Department of Occult Armaments
The Department of Occult Armaments is an organization that features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
History
Origin
It was claimed that they were a secret Nazi occult weapons division. (Venom v2 #23 2012)
Under its Boston field study, they were researching ways in creating vampiric stormtroopers for Hydra's terrorist army. To achieve this goal, reconnaissance had located an excellent specimen for dissection with target being Hannibal King. Baron Strucker held a low opinion on the D.O.A. and whether it contributed to Hydra's arsenal of occult mystical weapons. (Nightstalkers v1 #2)
Fear Itself
Several agents from the Thule Society were known to had ended up in HYDRA's Department of Occult Armaments who had been thought to had been destroyed by their own research. This led to a large influx in ancient lost knowledge that the Society had gathered in their time. (Fear Itself: The Fearless #8 2012) Two days after the fall of the Serpent, the supervillain Sin was taken into custody and restrained whilst a helicopter was taking her for imprisonment. However, the security detail on the helicopter consisted of agents from the D.O.A. who massacred the guards whilst freeing Sin. (Fear Itself: The Fearless #8 2012) As a result, Sin was noted to had allied herself with this offshoot of the Department of Occult Armaments. (Fear Itself: The Fearless #7 2012) Due to her time as Skadi, the right hand of the Serpent, Sin was privy to many mystical knowledge that was missing within the texts collected by the Thule Society. Thus, she began to initiate a final plan that involved the capture of the Serpent's Hammers and united both the D.O.A. as well as the Thule Society under her banner. (Fear Itself: The Fearless #8 2012) She believing that gathering the hammers would awaken a number of superpowered Sleepers which was the intended purpose of the Serpent. (Fear Itself: The Fearless #9 2012) This was to complete an old project made by the Red Skull to reverse engineer the Serpent's Destroyer that originally failed due to lack of mystical knowledge or the Serpent's Hammers that were needed to power them. (Fear Itself: The Fearless #10 2012)
At the Raft, the Hammer wielded by Titania was kept contained and under guard by a skeleton crew from the Thunderbolts under the leadership of Luke Cage. During this time, Crossbones attacked the site along with agents from the D.O.A. This group managed to make quick work of the defenders where Rulfom engaged Cage in battle and managed to acquire the Hammer. They quickly managed to open a portal and escape to D.O.A. headquarters located somewhere in South Carolina that served as the base for Sin. With the Asgardian relic, they attempted to use it to awaken the Final Sleeper and remake the world to their desire. (Fear Itself: The Fearless #5 2012) Afterwards, Sin takes the D.O.A. to retrieve another Hammer from Project Pegasus with their attack leading to demons being unleashed against the Avengers and superheroes guarding the facility. One of the Department operatives claims that this was the opportunity for the D.O.A. to enter into the big leagues by defeating some of Earth's greatest heroes. (Fear Itself: The Fearless #6 2012) Initially, the attack went to Sin's favor until Stephen Strange and Valkyrie destroyed the D.O.A.'s generator allowing demons to spill into the Pegasus facility. Whilst defeated, they managed to escape with their leader and retrieve the Serpent's Hammer after Daimon Hellstrom betrayed his allies by retrieving the relic as well as the wounded Crossbones who was badly hurt after a fight with Wolverine. (Fear Itself: The Fearless #7 2012)
At the D.O.A. headquarters, Hellstrom indicated his intended alliance with Sin's forces and that the use of the D.O.A. would allow him to settle a number of personal feuds. (Fear Itself: The Fearless #8 2012) Upon learning that Valkyrie intended to die and banish the Hammers in the process, the D.O.A. assembled under Crossbones and Hellstrom where they invaded Brunhilde's pocket dimension by tracking Doctor Strange's magical entry into it. (Fear Itself: The Fearless #9 2012) During the attack, Malpractice was killed whilst Innard was badly wounded though Crossbones along with Hellstrom managed to retrieve the three Hammers in Valkyrie's care before escaping. Valkyrie interrogated Innard in order to learn the headquarters of the D.O.A. where she assembled a large group of Avengers to attack the base. The