AZAZEL

BIOGRAPHY

Azazel claims to be the devil that is referred to by many religious texts. Stating that he comes from Biblical times, Azazel is part of a sub-species of mutants who are collectively known as the Neyaphem. They originally lived on La Isla des Demonas, an island located in the Caribbean. The Neyaphem believed the Earth was theirs to own and that humans were to be ruled over and used as slaves. However, another group of mutants known as the Cheyarafim were against this and eventually defeated and imprisoned the Neyaphem, including Azazel, in an alternate dimension. Ironically, this dimension, which smelled heavily of brimstone, was the one accessed by Azazel when using his teleportation powers. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #433]

Over the centuries of their immortal exile, Azazel learned more about this dimension and his powers to manipulate its energies. Although this gave him the ability to view the Earth, he realized that he would never be able to teleport back to Earth without help from the other side.

Many decades ago, the sorceress Margali Szardos accidently created a portal to Azazel's dimension. With the portal open from Earth's side, Azazel was able to teleport back to that dimension. Due to his appearance, Margali believed that Azazel was a demon, a mistake which he used this to his advantage. In exchange for teaching her magic, Azazel was able to visit Earth on multiple occasions. With the ability to visit Earth for short periods at a time, Azazel devised a plan to allow himself and the Neyaphem to return properly and conquer the Earth. On each visit to Earth, he intended to impregnate as many women as possible to spawn a generation of mutants with powers like his own, linked to the "Brimstone" Dimension. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #433] Azazel also found other supplicants like Margali. Playing the part of the Devil, he traded favors and extracted debts from respectable social castes like the St. Croix or the Oyama family lines. [Weapon X (3rd series) #25]

One woman Azazel encountered was the mutant called Mystique, who was living in the guise of Raven Wagner and was the wife of the German baron, Christian Wagner. Azazel was invited to the baron’s home to discuss business as the ruler of Isla de Demonas. However, when the baron introduced Azazel to his wife Raven, it was obvious that he was more interested in her than any business relationship. Azazel believed that he seduced Raven and she soon fell in love with him. During their short time together, Mystique became pregnant. The affair broke off, but Azazel left believing Raven was carrying his child. She even killed Christian when he started asking too many questions about Azazel. When the child was delivered a few months later, the baby was born visibly mutated with characteristics of both Raven and Azazel. Mystique revealed her true, mutant appearance and was chased away by an angry mob who believed her to be a demon. Barely escaping, she separated from the child and could not find him in the chaos of that night. Margali Szardos discovered the boy, and informed Azazel of his survival. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #428]

However, much of this was a deception orchestrated by Mystique's long-time lover, Irene Adler. The precognitive Destiny foresaw a future where Azazel succeeded in his dreams of returning to Earth as a conqueror. Azazel's plot relied upon bloodlines and sacrifice, so Irene plotted to foil Azazel with a cuckoo in his nest, a boy he believed to be his heir but instead would be his nemesis. Irene and Raven conceived this child together, with Raven shaping her own genetic material so their offspring would resemble Azazel and fool him into accepting the boy as his own. The ploy worked, with Azazel observing "Kurt Wagner" from afar, and made him a key (but flawed) element of his future plans. Raven and Irene even underwent memory alteration thanks to Charles Xavier to remove their recollection of the plot. [X-Men Blue: Origins #1]

Once enough of his children were fully grown, Azazel subverted them, controlling their minds and forcing them to travel to La Isla des Demonas. The artificial genetic similarity between Kurt and Azazel was enough to make him susceptible to this coersion. Once they had all congregated on the island, a ceremony was performed to open a large enough portal from Earth for Azazel and the Neyaphem to return. When Kurt went missing, the X-Men had followed his travels to the Carribbean. They learned of Azazel's plans and were able to disrupt the ceremony. Most of Azazel’s children died as the portal collapsed. However, all the survivors including the X-Men were transported through into the Brimstone Dimension. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #431]

