Allies of the Superwomen of EVA #21: Devil-Slayer

"While Tokyo-3 proved to be the epicenter of humanity's conflict with the otherworldly creatures codenamed 'Angels', as well as the growing presence of superpowered individuals, other parts of Japan were not without their own strange phenomenon. In one such case, some of that strangeness surrounded seventeen-year-old Sango Kuwashima, who lived in a small town in the city of Kyoto-2. Whereas her peers in high school engaged in all manner of extracurricular activities or after-school clubs, Sango's proved to be very unusual in comparison, and not just in how she kept them secret from her friends and fellow students. Sango, in reality, came from a family with a rich and long history as members of a hidden, globe-spanning order of warriors whose origins date back to the medieval period, both in the West and the East. She and her younger brother, Kohaku, were trained by a longtime family friend, an American by the name of Eric Simon Payne, in all manner of fighting style and weaponry as befit the order's specialization: demon hunting. Sango and Kohaku wound up proving their mettle when, one day, they found themselves aiding Eric against minions of the demon-worshipping sect known as the Cult of Harvester of Eyes, which he had infiltrated years earlier in order to destroy them from within. Sango proved to be very adept with her family's heirloom weapon, the Hiraikotsu (a human-sized boomerang), enough that she was able to overpower the cult's high official, the half-demonic Vera Gemini. Together, Sango, Kohaku, and Eric were able to put down Vera and her cultists and prevent their Xenogenesis plan (which would've restored an ancient race of demons to power over the Earth) from succeeding. As thanks for her efforts, Eric personally trained Sango in the same techniques he learned to unlock the psionic potential of her brain; he also bestowed upon her a mystically-created dimensional cloak known as the Shadow Cloak, which among other abilities could teleport her to and from other dimensions, as well as traverse limited distances on Earth. With all this, Sango fully adopted the mantle shared by hers and Eric's ancestors in the order: the Devil-Slayer.

Sango's first major battle as the latest Devil-Slayer would see her face off with the demon called Kierrok the Shatterer of Souls, a member of the Mabdhara (the masters of another race of demons known as the N'Garai). Kierrok had been accidentally freed when the obelisk that had kept him imprisoned in his own dimension was disturbed by a group of punks who were vandalizing the park where the object had been set as part of a public art display. Sango held her own well against Kierrok, but found herself nearly mentally overwhelmed by the evil nature of the demon. She found a reprieve thanks to the timely assistance of the two heroes known as Lady Suzaku (Miaka Yuuki) and Iron Fist (Yui Hongo), who'd been alerted all the way in Tokyo-2 thanks to the former's mystically-attuned senses. On quickly consuting one of her tomes, Miaka was able to provide Sango with a solution to sealing Kierrok away again, which she did so by destroying the obelisk. Grateful for the assistance, Sango wound up becoming good friends with, respectively, the young pupil of Earth's Sorceror Supreme and the young champion of K'un-Lun. This friendship would come in handy during an incident where Kohaku temporarily wound up in the thrall of the very creator of the Mabdhara and the N'Garai: the Elder God known as Chthon.

Another incident that teamed up Devil-Slayer and Lady Suzaku would also be the former's first encounter with the superwomen of Tokyo-3 (made up of various women and teen girls either directly or peripherally involved with the now-defunct special agency NERV), who had banded together as a team called the Avengers. Lady Suzaku had brought Sango along to help the group in dealing with the supernatural entity known as Dreamqueen. When their initial strike against Dreamqueen failed, Miaka, Sango, and one of the Avengers in Ghost Rider (former NERV Evangelion pilot Asuka Langley-Sohryu) did some research on their foe, and from there were able to seek out the warrior known as the Silver Samurai, a descendant of the same swordsman who first defeated Dreamqueen. With the additional help, they were able to successfully exile Dreamqueen to the farthest pocket dimension possible. Thankful for her help, some of the other Avengers let Devil-Slayer know that they'd be in touch about making her a reserve member of the team.

Sango wound up joining an Avengers-adjacent team that Miaka and Yui put together called the Defenders, which would handle the more esoteric threats that the Avengers weren't fully equipped to face. Both teams would end up fighting alongside each other to beat back the threat of a sextet of powerful lesser demons known as the Six-Fingered Hand, who had plotted to merge Earth and Hell."

*Author's Note(s)*

Anchoring the Marvel half of the wave is a take on a C-list Marvel hero best known for their membership in the House of Ideas' iconic 'non-team', the Defenders. The character who would become Devil-Slayer has interesting beginnings, in that this creation of the late David Anthony Kraft and the late Rich Buckler came from their time at the short-lived publisher Atlas/Seaboard Comics (founded by former Marvel head (and uncle to Stan Lee) Martin Goodman in order to compete against the very company he once led). Originally conceived as "Demon-Hunter" in 1975, once the publisher folded and the Kraft/Buckler team found themselves back at Marvel, they decided to revive and retool the character for his debut in 1977's Marvel Spotlight #33 (the series' final issue), before he was then added to the Defenders.

As for the anime character to take up the Devil-Slayer mantle, as early as my Dreamqueen entry it hit me that Inuyasha's Sango would be a dynamic fit for the role, considering her profession in her native series. In the process of crafting this modern-day AU version of the character, among other details was my giving her the same last name as her seiyuu (since we never did get a family name for her in Inuyasha or its sequel Yasahime proper). From there, I decided to have some of her early battles involve some of the more obscure and off-kilter demonic denizens of the Marvel Universe, such as Kierrok, whose debut came all the way back in 1975's X-Men #96. (For this narrative environment, I'd imagine that Chthon would bear a resemblance to one of the big bads of Inuyasha in Naraku, given how both are demons who frequently garb themselves in billowing cloaks.) For the visual side of things, I turned again to Ishida1694, who given their Inuyasha fandom I knew would enjoy coming up with a great blend of Sango's trademark battle outfit and the iconic costume worn by Eric Payne; as you can see (on my DeviantArt page), the results speak for themselves.