evil for the fate of the Earth.
Hope is the daughter of Mary and Marius. Marius is a crusader who has been waging endless campaigns against the pagans, always returning with only his most loyal soldiers, while the peasant levies were slaughtered. This angered the survivors.
Hope, realising that her father has changed and is no longer the man he once was, follows him into the dungeons, with her mother close behind. The townsfolk meanwhile batter down the gates and invade the castle, intent on revenge. Hope discovers her father summoning dark wraiths, and sacrificing the souls of countless peasants in exchange for a kingdom in The Labyrinth. The wraiths refer to her father as Sagos.
Sagos grabs hold of Mary, revealing that he has possessed Marius' body, and they disappear through the portal, leaving Hope behind. Cheated of their revenge, the villagers decide to burn Hope at the stake as a witch. Not wishing to die, Hope casts the spell she overheard her father cast, and summons the wraiths herself. The wraiths agree to transport her through the portal, if she forsakes her humanity and pledges her soul to The Labyrinth. Hope passes through the portal, her skin and hair turning albino in the process (the mark of all those who willingly chose to pass through the portal), and finds herself in the Blacklands.
There she encounters Wargoth, who observes her uncontrolled and instinctive use of magic, and agrees to help her destroy Sagos and rescue her mother. He recruits the sorceress Satasha to teach Hope spellcraft. Wargoth also teaches her how to fight, but every weapon she wields melts in her hand due to her uncontrolled energy.
Over the next two years, Lady Death and her companions fight through the Blacklands, hunting for Sagos. All the while Sagos' undead army destroys and converts the cities of the Blacklands. Eventually, Lady Death and her companions track Sagos down to a temple in Karrion, where they discover Sagos holding Lady Death's mother in chains. Sagos defeats them easily and brings the temple down around them. Lady Death digs herself out and is attacked by Nameless Wolves, slaying all but two of them. These two wolves become her companions.
In the city of Asuwa, Lady Death recovers the sword Deathbringer, which was specially made for her by Satasha and The Silent One. Deathbringer is able to withstand her energies without being destroyed, and allows her to channel her magic through it.
Lady Death then bathes in the Fanghorn river, which grants knowledge of elemental magic to those who survive the experience. She uses this power to save Satasha's home city from destruction, but learns that Sagos does not plan to just conquer the Blacklands, but to wipe out all life, and that he has the means to do it.
include:
:
publishes two versions of Lady Death: the Classic version (revamped slightly due to her separation from the Chaos! Comics
universe), and Medieval Lady Death (the all-ages version from "A Medieval Tale" published at CrossGen
)
The movie begins in 15th century Sweden, where Hope, the beautiful daughter of Matthias, a skilled mercenary who is in actuality a demon, is accused of being the devil's consort. Sentenced by the town priest to be burned at the stake, Matthias, through his proxy, the jester Pagan, offers her life if she surrenders herself to him and joins him in Hell. Matthias's plan to corrupt her is met with unanticipated resistance, as Hope rejects his scheme and eventually finds herself transformed into the powerful warrior Lady Death, who challenges Lucifer for control of Hell itself.
Many of the events from the comics are altered in the animated film. Instead of summoning a demon with whom she bargains for her life, Hope's spell summons a pair of flying demons that carry her physically to Hell (restoring her badly burned body in the process), dropping her in the court of her father, who intends for her to join him by his side. When she refuses, he casts her out, only for her to side with the master blacksmith Cremator, an escaped slave of his, and to lead an army of hellspawn creatures against him. In this continuity, her curse is to be trapped in Hell for as long as one of Lucifer's allies remains alive. Unlike in the comic, Lady Death is presented as more of a heroine whose goal isn't to destroy all life on earth, but to liberate Hell from Lucifer's tyranny.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
, a comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
goddess created by Brian Pulido
Brian Pulido
Brian Pulido is a creator, writer and producer of comic books and films.-Early life:Growing up in Long Branch, New Jersey, Pulido first developed an interest in the horror genre after the release of Night of the Living Dead when he was a child.-Comic book career:Pulido has created, written or...
and Steven Hughes
Steven Hughes
Steven Jay Hughes was an American artist for the Chaos! Comics company. Hughes provided the art for many of the company's comics, including Lady Death, Evil Ernie, and the short-lived superhero series Detonator...