Azazel took the X-Men prisoner, letting the Neyaphem toy with them while he tried to convert his three remaining sons, Nightcrawler, Kiwi Black and Abyss, to his cause. All three had their senses restored in this dimension and refused to join Azazel. As the X-Men made their escape, Kurt engaged Azazel in a sword fight. Kurt rejected Azazel as his father due to his evil ways and Azazel was equally appalled that a son of his could be so virtuous. Thanks to Polaris' manipulation of the dimensional rift within Abyss’s body, Kurt and the others were able to escape the Brimstone Dimension. Just before the X-Men teleported away, the tower upon which Azazel and Nightcrawler were fighting collapsed and Azazel fell into one of the many dimensional rifts within the Brimstone Dimension, laughing maniacally. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #432-434]

Azazel remained active in the forgotten realms, and continued seeking new avenues of power. The rest of the Neyaphem were apparently lost, and he abandoned the Brimstone Dimension as a potential beachhead for Earth. Azazel served as patron to another witch of the Winding Way, Calcabrina, who lent her magic to Frankenstein's Monster and his Murder Circus. While Frank sought vengeance on the entire bloodline of his creator, Calcabrina used the souls of their victims as sacrifices to feed Azazel's lust for power. The Murder Circus fought with the X-Men in Westchester, but Azazel's old foes never learned he was the power behind Calcabrina. [Wolverine and the X-Men (1st series) #21-23]

Souls were a form of currency in the different realms of Hell, and Azazel stylized himself as a pirate, invading the afterlife to build a collection of souls under his power. He hoped to establish the strength and notoriety necessary to carve out a portion of the Realm of the Dead for himself, becoming an official Hell-Lord and broker of souls. As he impressed more souls into sailing under his flag, Admiral Azazel raided the shores of the afterlife beyond the realm of the flesh to build his collection. He acquired and empowered several notable damned souls to serve as captains of his raiding vessels, including Caligula, Jack the Ripper and Billy the Kid.

One particular find of interest were the demonic spawn of a giant maggott and a changeling, found on the Brimstone Plains. By feeding the larvae his own blood, Azazel transmogrified the demons into small, red Bamfs, who viciously carried out his orders. On the edge of Heaven, Azazel's pirates ran afoul of Nightcrawler, who recently died facing Bastion. Kurt repelled his "father" and his invasion, salvaging a Bamf of his own. By feeding the Bamf a portion of his own purified soul, Kurt turned the Bamf blue, the first of many, and began raising an army of his own. [Amazing X-Men (2nd series) #1, 4, Wolverine and the X-Men (1st series) #30]

Many blue Bamfs made their home at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning almost since its founding, with the X-Men never understanding the true nature of the teleporting pests. [Wolverine and the X-Men (1st series) #1] However, they were secretly constructing a portal, like Margali Szardos, that once opened, created a stable gateway between Earth and the afterlife. When the X-Men discovered the Bamf portal, they were sucked into the ongoing conflict between Azazel and Nightcrawler. Kurt and the X-Men commandeered a vessel and waged war on Azazel's crew, but no prison could hold the Red Lord. He would inevitably escape and continue raiding the afterlife to find more souls. With the help of his Bamfs, Nightcrawler instead modified the blood magic spell Azazel once used to sacrifice his children and bring him to Earth. The Bamfs made a new body for Kurt and, with his blood, he bound Azazel to the Realm of Earth, unable to leave this dimension and return to his pirating ways in the Realm of the Dead. [Amazing X-Men (2nd series) #1-5]

The X-Men called in a few favors and had S.H.I.E.L.D. take custody of the Earthbound Azazel, transporting him to Ryker's Island. When Mystique learned Nightcrawler was alive and Azazel was back, however, she plotted to intercept the prison transport. Azazel's Bamfs already helped him escape S.H.I.E.L.D. before Mystique arrived to kill him, and Kurt tried to keep both of them from harming innocent lives. Still, Azazel managed to teleport himself to freedom, with Raven in tow. Azazel gave Mystique the chance to kill him, but instead she thought better of it and offered him a job with her criminal organization. [Amazing X-Men (2nd series) #6]

