Remiel

REMIEL

Real Name: Remiel

Class: Angel

Occupation: Angel, ruler of Hell

Group Affiliation: None

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Hell, formerly Heaven

First Appearance: (comics) Sandman II #24 (March, 1991)

Powers: Like all angels Remiel was immortal, had heavenly powers and had wings growing from his back.

History:

(Demon III #37) - Remiel and Duma oversaw demons torturing lost souls, and Duma looked away as one demon fed souls to a giant demonic worm. Remiel told him he had to watch, and that fully understanding the depths of evil would in the end help him understand the nature of goodness. Remiel tried to convince himself that God had a reason for putting them in charge of Hell, even if he could not discern it. Etrigan, Lobo and Morax were on a quest to find the demon archduke Belial’s heart, and their quest led them to Flynn’s Impenetrable Fortress, where they found the Thing-That-Cannot-Die, who’d consumed Belial’s heart. Remiel and Duma, surveying their new domain, found the Impenetrable Fortress, and Remiel told Etrigan that whatever he was up to he had to stop immediately. Etrigan rejected their sovereignty of Hell, and attacked them. Morax joined the assault, and although Remiel did his best to assert his authority and make them relent they would not. The angels used their Heavenly light to strike down the demons, but the revived Lobo then attacked. Etrigan kept trying to bring out Remiel’s rage, and he succeeded in making the angel lose his cool. Remiel was prepared to kill Etrigan, but Duma staid his hand. Remiel felt sullied by the whole encounter and said he was taking his leave with Duma. The Thing pleaded his case that he’d been punished for ages by being exiled and tortured in the Region Beyond, and he was never meant to be in Hell, asking the angels to save him, but Remiel said he didn’t care about the Thing’s problems.

(Demon III #42, 45) - After Etrigan nearly died in a confrontation with Asteroth, who'd set himself up as a Gotham crimeboss angels Duma and Remiel offered the injured Demon a job as Hell's hitman to deal with the infernal beings that had been unleashed on Earth. He eagerly agreed, loving the idea of the carnage he could cause supported by the will of Heaven, and knowing the angels authority would keep Jason from interfering with him. Jason, seeing his chance of being free of Etrigan dashed, said his goodbyes to Harry, Rama and Glenda, taking solace in the fact that Etrigan agreed to let him do so and promised not to hurt them. Duma objected to Remiel's plan, thinking him mad and seeing terrible consequences ahead, but Remiel ignored him, and continued to complain that he wished he'd been paired with an angel who could provide conversation. For his first task Etrigan tortured his archenemy archfiend Asteroth and sent him to Hell. Duma and Remiel demoted the archfiend to a lowly janitor in Hell.

(Spectre III #57) - Remiel bemoaned the lack of progress he'd made in Hell, but decided to keep working on improving it. Duma remained silent, and Remiel contemplated what punishment there could possibly be if he murdered his fellow angel. Spectre arrived in Hell, and Duma offered him the key to Hell. Spectre was tempted, but his human host Jim Corrigan forced him to withdraw his hand. Remiel said he clearly belonged in Hell, and that while he saw himself as an agent of God, Remiel thought God merely gave him a personal Hell for his sins in life. They did not believe God was gone, and the news upset the demons enough to attack Spectre until he mowed them down. Remiel said without God, Hell meant nothing, and death was oblivion. Duma and Remiel were devastated, and Remiel lacked enough faith to even try to reach out to the Presence.

Comments: Adapted to comics by Neil Gaiman & Kelley Jones.

Remiel is an angel in the Judeo-Christian religion. For more information see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramiel.

Remiel had a cameo in Demon III #34, 55.