Sebastian Faust (scientist)

Sebastian Faust, commonly known as Faust, is a fictional character in DC Comics. Created by Mike Barr and Paul Pelletier, he first appeared in the 1993 ''Outsiders'' comic series. The character draws inspiration from the German legend of a man who sold his soul to the Devil. Faust is the son of the super-villain Felix Faust and is depicted as both a superhero and an anti-villain.

In his backstory, Sebastian's soul was sold in a Faustian bargain by his father to regain his own mystical abilities. However, the demon Neibiros tricked Felix by granting the powers to Sebastian instead. Sebastian received training in the mystic arts from his father but eventually ran away due to his father's abusive behavior. As an adult, he became a mystic superhero and paranormal investigator. His reputation within the DC Universe's superhero community is often controversial due to his parentage, his callous methods, and his expertise in black magic. In the DC Rebirth continuity, Faust is reintroduced with a similar origin but portrayed as an anti-villain. He is a highly-regarded agent of the United States government and serves as the director of A.R.G.U.S's mystic branch. However, he later betrays the organization in order to save his terminally ill wife. This puts him in conflict with Amanda Waller and her team of mystically-oriented operatives, the Suicide Squad Black.

Publication history

Sebastian Faust was first introduced in the ''Outsiders'' (Vol. 2) No. 1 ''Alpha'' in November 1993. Serving as the mystical member of the Outsiders team, he also guest starred alongside his teammates in '' Action Comics'' and '' Deathstroke the Terminator'' series. After the series' end in 1995, Sebastian made occasional appearances in other comics such as '' Superboy and the Ravers'' but later had a larger role in the 1999 ''Day of Judgement'' crossover; he would initially appear with a revised history and detailing involving the Enchantress in the ''DCU Villains Secret File and Origins'' comic released ahead of the event depicting him as a villain. In the actual crossover event, however, much of the details was changed though he still held a significance with Enchantress and was among the characters within the Sentinels of Magic team.

Faust would later star in the 2001 ''JLA: Black Baptism'' storyline as one of the main characters, his origin from the Outsiders run revised as well as the nature of his powers. Although the character was unused for a few years afterward, he would reappear in the 2006 ''Checkmate'' series, depicting under the new designated name of "Rook Gamma" as an elite operative & mystic consultant of the fictional intelligence agency, Checkmate. Sebastian would also have a supporting role in other crossovers, including the ''Brightest Day'' crossover, appearing in the '' Justice League of America'' and '' Justice Society of America'' series though seemingly no longer a member of Checkmate.

In 2016, the '' DC Rebirth'' event relaunched DC Comics' entire line of comic book titles. A rebooted version of Sebastian Faust debuted in the backdrop story of ''Suicide Squad: Black Files'' with a new origin, connections to the fictional agency, A.R.G.U.S, and characterization as an eco-terrorist and anti-villain.

Characterization

Lack of soul

During the 2001 "Black Baptism" storyline, details were added to Sebastian's backstory concerning his lack of a soul and the effects of his father's act of bartering it away; the lack of a soul caused Sebastian to lose his pupils, making his eyes completely black. To cover this, Faust uses aviators in order to prevent others from being disturbed by the sight. Faust cannot properly process emotions although he does not completely lack them, able to feel romantic love and familial friendships with those such as June Moone/Halo (former) and Blue Devil (the latter). In return, Sebastian was given the power to natural ability to initiate magical (the very power his father desperately craved to re-obtained) and could use soul-magic.

In ''Mystik U'', the alternative universe's incarnation of Sebastian Faust follows some of the original comic's cue of; while lacking the ability to not process emotions, Faust's powers are demonic in nature and is difficult to control. He is unable to initiate any sort of intimate contact with individuals nor look directly at others without his aviators in fear of sucking their soul or draining them of their magic. Only powerful magicians like Zatanna could bypass his powers and abilities. His lack of a soul also causes him to possess a demonic form revealed when distressed.

