BIOGRAPHY - Page 3
In the decades that followed, the Darkhold remained in Baron Russoff's estate until his descendant Jacob Russoff, a.k.a. Jack Russell, turned 18 years old and also became a werewolf b
y night. Jack also believed the cure for his lycanthropy might be found in the Darkhold and asked his priest Damon Joquez to try translating it. Father Joquez's faith was not strong, however, and the spirit of Aelfric the Mad Monk rose to possess him, wielding the power of the Darkhold until his host was killed. The return of the Darkhold led Jack into conflict with several parties who coveted it, including Taboo and Count Dracula himself, until it was seemingly lost in the snowy Alps. [Werewolf by Night (1st series) #3-15, Tomb of Dracula (1st series) #18-19]
The notes of Father Joquez found their way to the Vatican and Giuseppe Montesi, who used the information to recreate the lost Montesi Formula against vampires. Dracula killed Giuseppe, but not before he mailed a copy of the spell to the vampire lord's greatest nemesis, Quincy Harker. [Dracula Lives! #6, Uncanny X-Men Annual #6] Giuseppe apparently died without an heir, leaving the Montesi dynasty to his brother Vittorio Montesi. Some decades earlier, however, Vittorio had learned he was sterile and feared he would be unable to continue the family line. The incorruptible faith of the Montesi line was shaken by his weakness, and Vittorio chose not only to read from the copied Darkhold pages but actually cast a spell from them. He believed his faith and status as an incorruptible Montesi would allow him to wield the power of Chthon without consequence to conceive an heir. And so, Vittorio's wife soon gave birth to their daughter, Victoria Montesi. Being both a misogynist and a bigot, Vittorio rejected the idea that a woman could successfully carry the mantle of the church, especially a lesbian "sinner" like Victoria. Still, if Vittorio thought this was the extent of Chthon's trickery in conceiving the child, in the years to come he would learn he was grossly mistaken. [Darkhold: Pages from the Book of Sin #16]
In modern times, Modred emerged from stasis when a pair of historians uncovered his tomb. Wielding the power of the Darkhold, Modred believed his newfound power could be used to contain the Other and prevent its demonic power from spreading over the land. The Other easily twisted Modred's perceptions, however, as wielding the power of the Darkhold only bound him further to Chthon. Despite his noble intentions, Modred was soon nothing more than a puppet for Chthon to direct at will. [Marvel Chillers #1-2]
Over the years since her birth, Wanda Maximoff had come to use her Chthon-influenced powers regularly, becoming a member of the mighty Avengers. Chthon used his influence to weaken Wanda's powers on several occasions, luring her to trek back to her homeland near Wundagore to replenish her powers (and allow Chthon to strengthen their bond). [Avengers (1st series) #30, 75]
The time came when Wanda visited Wundagore again and was captured by Modred at Chthon's behest. Modred had retrieved the Darkhold from the Alps thanks to his connection to its power. He fastened Wanda onto an alter before the Darkhold on the hills of Wundagore, and cast a spell that turned the Scarlet Witch into Chthon's living avatar on Earth. He intended to claim her soul entirely, but Wanda's fellow Avengers arrived to prevent it. Using a marionette puppet carved from the wood of Wundagore, the Avengers channeled its mystical properties to exchange Wanda's soul from the marionette with Chthon's. The entity was trapped inside the puppet and then buried in a rockslide, once again imprisoning Chthon's spirit in Wundagore. [Avengers (1st series) #185-187]
[Note: Wanda was believed at the time to be possessed by Chthon. In Darkhold #6, however, Agatha Harkness pointed out the immensity of Chthon could never exist in a single human host. Rather, Wanda's own capacity for darkness was unleashed by the Elder God, acting to channel the spirit of Chthon's desires, rather than house it.]
Jessica Drew, Spider-Woman, became an ally of the spirit Magnus and a bitter foe to Morgan le Fay. Morgan claimed Jessica was a child of the Darkhold due to her incubation for decades on Wundagore, and thought to harness her inherent connection to Chthon's magic. On one occasion, 
Spider-Woman had an encounter with Viper that appeared to be influenced by Chthon. She discovered that Viper was actually Miriam Drew, her mother. Miriam had not been killed by Baron Russoff, but was claimed body and soul by Chthon to be his agent of chaos on Earth. Spider-Woman and Viper struggled with Chthon in his realm before parting in relative peace. [Spider-Woman (1st series) #44] Sometime later, however, Viper shook off a fog of false memories to realize she was not Spider-Woman's mother at all. Although Viper irrationally blamed Jessica for this, Spider-Woman came to believe Morgan le Fay had been responsible for all this trickery, but never truly confirmed it. It therefore seems the encounter with Chthon was but an illusion, and any connection Jessica Drew has to the Darkhold might be as well. [Captain America (1st series) #281]
The powers of Chthon on Earth began to congregate when Dracula claimed a Cult of Darkholders as his own. Using their knowledge of the Book of Sins, Dracula manipulated the Darkholders into casting spells that strengthened his evil and expelled his weaknesses (such as sunlight and holy symbols) in rituals that turned the Darkholders into his slaves at the same time. Dracula still feared the Montesi Formula, however, and conspired to retrieve the tome of the Darkhold from its containment inside Avengers Mansion.