. Lady Death first appeared in Evil Ernie
Evil Ernie
Evil Ernie is a fictional character, an undead, psychotic killer with his own series, published by Chaos! Comics and Devil's Due Publishing. Originally, Evil Ernie was part of Eternity Comics. He made his debut in December 1991. He was created by writer Brian Pulido and artist Steven Hughes.-...
#1 by Eternity Comics
Eternity Comics
Eternity Comics was a California-based comic book publisher active from 1986 to 1994, first as an independent publisher, then as an imprint of Malibu Comics. Eternity published creator-owned comics of an offbeat, independent flavor, as well as some licensed properties...
in December 1991. Lady Death then reappeared in the Evil Ernie: The Resurrection mini-series published by Pulido under his now defunct company Chaos! Comics
Chaos! Comics
Chaos! Comics was a comic book publisher that operated from 1994 until 2002.-Overview:Their titles included Lady Death, Purgatori, Evil Ernie, Chastity, Jade, Omen, Bad Kitty, Cremator, Lady Demon, and Smiley The Psychotic Button.They also published licensed comics for the World Wrestling...
in 1993. After a 3 year hiatus, Avatar Press
Avatar Press
Avatar Press is an independent American publisher of comic books, founded in 1996 by William A. Christensen, and based in Rantoul, Illinois.Avatar initially published only mini-series; however, they have since begun to branch out...
announced that it would create a separate company called Boundless to publish the character beginning in late 2010. The character was also the subject of a full-length animated feature film released in July 2004 by ADV Films.
Incarnations of the character have been illustrated by such comic book artists as Steven Hughes
Steven Hughes
Steven Jay Hughes was an American artist for the Chaos! Comics company. Hughes provided the art for many of the company's comics, including Lady Death, Evil Ernie, and the short-lived superhero series Detonator...
, Mike Deodato, Jr., Romano Molenaar and Ivan Reis
Ivan Reis
Ivan Reis , born 1976 in São Paulo, is a Brazilian comic book artist. He is known for his work on books such as Marvel Comics' Captain Marvel, and DC Comics' Green Lantern books...
. Brian Pulido still owns the intellectual property rights to his characters; having optioned publishing licensing through various independent companies, such as Avatar Press.
In addition, Lady Death has been depicted in artworks by a number of well-known fantasy artists such as Dorian Cleavenger, Gerald Brom
Gerald Brom
Gerald Brom is an American gothic fantasy artist and illustrator, known for his work in role-playing games, novels, and comics.-Early life:Brom was born March 9, 1965, in Albany, Georgia. As the son of a U.S...
, Boris Vallejo
Boris Vallejo
Boris Vallejo is a Peruvian-born American painter. He immigrated to the United States in 1964, and he currently resides in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He frequently works with Julie Bell, his wife, painter, and model....
, Joe Jusko
Joe Jusko
Joe Jusko is an American artist known for his realistic, highly detailed painted fantasy, pin-up, and cover illustrations, mainly in the comic book industry...
and Julie Bell
Julie Bell
Julie Bell is an American painter. A fantasy artist and wildlife artist, she is a former bodybuilder and fantasy model for her husband, painter Boris Vallejo.-Career:...
.
Publication history
Lady Death was originally published by Chaos Comics and remains one of the best examples of the bad girlBad girl art
Bad girl art is a superheroines art form genre coined after the analogy of good girl art which also includes strong female characters in comic books...
titles that took the American comic book
American comic book
An American comic book is a small magazine originating in the United States and containing a narrative in the form of comics. Since 1975 the dimensions have standardized at 6 5/8" x 10 ¼" , down from 6 ¾" x 10 ¼" in the Silver Age, although larger formats appeared in the past...
industry by storm during the late 1990s
1990s in comics
See also:1980s in comics,other events of the 1990s,2000s in comics and thelist of years in comicsPublications: 1990 - 1991 - 1992 - 1993 - 1994 - 1995 - 1996 - 1997 - 1998 - 1999-1992:See also: 1992 in comics...
