Regardless of if you believe in it or not, there’s no denying that the concept of “Hell”
has made its way into all sorts of pop culture and of course, comic books are no exception.
Now I’ve done a video in the past about the DC Comics version of Lucifer, but that
had a lot of you guys asking about what the DC Comics version of H - E double hockey sticks
was like in the multiverse, but for that, it’s such a huge, dense, and complicated
subject that I could use a little bit of help.
Oh Magic 8 Ball, who’s going to be my guest star for this episode?
Oh, hey there kids! We were just? OH! Comic Drake? Are we talking about He-... Heck? If
so, I’m an expert.
Well hello there YouTube’s MrCreepyPasta. Yeah, I think going to do just fine. I’ll
stop with my over campy acting and get right into the episode now.
Well Hell or at least something similar to it is a concept that appears in many religions
and mythologies for centuries as a place of eternal punishment. Fire, brimstone, demons...
Nonstop Nickelback music, YouTube comments, Movie Marathons of The Room...
The Hell of DC Comics first appeared in DC Special Series #8 in 1977, but it was a more
cliche and cartoony version with a straight up stereotypical devil with red skin and horns.
Oh, and he’s friends with Hitler.
Later on though, DC started taking Hell more seriously. From here on out, when DC Comics
usually dips into this subject material, they do so under their darker imprint for more
mature titles called Vertigo. This is where most of the Swamp Thing, Hellblazer, Sandman,
and Lucifer books are published.
It’s been the subject of debate for years if some Vertigo books have their own universe
or if they’re a part of the main DC continuity.
The reason why this is so important is because most of what we know about DC’s Hell comes
from Vertigo titles and there have been more than a few inconsistencies with how the realm
of the damned has been handled.
But hey, thanks to the um… creative mind of Grant Morrison, DC Comics has officially
set boundaries for their multiverse and at the time of this recording, this is the most
accurate map of it.
This map more or less proves that Vertigo is a part of the main DC canon, but don’t
worry if you’re confused by all this because today, we’re only going to be taking a look
at this part right here, the Sphere of the Gods.
These eight realms are metaphysical meaning they break the conventional laws of being,
knowing, substance, cause, identity, time, and/or space. In layman’s terms, they’re
alternate spooky dimensions that work differently from Earth.
Each realm in the Sphere of Gods has a polar opposite which lies on the other side of the
sphere. Obviously, the opposite of Hell is Heaven. It’s quoted as being “Heaven’s
dark reflection. Like a landscape hanging inverted in the waters of a lake.”
Now one other thing I’d like to point out is that Hell is completely different and separate
from Underworld where the Greek god Hades rules along with other places like the Phantom
Zone. That’s right here.
It’s also worth noting though that while this map to the Multiverse was made in 2014,
it’s somewhat unknown when DC started adhering to its constraints.
There are some examples of the aforementioned inconsistencies like the ferocious hound,
Cerberus, which appears in Hell during the 1999 storyline Day of Judgement despite the
fact that Hades is, as we mentioned, in Underworld.
Hell takes things a step further on the metaphysical side and looks different for each person who
enters it, giving everyone their own personal Hell. At least… that’s what was said about
it in this issue of Harley Quinn… Because yes, Harley Quinn went to Hell once...
For me that’s a place where horror was never invented. For Drake I’m pretty sure that’s
a place where all back issues are burned immediately after printing.
Do no’t even joke about that.
Now as we’ve seen in the Reign in Hell storyline, Hell can be broken up into nine provinces.
There’s Pandemonia, The Odium, Gull, Praetori, Internecia, Ament, Labyrinth, Err, and Purgatory
with the Hellcity, Dis being the realm’s capital.
Later though in the New 52, it’s said that Hell has “As many countries as there are
souls.”
As for the demons who reside inside of Hell, they seem to follow a certain hierarchy. The
first to rule was a companion of DC’s version of God, The Presence. He had fallen from grace
and became the appropriately named, “The First of the Fallen”. Second was the former
angel Samael who was now going by the new name Lucifer Morningstar.