Doctor Strange was alerted to the Darkholders' plans by the vampire detective Hannibal King, and they gathered King's allies Frank Drake and Blade to prevent Dracula from getting ahold of the book. Reading from the Darkhold under a spell of protection, Strange learned for the first time of the Montesi Formula, and modified his plans to not only protect the book from Dracula but use it to wipe out all vampires on the face of the Earth. In distant Transylvania, Doctor Strange and his 
comrades laid a trap for Dracula where the rituals were enacted to carry out the Montesi Formula. Strange was successful at reading from the Darkhold without forfeiting his own soul, and the power of the Darkhold destroyed Dracula and every other vampire across the globe. Indeed, undoing the vampire curse even made it impossible for vampires from other realities to cross over and exist on Strange's Earth. Doctor Strange had cost Chthon a major asset in his quest for domination of Earth. [Doctor Strange (2nd series) #58-62]
However, thanks to a spell he had cast years ago as a young mystic to try and revive his comatose brother, Doctor Strange had left a loophole through which vampires could return to Earth. The Book of the Vishanti was a deliberate counterpart to the Darkhold, and so while the Darkhold contained the Montesi Formula to destroy vampires, the Vishanti contained the Vampire Verses to conjure them. Victor Strange eventually awakened from stasis as a new vampire, and the voodoo queen Marie LaVeau used him and the Darkhold to revive Varnae and allow vampires in the world once more. [Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #15-18]
In a peculiar move by the Elder God, the lost pages of the Darkhold began to resurface in the hands of the Dwarf, an agent of Chthon's. Like the Djinn of old, the Dwarf tempted everyday people with black envelopes containing spells from the Darkhold that could fulfill their desires, only for the castings to go horribly wrong with acts of chaos and murder. Perhaps more ominous was the fact that non-mystical people should not have been able to read the Darkhold pages, much less cast the spells. Clearly, something had changed, and not for the better.
Victoria Montesi had rejected her father and his tales of Chthon and the Darkhold, becoming a doctor in Rome while living with her girlfriend Nash. The Cult of Darkholders resurfaced and tried to kill the last Montesi with a bomb at her apartment, only to catch Nash in the blast instead. When she awoke in the hospital, Victoria found she was experiencing visions whenever one of the Dwarf's Darkhold pages was being used. Angry at the Darkholders for crippling Nash and finally recognizing her father's crusade as real, Victoria intended to keep the Darkhold pages from harming anyone else. She was joined by Sam Buchanan, an Interpol agent sent to guard her after the bombings, and Professor Louise Hastings, a brilliant occultist and the only one of her father's friends she could stand. [Darkhold: Pages From the Book of Sins #1]
These "Darkhold Redeemers" were among the mystic Nine prophesized to defend the Earth from Lilith, Mother of Demons, and her children the Lilin. [Ghost Rider (3rd series) #31] Their hunt for Darkhold pages led them into an uneasy alliance with Modred the Mystic, still soulless but presently out of Chthon's direct influence and hoping to keep it that way. They also crossed paths with Doctor Strange, Agatha Harkness and the Scarlet Witch, who feared a recent trance Wanda 
experienced meant the Malachy Prophecy was coming to pass. Harkness believed Wanda was "marked by sin" and her children by the Vision were born of "no man," making her the prime actor in the prophecy's dire warning. Together, the two groups reasoned there must be a new "gateway" on Earth acting as a conduit for Chthon's power and allowing the Darkhold pages to have potency for everyday people. The Darkhold Redeemers thus pledged to find and close the gateway in addition to recovering the pages which Vicki's visions located. [Darkhold: Pages From the Book of Sins #2-7]
The Redeemers' struggles led them into conflict with the N'Garai and other manifestations of Chthon's power summoned by the Dwarf or the Other from the Darkhold pages. Fortunately for Vicki, she seemed to be invisible to the demons when they manifested. They suffered setbacks as Buchanan's superior in Interpol was revealed to be the leader of the Cult of Darkholders, and their ally Blade of the Nightstalkers read from one of the Darkhold pages to become the new Demogorge. It seemed Chthon had crafted his own Demogorge spell after facing Gaea's spawn eons ago, empowering Blade to murder every supernatural being on Earth and absorb their power. This "Midnight Massacre" claimed many before Louise Hastings offered up her soul by using the Darkhold to reverse the Demogorge spell and revive his supernatural victims, including Hannibal King, John Blaze, Demogoblin and Victoria Montesi. [Darkhold: Pages from the Book of Sins #8-11]