. The earliest issues of Lady Death were written by Brian Pulido and illustrated by the late Steven Hughes. Lady Death was originally conceived as a violent anti-hero
Anti-hero
In fiction, an antihero is generally considered to be a protagonist whose character is at least in some regards conspicuously contrary to that of the archetypal hero, and is in some instances its antithesis in which the character is generally useless at being a hero or heroine when they're...
, but subsequent iterations have toned down the more controversial aspects of the character.
At first, Lady Death was extremely popular and sold strongly. In a recent interview, Brian Pulido revealed that the high point of Lady Death's popularity was in August 1995, when Chaos comics sold approximately $980,000 worth of Lady Death merchandise in a single month. However, sales declined rapidly in the later half of the decade due to broader changes in the comic book industry. By the middle of 2001, it was obvious to industry observers that Chaos Comics was in serious financial trouble.
In August 2002, Chaos! Comics filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and the intellectual property rights to Lady Death were sold to CrossGen
CrossGen
Cross Generation Entertainment, or CrossGen, was an American comic book publisher that operated from 1998 to 2004.CrossGen Comics, Inc. was founded in 1998, by Tampa, Florida-based entrepreneur Mark Alessi who sought to create a comic book universe that was uniquely varied but also connected by a...
Entertainment. Brian Pulido continued to work on Lady Death for Crossgen, creating a new series titled Medieval Lady Death that was released in February 2003. This version of Lady Death made substantial changes to the character in an attempt to capture a larger mainstream audience.
Despite Medieval Lady Death enjoying reasonable sales, CrossGen Entertainment ran into financial difficulties of its own and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 18 2004 in Tampa
Tâmpa
Tâmpa may refer to several villages in Romania:* Tâmpa, a village in Băcia Commune, Hunedoara County* Tâmpa, a village in Miercurea Nirajului, Mureş County* Tâmpa, a mountain in Braşov city...
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. During the bankruptcy proceedings, the rights to Lady Death were sold to Avatar Press. The other Chaos! Comics properties were sold to Tales of Wonder.
In 2004, a feature-length animated motion picture based upon the original version of Lady Death was released. Produced by ADV films, the Lady Death animated feature
Lady Death: The Movie
Lady Death: The Movie is a 2004 U.S. animated film based on the comic book character Lady Death. This film was the first animation project produced by now-defunct anime distributor A.D. Vision. It had premiered at the 2004 Comic-Con convention. The film was released on DVD October 9, 2004 and had...
premiered at Comic-Con International
Comic-Con International
San Diego Comic-Con International, also known as Comic-Con International: San Diego , and commonly known as Comic-Con or the San Diego Comic-Con, was founded as the Golden State Comic Book Convention and later the San Diego Comic Book Convention in 1970 by Shel Dorf and a group of San Diegans...
in San Diego on July 23, 2004. The film received horrendous reviews and was not a major financial success.
In July 2005, Avatar Press
Avatar Press
Avatar Press is an independent American publisher of comic books, founded in 1996 by William A. Christensen, and based in Rantoul, Illinois.Avatar initially published only mini-series; however, they have since begun to branch out...
unveiled a new version of Lady Death. Both Medieval Lady Death as well as the Classic Lady Death were published in separate series. Brian Pulido wrote both series, which featured art by several Avatar Press artists, including Juan Jose Ryp
Juan Jose Ryp
Juan Jose Ryp is a Spanish comic book artist known, among other things, for his work on Black Summer with Warren Ellis. In Spain he contributed to erotic comics anthology magazines.-Biography:...
, Daniel HDR, Richard Ortiz
Richard Ortiz
Richard Ortiz in Asunción, Paraguay is a footballer who plays as a Midfielder. He currently plays for Olimpia in the Paraguayan Primera División and the Paraguay national football team.-International career:...
, Ron Adrian, Di Amorin and Gabriel Guzman.
In April 2010, Avatar Press announced that it would create a separate company called Boundless to publish the character beginning later that year. Brian Pulido and Mike Wolfer will be writing the new ongoing series.
