HOWLER

Real Name: Howler

Class: Beast spirit

Occupation: Beast

Group Affiliation: None

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Gotham City, formerly Transylvania, dawn of time until present

First Appearance: Demon I #6 (February, 1973)

History: (Demon I #6, Demon III #23 (fb)) - The Howler was a primal spirit that possessed humans. Millennia ago a shaman called the Howler forth from his beastly plane, and was immediately possessed. He slaughtered a number of his fellow tribesman before other shamans banded together to entomb the Howler alive in a cave. The Howler was contained until he was uncovered by anthropologist Eric Shiller, who the Howler promptly possessed. The Howler terrorized Transylvania, taking the lives of those it caught, but when it met traveler Jason Blood the Howler tried to possess him. The possession failed because of Jason’s demonic nature, but back in human form Shiller followed Jason back to America and begged him to free him of the Howler. Jason tried an exorcism, but the rite was interrupted by his friend Glenda Marks. Jason transformed into his alter ego the Demon and battled the Howler. In the fight the Howler fell from Jason’s Gotham apartment, and lie dying. The Howler transferred its essence to a passerby as Shiller died.

(Demon III #23, 24) - Chris, the man the Howler possessed, sought out his brother Professor Puckett, who spent years trying to figure out how to cure him of his condition. Over the years the Howler had killed a number of people, who were later possessed, becoming new Howlers. Pretty Boy Froyd, a criminal being watched by Robin because he was set to set for a big illegal transaction with some low-level criminals, encountered the Howler in an alley, and was gutted. Robin, with the help of Etrigan, forced the Howler to flee. Puckett found his monster, and was angry that he’d gotten loose, so he shocked him with a prod until he went into Puckett’s van and the professor drove him home to the abandoned warehouse he used as a lab. Later Froyd’s criminal pals arrived at the seemingly abandoned warehouse Puckett was using as a lab, and were attacked by the Howler. They gunned him down, but the Howler’s primal spirit left the body of his host and turned the criminals into his new hosts. Puckett got control over the Howlers when Etrigan, who sensed the Howlers’ presence in the warehouse, appeared. The Howlers started to overwhelm him, when Batman and Robin, following up on the Froyd case, also arrived. They stunned the Howlers with flash bangs. Puckett told Batman and Robin about how he was trying to cure the Howlers, and pleaded for them not to turn the beasts over to the authorities, fearing the GCPD would kill them. He introduced Batman to Chris / Howler, saying there was still the spark of humanity in him, but the Howler turned on Puckett, eviscerating him. Glenda Mark, who’d learned of Etrigan’s location from her friend Randu’ Singh's psi-power, came to the warehouse. The chaos Etrigan brought into her life made her reach her boiling point, so she unloaded the rocket launchers the criminals were going to sell to Froyd, and blasted the Howlers, killing them all. Etrigan turned into his human form, and she told Jason Blood she loved him, even though his soul was bound to a demon, and they embraced.