BELTANE

Real Name: Beltane

Class: Human magic-user

Occupation: Necromancer

Group Affiliation: None

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Mobile across the world, formerly India, 2,000 years ago, England, 200 AD

First Appearance: Spectre III #0 (October, 1994)

Powers: Beltane was a skilled necromancer who could extract souls and bind them in flasks. Beltane controlled his/her own rebirth, and at the moment of death chose his/her next body.

History: (Spectre III #0) - Lady Beltane was a necromancer in India, who killed people to steal their souls and study them. She murdered Caraka and his family, but Caraka became the first human host of the Spectre, the wrath of God. Spectre killed her, but her soul eluded him, and after being reborn she sought to avoid him. 200 years later in England Lord Beltane was a sorcerer living in a castle, and barbarian allies brought him a seemingly helpless woman to study. The woman was the newest incarnation of the Spectre, and Beltane committed suicide rather than risk his soul. Over the next millennia the reborn Beltane and the latest Spectre hosts clashed many times, with Beltane always able to slip away. Beltane was born in modern America, and Spectre sensed the newborn. Beltane's soul contacted Spectre, and begged him to spare her life. She revealed to this latest incarnation, Jim Corrigan, the history of the Spectre-Force since the dawn of time. Beltane said she'd learned from past mistakes, and wanted to team up with him to end evil. Beltane saw free will as a flaw, and had used her necromancy to gain possession of the souls of numerous mortals so they would behave. Spectre was tempted, but said that without evil there was no good, and he was meant to confront and understand evil, not purge it. He seized Beltane's soul, and fed it to the souls of those she'd killed.

Comments: Created by John Ostrander & Tom Mandrake.