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Azrael
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| Alias: Real Name Unknown |
| Titans Ally |
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| Azrael Quick Bio: When a mysterious winged alien was unthawed from a block of ice, he immediately fell in love with Lilith Clay. When Lilith left, the distraught alien became duped into Brother Blood's cult - where he was given the name, Azrael. Eventually freed from Blood's thrall, Azrael once again flies free. |
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AZRAEL |
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Azrael sweeps Lilith off her feet - from NEW TEEN TITANS
(second series) #7 [1985]. |
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Alien Origin
Azrael's origin is a mystery, even to Azrael himself. All that is known is that Azrael is an alien being whose spaceship crash-landed sometime in the past atop Mount Michelson in Alaska. Burying itself in the frigid Alaskan ice, Azrael's ship lay undiscovered for an undetermined period of time until scientists from S.T.A.R. labs discovered its icy tomb, and the cryogenically frozen body of the winged alien being which lay within.
Using the research of the late scientist Elinore Stone, S.T.A.R. scientists successfully brought the spaceman out of his frozen state and into a world in which he didn't belong. Azrael possesses no memory of his former life, his planet of origin, his mission in space, or his true name. He was revived and soon met the New Teen Titans and Lilith, falling hopelessly in love with her. Lilith reciprocated those feelings only somewhat.
Blood Brother
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| The end of Brother Blood and a new calling for Azrael - from NEW TEEN TITANS (second series) #31 [1987]. |
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Lilith eventually left the Titans to search for her parents, leaving The Winged Man devastated. The Winged Man was tricked by the Church of Blood into thinking that he was Azrael, the angel of Death. Blood's Church eventually fell, and Azrael learned he was duped. It was he who dropped the broken-spirited Brother Blood off at a monastery when the villain's mind was broken by Raven. Azrael vowed to watch over Brother Blood, even in his broken state.
Azrael aided the Titans again during the Technis Imperative conflict, which involved the Justice League as well as all Titans, past and present. Having collected a planet-size assortment of technological debris, Cyberion journeyed to Earth to turn its moon into a new Technis world and populate it with his Titans allies. The JLA and the Titans first clashed, then united, to prevent Cyberion from destroying the planet while saving Vic's soul and downloading it into Minion's morphing battlesuit, the Omegadrome.
Azrael possesses enhanced agility and flight.
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Tales of the Teen Titans #51 [1985]: STAR scientists discover a man encased in ice in the Arctic. First unofficial appearance of Azrael in issue #52.
Tales of the Teen Titans #52 [1985]: STAR scientists discover an alien winged man - who falls in love with Lilith. First appearance of Azrael in issue #52.
Tales of the Teen Titans #53 [1985]: Lilith allows the extraterrestrial to escape.
Tales of the Teen Titans #54 [1985]: The winged alien is now directionless; Lilith is angered with the Titans for chasing him.
New Teen Titans (second series) #10 [1985]: Azrael is heartbroken when Lilith remains on Mt Olympus. The events of Lilith's status as a goddess have been negated by the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
New Teen Titans (second series) #12 [1985]: Mother Mayhem meets with the Winged Man and tells him that he is actually Azrael, the angel that separates life and death.
New Teen Titans (second series) #28-31 [1987]: Azrael is the opening act for Brother Blood's resurrection; Azrael saves Brother Blood from certain death and flies him to a monastery in Virginia; Brother Blood defeated in issue #31. Azrael finds a new calling as his 'caretaker' in issue #31.
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Creating Azrael
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| An original unused Azrael design by George Pérez. |
George Perez on Azrael
I actually designed it entirely differently. There is a drawing I did of Azrael that doesn't look anything like Jose Luis Garcia Lopez's version of Azrael. Originally, Marv came up with the idea of an angel at the time I was still on the book. Then, when I left the book, I thought it would be unfair for Jose, with his design sense, that every character he does is based on a George Perez design, since Azrael was never printed. So I let him design Azrael, and while he was on the book, he was also entitled to design Kole. Even though Kole was printed in CRISIS before she appeared in TITANS, that was because of the timing - I had gotten the xerox of Jose's pencils. Jose designed both of them. Azrael was originally designed looking totally different, and Jose came up with his own version; he never saw mine - No one has seen mine except for Marv.
Marv wanted a very, very emotional face. Again, it wasn't all that different from the way I designed Jericho. Jericho was also made for expression. The operatic thing, that got a little carried overboard. I am not as much a lover of deep purple prose, where people are acting like raving idiots over a lover. I mean, to me, love is always as much of the head as of the heart, if you do it right. And that bugged me. But again, that's the character. The character was supposed to be a flying wimp. (Laughter.)
Marv Wolfman on Azrael
"Interweaving through all of it is a brand new character," Wolfman says, ''for whom I don't have a name yet, I just gave George an outline for it and he liked it. It's a character who'll come to culmination in next year's annual."