Department forces along with numerous demons fight against the heroes whilst Sin awoke the final Sleeper in order to burn the Earth to a cinder. (Fear Itself: The Fearless #10 2012) Ultimately, Sin within the Final Sleeper was defeated by Valkyrie with the Hammers banished into the hidden realms whilst Sin returned to her normal body where she was taken to shelter by Crossbones. They noted that both Thule and Advanced Idea Mechanics had failed at world domination and that now was the time for HYDRA to take charge once more but with Sin in charge. Hellstrom commented that this was the time for the Department of Occult Armaments to rise to power. (Fear Itself: The Fearless #10 2012)
Aftermath
Rumours of the occult group were known amongst newspaper reporters in the modern age and at this point they had become increasingly active. In this time, Daimon Hellstrom remained as one of the leaders of the organizations who began gathering volunteers from their ranks to build a demonic possessed army. Their activities attracted the attention of a reporte from the Daily Inquisitor called Katy Kiernan who secretly informed Agent Venom of her findings. This saw him attack their secret base where they were creating an army of demon possessed humans under the command of Hellstrom that saw a battle with Agent Venom. (Venom v2 #23 2012)
Overview
Members of the D.O.A. were considered a group of demon worshipping Nazi's who were dedicating in the task of gathering magical artifacts to help them rule the world. (Venom v2 #23 2012)
It was divided into a number of different divisions and departments. Among them included the Religious Artifacts Division and the Burial Rituals Team with various talks and lectures conducted for their members. (Nightstalkers v1 #2)
The Department held a wide variety of knowledge within its library that impressed the likes of Daimon Hellstrom. These included the likes of Asgardian grimoires and even older tomes. (Fear Itself: The Fearless #8 2012)
Among the artifacts within the D.O.A.'s arsenal included:
- Arks of the Covenant : relics studied by the D.O.A. with safety guidelines warning the researchers not to look into the light. (Nightstalkers v1 #2)
- Gauntlet of Shuma-Gorath : this golden gauntlet had magical energies able to harm super-powered beings and was used by Crossbones against Luke Cage though the fight depleted its power. (Fear Itself: The Fearless #5 2012)
Technologically, the occult devices available to the Department included machines able to create their own leylines and create tears in reality that allow demons entry into the normal world. The dangerous energies such devices were able to generate were chaotic, growing and uncontrolled. (Fear Itself: The Fearless #7 2012) Other devices included Possession Engines that allowed demonic beings to take control of Human hosts. (Venom v2 #23 2012)
Personnel
- Belial : (Nightstalkers v1 #2)
- Malpractice : freed Sin after Skadi's influence was removed from her and later killed by Valkryie in her pocket dimension. (Fear Itself: The Fearless #10 2012)
- Innards : wounded in Valkryie's pocket dimension and interrogated to learn the location of D.O.A. headquarters. (Fear Itself: The Fearless #10 2012)
- Rotwrap :
- Pyre :
Notes
- The Department of Occult Armaments was created by D.G. Chichester and Ron Garney where they made their first appearance Nightstalkers v1 #2 (December, 1992).
- Cullen Bunn mentioned his role in the revival of the group in the Fear Itself: The Fearless storyline
- "I've always thought they could be a truly sinister and formidable group, and for all these years I've imagined they were just biding their time until they were ready to strike. With their connection to Hydra and their goal of collecting "occult armaments," they seemed like a natural fit for this story.
- Now that they have thrown in with Sin, she has access to all of the occult weapons they've collected over the years. Where A.I.M., for example, uses technology to reach their goals, the D.O.A. is using occult power. As the series continues, you'll see that the D.O.A. has a strong connection to the Thule Society and they are growing -- in terms of power AND membership--and they are positioning themselves to be a contender in the realm of villainous organizations."
Appearances
- Fear Itself: The Fearless #5
- Fear Itself: The Fearless #6
- Fear Itself: The Fearless #7
- Fear Itself: The Fearless #8
- Fear Itself: The Fearless #9
- Fear Itself: The Fearless #10
- Venom v2 #23