With Louise's soul bound to Chthon, the power of the Nine to oppose Lilith was weakened. The Dwarf continued his work and tried to tempt more of the Redeemers. Chthon reclaimed Modred's soul in a cruel trick after temporarily restoring it, but failed to convince the smitten Sam Buchanan to take a love spell and force Victoria to love him. Victoria did claim a Darkhold page, however, when it promised her the power to restore Nash to health. Her power unwittingly came from a separate Monstrosity demon, who killed people and took their lifeforce in order to provide Victoria the power to heal. Nash refused to be saved by this tainted power, and Victoria gave up the corrupted power gifted to her by the Darkhold. As Louise Hastings wondered, though, Victoria was one of the supposedly incorruptible Montesis; the Darkhold page should not have affected her in the first place, nor should Blade have targeted her as a supernatural victim while the Demogorge. [Darkhold: Pages From the Book of Sins #12-14]
The truth about Vittorio's sterility finally came out, and from that revelation the Redeemers learned Victoria was not a Montesi at all. The Darkhold spell had impregnated her mother, true, but with the daughter of Chthon, not Vittorio. As spawn of the Elder God, Victoria Montesi was herself the 
gateway through which the power of the Darkhold was being channeled. Her "visions" were not warnings about the pages, but literally represented Chthon's power flowing through her to activate the spells. Worse still was the true implication of the Malachy Prophecy -- Vicki was pregnant. "A child born of no man" referred to Chthon himself as "daughter becomes mother," and his own immaculately conceived child would birth him into the Earth dimension.
These revelations came to light during the Nine's final conflict with the Lilin, the Fallen and their allies, the nigh-omnipotent Zarathos and the insane former Sorceress Supreme, Salome. During this struggle, Ghost Rider and Louise Hastings were killed and the Sanctum Sanctorum was destroyed. Having recently lost much of his own power from the Vishanti, Doctor Strange was unable to help Victoria in the midst of all this chaos. Instead, he placed her under a sleeping spell and a powerful temporal stasis, hoping to prevent the Chthonic pregnancy from ever coming to full term. [Siege of Darkness crossover] Strange went through numerous trials, moving Victoria's inert body from one Sanctum Sanctorum to another as he did so, but unable to devote the time necessary to address her condition. Victoria's pregnancy therefore continued to advance, albeit at a greatly reduced pace. [Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #72, 89]
The time came when Chthon made the first move on Victoria Montesi to ensure his rebirth on the mortal plane. He created an entity known as the Midwife to penetrate the spells and defenses of the Sanctum Sanctorum and deliver Victoria's baby from stasis. Doctor Strange confronted the Midwife but found Victoria had been mystically altered so he could not reassert the stasis spell. Seeing no way to stop the birth short of killing Victoria from this side, Strange crossed over into the Flickering Realms to confront Chthon on the other side of the dimensional barriers. The sheer malignancy of the pocket universe nearly destroyed Strange, as the physical presence of Chthon in his full power consumed hope and kindled despair. Doctor Strange barely survived by crafting a spell forged from all the goodness and light in his soul, hurting Chthon but doing nothing to truly stop him.
As he returned to the Earthly plane, Strange found Victoria dying while in labor. The Midwife was unable to prevent Chthon's energies from overwhelming Victoria's still human aura. If Victoria died before the labor was complete, Chthon would not be born. Unwilling to let Victoria die for any reason, Strange assisted the Midwife in the delivery, using a spiritual spell that strengthened Vicki's own soul in order to bear the birthing process. It was also a shrewd tactic, for the spell that 
enhanced Victoria's human soul was based on the same magic that briefly repelled Chthon in the Flickering Realms. Even in his immensity, Chthon was hurt by the light of a single human soul; a newborn Chthon would be unable to tolerate it at all. Faced with certain destruction if he tried to emerge on Earth in the light of Victoria's soul made manifest, Chthon retreated back into his nether-realm, ending the unholy pregnancy. [Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #90]