Friday, June 11, 2021

CHARON

 


CHARON

Real Name: Charles Ronalds
First Appearance: X-Factor Annual (Vol. 1) #8, May 1993

Powers: Charlie Ronalds was a human sorcerer empowered by the Hell-Lord Cloot, otherwise known as Satannish. He was transformed by demonic magic into a horrifically ugly being, but was granted enhanced levels of strength and resistance to physical damage. He could produce eldritch power through his hands as blasts of mystic flame, and carried a demon staff which served to focus and discharge his power blasts more effectively.

Finally, he was rechristened "Charon" for he truly acted as a ferryman, ferrying souls between the corporeal world and the afterlife. He could summon condemned souls from Cloot's Hell dimension, using them as his undead agents against his chosen opponents. His mission was to break the spirits of powerful beings, making them suffer to the point where they begged Cloot for release, and would become the latest souls under his "care".

1 comment:

sylar10 said...

Peter David must’ve been in a twisted mood when he had this character and story in mind.

Ronalds had Bruce Wayne's origin story: His parents were killed in front of him during an armed robbery, ironically right after they just saw “Batman” in the theaters. Random was the killer, but David left the series and Random was ridiculously retconned, so that plot point never developed.

He was placed in a foster family as none of his relatives would take him in after his parents' murder, plus their deaths made him a mutant hater. He was friends w/ Guido Carosella during middle school and witnessed his power manifestation. He tried to attack Guido then & there as he realized he was a mutant, but Guido blindly knocked Charlie away, leaving Charlie with a permanent limp.

So he studied mysticism and waited til adulthood to strike back. After attacking X-Factor, though, Cloot intervened as he was annoyed that Charon lost sight of his purpose. Before taking Charon to Hell, he revealed that his parents are there too as well as the reason why his extended family always distanced themselves: His mother was a prostitute and his dad was her pimp (implying Charlie is a product of either a one-night stand or a rape).

Even his demonic name “Charon” is a stealth pun (it’s a loose portmanteau of his first and last names).