Ecstasy

ECSTASY

Real Name: Ecstasy

Class: Demon

Occupation: Enforcer / inquisitor of Hell

Group Affiliation: Hell's Hierarchy

Known Relatives: Agony (sibling)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Hell

First Appearance: Hellblazer #12 (December, 1988)

Powers: Agony and Ecstasy were powerful demons bound in barbed wire. They could ensnare souls and demons in their wire for inquisition or punishment. They served Lucifer directly, and all other demons were subject to their judgments.

History: (Hellblazer #12) - Siblings Agony and Ecstasy were inquisitors of Hell, and trained new demons in the ways of torment. Magician John Constantine disgraced Hell’s plans, and the demon he bested, Nergal, furiously sought Constantine, but the magician hid behind wards. Agony and Ecstacy had orders from the triumvirate to punish Nergal if he couldn’t avenge John’s offense against the netherworld. They reminded him that they had no claim on John’s soul because he’d thrice defied Hell, and by their rules was a free man. Nergal failed to find John, and pleaded with Agony and Ecstasy for mercy when John reached out through the astral plane and called him to Newcastle for a confrontation. The enforcers admitted that it would make great sport, so they allowed Nergal the chance to avenge Hell. Nergal found John’s hideout in a scrap yard, and John’s body was occupied by Ritchie Simpson, a magician who lived in cyberspace. He told Nergal that John was in the computer waiting for him, and Nergal allowed Ritchie to send his mind into cyberspace. John had Nergal so worked up and full of bloodlust, that he didn’t realize he’d pursued him to the edge of Heaven, where angels tore him apart. Ritchie assumed control of Nergal’s body, and returned John’s soul to his own. Agony and Ecstasy appeared to tell John that by their rules he’d bested Hell, and was a free man, but guaranteed him that one day he’d willingly enter Hell as one of their own. They couldn’t allow Ritchie to roam Earth as a new demon, and dragged him to Hell to teach him their ways.

Comments: Created by Jamie Delano & Richard Piers Rayner.

Ecstasy received a profile in Who’s Who in the DC Universe #11 under the Hell’s Hierarchy entry.

The siblings were sometimes depicted as asexual, much like angels, and other times one of them was depicted as male, and the other female. Chalk it up to the plasticity of demonic entities I suppose.