The first Lady Death
Lady Death originated as the sexy and violent villain that was perceived as a hallucinationHallucination
A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid,...
by the boy Ernest Fairchild. She promised to "love Ernie forever", love he never had, in exchange for his loyalty. That loyalty was to kill everyone on Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
. In the beginning, she had no real purpose or personal story except to be the Eye-candy
Attractiveness
Attractiveness or attraction refers to a quality that causes an interest or desire in something or someone. The term attraction may also refer to the object of the attraction itself, as in tourist attraction.-Visual attractiveness:...
for Evil Ernie
Evil Ernie
Evil Ernie is a fictional character, an undead, psychotic killer with his own series, published by Chaos! Comics and Devil's Due Publishing. Originally, Evil Ernie was part of Eternity Comics. He made his debut in December 1991. He was created by writer Brian Pulido and artist Steven Hughes.-...
's comic book drawn by Craig Caimi in 1998, and she was just seen as the evil sadistic woman who would always give Ernie the incentive to kill. As the story progressed, Lady Death detached herself as the girlfriend of Evil Ernie, and began her own story. With the change, her personality changed dramatically from the sexual villain to a full blown hero.
Classic Lady Death
The setting for the original Lady Death comic was medieval SwedenSweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. The woman who would become Lady Death was born a mortal named Hope. Her father was a local nobleman named Matthias who was forcibly conscripting peasants into military service as feudal levies. The exact nature of the war that Matthias was prosecuting is not specified, although evidence from the recent revision of the character by Avatar Press suggests that it may have been one of the Northern Crusades
Northern Crusades
The Northern Crusades or Baltic Crusades were crusades undertaken by the Christian kings of Denmark and Sweden, the German Livonian and Teutonic military orders, and their allies against the pagan peoples of Northern Europe around the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea...
(also known as the Baltic Crusades).
Unknown to his innocent daughter, Matthias had a dark secret. Although congratulated by the Church for his work against the pagans, he was despised by the common folk as a cruel tyrant. Matthias was outwardly pious, but secretly dabbled in black magic and demonology
Demonology
Demonology is the systematic study of demons or beliefs about demons. It is the branch of theology relating to superhuman beings who are not gods. It deals both with benevolent beings that have no circle of worshippers or so limited a circle as to be below the rank of gods, and with malevolent...
. He was actually a descendant of the fallen angel
Fallen angel
Fallen angel is a concept developed in Jewish mythology from interpretation of the Book of Enoch. The actual term fallen angel is not found in either the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament. Christians adopted the concept of fallen angels mainly based on their interpretations of the Book of...
s who had led the rebellion against God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
. By contrast, Hope's mother was a woman so pure and innocent that her bloodline reached Heaven. Hope's mother died when Hope was still in her late teens, and she was left to live with her father.
Eventually, Matthias' cruelty triggered a peasant uprising. Matthias narrowly escaped death at the hands of the rebels by summoning a demon, but Hope was captured by the rebels and accused of witchcraft
Witchcraft
Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...
. Faced with the prospect of execution by burning at the stake, Hope uttered an incantation that she had overheard her father use. This incantation summoned a demon who offered her a bargain -- he would rescue her from death if she would renounce her humanity and serve the powers of Hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
. Hope accepted the bargain and was transported into the infernal realms.
Once in Hell, Hope became entangled in a civil war that was raging between Lucifer
Lucifer
Traditionally, Lucifer is a name that in English generally refers to the devil or Satan before being cast from Heaven, although this is not the original meaning of the term. In Latin, from which the English word is derived, Lucifer means "light-bearer"...
and an army of renegade devils led by a powerful sorcerer. Hope was devastated when she learned that the ambitious sorcerer challenging Lucifer for the control of Hell was her own father.
Gradually corrupted by the nature of her surrounding, Hope was tainted with evil. She allied herself with an exiled craftsman who forged weapons for the infernal armies. While speaking to him, she declared that the innocent woman she had once been was dead and that she would henceforth only be known as Lady Death.
In her new persona, Lady Death led an uprising against the Lords of Hell. During the final battle, Lucifer cursed her never to return to Earth while the living walked. Lady Death swore an oath that she would circumvent Lucifer's curse by exterminating all life on Earth.
