Gabrielle D'Angelo

GABRIELLE D'ANGELO

Real Name: Gabrielle D'Angelo

Class: Human / Angel gestalt

Occupation: FBI agent, avenging angel

Group Affiliation: None

Known Relatives: Michael Cray (Deathblow, ex-husband)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: NYC, NY, Earth-50

First Appearance: Deathblow (Image) #5 (May, 1994)

Powers: Gabrielle D’Angelo was a skilled investigator, and well trained in firearms and hand-to-hand combat. She was the host of an avenging angel, and could radiate the fire of Heaven.

History: (Deathblow (Image) #9 (fb)) - Black-op Michael Cray, aka Deathblow, was on his honeymoon with Gabrielle D’Angelo when Travis Trickle told him Deathblow was needed on an I.O. mission. Against his better judgment Deathblow joined Travis, I.O. and SAs in an effort to capture a terrorist named the ?Jackal, who was associated with the IRA. They raided an IRA flat, but it was a trap, and the team were caught by rigged explosives. Jackal and the IRA engaged them in a firefight and a small child wandered onto the scene. Travis loaded up a rocket launcher, and the boy was directly in Travis’ line of fire, but Trickle was too full of bloodlust to notice or care. Gabrielle tried to save the child, but to no avail, as he was blown apart even though Gabrielle miraculously survived. She had died in a sense, but became a host for an avenging angel of Heaven. After this tragedy things were no longer the same between Michael and Gabrielle, and they drew cold to each other, and ended up getting divorced.

(Deathblow (Image) #5, 6) - Gabrielle and the FBI investigated the serial killer Herod, who targeted first born children. A firstborn boy was being held in an abandoned warehouse, and the FBI were convinced they had their man. Gabrielle and several other agents stormed the warehouse, killed the kidnapper, and saved the boy, but Gabrielle knew they didn’t have Herod. Her instincts were correct, the kidnapper was escaped mental patient Eugene Akers, a thrall of Herod. Gabrielle visited Deathblow after getting a call from his doctor and learning he had only a month or two to live because he had brain cancer. He assured her their was no treatment for his cancer, and that he deserved to die for all the blood he’d spilled anyway.

(Deathblow (Image) #7-9) - Herod’s master the Black Angel pursued Deathblow to get a hold of Christopher, a young miracle worker chosen by God to be mankind’s savior. Christopher was also under the protection of Sister Mary and the Order of the Cross. While Gabriele D’Angelo was investigating the Herod case for the F.B.I. she was also trying to dig up information on Project Genesis. Dr. Anderson, her contact in Memorial Hospital, found Dr. Markus’ notes on Team 7 and Project Genesis, where black-ops were exposed to the Gen-Factor to give them superpowers. Anderson correctly intuited that Deathblow’s cancer had finally activated his Gen-Factor. Herod was actually Travis Trickle, an I.O. black-op, and cut Anderson to pieces to keep I.O.’s secrets safe. When Gabrielle found Anderson’s body Herod attacked her and she blasted him with holy light, revealing that she was the vessel for an avenging angel. The Black Angel’s servants took her down before she could kill Herod, who was pleased that she’d serve as nice bait for Deathblow. Herod tortured Gabrielle, telling her the darkness in her ex-husband was growing, and he’d surely join him and the Black Angel when they stormed the gates of Heaven. The Black Angel kidnapped Christopher and told Deathblow to meet him in Babylon.

(Deathblow (Image) #10) - Sister Mary drove Deathblow back to NYC, and he got in touch with his contact Rayna to learn about I.O. safehouses where Herod could be hiding. Deathblow tried to reassure Mary that he was a good guy once people got to know him, but she was not having a bit of it. They found Herod torturing Deathblow’s ex Gabrielle, and after Herod took away the Sword of Heaven from Mary he revealed that Gabrielle was an archangel, and he’d use the sword to drain her life essence. Deathblow couldn’t stand the idea of Gabrielle being lost to him again and went berserk, attacking Herod and the Black Angel’s possessed. Herod got the advantage, and after shooting Deathblow in the chest, said he’d show him that even the Gen-Factor had its’ limits, and he could end Deathblow’s life. Gabrielle, deathly wounded, managed to free herself, and killed Herod with a shotgun blast to the back. She collapsed and died in Deathblow’s arms, passing away in peace because she sensed that Deathblow's darkness had been washed away from his soul because the Order of the Cross had allowed him to drink from the Holy Grail. Deathblow no longer had the will to go on, but Sister Mary brought him to his senses, telling him they had to defeat the Black Angel and save the world so Gabrielle’s sacrifice wouldn’t be in vain.

(Deathblow (Image) #12) - Deathblow destroyed the Black Angel with the Sword of Heaven and the miracle boy Christopher used the sword’s Heavenly power to turn back time and undo most of the damage the Black Angel and Four Horsemen had caused. Christopher wasn’t able to save Gaby because she’d died two years ago in London, and with the work of the avenging angel inside her accomplished, she was still dead. Angels brought Christopher to Heaven, including the angel that had been bound to Gaby, and Deathblow felt like he was losing her all over again. Deathblow attended Gaby’s funeral, and had to be lead away by Sister Mary, who said she would always live on in his heart.

Comments: Created by Brandon Choi, Jim Lee & Tim Sale.

Gabrielle D’Angelo was originally published by Wildstorm Comics, an imprint of Image Comics, which DC acquired the rights to in January, 1999.

Gabrielle D’Angelo’s appearance in Deathblow (Image) #5-10, 12 was reprinted in Deathblow Deluxe Edition.