Reputation

Prior to the New 52 reboot of the DC Universe, Sebastian started his superhero career in the Outsiders and has since garnered a poor reputation within the superhero community, being once considered a mystical threat in part due to being the son of infamous villain, Felix Faust. While considered a world-renowned soul mage, members of the Justice League (notably Superman and Batman) expressed hesitance & distrust in working with Faust. Only Wonder Woman & Blue Devil has shown unconditional trust in Faust among the Justice League. Faust himself attributes this to his powers affecting other's perception of him. Another contributing factor includes his attempt of sacrificing the Enchantress during the events of the ''Day of Judgement'' to reignite the flames of hell through an act of evil, an act that he holds immense remorse for despite his poor capability in processing emotions.

In '' DC Rebirth'', his reputation is portrayed to being far more positive, considered a top notched governmental agent and a known hero among the superhero and mystic community. His turn from hero to villainy and eco-terrorism symbolizes the desperation he faced wanting to save both his unborn child and wife. Despite this direction in his life, the Justice League are portrayed to being sympathetic to Faust's circumstances and both expressed interest in helping him rehabilitate for his crimes and were unwilling to allow punishment at the hands of Suicide Squad handler, Amanda Waller, who was speculated to have planned to bring Faust into her magical division of the Suicide Squad.

Family relationships

Sebastian's struggle into proving himself a hero stems from his own, dysfunctional family. He inherited an evil legacy, which he rejects:

* Felix Faust: As an infant, Felix regarded him as a bargaining tool. He was abusive to Sebastian growing up, as he taught him the mystic arts. In turn, Sebastian holds him in low regard and maintains a turbulent relationship with him. He disallowing Felix referring to him by his first name. Despite his father' evil, however, he respects him as a capable warlock.
* Fauna Faust: She was subjected to the same abuse as Sebastian and he also feels sympathy for her. Unlike Sebastian, Fauna followed a darker path compared to him. She worked with the Kobra Cult's elite team, Strike Force Kobra, and their father Felix. Despite their diverging paths, the two share a sibling rivalry when it comes to comparing their sorcerous skills.
* Sebastian and Fauna's unnamed mother: Sebastian's favored parent, he was confident that she would not have fallen into the sway of dark magic implored by her husband, Felix. Sebastian also told his father that only she is allowed to call him by his first name.

Romances

Faust first formulated a romantic relationship with fellow Outsider member, Halo, whom Faust initially was portrayed as having feelings for and Halo skeptical and rejecting of his advances due to the mistrust the Outsiders team had for him initially. Eventually the two would pursue a romantic relationship, having first shared a kiss during a New Year's Eve celebration. He was also flirtatious with teammate Looker before his relationship with Halo solidified, both characters expressing finding one another attractive on several occasions.

In the ''Day of Judgement'' crossover, it was initially revealed that Sebastian and June Moone were slated to become lovers in a character entry in the ''DCU Villains Secret Files and Origins'' issue made for both characters ahead of the event. The actual crossover dealt with the two first meeting one another with Faust having come to be attracted to the June, only to have nearly slain her Enchantress personality to re-ignite the flames of Hell with a truly evil act. The ordeal riddled Faust with guilt, having begun developing feelings for her despite June's relationship with Alan Dell but ultimately decided to keep his distance. Their relationship is depicted differently in the later Black Baptism event, with June being an exception to Faust's usual inability to forming romantic attachments due to his lack of soul (revealed in the storyline). Still ridden with guilt over the events of ''Day of Judgement'', Faust visits June frequently, as she was admitted to a hospital on due to the supposed death of her Enchantress personality slowly killing her and leaving her in a nearly unresponsive state, and repeatedly apologizes with lingering hope the two would reunite and continue a relationship should he find a way to reverse her circumstances. Eventually, Faust helps join June back with her Enchantress persona, birthing a new one known as "Soulsinger" who seemingly is moved by his later "sacrifice" during a battle with a powerful sorcerer.

