Mercy Sparx

Mercy Sparx
	; Mercy Sparx as seen on the cover of; Mercy Sparx #0 - Prologue
Publication information
Publisher	Devil’s Due Digital Inc.
First Appearance	Mercy Sparx #0 - Prologue (August 2008)
Created By	Josh Blaylock
In-story information
Alter Ego	Mercy Sparx
Species	Demoness with some; Succubus aspects
Abilities	Agility; Attractive Female; Gadgets; Healing; Shape Shifter; Super Speed; Super Strength; Unarmed Combat; Weapon Master

For other uses of the word Succubus, see Succubus (disambiguation).

Mercy Sparx is a fictional demoness character created by Josh Blaylock who has appeared in a series of one-off and limited run comic books that were published by Devil’s Due Digital Inc. She first appeared in Mercy Sparx #0 - Prologue in August 2008 which was followed by a short run series before the series went into an extended hiatus. A second series was begun in 2013 after a successful Kickstarter program and is ongoing.

She was described as being a devil girl from the underworld of Sheol, secretly working for Heaven. Mercy lives on Earth and has the ability to switch to a human form. Her mission is to hunt down angels that live on Earth after defecting from Heaven's army. Mercy was coerced into this task and when not dealing with angels and other supernatural beings spends her time drinking, having sex, and fighting. But she also finds that there are those on Earth that give a damn about her and she's not sure how to deal with that on top of everything else.

Biography

Mercy Sparx was the orphan of two demons who were a part of a rebellion against God, her parents abandoning her soon after she was born. Mercy was born in Sheol which is a land between Purgatory, Heaven, and Hell. It was described as being the place where those who fell through the cracks of Heaven and Hell resided. Mercy grew up in Sheol, living a simple but problematic life as a demon girl, also called a devling, until while having a drink and arguing with an ex-boyfriend at the Devil's Due pub in downtown Sheol, she was visited by Mr. Suit.

Mr. Suit was an enormous demon who enlisted Mercy on a mission to go to Earth, which at the time Mercy believed to be fictional, to hunt down rogue angels. According to Mr. Suit, these instructions came directly from God himself. When Mercy did not believe the story, she became combative until Mr. Suit knocked Mercy unconscious. When she awoke, Mercy found herself on Earth and when she looked in a mirror, she found that her form had changed to that of an attractive human being. Trapped on Earth, she now must fulfill her mission to seek out rogue angels and return them to their rightful place for a reward that she cannot believe is true. Because all deals have a catch and she hasn't figured out what that is... yet.

Statistics

Real Name: Mercy Sparx
Base Of Operations: Mobile
Alignment: Neutral
Identity: No Dual Identity
Species: Demoness
Gender: Female
Hair: Black (Demon Form) Blonde (Human Form)
Height: 5'11" (Approximately)
Weight: 120 pounds (Approximately)
Origin: A devil girl from the underworld of Sheol, secretly working for Heaven
Creator: Josh Blaylock

Story Arc

After Mercy had been on Earth for some time, she was paired with a human named Hank, who was a genius gadgeteer metalhead. Together they did Heaven's dirty work on Earth, Mercy gaining a name for herself in the ranks of the angels, and making more than a few enemies in the process. At one point Mercy was sent to hunt a "Muse," the most common and easiest to find among all angels. After finding her target in one of the clubs, Mercy and the angel named Serendipity are thrown out and square off in an alley. Eventually Mercy overcomes Serendipity by removing her halo and knocking her unconscious. Before Mercy can finish the job, another angel who was working as a waitress at the club attacks, but Mercy uses her "Hellfire Zippo" to overcome her as well.

Mercy is visited by Mr. Suit who sends her after an angel that is far stronger than any she has faced before. If Mercy cannot overcome this angel, she is told, she may be killed as she would be seen as no longer of value. Mercy finds the angel, named Elysa, and they come to blows. Elysa is winning the battle, but Mercy shoves them both out a window, Elysa escaping and Mercy using her tail to save herself by wrapping it around a street light. Later Mercy finds Elysa again at another club and attempts to capture her again. Mercy sets a trap, which fails due to a human triggering it, and she battles with Elysa once more. After another long battle, Mercy with the help of Hank overpower Elysa, take her halo and defeat her.

