A Bit on Belasco

A number of people have been asking about Belasco and his place in X-Men lore. I'm certainly not an expert myself, but while preparing to write this story I did a fair bit of research so I feel pretty confident that I can give you some basic information.

First of all, about Azazel. According to the six-part serial "Uncanny X-Men: The Draco," Azazel is supposedly Nightcrawler's biological father. Kurt learned Mystique was his biological mother in "X-Men Unlimited #4: Theories of Relativity." It had long been said Kurt's real father was a German Count, Eric Wagner. The "Draco" arc suggested this Count was a Baron called Christian, that a disguised Azazel was his business partner, and that he seduced Mystique. But, Mystique's a professional liar and alters her own history (and shape) to her advantage whenever it suits her so...whatever. Anyway, Azazel was a powerful, ancient, red-skinned, demon-looking mutant who had long ago been banished to an alternate dimension by creatures that looked like angels. He had about a gazillion kids over the centuries, some red, some blue, some neither, but many with yellow eyes. Kurt was one of very, very few people who ever dared to stand up to him. In "Belasco's Beatrice," Azazel's agenda is fueled by his response to Kurt's defiance as well as his own ambitions.

My story was inspired by several of the events shown in the graphic novel "Universe X Vol. 2." I say 'inspired' because it only deals with Kurt/Belasco's part of the story and pretty much ignores everything else. The plot for "Belasco's Beatrice" is completely original, so you don't really have to worry about knowing a lot of background information on the X-Men. Hopefully, the necessary backstory will become clearer as the story goes along and pieces of Belasco/Kurt's past are revealed little by little. In order to make it less confusing, though, I'll include notes to let you know which parts I made up, which parts are from the comics, and which parts are based on the biographies of the real Dante Aligheri (author of the epic poem "The Divine Comedy," written in the Tuscan dialect of Florence between 1308-1320) and his 'muse,' Beatrice Portinari.

And now: about Belasco. I found this information at various sites on the Internet, in back-issue comics, and in "Universe X Vol.2." Some of it was contradictory, but I did the best I could to sort it all out.

The character Belasco made his first appearance in "Ka-Zar The Savage #11." He was originally some kind of sorcerer from 13th century Italy. I figure that since, in the stories, he knew Dante and Beatrice, he had to have lived in Florence at some point before 1290. (That was the year Beatrice died. She was 24.)

Belasco apparently suffered from a bad case of pleonexia (the single-minded desire for dangerous knowledge, no matter the consequences). He used his skill at alchemy and 'the dark arts' to make contact with some powerful, demonic beings known as The Elder Gods. He made a rather Faustian deal with them: he'd help them to cross over to Earth from their dimension with the help of the mysterious, magical stones known as 'bloodstones' and they, in turn, would grant him immortality and power. There was a second part to the deal, though. Belasco was supposed to breed a race of demons for them on Earth. To this end, they drastically changed his appearance—hence the red skin, the horns, and the tail. They also gave him a specially forged sword.

In his new, demonic form, Belasco kidnapped Beatrice and took her to a land called Pangea, which had once been inhabited by a technologically advanced race that used climate control to make the place into a tropical recreation center or something.

Dante tracked them down, but he was too late to save Beatrice from her horrific fate. She had been forced by Belasco and died in childbirth. Enraged, Dante fought Belasco in a volcano; a duel that ended when the demon accidentally sliced through an overhead duct with his sword, releasing a gas that froze him instantly (Rather like Boris Grishenko in James Bond: Golden Eye! (little joke...Actor Alan Cumming played both Boris and Nightcrawler in the movies.) ;) ).

Centuries later, Belasco appeared again under unexplained circumstances. He claimed the volcano had become active again, causing him to thaw out. He tried once again to contact the Elder Gods with one of the remaining bloodstones, but he was stopped by Ka-Zar after he abducted Ka-Zar's girlfriend Shanna O'Hara to be his new mate. Ka-Zar threw the bloodstone into the volcano, closing the inter-dimentional rift Belasco had opened and preventing the Elder Gods from coming through. As punishment for this second failure on his part, the Elder Gods trapped Belasco in a dimension known as Limbo.

Time in Limbo is very different from time on Earth. Years there would only be moments here. No one knows how long he was trapped there, but over time he managed to become the absolute ruler of that dimension of demons. There, he encountered, fought, and corrupted an X-Men team from an alternate dimension. Later, he brought the official Marvel X-Men team from Earth 616 to Limbo, where they met the older, corrupted versions of themselves (See King Size Annual X-Men #4: Nightcrawler's Inferno). Then, Belasco proceeded to torment them. These X-Men managed to escape him, but not before he had seized Piotr Rasputin's (Colossus) little sister Illyana. He made her his apprentice and used her soul to make a number of new bloodstones to help him finally succeed in bringing the Elder Gods to Earth. However, this process corrupted the girl and infused her with magical abilities. When she was fourteen, she turned on Belasco and defeated him, driving him from Limbo so she could take over. She became the powerful sorceress known as Magik, managing to return to Earth mere moments after the X-Men's escape from Limbo. To them, it appeared as though she had aged instantly from an innocent little girl to a powerful fourteen year old. She eventually joined the New Mutants.

Years later, Belasco returned as a threat to the X-Men. This time, he was told by the reborn Captain Mar-Vell that he was not really the demon Belasco at all, but a brainwashed copy. His true name was Kurt Wagner, the X-Man Nightcrawler who had been presumed dead after a disastrous confrontation with the Gray Gargoyle many years before (See Universe X Vol.2). The Gargoyle had tried to trap him and his team in stone. Nightcrawler had tried to teleport away, but he reappeared without his arm or his mutant attributes. Weak and lost, he searched for help, but was beaten almost to death by a mob of angry mutants. It was then that the 'demon' Mephisto (quite possibly one of Azazel's sons, at least in this story) first approached him.

In denial, Kurt/Belasco journeyed back to the volcano on Pangea, only to find the real Belasco's body was still there, frozen in ice. The Mar-Vell child told the other X-Men what had happened to Kurt, but apparently they didn't approach him. Kurt/Belasco took up residence in the crumbling city slum where I gathered he became something of a vigilante peacekeeper. Although he remained uncertain of his true identity, he often watched the X-Men from afar.

That's where they left him, and that's where this story picks up.

And that's all I was able to find out about Belasco. Whatever else I need for my story I fully intend to make up. ;D