In his new continuity incarnation in DC Rebirth, Faust mentions having met and fell in love with a dryad woman during his days as a director of A.R.G.U.S, the two having married and bore a son. However, a spell brought from work made his wife terminally ill. His wife's terminal sickness and unborn child's life at risk becomes the catalyst for him to eventually betray A.R.G.U.S in desperation, becoming an eco-terrorist with aims to rid the world of magic to reverse the effects of the terminal sickness spell passed onto his dyad wife, who is in a comatose state from a poison apple fed to her by Faust to buy himself more time to reverse her illness.

Fictional character biography

Origin

Sebastian's original origin, detailed in the 1993 ''Outsider'' series, revealed him to be the British, elder son of Felix Faust and sister to supervillain, Fauna. As a child, he was taught in the mystic arts by his father, who often used familiars to perform magic. When Sebastian was old enough, Felix told his son he intended to give him an initiation into the mystic rites. During the "initiation", Sebastian learns that he was instead intended to be a sacrifice to a demon so Felix could regain the ability to initiate magic on his own. Instead, the demon granted Sebastian the ability to perform magic on his own at the cost of his magic. He ran away shortly after, causing Felix to attempt the same of his sister and for it to similarly fail and run away too.

Sebastian's origin was later revised, his soul instead having been sold as an infant (his original origin depicted him as a young teenager) by the demon, Nebiros, enemy of Swamp Thing and Blue Devil, and granted him soul-magic as a baby and giving him the power to initiate magic naturally though came with the drawback of an uncontrollable power of negative emotional projection, causing others to become more angry or tense the longer they are around Sebastian, making finding meaningful connections with others more difficult. Growing up, Felix's manipulative nature extended not only to Sebastian but his mother, who developed acute myeloid leukemia after birthing Fauna. Both of them were subjected to his attempts of seducing them to dark magic. Although Sebastian resisted his influence, his mother eventually began to slowly embrace it until she was killed in a car accident that only Sebastian and Fauna survived.

''Outsiders'' vol. 2 (1993–1995)

In the second volume of the Outsiders, Faust works with the Outsiders and assists the team when they reform under the threat of a vampire invasion of Markovia. When Technocrat's bodyguard Charlie Wylde is attacked by a bear, Faust saves him by merging the bear and guard together. However, the bear's violent side results in the deaths of innocent Markovian soldiers. Wylde goes on to fight and lose against his bestial half, and ends up in a zoo, tormented by Sebastian's sister, Fauna.

The Outsiders are on the run for some time, having been framed by the head vampire, Roderick, for the murder of the traitorous Queen Ilona. It is not known that Ilona is trying to kill the Outsiders. Eventually the team clears their names. Throughout his tenure, Faust is not trusted by many of his teammates. Despite this, he develops a romantic relationship with the innocent Halo. Soon, Felix, along with Fauna, attacks the team, drawing them into a different dimension. The team suffers various tortures, and survives only due to the flexible laws of reality in this realm. Faust leads an escape attempt. After the team breaks up, Faust tries to pursue a solo career.

''Superboy and the Ravers'' (1996–1998)

After the dissolution of the Outsiders team, Faust was a frequent guest at an intergalactic rave known as the "Event Horizon". When Raver hero Half-Life required new reanimated body parts, Faust agreed to help. While performing an incantation, Klarion the Witchboy sabotages his incantation and causes his ectoplasm to gain sentience for itself. When knocked out, Hero Cruz used the H-Dial to acquire Faust's mystic powers due to wishing for his assistance and banishes the entity that taken over his ectoplasm.