Mercy's story takes an odd twist when she meets with one of her employers named Jeremiah who tells Mercy that she will be finally allowed to enter heaven. Unsure about this revelation, Mercy enters a bar and finds herself elsewhere due to the actions of an angel called Nahmat. Nahmat informed Mercy that everything she had done was not the will of heaven but in fact she was being used by someone else, and she suggests that Mercy clean up her mess. Following this, Mercy is attacked by an angel named Cybile who sought revenge for all of the angels that Mercy had defeated. Mercy was soundly overcome until Hank appeared and rescued her. The three then travel to a meeting where another character named Wallace summons Mr. Suit and Mercy tells of what she has learned and how they all have been used. It was revealed that Jeremiah is Sandolphon, another angel who was harvesting pure souls by masquerading as a priest. The group then plan an attack to end the game they have been duped into playing.

The group arrive at the church where Jeremiah awaits them. Mercy confronted him while Hank summoned Mr. Suit to help in the fight. He attacked Jeremiah, but was overpowered, Cybile being killed when she attempted to help Mr. Suit. At the urging of Mr. Suit, Mercy used all of the halos that she had taken and summoned Lucifer's spirit into her body which allowed her to kill Sandolphon by ripping off his halo.

Afterwards Mercy asked Nahmat if she could return to Sheol but is told that she will not be able to go home because heaven decided that Mercy should stay on earth to do their dirty work. Having no real choice otherwise, Mercy grits her teeth and continues on, hoping that there will be a way out of this mess for her in time... someday.

Powers and Abilities

As a demoness, Mercy has a great deal of power at her disposal which includes strength, speed, physical beauty and some magical abilities. Physically she has wings, horns and a tail in her demoness form while her human form is very dissimilar, her hair colour and physical appearance being quite different.

The following powers and abilities have been seen during her appearances:

Superhuman Strength and Agility: During several encounters and fights Mercy was shown to possess great strength and agility.

Superhuman Speed: During several encounters Mercy was shown to move at rapid speeds.

Supernatural Beauty: Her demoness physiology grants Mercy with beauty, her human form drawing attention from others. This could be seen as part of her makeup being Succubus-like in nature if it is combined with her sexual drives as well.

Shape Shifter: Mercy can shift between her demoness form and a human form, the two appearing very different, though the tattoos that she bears on her body tend to remain the same through the shift.

Rapid Healing: It has been seen that Mercy's physiology allows her to heal from massive damage over time and minor injuries heal quickly.

Expert at Weapons, Gadgets and Unarmed Combat: Due to her mission on Earth, Mercy has become adapt at the use of weapons and gadgets as well as becoming an expert at hand to hand combat.

Publishing Notes

When the series first appeared in 2008, it was a trade paperback with a very limited edition run. Following the initial Issue #0, four further issues appeared from October 2008 through September 2009, running quarterly. Following this short run the series went on an extended hiatus until the character made a cross-over appearance. A cross-over series featuring Cassie Hack and Mercy Sparx appeared in the interim between the first and second series runs in 2010. The first issue was a limited run of 1,000 copies available from Devil's Due. There was also an alternative cover edition customized for Detroit Fanfare 2010.

In 2013, a Kickstarter program was begun with the goal of restarting the series and providing enough funding for an initial three issue run. This was followed by a second program for a further three issues. The goal was to support the series through the Kickstarter program until it was able to continue based on subscriptions to the series. There have also been a series of collected works of the series released at different times to meet demand for the series and as a means to provide readers of the series a method to catch up with previous events.

As of December 2014, the series continues on an ongoing basis with various publishing dates and times, but generally on a quarterly basis though several issues have been released in close proximity to one another as well.