Lady Death finally ended Lucifer's control over her by casting him through Heaven's Gate (a place where evil cannot go), and in doing so became the new ruler of Hell. Many of the beings living in hell believe that the ascension of Lady Death signaled the beginning of the age of judgment - the final battle between good and evil for the fate of the Earth.
Classic Lady Death at Avatar Press
Avatar Press now publishes Lady Death. Since they only have the rights to Lady Death alone (without the rest of the Chaos! Comics characters that were so intertwined with her original story), Lady Death has been given a new origin story, with notable differences to the story told at Chaos! Comics.Hope is the daughter of Mary and Marius. Marius is a crusader who has been waging endless campaigns against the pagans, always returning with only his most loyal soldiers, while the peasant levies were slaughtered. This angered the survivors.
Hope, realising that her father has changed and is no longer the man he once was, follows him into the dungeons, with her mother close behind. The townsfolk meanwhile batter down the gates and invade the castle, intent on revenge. Hope discovers her father summoning dark wraiths, and sacrificing the souls of countless peasants in exchange for a kingdom in The Labyrinth. The wraiths refer to her father as Sagos.
Sagos grabs hold of Mary, revealing that he has possessed Marius' body, and they disappear through the portal, leaving Hope behind. Cheated of their revenge, the villagers decide to burn Hope at the stake as a witch. Not wishing to die, Hope casts the spell she overheard her father cast, and summons the wraiths herself. The wraiths agree to transport her through the portal, if she forsakes her humanity and pledges her soul to The Labyrinth. Hope passes through the portal, her skin and hair turning albino in the process (the mark of all those who willingly chose to pass through the portal), and finds herself in the Blacklands.
There she encounters Wargoth, who observes her uncontrolled and instinctive use of magic, and agrees to help her destroy Sagos and rescue her mother. He recruits the sorceress Satasha to teach Hope spellcraft. Wargoth also teaches her how to fight, but every weapon she wields melts in her hand due to her uncontrolled energy.
Over the next two years, Lady Death and her companions fight through the Blacklands, hunting for Sagos. All the while Sagos' undead army destroys and converts the cities of the Blacklands. Eventually, Lady Death and her companions track Sagos down to a temple in Karrion, where they discover Sagos holding Lady Death's mother in chains. Sagos defeats them easily and brings the temple down around them. Lady Death digs herself out and is attacked by Nameless Wolves, slaying all but two of them. These two wolves become her companions.
In the city of Asuwa, Lady Death recovers the sword Deathbringer, which was specially made for her by Satasha and The Silent One. Deathbringer is able to withstand her energies without being destroyed, and allows her to channel her magic through it.
Lady Death then bathes in the Fanghorn river, which grants knowledge of elemental magic to those who survive the experience. She uses this power to save Satasha's home city from destruction, but learns that Sagos does not plan to just conquer the Blacklands, but to wipe out all life, and that he has the means to do it.
Chaos! Comics
Series published by Chaos! ComicsChaos! Comics
Chaos! Comics was a comic book publisher that operated from 1994 until 2002.-Overview:Their titles included Lady Death, Purgatori, Evil Ernie, Chastity, Jade, Omen, Bad Kitty, Cremator, Lady Demon, and Smiley The Psychotic Button.They also published licensed comics for the World Wrestling...
include:
- The Reckoning 1994
- Between Heaven & Hell 1995
- Chaos Quarterly 1 1995
- Chaos Quarterly 2 1996
- Chaos Quarterly 3 1996
- The Odyssey 1996
- The Crucible 1996
- Death Becomes Her 1997
- Wicked Ways 1998
- The Harrowing 1998
- The Covenant 1998
- Dragon Wars 1998
- Retribution 1998
- Inferno 1999
- The Rapture 1999
- Judgement War 1999
- Armageddon 1999
- Dark Millennium 2000
- Tribulation 2000
- Love Bites 2001
- River Of Fear 2001
- Alive 2001
- Last Rites 2001
- Heartbreaker 2002
- The Gauntlet 2002
- Goddess Returns 2002
- Dark Alliance 2002 (final series from Chaos - incomplete)
CrossGen Comics
Series published at CrossGenCrossGen
Cross Generation Entertainment, or CrossGen, was an American comic book publisher that operated from 1998 to 2004.CrossGen Comics, Inc. was founded in 1998, by Tampa, Florida-based entrepreneur Mark Alessi who sought to create a comic book universe that was uniquely varied but also connected by a...
