The Angelus, the mother of the Witchblade
The Angelus is one of the two primal forces of the universe, representing light and order. She was the main foe of the Darkness.
Biography[]
The Angelus is a primal force of Light and has been in an eternal war with its counterpart, The Darkness. However, at some point during her history, the Angelus and the Darkness created a sexual truce and became the parents of the Witchblade.
During Babylonian times, the Angelus and the Witchblade wielder of that time, who were lovers, sealed the self-proclaimed goddess Tiamat in her own crown, but could not destroy her.
Like the Darkness, the Angelus creates a symbiotic relationship with a host (which can only be a female) in order to carry out her life's mission on Earth. Her main goal is to rid the world of evil and darkness, regardless of mortal rule or law. This has put her at odds with the current Darkness wielder, Jackie Estacado. Eventually, the Angelus was defeated by Jackie, and was hostless for some time until Sonatine tried to convince the entity to join with Appolonia Franchetti. Because Appolonia desired the power too much, the Angelus chose her catatonic mother, Lauren Franchetti, instead. Soon after, the newly-reborn Angelus was fooled into thinking she had finally killed the Darkness, after Jackie made a copy of himself. She soon fled with Appolonia to an ancient temple in the Amazon rainforest, where Lauren gave herself completely to the Angelus entity. The Angelus came in contact with the Magdalena, Sister Mariella. Magdalena was seeking to reforge the Spear of Destiny, which had been shattered during her first encounter with the Darkness. The fight ended with no clear winner, but The Angelus ordered Appolonia to leave because she was touched too deeply by the Darkness (in this case, evil) and that should they meet again, she would kill her.
The Angelus possessed Lauren and would once again attempt to kill The Darkness and would also come into conflict with the new Magdalena (Patience). During the fight, Appolonia ran the Angelus through with the Spear of Destiny. The Angelus temporarily takes possession of Patience, but the spirit is forced out of Patience's body.
During the time the Angelus was without a host, her followers sensed that the balance between the Light and Darkness has been tipped in favor of Jackie Estacado, and have begun preparing for war while the Angelus searches for a new host. She first takes possession of Velocity but is forced out by members of Cyberforce. She then takes possession of convicted murderer Celestine. Shortly after the birth of Hope Pezzini (daughter to Sara Pezzini and Jackie), the Angelus claims her, only to have a mystical explosion occur. After the event, only Angelus and her foes remain. Celestine and the Angelus now co-exist as separate entities, with Celestine now able to become the Angelus as needed but retaining her own free will. Celestine, however, knows that the Angelus does have the ability to submerge her will at any point, but The Angelus has chosen not to after her encounter with Sara Pezzini's daughter. Celestine/Angelus then went into hiding as a waitress named Tina.
Celestine is later called upon by her lieutenant Sabine, who updated her on the presence of Jackie Estacado and the hosts of the Glacier Stone and Ember Stone. Though reluctant to resume her role, the Angelus submerges Celestine and takes off to finish off the Darkness. Because Estacado's connection to the Darkness was weakened, he could not heal himself a second time when Celestine stabs him. Sara refused to let her kill him and they briefly did battle, before they are interrupted by the Ember Stone bearer, Glorianna Silver, who was determined to possess all Thirteen artifacts. The Angelus and her vassals quickly banished Silver to a frozen wasteland, stripped of her memory. But before Celestine could finish off Estacado, she is impaled by the Blood Sword wielded by Patrick Gleason, given to him by the Curator. Despite this, Celestine was determined to end Estacado. But as she fought against Sara once again, Estacado took the opportunity to take the Blood Sword and decapitate Celestine. The Angelus Force then left her dead host and flew into the sky. This enraged Sabine, who desired to be selected as a host.
The Angelus was once again without a bearer until she came across Finch, friend of Danielle Baptiste, and possesses her. During a fight with Sara Pezzini (currently hosting the Darkness portion of the Witchblade and is corrupted by it), she attempts to kill the bearer of the Angelus portion of the Witchblade, Dani. After emerging victorious (or, so she believed) and absorbed the remaining half of the Witchblade into her being, while still being corrupted. Sara was on the brink of killing Dani when an Angelus-possessed Finch swoops in to save Dani from death, and the Angelus transfers hosts from Finch to the old bearer of the Witchblade, whom she considered to be a special kind of host, more worthy than a puppet. Strangely, however, Dani is able to resist the Angelus' possessive personality, and instead of killing Sara, she is able to use the powers of the Angelus to purge Sara of the corruptible forces of the Darkness.
In the "Artifacts" series, after a universal rewrite caused by Estacado, he attempted to snuff out the Angelus but failed. Instead, he chose to divide the entity amongst its host of warriors to keep it weak. Each warrior announced itself as the Angelus. When Tom Judge came to realize the truth, he sought to reunite the Angelus with Dani, giving her the Rapture to use as bait. However, Dani ran into Finch, who was possessed instead.
Known Hosts[]
- Lauren Franchetti
- Celestine Wright
- Velocity
- Danielle Baptiste
Powers and Weaknesses[]
When the Angelus is bonded with its host it grants a number of abilities including enhanced strength, speed, self-propelled flight, teleportation, various light and fire based powers, and all of the memories of the previous Angelus hosts. The Angelus is also capable of creating a variety of objects including weapons and sentient life forms. The Angelus has an easier time creating human-like life beings including mortals when compared to the current host of the Darkness since she is able to remember how to do this every time she is reborn. The Angelus leads and is often accompanied by a number of her winged warriors she has created, however, unlike the Darkness, her warriors do not dissipate when she is hostless, and in fact continue to do her bidding until she can return to them. Since the Angelus is an entity made of light, it is weak against darkness, and can only sustain its power in the dark for short periods of time, since it drains her power at a more rapid rate.