Crossovers are a source of tremendous excitement in the superhero world, whether it is Marvel or DC, and horror fans enjoy a good crossover of their favorite villains as well. Today, we will discuss an incredibly bizarre crossover that appeared in the pages of a certain comic, with two well-known characters as the primary characters.
Marshal Law is the first character in this crossover. He is a government-sanctioned “superhero hunter,” called a law enforcement officer, or “cape killer” with superpowers from the city of San Futuro, a near-future metropolis created from the rubble of San Francisco following a massive earthquake.
Law’s mission is to track down other superheroes who have gone rogue, something he enjoys doing. Pinhead, a well-known horror villain, is the other major character. Pinhead, also known as Lead Cenobite or the Hell Priest, is the franchise’s major nemesis. He first featured in Clive Barker’s novella The Hellbound Heart in 1986.
‘What if’ scenarios, wacky mash-up tales that do not really matter to the official canon of a character’s background, can make comics a lot of fun to read. The premise of this particular comic is as follows: Marshal has a new girlfriend, who happens to be a superhero as well.
Marshal is encouraged to join a superhero group led by a winged angel named Seraph, who claims to be from the celestial realms but is actually from Hell, as this is a Pat Mills fiction. Marshal Law finds himself with none other than Pinhead and other cenobites after solving the LeMarchand conundrum. Keep an eye out for a full breakdown of this hilarious comic!
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Super Hero Therapy Party Gone Wrong
The first comic introduces us to Marshal Law’s girlfriend who is also a superheroine, she’s powerful, fun, and sexy, but unfortunately, it turns out that she has a soft spot for cenobites. Her name is Super Nova and we can tell from the first few pages that she is smitten by Marshal Law and his lifestyle, they fly around San Futuro together and she’s always gushing over him.
As far as her powers go, she has the ability to go and be anywhere through mental contact, being able to visit not only places on Earth but in the astral plane and other dimensions and this is how she met the cenobites.
Before we move on, it is important to note that in the universe Marshal Law exists, the superheroes feel no pain due to the process they undergo to become superheroes, and thus, many of them want to feel pain because that is what humanity is hinged on. Guess who else is a sucker for pain? The cenobites and this is where the crossover begins to materialize.
She reveals that she has been communicating with the cenobites in order to make a deal with them so that they don’t overthrow the world order and take over the earth but she feels sympathy and even love for them to the extent that she says that the superheroes should reunite with them and feel their pain.
She then takes Marshal with her to go and attend a Super Hero Therapy Party where heroes try out various different therapies to help combat their mental problems however, this is not your regular therapy, some of their bizarre techniques include – urine therapy, colonic therapy, rebirth simulation. It is in this whacky party that Marshal Law is introduced to a magnificent angel known as Seraph.
However, Seraph’s views of Marshal Law as a rough, abrasive, and hateful person rub him off the wrong way and he refuses to be helped by Seraph’s healing vibrations because of his holier-than-thou attitude.
This upsets Super Nova greatly as she had really looked forward to introducing the two of them and while they argue, Seraph tells the rest of the heroes that he will help them become free of all their issues and baggage and allows them to ascend into a much happier and better realm.
He uses his powers on Super Nova, knocking her unconscious and sending her into a fit and she turns green. This angers Marshal Law greatly and this is where he is tricked into opening the Lament Configuration – horror fans already know what that is. The Lament Configuration, also known as the LeMarchand[ Lemar chand] Configuration, is one of the world’s most famous puzzle boxes.
It has the ability to open the gates of hell and summon the cenobites to claim the flesh of whoever opens the box. It’s one of a number of relics that can unlock the gate. Immediately they are transported into a completely different realm and the artwork that follows in the pages after this is horrifyingly beautiful.
Kevin O’Neill’s dream is to sketch a Hell full of creatively deformed devils who worship pain and live to torture. Since Book One of Nemesis the Warlock, when he was freestyling hate-driven monstrosities across a limitless realm of devilish architecture, his art hasn’t been this electrifying or this uncorked – and it works like a charm here!
In the pages that follow we see a bunch of action, watching as Marshal Law takes down one cenobite after the other. The ugly realization hits Super Nova that Seraph is not really an angel but is actually a demon who worked to get more people into Hell for the cenobites to torture when he took her hostage.
And finally, this is where Marshal Law and the audience are introduced to the leader of the cenobites, Pinhead. Interestingly, Pinhead tries to recruit Marshal Law into joining his ranks and staying in Hell to carry out their sinister activities.
Here, Marshal Law narrates his entire history of how he wanted to be like a Public Spirit who had also fallen into the trap of the Lament Configuration and was now being tortured in Hell. He speaks about his experience in war and reminds Pinhead that he feels no pain and with these last words, he makes a break for the exit with SuperNova.