:
- A Medieval Tale (2003)
- The Wild Hunt (2004; incomplete)
Avatar Press
Note: Avatar PressAvatar Press
Avatar Press is an independent American publisher of comic books, founded in 1996 by William A. Christensen, and based in Rantoul, Illinois.Avatar initially published only mini-series; however, they have since begun to branch out...
publishes two versions of Lady Death: the Classic version (revamped slightly due to her separation from the Chaos! Comics
Chaos! Comics
Chaos! Comics was a comic book publisher that operated from 1994 until 2002.-Overview:Their titles included Lady Death, Purgatori, Evil Ernie, Chastity, Jade, Omen, Bad Kitty, Cremator, Lady Demon, and Smiley The Psychotic Button.They also published licensed comics for the World Wrestling...
universe), and Medieval Lady Death (the all-ages version from "A Medieval Tale" published at CrossGen
CrossGen
Cross Generation Entertainment, or CrossGen, was an American comic book publisher that operated from 1998 to 2004.CrossGen Comics, Inc. was founded in 1998, by Tampa, Florida-based entrepreneur Mark Alessi who sought to create a comic book universe that was uniquely varied but also connected by a...
)
- Classic Lady Death:
- Abandon All Hope 2005
- Blacklands 2006-2007
- Cursed (yet to be released)
- The Wicked (*) 2005
- Death Goddess (*) 2005
- Dead Rising (*) 2004
- Infernal Sins (*) 2006
- Lost Souls (*) (crossover between Lady Death, War AngelWar AngelWar Angel is a fictional character created by Brian Pulido for his new line of post-Chaos comics at Avatar Press. She exists in the same universe as the rest Pulido's new line including Lady Death and Unholy.-Background:...
, PandoraPandora (comics)Pandora is a fictional character created by William A. Christensen, Editor-in-Chief of Avatar Press comics.-Background:From Avatar Press' site:-Pandora Comics:*Pandora*Pandora: Demonography*Pandora: Devil's Advocate*Pandora: Nudes...
, and Unholy) 2005-2006- Lady Death vs War Angel (sequel to Lost Souls)
- Lady Death vs Pandora (conclusion to Lost Souls trilogy)
- Lady Death / Shi (*)
- Pirate Queen (*)
- Sacrilege (*)
- (*)=To be read in no particular order.
- Medieval Lady Death:
- Medieval Lady Death 2005
- Medieval Lady Death/Belladonna 2005
- Medieval Lady Death: War of the Winds 2006-2007
Animated Lady Death
Lady Death: The Movie was released in 2004 by ADV Films.The movie begins in 15th century Sweden, where Hope, the beautiful daughter of Matthias, a skilled mercenary who is in actuality a demon, is accused of being the devil's consort. Sentenced by the town priest to be burned at the stake, Matthias, through his proxy, the jester Pagan, offers her life if she surrenders herself to him and joins him in Hell. Matthias's plan to corrupt her is met with unanticipated resistance, as Hope rejects his scheme and eventually finds herself transformed into the powerful warrior Lady Death, who challenges Lucifer for control of Hell itself.
Many of the events from the comics are altered in the animated film. Instead of summoning a demon with whom she bargains for her life, Hope's spell summons a pair of flying demons that carry her physically to Hell (restoring her badly burned body in the process), dropping her in the court of her father, who intends for her to join him by his side. When she refuses, he casts her out, only for her to side with the master blacksmith Cremator, an escaped slave of his, and to lead an army of hellspawn creatures against him. In this continuity, her curse is to be trapped in Hell for as long as one of Lucifer's allies remains alive. Unlike in the comic, Lady Death is presented as more of a heroine whose goal isn't to destroy all life on earth, but to liberate Hell from Lucifer's tyranny.
External links
- Lady Death Universe
- Boundless Comics
- Avatar Launches Boundless At C2E2 – Brings Back Lady Death, Bleeding Cool
- Lady Death at Avatar Press. Accessed 17 September, 2005. Accessed 17 September, 2005.
- Release note about Lady Death - Lost Souls