Deacon Dark

Deacon Dark is the cult leader of the Eternal Light Corporation on Hardcore Station. Deacon Dark instructed his cybernetic associate Prime-7 to steal Captain Comet's body from the station's morgue. Unfortunately, the objective failed and Captain Comet's body was jettisoned to the closest sun. However, Blake's body merged with the Weird's telepathic form and the both beings were resurrected. The Weird arrived at the Eternal Light Corporation after his resurrection and Deacon Dark met with the Weird to offer him a chance to join his convent.

As for Comet, Dark heard about Blake's return from the dead so he sends his telepathic followers to place a neural barrier on Blake in order to subdue him and have Blake brought back to the deacon. Fortunately, Blake has gained the ability to teleport. Blake escapes but he couldn't save his friend Star Hawkins from the telepathic thugs who used a psychic pulse to fry Hawkins' brain from the inside. The psychic pulse is an ability that even Blake possesses but he has never been tempted to use it.

Meanwhile, Deacon Dark asks his followers to give a brief report on whether or not the Weird will benefit the church. The followers are aware of the Weird's two previous lives where he was a celestial being seeking freedom and he inhabited the dead body of Walter Langley but now his newly resurrected form has them feeling unsettled. They consider the Weird's sanity to be delusional despite his impressive strengths so they deem the Weird to be a threat and he should be terminated. Dark would agree but Synnar gave Dark the duty of maintaining the balance of the universe by keeping the chosen members of the Aberrant Six alive. The deacon instructs five of his followers to convert the Weird since he does not suspect the church of anything.

Deacon Dark uses his telepathic ability to calm the Weird's chaotic mind in the Hall of Contemplation and Dark's telepathic followers concoct an epiphany inside Weird's psyche. The Weird has been conflicted by loneliness and unanswered questions but now Dark has given the Weird the delusion that he could choose a path to enlightenment for himself. Of course, which ever path the Weird chooses will inevitably lead back to the deacon since he is pulling the strings. The Weird's mind becomes so tranquil that his ability to phase through objects causes him to sink through the floor of the hallway. The Weird regains consciousness and when he stops phasing, the Weird discovers the church's actual operation.

Deacon Dark has been cloning versions of Captain Comet and converting them into joining the church. The Weird's discovery is easily overlooked when Deacon Dark convinces the Weird that these poor souls are being treated for medical reasons and the laboratory is actually a hospital wing where the church conducts their charity work. The Weird is moved by the church's supposed noble intentions and decides to join the church. Eventually, Blake is informed that he was attacked by the monks of the Eternal Light Corporation.

Blake decides to infiltrate the corporation by disguising himself as one of the clergymen and teleport to a covert location within the corporation. As for the Weird, his mind becomes restless after accepting the corporation's faith. The Weird leaves his room and heads to the supposed hospital wing but he discovers another room filled with failed experimentations. The Weird finally realized that the corporation/ church is a fraud but before he could do anything about it, one of Dark's monks used a psychic pulse to paralyze the Weird. The monk leaves the Weird in his room while he confides in Deacon Dark for the Weird's immediate termination.

The Weird eventually wakes up from his induced sleep and phases through the hallways of the church to discover a member of the League of Insect Assassins who has just accepted a contract from the monks to apprehend Comet for the church. After the insectoid leaves, the monks discard their masks and the Weird is shocked that the monks all look like Captain Comet. The Weird finds a mirror in order to look at his face and aside from his bulging left eye, the Weird looks a lot like Captain Comet. The Weird has another epiphany and deduces that Deacon Dark is working with Synnar and Synnar was responsible for bringing Comet's corpse as well as Weird's telepathic form together. The only thing the Weird can't figure out yet is why Synnar went through all the trouble to resurrect him or Comet (Aberrant Six).

As for Comet, Blake enters the church undetected and discovers Deacon Dark's cloning facility where all of Dark's telepathic followers are grown. It seems the theft of Blake's corpse was not a total failure. The thieves managed to make off with some of Blake's DNA for the cloning process. Deacon Dark immediately senses Comet's presence so he and his monks go to intercede Comet. Dark unleashes his pyrokinetic fury on Comet while the monks who killed Star Hawkins, used their psychic pulses to restrain Blake. Fortunately, Blake takes the upper hand by setting off charges he left in the cloning lab. Dark survives but his monks are incinerated by the explosions while Blake teleports out of the church.

Despite Prime-7's concerns regarding the Weird or Comet, Deacon Dark makes his move against the Entreplaneteur's Inc. The deacon intends to change Hardcore Station's management thereby forcing every citizen on the station to convert and become a member of the Eternal Light Corporation. The telepathic monks seize all control functions of Entreplaneteur's Inc by using a satellite at the church which in turn enables the church to use Hardcore Station's A-Star Power Plant. The plant is the station's weapons system as well as its power supply. The deacon launches a broadcast feed stating the takeover of Hardcore Station and he threatens everyone on the station that if neither the Weird nor Captain Comet is caught soon then he will shut down the life support systems in random sections of the station.

Unfortunately, Comet was attacked by the League of Insect Assassins. After destroying a swarm of insectoids, Blake managed to teleport back to Tyrone’s apartment despite the injuries he sustained. Since Blake was in no condition to surrender himself to the deacon, one section of the city was wiped out by asphyxiation. Deacon Dark used the station’s functions to release the air from one of the financial districts into the vacuum of space. Eye finds Blake being revived by Tyrone’s medical droids. Eye fills Blake in with the latest developments so Blake takes the initiative by telling Eye to start a distraction at Eternal Light Corporation and Blake will set some charges in key locations while dressed as a monk.