Aaaaand here’s a plug for my video on Lucifer. It’s a good one. Go watch it.
Lucifer, not one for really following the rules, hated the notion that there is no free
will, just the destiny that The Presence has set in stone. In an attempt to get away from
his “father’s” omniscience, Lucifer led a rebellion of angels in Heaven, but The
Presence ended the war by giving Lucifer the realm farthest away from Heaven to rule, Hell,
and he even allowed all of the fallen angels to reside there.
Lucifer is WAAAAAAY stronger than the First of the Fallen so yeah, he was the top dog
for ten billion years. Then when the original blackness of the universe before life was
created became sentient and challenged war on Heaven (because comics), a civil war broke
out in hell. This led to the Triumvirate where Lucifer co-ruled alongside the demons Azazel
and Beezlebub.
Despite this, Lucifer was more or less the MOST in charge of Hell as is evidenced by
when he got bored, sent all the demons out of Hell, and closed it. Yes, Lucifer CLOSED
Hell… to open a bar in Los Angeles…
However, Lucifer got bored of ruling so he gives the key to Hell to The Sandman, Dream,
who in turn gives it to the Angels Remiel and Duma. Duma gives the key to this guy named
Christopher Rudd who dies, prompting Lucifer to give the key to his consort, Mazikeen.
This might seem straightforward, but in the 90s and early 2000s, DC started going around
claiming that THIS guy was the lord of Hell. His name is Neron, but it turns out that even
Neron has higher ups? If that sounds confusing, welcome to comics.
Neron would appear from time to time as a tempter like this one time in The Flash where
he unleashed undead on Earth hoping to steal and I kid you not, the love between The Flash
A.K.A. Wally West and his wife, Linda. Yep.
Neron was finally finished off by a demon named Satanus who was betrayed by his sister,
Lady Blaze.
This is strange because Lucifer left Mazikeen in charge during his solo series in 2006 and
she continues to rule in Lucifer Vol 2 in 2016. However, Reign in Hell ended in 2009
leading to more inconsistencies.
And again if you’re confused about all this then you’re not alone. I talk about comic
books for a living and I don’t even understand this shit.
But Drake, aren’t we missing someone? I read on the internet that Superman was the
lord of Hell once!
Okay first off, he never took the throne, and second, that was just some weird pseudo-dream
sequence stuff that literally has never come back. It was just a weird non-consequential
romp for issue 666 that I honestly might make a video on sometime in the future.
Now of course, Hell has a class system outside of its ruler. Typically the oldest demons
are the most powerful and as such the hierarchy resembles the feudal system. There’s bishops,
lords, servants, etc. and even a special class of rhyming demons, the most notable of which
being Etrigan.
Over the years though, corporate influences started creeping in such as this one boss-esque
demon trading on a sort of stock market with Hell’s currency, souls.
Souls are a HUGE deal in Hell. Obviously, the more “rare” the soul the better. In
fact, the infamous wizard, John Constantine, once sold his soul to THREE different demons
who were all more than eager to take the deal.
What more is there to really say? We’ve gone over Hell’s history, its location in
the MULTIVERSE, its countries, and its freaking socio-economic structure. What more is there
to talk about?
Uh… its cell phone signal?
Oh yeah. How could I possibly forget about that? It’s freaking Booster Gold. So yeah.
One time, Booster Gold was angry at some of his teammates so when he was playing around
with some of Dr. Fate’s mystical artifacts, he jokingly pretended to banish him and his
teammates to Hell, but… he actually did. Thus, the team was forced to work at a Big
Belly Burger because apparently the company also has a location in Hell.
Oh, and in that same comic, we learn that it IS possible to get cell reception in Hell…
but only through Verizon...
Yeah… I don’t think we can top that.
Well alright then. I know I mentioned it a couple of times in the video, but if you haven’t
already then please check out my video on Lucifer. I think it is really good and one
of the best things I have ever produced on the channel, but if you want to see another
amazing video by which is done by my great co-host, MrCreepyPasta then click this annotation
right here for one of his super creepy story times. It is guaranteed to make your skin
crawl, but until next time, see you guys!