''Day of Judgement'' (1999)

During the 1999 DC Comics crossover event, '' Day of Judgment'', Faust joins with other magical characters of the DC Universe to form the Sentinels of Magic. The denizens of Hell have invaded Earth, led by Asmodel, an angel with the powers of Spectre. Faust teams up with a varied group of superheroes, including Atom, Superman, Firestorm and Enchantress. They travel to Hell itself and eventually, to the City of Dis, Hell's center of power, to relight its fires. During the trip, the heroes are temporarily trapped under the frozen River Styx. Faust manages to rescue Enchantress first; since he has no soul, he is not tormented by the river's waters. Inside the city, the heroes discover the demon Nebiros, who has stayed behind to guard the frozen fires. In battle, Faust releases Blue Devil, whose bones he had apparently bought from a mysterious marketplace. Nebiros is slain due to Firestorm changing the water in his body to cement. Faust regains his soul. When the combined forces of the superheroes are not enough to relight the fires. Faust realizes what must be done and murders Enchantress, losing his soul, restarting the fires, and saving the Earth all at once.

In the aftermath of this event, Faust, having developed romantic feelings for Enchantress, would work to find ways of reviving Enchantress.

''JLA: The Black Baptism'' (2001)

Faust next appears during the ''Black Baptism'' event. Over the course of the story, he works both with and against the Justice League, before ultimately tapping their souls to stop the mighty sorcerer Hermes Trismegistus. Faust comes to realize his newfound friend, Blue Devil, is only staying with him because of the magical nature of his revival. Not willing to risk Blue Devil's safety, he eliminates the magical connection by plunging the last of Blue Devil's bones into his back. Following the battles, Faust fakes the death of both himself and his father. Blue Devil soon dies in battle against Hermes but is revived.

''Checkmate'' (2006–2008)

Faust was first mentioned in the 2006 ''Checkmate'' series as a consultant brought in by the intelligence organization to program magical capacities and defenses into their technological creation, Gideon-II. Later, he is revealed to be a member of the clandestine spy organization as one of their elite teams, "The Rooks". His callsign designation in Checkmate is "Rook Gamma". He is called upon to help neutralize a medical facility occupied by the Kobra Cult cultivating mutant, snake-like infants through the use of blood magic to be future soldiers of Kobra.

''Justice League of America: The Dark Things'' (2010–2011)

Faust would make an appearance in the aftermath of the '' Brightest Day'' as he helps the Justice League of America and Justice Society of America contain the chaos created from the revival of the Starheart, which causes metahumans of magical origin around the world to go wild. Using his expertise in the occult, he helps the Justice League and the JSA defeat the consciousness of the Starheart, who has taken the form of famed hero and Green Lantern Alan Scott and taken control of the newest incarnation of Doctor Fate, Kent V. Nelson. He also helps the superhero Jade come to terms with her resurrection and newfound heighten levels of power resulting from her coming back from the dead.

''DC Rebirth''

In the new continuity, Sebastian Faust retained elements of his previous version and more recent origin; he is still the older son of Felix Faust, the brother of Fauna Faust, and was once a member of the Outsiders at some point. Some conditions had changed compared to the previous continuity: Sebastian's soul was sold by Felix in an effort to gain immortality instead of magical powers, the newer version of Sebastian having natural abilities in performing magic but was granted soul magic from the attempted bargain much like before. Unlike the previous continuity, he is American and no longer wears sunglasses, having pupils in his eyes despite possessing no soul. Unlike other continutities, he is also the grandson of Majika the Magnificient on his father's side.

''Suicide Squad: Black Files: Fortune's Wheel'' (2016)