And what about this character in terms of powers, etc.? "The only thing I can say is, essentially, he's an angel [laughs], It's strange, but when I first came up with the character, I didn't connect him with Brother Blood, I just came up with the thought of the character himself, how it works and all the various ramifications, Then, as I started weaving it in an overview of the Titans for the next 17 months or so, I connected it with Brother Blood, It worked so perfectly off the origin as we had it conceived and the storyline that was set up in issues #40 and #41; it was unbelievable, as if everything had been exactly planned. He's an addition, but he meshes in perfectly.
Marv Wolfman on Azrael [from The Titans Companion, 2005]
TTC: Over in the newsstand series, you introduced the character of Azrael chronologically after he had actually first appeared in the Baxter series. What were you attempting to do with that character?
MW: This is gonna sound like a major cop-out, but I have no recollection, and I think I purposely blotted it out so that I would not give that concept away. I don’t remember what my intent was. I don’t remember if he was an Earth person, I don’t remember if he was [an alien]... I actually have no memory of what I was going to do. I know it was really cool, because I had been setting it up, but I don’t remember what it was.
TTC: How involved was George with his creation?
MW: Not at all.
The above excerpt is from The Titans Companion by Twomorrows Publishing.
Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the New Teen Titans, The Titans Companion is a comprehensive look at the history of the ultimate teen team - over 200 pages in all! From their early days in the 1960s as a team of teen sidekicks through their best-selling days in the 1980s and beyond, this book explores the history of the team through the eyes of its creators! Interviews with Marv Wolfman, George Pérez, Nick Cardy, Neal Adams, Dick Giordano, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, and others reveal the evolution of the series over the years. While artwork by Cardy, Pérez, Adams, Garcia-Lopez, and many more illustrates each era of Titans history! To order the book, click here .
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A 1996 commission of Azrael by George Pérez,
courtesy of Marcus Mebes.
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It all began in Tales of the Teen Titans #51 [1985], as the scientists of S.T.A.R. Labs found a winged man encased in ice. As the Titans headed to S.T.A.R. Labs in issue #52, Lilith sensed whatever was waiting there would change her life. As the ice melted away, Lilith met the winged man who would later be known as Azrael. Feeling his pain, Lilith ached for the mysterious alien. In Tales of the Teen Titans #53, Lilith helped him escape the confines of S.T.A.R. Labs as the Titans gave chase. The winged man was left directionless, as he mused, "What was it about that woman... the one they call Lilith? Why do I keep thinking of her? It's madness, I know... but I love her... and I believe she loves me..." Indeed, Lilith admitted she felt a special bond to the alien. Believing he caused her only grief, the heartbroken winged man left Lilith in Tales of the Teen Titans #54.
The winged man resurfaced in New Teen Titans (seconds series) #7 [1985], where he spirited Lilith away and proclaimed his love for her. Before the star-crossed lovers could act on their feelings, Lilith was kidnapped by the Titan goddess, Thia, who revealed her identity as Lilith's mother. After the evil Thia was engulfed in flames in New Teen Titans (seconds series) #9, Lilith accepted her new destiny among the Pantheon. There, she bade farewell to the winged alien, who didn't take the news well. "Please not Lilith!," he wailed, "You cannot leave me now. I love you.. and I've fought time and space to stand by your side. I want you, Lilith, beside me. Forever." Lilith answered, "Although my heart aches to part with you, I have no choice."
The winged man returned to earth with the Titans, still anguishing over the loss of his love, "Why did we let them take my Lilith away from me?" Cyborg has finally had enough, "Wings, knock it off with the "My Lilith" garbage! Cripes, first woman ya see an' you go crazy!"
Cyborg wasn't the only one. As George Pérez lamented, "The operatic thing, that got a little carried overboard. I am not as much a lover of deep purple prose, where people are acting like raving idiots over a lover. I mean, to me, love is always as much of the head as of the heart, if you do it right. And that bugged me. But again, that's the character. The character was supposed to be a flying wimp."
Although Lilith's connection to Thia were later negated by the Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Lilith/Azrael break-up remained part of Titans lore. Lilith had strong feelings for the mysterious alien, but didn't return his affections with the same intensity he felt. Presumably, Lilith was a bit overwhelmed by the winged alien's amorous advances.
The winged man was tricked by the Church of Blood into thinking that he was Azrael, the angel of Death in New Teen Titans (seconds series) #12. Blood's Church eventually fell, and Azrael learned he was duped in New Teen Titans (seconds series) #30-31. It was he who dropped the broken-spirited Brother Blood off at a monastery when the villain's mind was broken by Raven. Azrael then vowed to watch over the broken cult leader.
I'm sure Lilith changed her phone number after learning this.
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