Eric Payne (Earth-616)edit this page

From Marvel Database

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Real Name
Eric Simon Payne
Current Alias

Aliases
Agent of Death, The Reaper of Souls, Cape Man

Identity

Alignment

Affiliation
Point Men, 50 States Initiative, formerly the Cult of the Harvester of Eyes, the Defenders, United States Marine Corps

Relatives
Cory Payne (wife, deceased), unnamed sister, Danny Sylva (nephew)

Universe

Base Of Operations
Mobile;

formerly the Rosewell Sanitarium in Charles , Massachusetts; formerly an unspecified prison; formerly Dr. Strange's Mansion; formerly Queenstown, Illinois

formerly Hawaii

Characteristics
Gender

Height


Eyes

Hair
Brown, (originally); also black, blond, white

Status
Citizenship

Marital Status

Occupation
formerly devil-slayer, adventurer; cultist; hitman; marine

Education
High school graduate; military training

Origin
Origin
Trained by the Devil Cult to develop abilities

Place of Birth
Queenstown, Illinois

Creators

First appearance

Contents

History

Eric Payne was born in Queenstown, Illinois. He was a member of a demon cult called the Agents of Fortune, who helped him unlock the psionic potential of his brain and gave him a mystically created dimensional cloak. He later turned on the cult and, with the aid of the Defenders, he battled Vera Gemini and the Xenogesis and helped prevent the cult's mystical plans from being realized.

He assists the Defenders in confronting a cult leader named David. This man had been granted temporary mystical powers by a coalition of demons known as the Six Fingered Hand. Despite the passing nature of his abilities, Eric's wife Cory chose to stay with the cult leader.

As the Defenders returned to Doctor Strange's home after this confrontation, they were called into action again by the Avengers. The town of Citrusville, Florida had vanished, into a gigantic hole resembling a six-fingered hand.

Eric then joins the Defenders. Eric and the rest of the group confronted a possessed Man-Thing and then traveled through dimensional realms in order to find the source of the problem.

Belathauzer

During Eric's time with the Defenders, he helped confront a host of demons, including Belathauzer, who had taken over the form of an Air Force commander. The Defenders almost died when Belathauzar convinced innocent Air Force pilots that they were spies. Though his demon compatriots were eventually sucked back to their own realm, Belathauzer somehow stayed on Earth.

Still in the form of the Air Force soldier, he targeted Devil-Slayer personally. Belathauzar tricked Devil-Slayer into a bar full of disguised demons where Eric's drink was altered, thus removing his psychic powers. Despite this, Devil-Slayer held his own, using his magical accessories to battle the demons successfully. Belathauzer and Eric were drawn into the Borders of the Land of the Dead, where stood many of his Defender allies, now seemingly dead. It was here that Belathauzer was seemingly slain again.

There are indications he has returned another time but this might be Payne's mental instability.

Eric questioned his tragic life, and reconciled with wife, then turned himself in for his past crimes. He later helped war-torn Potega, but lost shadow-cloak, and then rededicated himself as a hero.

Devil-Slayer was later remitted to an asylum, where he discovered a shard of the Nexus of Realities, and then became Payne with his partner Sorrow.


The Initiative

Eric Payne was willing to join a new team of Defenders. However, when Nighthawk suggested it to Initiative boss Tony Stark, he declined the offer. Instead, Eric became a member of the Hawaiian Initiative team, the Point Men, serving the team as their "Monster Hunter."

During the Skrull Invasion, when the new 3-D Man arrived in Hawaii, Devil-Slayer informed him that he had sensed portents of doom all day. When 3-D Man identified team member Magnitude as a Skrull impostor, the Skrull attacked and severely wounded the other Point Men, Star Sign and Paydirt. The Skrull was killed, and Devil-Slayer used his Shadow Cloak to teleport Delroy to Camp Hammond before taking Star Sign and Paydirt to a hospital. Devil-Slayer later appeared in Utah with the cyborg Jocasta to aid 3-D Man and the Skrull Kill Krew.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

  • Telepathy; With telepathy Payne could alter his appearance and decipher languages.
  • Psychokinesis; Telekinetic abilities included levitation and moving objects.
  • Hallucinations;
  • Mental Probe;
  • Sixth Sense;

    Abilities

Intimidation, Military, Occult Lore, Guns, Weaponsmaster, Marksman

Strength level

Peak Human

Weaknesses

  1. Mental Illusion can only make things look normal.
  2. Telepathy is very limited with non-English-speaking targets.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

  • Shadow Cloak; With the Shadow Cloak Payne could teleport to other dimensions and draw different weapons from across the ages. 
   * Dimension Travel
   * Teleportation
   * Summoning - various medieval weapons

Limitation: Warp cannot affect more than 1,000 pounds.

Notes

  • He was created by Rich Buckler, who had created a similar character in Demon Hunter (1975) for Atlas/Seaboard Comics and Bloodwing for his magazine Galaxia in 1980. For a time he operated as a member of the the Defenders.
  • In September 2008, Marvel released a limited series, as a part of the MAX imprint. It was titled Dead of Night Featuring Devil-Slayer and starred a new Devil-Slayer, a man named Danny Sylva. Sylva is the great-nephew of Payne, the original Devil Slayer. This series is written by horror novelist Brian Keene with art by Chris Samnee.
  • Devil-Slayer received an entry in the original Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #3, and in the All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #3. (2006)

Links

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