In the '' Suicide Squad: Black Files'' limited series, Faust betrays America and A.R.G.U.S, stealing all of the magical artifacts A.R.G.U.S held as well as the Russian's own stockpile of mystical weaponry while assuming control of former mystical terrorist cell he fought against, Cerebus. In response, Amanda Waller assembled a sorcery team to counter the wizard but is unable to track their movements due to Faust's actions and enlists the aid of Klarion the Witch Boy, who tells her that she is to assemble a different team of magical users to battle Faust. With a mystical team, the Suicie Squad Black, consisting of El Diablo, Enchantress, Klarion the Witchboy, Gentleman Ghost, Azucar, and Dr. Thaumaturge, they find themselves opposed by Faust and his followers, including his majordomo Tiamat (the former Snargoyle of the previous sorcery team) and acolyte Wither. Faust planned to use multiple powerful mystic artifacts and assemble a weapon known as the Quellzorn, a mystic behemoth capable of feeding all magic to remove magic all together, having become disillusioned with its existence after both his experiences in seeing its capability to make others suffer and its personal effect on him due to having accidentally infected his dryad wife, pregnant with his unborn son, with a fatal mystic illness from a spell he caught in his work. Eventually, the team emerges victorious and Faust is defeated. He is later taken in by the Justice League to be rehabilitated.

The Other History of the DC Universe (2021)

Faust would make a brief appearance in the ''Other History of the DC Universe'' within Katana's recount taking place during the ''Outsiders'' series. She recounted Violet's soul asserting herself over Gabriella Doe, the being who would take Violet's body. Katana would mention how Violet indulgance in pleasures included having a sexual relationship with Faust.

Powers and abilities

Over time, Faust's abilities and skill level have evolved. Initially considered skilled but inferior to his father, Felix Faust, he later emerged as a significant supernatural force, ranking among the most formidable magic users on Earth. While powerful, his abilities were still deemed inferior to those of Doctor Fate. Faust was regarded on par with other mystical menaces such as Wizard (William Zard) and the Enchantress. In the DC Rebirth, he is also described as the top arcane operative in the United States and the most proficient magic user in A.R.G.U.S., having previously led its arcane division.

He was initially characterized as a warlock considered an adept in black magic, a form of magic known to come at a high cost for its practitioners. Faust's expertise also extended to soul magic, a powerful form of magic that grants him control over souls and provides a range of abilities. Chiefly, this include the ability to mimic the special abilities of others by tapping into their soul. When Sebastian utilizes soul magic to drain the abilities of others, it leaves them in a withered and shriveled state, as if their life force has been drained. Sebastian has the unique ability to mimic powers by simply touching individuals who possess those abilities. Through this tactile connection, he can replicate various powers, such as creating constructs like Green Lantern, accessing the Speed Force for enhanced speed and precision like The Flash, and even assuming a humanoid lizard form similar to the Kobra Cult. In DC Rebith, Faust practices "logomancy," a form of magic similar to hero sorcress Zatanna. By speaking words backwards, he can invoke desired effects. Additionally, it is implied Faust retains his mastery over soul magic.

In addition to his magical skills, Faust is a proficient occult investigator and possesses extensive knowledge of the supernatural. He surpasses his father in their shared expertise in soul magic and excels as an occult transcriber. Faust is also adept at covering his tracks, espionage, hand-to-hand combat, and leadership. Furthermore, he exhibits a high resistance to mystical corruption and soul erosion due to his lack of a soul and strong willpower. Faust possesses several magical talismans, most notably a belt and magical pouches. His pouches, made of high-grade steel and concealed within a medium-sized cloth bag, have mystical properties that allow them to hold a vast number of artifacts, energies, and surprises.

Cost and weaknesses

Faust's magical powers come with several drawbacks. In the Outsider comic series, his practice of black magic results in a cost known as "feedback." This feedback causes his spells to overload, affecting his surroundings and causing physical pain to Faust himself. Additionally, his soul magic inadvertently has an impact on those around him. The more time people spend in his presence, the more prone they become to feeling tense and irritated, making it challenging for Faust to form meaningful relationships and difficult for him to process emotions. The effects on others can vary.

Other versions

Flashpoint

A alternate version of Sebastian Faust appears in ''Flashpoint Beyond'' (2022). He is depicted as the leader of the Sentinels of Magic, members which include Blue Devil and Tiger-Man.

''Mystik U''

A college aged, alternate reality version of Sebastian Faust appears as one of the main characters in the DC limited series ''Mystik U'' written by Alisa Kwitney

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