Nergal

**Nergal** is a character in comic books published by the American company DC Comics. He first appeared in *Hellblazer* #6 (June 1988), but his first appearance in *Swamp Thing* comics was in *Swamp Thing* Vol. 2, #96 (June 1990). He was created by Jamie Delano and John Ridgway.

## History

Apparently, there are two kind of demons: the ones who are born as demons, former angels who followed Lucifer Morningstar in his rebellion against God and were exiled to Hell since then, and other who were once human souls, tainted by evil in a way that, once in Hell, allowed them to “climb the ladder” to become demons themselves, just as the angels had done billions of years before. Apparently, Nergal belongs to the second kind, despite some evidence pointing to the contrary (there was a Babylonian deity named Nergal far before the alleged human life of the demon, but it’s possible he took his name after the deity itself… since demons are master liars, nothing can be considered sure about them). According to some (unconfirmed) sources, Nergal was once a boy living in Europe in the XVII Century, a young man who became the follower of a local witch. His relation with the evil woman brought him in undisclosed territories, and he became even worse than his mistress, a soul craving only for pain and suffering. He was responsible of the rape and killing of many children in the area, until he was arrested and processed. When it became clear he had sold his soul to the devil, or to whoever was in his place at the time, the young man was sentenced to death and, accordingly to the laws of that time, he was burnt on a steak. In Hell, the man found quite a comfortable environment for him, since all the pain the people suffered there and the atrocities the demons committed only made him stronger. From a tortured soul, he rose in ranks until he became a god-demon, a powerful entity in the afterlife, and was assigned the title of Duke of Mendacity (another good reason not to trust anything regarding his past). As all demons, Nergal started tormenting the living, trying to corrupt what little innocence still lingered in the world. Then, he found a soul he got particularly attached to: John Constantine. Nergal first “met” Constantine when the latter was still a teenager: he was the one who pushed the boy to try his first cigarette ever, and to steal a packet immediately afterwards, thus starting Constantine’s longest and most destructive addiction. From that moment, Nergal kept following John, influencing him from the darkest corners of his mind. As a young man, Constantine became an amateur, and joined forces with others like him: when the group, in Newcastle, tried to exorcise a lesser demon from a girl by summoning a more powerful one, it was Nergal who answered the call, but he was too powerful to be bent on the summoners’ will. He destroyed the lesser demon just for fun, and took for payment the soul of the little girl, enjoying the pain and horror that he brought on everybody’s lives. The girl became a toy for all demons in Hell, and Constantine was overwhelmed by guilt: that was a glorious victory for Nergal, who further rose in ranks. He became the leader of the Damnation Army, a group of lost souls who had become his slaves; Nergal used them to oppose the Resurrection Crusade, Christian fanatics acting on behalf of angels. In the middle of the battle between the two groups ended up a girl, Zed Martin, daughter of the leader of the Crusade: she was destined to give birth either to the Messiah, starting the Second Coming, or the Anti-Christ, finally opening the gates of Hell on Earth. When Zed met John Constantine and befriended him, becoming also his lover, Nergal saw a unique opportunity to win the war with the Crusade, on a side, and to deliver the finishing blow to his favorite toy, on the other. When Constantine got severely wounded, Nergal visited him in the hospital, offering him a deal: he would have healed his wounds by injecting him some of his demonic blood, granting him the power to save either Zed or the entire world from Armageddon, and he in turn would have sold his soul to him, and foiled the plans of the Crusade. Nergal would have not only destroyed his adversary, he would have turned him in what he hated the most: himself. Nergal is, simply put, the embodiment of evil. Cruel, sadistic, highly deceptive, Nergal enjoys the pain and the suffering of human beings, and uses his many abilities to corrupt innocence and to make the lives of the few pure ones around a living hell. As all demons, Nergal can possess the body of humans, and has at disposal a variety of powers that go from superhuman physical attributes to magic and reality manipulation; being a Duke of Hell, he also has control over a vast number of lesser demons and damned souls, that form his personal army. Powerful and intelligent, Nergal is extremely dangerous, a demon who only exists to spread suffering and fear in the world.

## Powers and Abilities

* **Telekinesis**
* **Reality Warping**
* **Immobilization**
* **Immortality**

## In other media

* Nergal appeared in the *Constantine* episodes "Non Est Asylum" and "The Rage of Caliban", portrayed by Joey Phillips.
* Nergal appeared in the *DC's Legends of Tomorrow* episode "Terms of Service", portrayed again by Joey Phillips.
* Nergal appeared in *Constantine: City of Demons*, voiced by Robin Atkin Downes and Jim Meskimen.

## Notes

* He is based on Nergal, a deity that was worshipped throughout ancient Mesopotamia with the main seat of his worship at Cuthah represented by the mound of Tell-Ibrahim.