Helspont

800 - In a dying dimension, the body-possessing Daemonites armada invades the planet Khera led by Helspont, beginning a war that spans millennia.

1253 - Helspont confronts J’onn J’onzz as he breaches the dimensional barrier by possessing the body of a Martian Lawgiver. J’onn is able to stop him, but in doing so is physically dissipated into the Interspatial Communication Array.

1720 - Helspont and the Daemonites begin to infiltrate the Earth of their dimension, battling the Coda.

10 years ago - Helspont is able to make a small breach through the bleed into our dimension, possessing Xenobiologist Hector Hammond. Certain that J’onn J’onzz's Martian biology will allow a mass invasion, J’onn is incapacitated and brought to a secret underground lab in Colorado, where he is experimented on. Hammond’s body is damaged containing Hellspont, his head growing larger until it splits open revealing a flaming skull. J’onn defeats him by trapping him within the Martian Interspatial Communication Array.

2 years ago - Helspont successfully escapes the Martian Interspatial Communication Array. He returns to his home dimension to stage an invasion, drawing the attention of Stormwatch. They consult with J’onn J’onzz, and together they dismantle the Daemonite armada, stranding Helspont in a dead dimension.

We've had a long ongoing conversation about possible villains we could introduce for Martian Manhunter. There were a lot of suggestions that crossed the table, but when this guy came up it really landed. Helspont is a very particular slice of comic book visual spectacle, and he does land in this particular rogues gallery in a pretty spectacular way, so we hope you like what we did with him!

Helspont's Comic History

Helspont's first appearance is right where you would expect it to be, WildC.A.T.S #1 from 1992. It's the introductory issue of Jim Lee's big new independent series, full of every single comic trope Lee loves, including "the Cabal", an evil organization of baddies led by Helspont, the terrifying flame-headed alien warlord who we only see from the back at first to indicate just how scary he is. The WildC.A.T.S were a team of alien Kherubim hybrids fighting against an invading armada of evil body-possessing Daemonites. Helspont in particular, we discover, is an exceptionally powerful Daemonite specifically because he possessed the body of a whole OTHER alien species called an Acuran (who actually debuted over in Rob Liefield's Youngblood series, with the character Photon... although Photon doesn't have a badass skull-head.)

The WildC.A.T.S original series went for 51 issues, but Helspont actually only appears in two story arcs, the first one and again somewhere around issue 45. He has appearances in a number of other Image series, and has in the years since become the go-to Wildstorm villain to be referenced in DC comics. He appeared In a whole arc in the new 52 Superman, in Red Hood and the Outlaws, obviously Grifter and Voodoo... basically anytime someone wanted a big, over the top very comic book villain without a lot of DC cannon backstory.

Our Helspont Story

Helspont was always going to be part of our story, especially as we tried to slowly integrate the Wildstorm content in a way that really protects the way those old, original Image comics feel. Our version of the Kherubim / Daemonite war takes place in an alternate dimension, where they are invading an alternate universe Earth where they fight Zealot's Coda. If that was all we were doing with him, that would be a pretty decent adaptation of the character, but I don't think it would require us to give him a page and a timeline of his own.

If he DOES make a few attempts to breach into our universe, however... he becomes almost the perfect Martian Manhunter villain. Not just his powers and the scope of his villainy... even his look is perfect (I can't stress enough that his head is on fire). We even used him as part of J'onn's ORIGIN, suggesting that J'onn helped stop their original attempts to breach our universe, and in doing so was trapped in his alien energy network to be drawn out again centuries later. We have him continue to menace J'onn across his career, even capturing and experimenting on him in his own human host (Hector Hammond, in an appearance that explains his giant head and means I never have to be asked about including him again).

Helspont is such a hand grenade of comic book villainy. He's the sort of character only comics could (or should) give us, and lets us give our world a lot of that same flair.

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