However, Pinhead is not one to be defeated easily and he traps Marshal Law in his own personal hell, a world where he’s back in the warzone and can see the faces of his dead comrades and innocent civilians who died in battle.
A barrage of war weapons comes down on Marshal Law as he is bombarded by Napalm gas, grenades, and other arms and ammunitions. Pinhead continues to torture Marshal Law in all ways possible, using the fact that Marshal Law hated superheroes and thus, in some way hated himself. He goes as far as trying to amputate Marshal Law. This issue ends on an ominous note with the demon, Seraph uniting with SuperNova.
There is Always Hell To Pay
Never before have hooks ripping into diseased flesh been depicted as frequently or with such glee, nor have black abbeys of wickedness been filled with such blasphemous zeal. Pinhead begins as a model, with photographic reference, and evolves into a plastic and expressive creation like any other O’Neill creation.
The symphony of suffering is performed by a musician who always has that kind of tune in his brain and doesn’t get to let loose too frequently. The second and final issue of the series opens with more scenes of torture as Pinhead goes to town to look on dear old Marshal Law. It looks like Pinhead has made it his twisted mission to force Marshal Law into feeling pain. After trying many methods of torture, he finally settles down on wanting to cut through Marshal’s muscles and pull out his skeleton from his body altogether.
There is a heavy sexual undertone in this issue but that has always been the way in which cenobites look at pain – a process that gives them the ultimate pleasure and thus, Marshal Law has to deliver this pleasure to them. Finally, Super Nova, quite frankly the reason Marshal Law is in this mess, speaks up and asks them what exactly will they get by inflicting this brutality on Marshal Law and Pinhead’s answer confirms the cenobites’ depravity.
He unveils the power that the cenobites answer to and follow religiously, introducing them to Leviathan, the one who thrives on the suffering of humans. Pinheads reveals that all through the history of time, it is Leviathan who engineered all wars and all suffering of man because it is human suffering and fear that feeds him and keeps him in power.
While all of this is going on inside Hell, the other heroes are still in the therapy party, remember? They begin gathering around the Lament Configuration box which has now grown massive in size and many of them want to go inside it and complete the ascension that Seraph has promised them.
All of them join forces and try to break the box open, it really is a sight as heroes of all shapes and sizes attack a giant golden box in hopes that their powers will be enough to take it down. However, a door opens and all the heroes enter Hell where they are immediately greeted by pain-hungry cenobites who spring their torturous methods on them before they can even realize what is happening.
Pinhead on the other hand tells Marshal Law that superheroes serve an integral function for Lord Leviathan who feeds on pain and suffering – they glorify war, thus glorifying pain, suffering, and loss. While this realization hits Marshal Law hard, it is also not something that he didn’t already know and thus, he gets angry because he believes that he is better than all the other heroes, and in this fit of rage he manages to free himself from his shackles, grab Super Nova and flee.
Marshal Law and Pinhead then get into one of the most epic fistfights of all time where Pinhead headbutts him with a head full of pins – that one definitely must have hurt! And the symphony of suffering begins as Pinhead enjoys all the pain Marshal Law dishes out to him.
Realizing that beating up the cenobites isn’t working; Marshal Law decides to reach out into whatever human is left deep inside these monsters. SuperNova suggests looking at the stashed Records which contain information on the previous lives of the cenobites. They manage to find the records and see the histories of the cenobites – a World War 1 Pinhead before he got his face pierced.
Here, we get a deep dive into Pinhead’s origin story, all the suffering he had seen during the battle of Somme as a soldier in the first world war. However, it turns out that after witnessing all he had in the war, he was led to Leviathan who had given him a steel stigma and welcomed him to hell. However, before Pinhead can cause Marshal any more damage, they run into the rest of the heroes who had stumbled into Hell.
All the heroes start showing off their powers in the fight against the cenobites[seno-bites] and this fills both Marshal Law and Pinhead with disgust finally, these two find something these two can converge upon.
The heroes fail miserably and some of them die however, here is where we have an unlikely ending. Pinhead lets Marshal Law go and also gives him his blessing as Marshal tells him that these gaudy heroes dilute the memories of the true heroes that fought in the war alongside Pinhead. And finally, Marshal Law, Super Nova and the other surviving heroes return to earth.
The series however ends with Super Nova breaking up with Marshal Law as she believes that his hatred for superheroes is messing with her spirituality. Thus, Marshal law, the hero hunter is back on the job.
This comic doesn’t really have any specific point to it but it is an extremely fun crossover and if you’re a Hellraiser fan, you will definitely enjoy the full range of cenobites and methods of torture that this comic has to offer.
It is a thoroughly entertaining read! And as far as Marshal Law comics go, this one also upholds the satirical theme of the earlier ones and pokes jabs at regular heroes whenever it gets the chance. You’ll come for the story and stay for the art which is truly the highlight of this one – a marvelous visual experience.
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