Unable to return to Hell, the Brimstone Dimension, or the other realms beyond the flesh, Azazel settled into the role of a favor broker trading power for souls. He found plenty of work in Washington D.C., and leaned into his devilish reputation for the fun of it. Some time later, Mystique approached Azazel as part of her new mercenary team, Weapon X-Force. They had a blood feud with the hate-crazed Reverend William Stryker, who made a deal with the Devil, making him effectively immortal, rising from Hell time and again to threaten them. They needed to reach Hell itself to stop him from ever returning. Azazel found the idea amusing and murdered Weapon X-Force so they could visit Hell. Through a supernatural application of his teleporting power, he held their bodies in stasis at the moment of death. When their mission was done, he could release that stasis and allow their healing factors to bring them back to life. [Weapon X (3rd series) #25-27]

Azazel passed through the gates of Krakoa and claimed amnesty on the new nation-state, along with many of the X-Men's old foes. [House of X #5] Still, he was hardly well-suited for paradise. Azazel stayed out of the way of Krakoa's rulers and politics, although he did amuse himself by claiming a long-standing debt on the St. Croix bloodline from one of his previous supplicants. Marius St. Croix, the mutant Emplate, unwillingly fell under Azazel's thrall, thanks to his ancestor's contract with the Red Lord. Azazel used Emplate as a bodyguard and lorded over the vampire how he was compelled to obey Azazel's commands but, frankly, Azazel had few commands to issue. More than anything, he simply seemed to enjoy having company. [Dark X-Men (2nd series) #1]

Over time, a number of mutants came to find Krakoa stifling or its laws troublesome. When Madelyne Pryor established herself as the Goblin Queen and ruler of Limbo, she also made a Limbo Embassy in New York with recognized sovereignty. Limbo was counted among the Hellish realms that Azazel was barred from by Nightcrawler's spell, but he petitioned Madelyne for clemency. Azazel and Emplate moved into the Limbo Embassy while Madelyne considered his petition, and soon the embassy opened its doors to many mutants who preferred darker environments than the paradise of Krakoa.

This alternative became an active safe haven when Orchis orchestrated the Hellfire Gala massacre, dismantled Krakoa's government, and made mutants illegal in most countries. The Limbo Embassy became a protective sanctuary for mutants who could make it there, and Madelyne Pryor assembled her own dark X-Men in the absence of more-favorable champions. Azazel joined his host's X-Men for his own amusement, and forced his thrall Emplate to do so as well. They performed several mutant rescue missions, though Azazel always led from the rear and allowed Emplate to do the heavy lifting.

Eventually, the forces of Orchis staged a counter-strike on the Limbo Embassy. Their magic department had secured their own Goblin Queen from another dimension. This queen used Azazel's son Abyss as a trap, releasing him from custody and sending him towards the embassy. Nils Styger was rigged so that his dimensional void would flare-up when he sought sanctuary, trapping Madelyne and most of the Dark X-Men in his pocket dimensional space. Azazel avoided the snare and was vaguely paternal with Abyss when he apologized for not being decent father material before snapping his neck. With Abyss's death, Azazel's "fellow X-Men" were freed to take back the Embassy.

However, the fraudulent Goblin Queen had her own Bamf Demon, a thoroughly corrupted version of Kurt Wagner. Azazel only had enough time for a moment's recollection before the creature ripped him in two, bringing a sudden end to Azazel's millennia of selfishness. As a final denouement, Emplate immediately abandoned his X-Men teammates now that he was no longer compelled to fight for Azazel. The Red Lord of the Neyaphem died after killing his own children, inspiring no loyalty, and leaving none who would mark his passing. [Dark X-Men (2nd series) #1-5]