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History

Commedia Dell'Morte (translated Comedy of Death) are a group of six assassins from Europe who dress as "stock characters" from classical opera.[1]

Origin[]

A long time ago, the assassins were a commedia dell'arte troupe of actors who traveled around Europe performing for wealthy hosts. Since that job didn't pay much, they supplemented their income by stealing from their patrons and moving on before they could be implicated in the crime. Unfortunately for them, their last attempted theft took place in Castle Mordo in Transylvania where they were caught red-handed by its owner, Baron Mordo. Being a powerful sorcerer, Baron Mordo chose to punish the troupe by inflicting a terrible curse upon them, one that trapped their souls in their masks for eternity. In this state, they could only become physical by taking over the bodies of anyone who put on their masks. Additionally, the curse required the troupe to kill at least one person per day or else their souls would be consigned to Limbo. In order to avoid this fate, the six actors became assassins so that they could fill that daily quota.[2]

Crime-Buster[]

At some point, the criminal-for-hire known as Crime-Buster tried to blackmail his employer, Joe Duffy, the CEO of Penance Corps. Knowing of the cursed masks, Duffy plotted to get one of them into the hands Crime-Buster's girlfriend, Jennie Royce, so that Crime-Buster would be murdered in a way that couldn't be traced back to him.[3] Although the details of this plot have never been revealed, it is known that Crime-Buster came into conflict with the Commedia Dell'Morte while competing for a contract to kill a Mafia informant in Venice, Italy. During a confrontation, Crime-Buster kidnapped Columbina[1] and later removed the mask which he brought home with him as a memento. When Jennie put the mask on, Columbina took over her body and, seeing her kidnapper in front of her, immediately shot him dead with his own gun.[2] Duffy had the mask removed and disposed of it[3] by having someone posing as Jennie Royce sell it to the criminal known as Pokerface.[4] Since her fingerprints were on the gun that killed him, Jennie Royce was arrested and convicted of Crime-Buster's murder. Believing that Royce had killed Mason because he had physically abused her, the police ignored her statement that some of his mementoes were missing from his apartment, including the commedia dell'arte mask.[5]

Later, the other five members of the Commedia Dell'Morte arrived in New York City looking for the kidnapped Columbina.[5] The assassins soon encountered Iron Fist and the new Power Man who were investigating Crime-Buster's murder in an attempt to overturn Royce's conviction. Soon after the group evaded the heroes, Alvarez learned that a commedia dell'arte mask said to have mystic properties was going to be sold at a black market auction that was to be held at Twilight Idol.[1] Danny Rand and Vic Alvarez went to the Twilight Idol undersea casino, accompanied by their respective dates, Joy Meachum and Tiowa Bryant. While there, Iron Fist was told that it had been "Jennie Royce" who had sold the mask to Pokerface and Joy Meachum was manipulated into touching the mask.[4] Now in control of Meachum's body, Columbina encountered Power Man and revealed to him the origin of the Commedia Dell'Morte. Columbina also confessed that, the last time she had looked through another's eyes, she had seen the man who had stolen her from Venice in front of her and she had shot him. When the undersea casino was partially flooded, the water separated Columbina from Power Man and she made her escape.[2] Later, Power Man was held captive by Duffy and his goons and forced to call Iron Fist to lure him into an ambush at Ryker's Island but managed to secretly hint to Iron Fist that something was wrong, Having figured out that Duffy was responsible for Crime-Buster's murder, Iron Fist called Joy's cell phone and told the Commedia Dell'Morte where the man who had "despoiled" Columbina could be found. The assassins came to get their revenge and their arrival enabled Power Man to free himself and avoid being executed. Iron Fist then confronted Columbina and, by speaking to Joy, was able to get her to resist her possession long enough for him to remove the mask from her face, freeing her. Pagliacci then took possession of Columbina's mask.[3]

Paraphernalia

Equipment

  • Cursed masks

Trivia

  • The name is a play on commedia dell'arte ("comedy of craft"), a classical Italian theatre form that employs masks and stock characters.
  • "Commedia dell'morte" actually makes no sense in Italian: a proper spelling would be "commedia della morte".

See Also

Links and References

References

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