Hotspur

Origin

Hotspur was originally a nobleman in London in the 1700s. He led a gang of other peers called the Lords of Fun, who were extreme libertines and did whatever they wanted, to whoever they wanted. He also dabbled in the dark arts, and made a deal with a demon on his deathbed to return to life if he was ever summoned.

In modern times, a believer in past lives did just that, and Hotspur once again lived--now with great demonic powers that he learned in hell. His believes that fun is the most important thing.

Major Story Arcs

Now living in 20th-century New York, he continues his life as a libertine, going to dance clubs and slashing the other participants, while using his mystical hypnotic powers to keep them unaware of what was going on.

However, the newly arrived Andromeda, undercover as a surface-dweller, notices what was going on. She confronts him and he runs off to Central Park, where he has a huge group of hypnotized people, all in a frenzy of demonic worship.

The Defenders attack, but Hotspur uses his illusions to defeat or hold off most of them until Andromeda shows up in costume. She seems to injure him, but he heals. The rest of the Defenders rally, but Hotspur once again creates illusions to defy them. Then they are grabbed by his Hades Engine, which negates all their powers. They are rescued by an ersatz Nick Fury, who supplies them all with guns and urges them to shoot into an oncoming tide of demons.

The Defenders finally wake up from this final illusion and realize that the demon horde is just the hypnotized civilians--and the Hades Engine is just a bunch of junk. At wit's end, Gargoyle incites Cloud to use her lightning in combination with his bio-mystical bolts, and they weaken Hotspur and finally drive his demonic powers away, leaving him once again fully mortal.

Powers and Abilities

Hotspur is a mortal with powers gained in hell. His powers largely lie in illusions and hypnosis. His illusions are very persuasive, and capable of making people believe they are feeling great pain or ignore actual pain, can feel incapacitated, see things that are not there, and believe their powers do not work. They can be pushed into a feeling of ecstasy and be made to do what he wants. He can create individually-tailored illusions, or affect large crowds at once. His illusions work even on mystical or telepathic beings such as Gargoyle, Valkyrie, and Cloud. However people can see through his illusions given great enough concentration.

He can also blast soul-fire, similar to Daimon Hellstrom's hellfire.

He is capable of healing his body mystically, even from a broken arm.