FIRST ISSUE: Descent #1

FIRST PAGE RECAP

Grigori "Greg" Moore grew up in a Canadian orphanage, the only clues to his true parentage a note in the basket where he was found and a strange tattoo under his right eye. Seeking to become a Social Worker in the United States, he was attending college at Calvin City on his 21st birthday when his normal life came to an end. Saved from an assassination by a mysterious robed figure, Greg discovered he was possessed of superhuman powers, including flight, hyperfast learning, the ability to adapt to harmful environments, and preternatural good luck… powers he would need as unknown forces continue to seek to destroy him. Seeking protection from the U.S. government, he made a deal with Amanda Waller to join Task Force X, better known as the Suicide Squad! His code name: Descent.

PROLOGUE 1: YEARS AGO - IN HELL: We see the story of the day Lucifer grew tired of ruling Hell, and handed the key to the infernal realm to Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams, also known as the Sandman. On that day, the arch-demon Al-Aknor—also known as Barron, the Petitioner of Ireul;, also known as the Drinker of Youth; also known as Tivilio, the Injurer of Cats; also known as Vorvadoss the Troubler of the Sands, Who Waiteth in the Outer Dark; also known as the Flaming One, Lord of the Universal Spaces; also known as Baphomet—became the only being in Hell to bear a potent secret, one that could herald the end of days.

When Morpheus in turn granted the key to Hell to the Angels of the Silver City, the two angels assigned to rule Hell hunted down Al-Aknor to gain his secret knowledge. Al-Aknor refused to reveal his secrets and was gravely wounded by the angels. In order to survive the assault, Al-Aknor made it appear that he had been destroyed and took the form of a lowly imp. However, the nature of Al-Aknor’s spell was such that, if he should return to his true form, the wounds he suffered from the angels’ flaming blades would immediately kill him.

Humiliating as it was, Al-Aknor needed help. So he used his secrets. He found a sorcerously gifted but psychologically disturbed junior high bully living in the Bronx named Damien Moonblood. He appeared to the boy in his impish form, pretending to be his familiar sent from Hell, and tutored him in diabolism and black magic. But one day, if he could find all the proper components, Al-Aknor could cast the proper spell to allow him to resume his true form, and use his horrifying secret knowledge to hasten the end of the mortal world…

PROLOGUE 2: MONTHS AGO – CALVIN CITY COLLEGE: Al-Aknor’s apprentice, Moonblood, had grown into a powerful warlock in his own right. He had aided the humbled demon in acquiring all the components needed to reclaim his true form except for one: the blood of a person of a very distinct but mysterious lineage. For years, all such persons had been hidden from Al-Aknor’s senses.

Then, one midsummer’s day, a blood descendant of the necessary parentage had appeared, like the sun coming out of the fog: a 21-year old boy by the name of Grigori Moore. Al-Aknor was uncertain what power the boy’s lineage would give him, so it would be best to harvest the needed blood after Grigori was dead. So the plan Damien Moonblood helped Al-Aknor concoct was simple, the brutal tactics of mortals. A bomb in an automobile. The blood could easily be collected from the corpse. The bomb went off, everything seemed to go well. But the boy was not in the car. Instead of being killed, he had been awakened to his potential. And something-- or someone-- had been protecting him.

By the time Al-Aknor tracked Greg down again, he was already found sanctuary with a gang of murderers, mortals of power, known as the Suicide Squad. He was becoming known to the heroes of the mortal world, fighting alongside them under the name Descent. But all this was no matter. The demon would bide his time. He had waited a long while already. His time was almost here.

THE PRESENT – BELLE REVE PRISON: Grigori Moore is staring at the tattoo under his right eye—a mark he’s borne since infancy—in his reflection on the window of Amanda Waller’s office. Then the door swung open and Waller was calling him in.

"I'm approving your request," Waller says. "You can return to your classes in Calvin City. We'll pull you in as necessary. There's no more testing we can do right now, we've figured out all we can about you here, at least for now. Flight, some kind of instinctive adaptation to energy attacks, and the luck power that's been keeping you alive through all these missions during this unusually high rate of deployment the last few weeks. We just have one more mission, one I think you'll like..."

Waller explains that they recovered security footage from the parking garage where someone tried to kill Greg, and have identified a person present there as the suspect involved in several recent thefts of occult objects, a former juvenile delinquent from the Bronx who goes by the unlikely name of Damien Moonblood. And they've spotted him again, recently, in the swampland surrounding Belle Reve prison, the Suicide Squad's headquarters, perhaps looking to take another shot at Greg. And today, Waller's agents were able to recover an address where Moonblood has been staying…

THE BRONX, NEW YORK: Damien Moonblood sits with a bottle of whiskey, absently listening to 90's metal. He is covered in gaudy and horrific tattoos and wears a black mullet. He looks at his watch, seemingly bored.

Suicide Squad member Nightshade teleports a field team including Greg into Moonblood's apartment. He looks completely unsurprised, and Bronze Tiger has Moonblood handcuffed in about give seconds. But he refuses to speak a word about why he wanted Greg dead, and as soon as Nightshade teleports them back, Waller has Moonblood placed in a maximum security unit.

Before Greg returns to Calvin City College-- where the administrators have been informed that young Mr. Moore was under federal protection due to an ongoing investigation and should be allowed to return to class-- he tells Waller he has chosen a code-name. From now on, he will be known as Descent.

(Continued in Descent #2)