Meanwhile, the Weird is taking down several monks and security droids from Entreplaneteur’s Inc. Prime-7 has been monitoring the Weird’s movements with the station’s surveillance feed. Deacon Dark decides that he will combine his telepathic efforts with the monks in order to manipulate the Weird one last time. Prime-7 pinpoints the Weird’s current location and the collective of telepathic psychopaths send another epiphany into the Weird’s mind. This time Deacon Dark convinces the Weird that Captain Comet is to blame for the Weird’s suffering from amnesia and for the countless deaths of citizens in Hardcore Station. Deacon Dark pretends to be Comet’s puppet and he is being coerced into committing depraved acts or he will suffer a supposed telepathic assault like the Weird did.

As Deacon Dark swayed the Weird into killing Captain Comet to save millions, Blake calls out to Prime-7 by taunting him that he is a mere lackey of the deacon and as a result of his anger; Prime-7 rallies every telepathic monk to converge on Comet’s location. Comet was playing a huge gambit by counting on Prime-7’s influence over Deacon Dark’s monks but it worked. The remaining battalion of monks attacked Comet but he had an explosive booby trap prepared especially for them. The monks believed they had an advantage over Comet but when he teleported, he set off the booby trap thus killing all of Deacon Dark’s telepathic monks. Blake’s victory was short lived because the deacon homed in on Comet’s location and opened a portal that unleashed the Weird.

The Weird and Comet fought for a brief moment until Comet telepathically reached out to the Weird thus allowing Blake to destroy the corruption that Deacon Dark placed inside of the Weird’s mind. The Weird and Blake make amends then they divide up their efforts to put an end to Deacon Dark. The Weird decides to contend with Deacon Dark while Blake takes back control of Hardcore Station from Prime-7. The Weird discovers that Deacon Dark is nothing more than an energy being much like himself when he was a zarolatt. The Weird unleashes the full extent of his power which causes the deacon to dissipate. In the end, there is nothing left of Deacon Dark except a synthetic mask and pair of gloves at least for now. As for Blake, he detonated the charges he left after Eye's brilliant distraction. Both Prime-7 and the Eternal Light Corporation were sucked into the vacuum of space.

Rann-Thangar Holy War: Countdown to Adventure
Six months later, Deacon Dark pulls himself back together and establishs a new Eternal Light Covent on Thanagar after Onimar Synn destroyed half the planet. However, this time Deacon Dark made his connection to Synnar more apparent as he preached the written word of Synnar to Thanagarians. Carter Hall attended one of Dark's sermons and reported his findings to Adam Strange. As for Captain Comet, the deacon sent a devoted follower as a suicide bomber to make his return known to Blake. Eventually, the deacon orders a squadron of Thanagarians to pillage the mineral fields in the Valley of Cries on Rann to spark another war between Thanagar and Rann. Fortunately, Adam Strange, Hawkman, Starfire and Animal Man defeat the deacon's Thanagarian followers but they all come under attack by a t-rex until the Weird blew the dinosaur's head off from the inside. Apparently, the deacon has engaged in temporal activity during his return to Hardcore Station which would explain the appearances of extinct creatures on planet Rann. The deacon's reason behind the temporal interference is because the deacon intends to pinpoint the exact moment Synnar died on Hardcore Station and resurrect him. As for the t-rex and the appearance of the Shaggy Man, they were byproducts that were created during the trial runs of the deacon's temporal manipulator. Back on Rann, Sardath explains to Adam Strange that he can triangulate the deacon's temporal energy signature but only when the temporal manipulator is used again. The deacon eventually perfects the manipulator and he is successful in resurrecting Synnar but he gives away his position when a volcano suddenly erupts on Rann which is considered unprecedented. Adam Strange along with the rest of his allies head to Hardcore Station only to find Chief Justice Max crucified upside down on an Eternal Light Corporation monument. Deacon Dark greets the heroes with his taunts but he is easily dispatched by Captain Comet's telepathic pulse. Deacon Dark sheds his synthetic disguise in order to meet up with Synnar in a different location. Deacon Dark informs Synnar that he was resurrected because Synnar's presence is necessary for the second coming of the Nameless which will take place on the planet Rann. Deacon Dark heads to Thanagar to break the tenuous peace agreement between Thanagar and Rann. The deacon convinces the Grand Mor that Rann is launching another assault on Thanagar but in the name of Lady Styx. Meanwhile, Deacon Dark invokes an incantation on the ziggurat in the Desert of Tears on Rann. The spell transfers the essence of the Nameless into Synnar thus giving the Nameless a physical body.

Strange Adventures: Aberrant Six
After the Weird merged with Synnar, Deacon Dark began a ritual in order to summon one of the chosen Aberrant Six, Synnar's reluctant playthings that would enable Synnar to manipulate the universe. Unfortunately, Dark's retrieval spell to summon Hawkman failed because of Deacon Coriolis' clumsy nature. Instead, the spell summons Bizarro to an unknown dimension and Dark instructs Coriolis to bring the supposed Hawkman back to him. In Synnar's absense, Dark has continued to convert Thanagarians warriors to Synnar's will in order to build up an army for Synnar's next incursion.

Coriolis brings Bizarro to Deacon Dark and Dark was not surprised that Coriolis had failed once again. As punishment for Coriolis' failure, Deacon Dark threatens Coriolis by showing him an empty entity energy cell which will drain the essence from Coriolis to brink of non-existence. However, Dark's frustration toward Coriolis is stemmed when Synnar expresses how pleased he is that Bizarro will serve as Hawkman's replacement as the Warrior of the Aberrant Six.