Mr. Vasuki

Creation

Mr. Vasuki was created by writer John Ney Reiber and artist Peter Gross in The Books of Magic issue 14, in 1995.

Major Story Arcs

Tim Hunter's dad Bill was injured by fire, and Mr. Vasuki is the doctor who reconstructed his face. Vasuki is known as an exceptional doctor, but Bill is reluctant to take the bandages off. He doesn't believe that he's fixed. Vasuki, who is enormously tall, makes some cryptic remarks about the future and lets him go home with the bandages on.

Bill takes them off at home, and looks just like new--the surgery was an almost impossible success. Clearly, something magical happened with Bill's face, but exactly what it was, and who Vasuki is, remains unknown for more than 30 issues.

Long after the surgery, Bill marries Holly Ransome, who met him while he was coming home from the hospital. Vasuki is there, and introduces himself to Tim and the angel Araquel.

Araquel can immediately sense something is off about Vasuki, and calls him the Serpent King. He says he is also probably responsible for Bill's lost arm growing back (a fact that otherwise seemed quite mysterious). Vasuki says he knows why there is a war in heaven: the devils like himself want to make it a heaven, and the angels want to make it a hell, although he doesn't really explain why. He turns into a giant snake, and says he expects Tim to work with him for the Queen of Wounds, who will have a list of people for him to kill. Then he leaves.

Two angels, Uriel and Mesukiel, sit outside the reception for Bill and Holly's wedding. They have a plan to use Holly's son Cyril as a tool to further their plans, just as Vasuki said.

Tim and his dad have a good talk and get past their differences. That night, Vasuki calls to Bill, who is magically transformed and slithers out the window.

Araquel sees Tim's dad, now transformed into a monster by Vasuki, shambling outside. Tim and Araquel speed after him to stop him from hurting anyone.

They come across Uriel and Mesukiel, who are now dead at snake-monster-Bill's hands. Vasuki is there. He seems to imply that the demons want Earth to be another Heaven so the demons can live there instead of Hell--it can be their own idea of what Heaven ought to be. Once again, he invokes the Queen of Wounds as the leader of the devils.

Araquel and Tim argue with Vasuki over the demons plan to take over the Earth. Vasuki attacks, and Araquel slashes him into four pieces.

Tim and Araquel talk about angelic nature--Araquel argues that the one constant of angels is that they can only be who they are, and have no choice, unlike humans--and Tim wrestles with what his dad, in monster form, has done. Araquel says Bill wasn't powerful enough to have killed all the angels.

Vasuki, now in four separate smaller bodies, comes back alive. They see Tim's dad, about to attack a group of nuns. Vasuki says that Tim must agree to serve the Queen of Wounds to keep his dad from killing them. Tim agrees.

They see a nun with balloons, and Vasuki refers to her as the Queen of Wounds.

Cyril shows up and turns Araquel, Bill, and the Vasukis to chocolate. The Queen of Wounds turns out to be Spinning Jemmy, who releases Bill from the chocolate, but Araquel was broken apart already, and it is unclear what happened to the mini-Vasukis.