Ever since the announcement by Mr. Fiege in San Diego that Blade is coming to the MCU, I’ve been thinking about the possibilities for all the Marvel horror connections that might get some attention. Among those Marvel monsters is Daimon Hellstrom aka the son of Satan. It’s time to look at his significant key appearances because Hellstrom, perhaps along with his sister Satana, might soon be getting a live action spin off show on Hulu (see here).

Part of the resurgence of horror after the weakening of the Comics Code authority in the 1970s, the son of Satan took a while to appear but, eventually, joined the Marvel Universe as a supporting character in the Ghost Rider comic.

Daimon Hellstrom is, as his title implies, the son of a demon (Satan) and a human mother. When Satan decided to conceive a child with an American woman named Victoria Wingate, Daimon was the result. His younger sister, Satana, was born only three years later.

Both the Satanic spawn grew up in Massachusetts where their mother realized that she had married a demon (maybe after seeing Daimon’s huge pentagram birthmark embossed on his chest at birth) and consequently suffers a mental breakdown. Of course this didn’t stop her from writing down all the details of her mistake and leaving a diary as a warning to her son which he eventually obtains and reads.

After the departure of his mother young Daimon becomes separated from his sister and gets sent to an orphanage. Later still, after deciding to become a priest, he learns of his mother’s death and inherits her house; where he finally reads the diary revealing his true history.

At this time, his father "Satan," becomes aware of his son's awakening and telepathically summons him to a secret basement in the family home housing an inter-dimensional passageway to Hell.

Faced with a choice, after being offered the possibility of serving his father, Hellstrom decides to fight his father's plans and becomes an opponent of evil, eventually even managing to steal his father's trident which he wields as a weapon.

 

Ghost Rider #1 (September 1973) - First issue to self-titled series; Cameo appearance of Son of Satan; Third appearance of Witch Woman

There are plenty of comic book appearances of this demonic hero, but the most important and most valuable is certainly Ghost Rider #1. I can’t actually be objective about this book since I read it at a very young age and thought it was the coolest story ever penned by a human being. In terms of sales data, the book is a strong seller and has only been gaining both long and short term. Obviously the majority of the value is that it features the continuing adventures of Johnny Blaze aka Ghost Rider- but it is also the first appearance of Daimon Hellstrom. In 9.8 the book has hit the $5, 000.00 dollar mark, which seems to be the cut off that most casual collectors will pay for a comic, but lower grades are still affordable and a decent 8.5 will set you back only $375.00 for now. The big winner, as regards short-term returns, has actually been 8.0 with a positive showing of +29.2% after 5 sales over the last 3 months. The last recorded sale went for $369.00 on eBay on 08/12/2019.

 

 

Marvel Spotlight #12 (October 1973) - Second appearance Son of Satan; Origin of Son of Satan

Here’s Daimon’s second appearance, but the first full appearance as the Son of Satan. On top of this his origin, described above, is here revealed. That makes this a major Daimon Hellstrom key that currently sells for a FMV of $1, 200.00 in 9.8 condition. Long term returns have been very strong on almost all grades. Short term (3 months) have seen strong negative returns on 9.2 grades as the most glaring data. Negative -58.8% after two sales, with the last sale on eBay taking place 07/29/2019 in an auction ending at $102.50. Will news of the Hulu series reverse this trend? I think it might.

 

 

 

 

 

Son of Satan #1 (December 1975) – First issue of Self-titled Series

We can end with this Bronze Age minor key. This is the first issue of Daimon Hellstrom’s own title. This issue introduces The Possessor, a human merged with two Demons. Lots of Demonic bang for your buck and this comic is still relatively affordable even in high grade with 9.4 having a FMV of $100.00. If you don’t want to miss the Daimon-train, try picking up a raw high grade copy of this book (if the first two are out of reach) and then – if the show is a hit- slab it. Currently a graded 9.8 can sell for a cool $550.00. That gives this grade positive long term return of +90.7% after 15 sales since 2013. Short term returns have not been as kind, it is down in all but 9.2 grades where a positive +12.5% rise is evident after two sales over the last 12 weeks. The last 9.2 sold for $44.99 on eBay– like I said, 'relatively affordable'.