After hearing everybody speaking of “Dad” for the entire Helstorm first season, we finally see him at the very end of the last episode, Hell Storm. Portrayed by Mitch Pileggi, he reveals himself to the new Keeper to claim custody of his reincarnated daughter Lily, and gives quite a demonstration of his power by killing a dozen people with a mere act of will. Defined “the strongest of our kind” by Basar (who’s quite a powerhouse in his own right), Dad is actually Marduk Kurios, an incredibly powerful demon who has claimed the title of Satan more than once in the Marvel Universe, and rightfully so. While Pileggi has a certain charm, in the comics Marduk’s true form is still unknown, as he manifested over the years in several appearances, one more demonic and monstrous than the former. Let’s see together.
Marduk Kurios was one of the great Hell-Lords, more ancient than time itself. Albeit he claimed to be Lucifer, the original fallen angel, and to have defied God from within His creation, this claim proved to be false more than once, and he was most likely born from the primeval energy the Elder Gods left behind when they abandoned this plane of existence. Being it a way or another, he imposed himself as one of the great rulers of Hell, constantly battling other 
demon lords for total control, and once even assaulting Heaven in his thirst for conquest. It was one of these many battles, one that occurred on Earth, that changed Marduk’s view on those weak pests called humans: one of the ancient peoples, the Sumerians, witnessed one of his battles against another Hell-Lord, and started worshiping him like a god. Intrigued by this turn of events, he noticed that the energy humans released with their worship was a natural fuel for him, and he became stronger using it. Albeit the Mesopotamian God of Wisdom Marduk usurped his first group of believers, Marduk Kurios used the influence he had amassed by conquering several Hell realms to made himself known to humanity, conquering the title of Satan, that belonged to the supreme Hell-Lord, and even impersonating Lucifer, trying to impose himself as the one and true Devil the world’s religions feared in order to concentrate the believers’ powers unto himself, and to become more and more powerful, century after century. The plan worked even better than he thought, as not only a large part of humanity feared him, believing him to be the source of all evil, but others still worshiped him, and founded several Satanist churches to revere him as their lord. He became particularly intrigued by a human family, the Hellstroms, who passed their Satanist religion from father to son for generations. He liked them so much that, in the XX Century, he took the form of one of them, and appeared in the flesh on Earth: under this human alias, with the complicity of the cultists, he married a mortal, Victoria Wingate, to finally have a human-demon hybrid heir who could embrace his legacy and aid him in his dominion.
Marduk had two children from Victoria: a boy, Daimon, and a girl, Satana. While Daimon proved to be too gentle to embrace his dark legacy, Satana was more daddy’s girl, and he nurtured and educated her as his true heir. Once, Victoria stepped on father and daughter as they were performing a dark ritual, and she spotted her husband in his true form: she was driven insane, and Marduk finally decided to return to Hell, carrying Satana along. He came back 
for his son only years later, when Daimon turned 21, to offer him eternal life and unimaginable power by his side: the young man rejected his offer, and even stole a Netheranium Trident from his dominion, declaring war to his own father and to all his servants. Eventually, also Satana proved to be unworthy of his gifts, as she refused to kill one of her friends in his honor, so he banished her from Hell as well. His son’s declaration of war turned out to be serious, and alone or accompanied by the Defenders he constantly tried to destroy his father; on the other hand, Marduk Kurios constantly tried to corrupt Daimon’s soul and to force him to claim his place in Hell, so Hellstorm‘s attempts always turned out to be part of Marduk’s plan to win his favor. Eventually, though, Daimon learnt Marduk’s true name (he had been knowing him only as Satan for years), and using the power of the name, he managed to truly cripple him, and to cast him out of his own realm, claiming the throne for himself. Weakened, Marduk decided to get rid of some of the most accomplished magic users on Earth, in order to climb the ladder and be closer to reclaim his throne: he manipulated Andrew Kale into releasing the Hellphyr, a powerful demon who fed on witches and warlocks, and waited… but the Hellphyr was killed by Satana, in league with Dr. Strange, Jennifer Kale and Topaz, so he only managed to make an enemy of his daughter too. Somehow, however, his daughter still cared for him, and every nine souls she devoured, she sent the tenth one to him… a form of pity that actually hurt Marduk more than her full enmity. It would have taken a while, of course, but he would have reclaimed his throne from his traitorous children.
Marduk Kurios is a complex entity, a being so ancient to be quite contradictory in himself, but while some of his incarnations have even been good ones, he is mostly known (and rightfully so) for being the embodiment of evil, cruelty, brutality, violence, sin, sadism. As one of the most powerful Hell-Lords, if not the most powerful, and the Satan, a title granted to the absolute ruler of Hell, Marduk possesses an unimaginable power, that goes from the absolute omnipotence he detains in his domain to the vast magic abilities he displays everywhere else, including shapeshifting, teleportation, telepathy, mind control, control of Hellfire, clairvoyance, immense strength, invulnerability, immortality, and much more. Empowered by the souls he seduces and consumes, and strong with all minds and hearts he manages to convert to evil ways, Marduk Kurios rules Hell with an iron fist. Hated by other demons, feared and loathed by humans and angels, Marduk Kurios exists to corrupt, to destroy, to conquer, to bend to his will: no force in Hell was able to resist him, and Earth and Heaven are the next realms that will eventually surrender to his absolute dominion.
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