Diablo (Marvel)

**Diablo** appeared in 1964 Marvel Comics called *Fantastic Four*.

*Esteban Corazón de Ablo* was born into Spanish nobility sometime in the 9th century. During his youth he became interested in the art of alchemy. After the death of his father, de Ablo used his vast family fortune to fund his quest to master these ancient arts. Much of Esteban's accounts of these early years are rife with contradictions and conflicting accounts. He began to travel Europe to learn what he could from the ancient masters of alchemy. He eventually became a master of the craft himself. He became an expert in Scholomantics, and Corpus Heremeticum. In 1094 AD he used his talents to assist El Cid conquer the Spanish city of Valencia. Although El Cid's soldiers did not trust him, Esteban was considered a valuable asset to his conquests. El Cid suggested that de Ablo's powers rivaled God's own. Esteban disagreed, but soon became determined to attain that level of powers. Esteban continued his quest to attain godhood, obtaining the Citrinitas and Rubedo, among other artifacts but his goal continued to elude him.

Seeking immortality to continue his ends, Esteban found that Alchemy had it's limitations that the transmutative properties were only temporary. Turning to sorcery, Esteban learned the dark arts and eventually succeeded in contacting the demon Mephisto to grant his dark desires. At the cost of his immortal soul, Esteban was given the secrets of his Elixir Vitae which granted him near immortality, but he was still frustrated with the limitations of alchemy and sought to overcome it. It was about this time that Esteban began calling himself Diablo, and began terrorizing the people of his era with his abilities.

Diablo soon gained some powerful enemies during this period, including the Order of the Deacons, as well as Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition. At some point during this period, Diablo briefly held and lost the Philosopher's Stone, a powerful Alchemical artifact that could transmute matter with no apparent limitations. Despite all his power, Diablo's enemies were many and he was soon forced to flee Spain, apparently losing the Philosopher's Stone in the process. Diablo then continued to travel the globe learning as much as he could about Alchemy, no longer limited by mere mortality. Sometime in the 15th Century, Diablo found himself on the island of Boriquén on the Caribbean Sea. There he was welcomed by the people there. Esteban found a brief period of peace among these people who embraced all who came to their land. He embraced the Saladoid culture, and became a member of the Taino tribe. Diablo's peace came to an end when the voyages of Christopher Columbus landed on the island sometime around the year 1498. Spanish forces committed genocide on the Boriquén people. Horrified, Diablo fought back against the invaders slaying all those who came onto the island. With the Spanish forced from the shores, Diablo appoint himself defender of the land, but resumed his travels across the world.

Diablo eventually settled in the land of Transylvania, where he continued to hone his abilities and terrorized the locals. Diablo has hinted that he had made a pact with the Vampires that lived in the region, and possibly Dracula himself, who was lord of the vampires at the time. Diablo spent the coming centuries cementing his power base here and the citizens of the land lived in fear of his power. On Halloween of the year 1810, a woman named Cynthia von Mort whose husband had just passed away, sought a means of being reunited with her husband. She took to the dark arts to try and resurrect him, but she succeeded only in summoning Diablo who had claimed to have come to aid her. Diablo provided her with the tools she thought she'd need to resurrect her husband, and also offered her what he claimed was a potion that would end her life should she failed so she could at least be with her husband in the afterlife. The woman fell for what turned out to be a trick, as Diablo intentionally set her up to fail. When Absynthia could not resurrect her husband she injected herself with the potion and was too late to learn that it instead granted her with immortality. Absynthia then watched as those she cared for died while she turned into a green skinned monstrosity that would endure for all eternity. In 1875 a woman named Lillian von Loont entered into Diablo's life after a horse carriage accident that took the life of her husband. Nursing her back to health, Diablo and Lillian fell in love and he began teaching her the art of Alchemy.

It was around this time that the villagers had enough of Diablo's reign of terror and a mob was formed to deal with him once and for all. Another account states that Diablo was tracked down by the Order of the Deacons as well. Whatever the case, the cited end result has always been the same, that Diablo was mystically sealed in his castle and trapped therein for centuries. To date there are no records of Diablo's imprisonment being disturbed until sometime in the 1970s. During that period Diablo's castle was found by the vampire known as Nocturne who sought the artifacts in Diablo's castle to reverse some of the weaknesses inherent in vampirism. He was opposed by the costumed heroes Black Fox and the Pixie as well the sorcerer Doctor Strange. During the battle Diablo reached out to the intruders in his home trying to coerce them into releasing him. Ultimately, Black Fox and Pixie defeated Nocturne, who escaped. With Diablo dangerously close to escaping himself, Doctor Strange used his mystical powers to strengthen the mystical bonds that kept Diablo a prisoner.

Apparently, about 20 years prior to the modern age, Diablo got involved in a New York City building project planned by businessmen Bernie Mayer and Dexter Bennett. Diablo provided Mayer with steel created through alchemy at incredibly low prices. They then took out an insurance policy on the building hoping to cash in when the alchemy solution reversed and the building would appear to collapse due to an "act of god". Unaware of this scheme, and not liking how Mayer obtained steel so cheaply, he bought himself out and backed out of the building project. How Diablo managed to broker this deal while he was apparently still imprisoned has yet to be explained.

## Powers and Abilities

Due to his use of alchemy potions, Diablo is apparently immortal, or at least does not age. He also has a greater stamina than could be expected, and has shown some kind of telepathic hypnosis. Alchemy. Fluent in Spanish and English languages. He has a genius intelligence and probably is a gifted hypnotist (although this could be one of his powers).

### Arsenal

Diablo always carries an arsenal of alchemy potions and pills he discovered or invented, in the hidden pockets of his suit. Although the range of his power is wide, all of the feats are temporary unless Diablo provides a second dose. The only exceptions are the elixir he used on Dragon Man and his longevity serum.

* Diablo can affect his own body by changing his appearance to look like a different person, or by becoming a nerveless protoplasm blob, which protects him from certain forms of damage.
* Diablo can control other people with gas pills, including nervous gas or hypnotic gas, or even a pill to resist death through cell morphing. Some potions knock down people by reducing their body temperatures, and of course he has pills to increase the susceptibility of people to his hypnotic orders.
* He can also perform temporal molecular transmutation (stones to feathers), modeling surface features and cause explosions equivalent to 56 pounds of TNT. He can create objects from nothing or transform an object from one state to another (water to ice, for instance) He can also animate inanimate matter and control items and beings formed from alchemy elements (earth, air, water and fire).