| “ | Moriarty: I need only to find the source of dark matter on Earth, and the key to all world domination and order will finally be in my grasp... Thug: Quite a tart, this one. Shouldn't be hard to... [Moriarty hits the thug in the face] Moriarty: and I can alter the course of my death, maybe delay it... [Cuts off some of the thug's fingers off] ... perhaps permanently. |
„ |
| ~ Moriarty's goals and expressing interest in immortality. |
James Moriarty is the titular protagonist of the Moriarty comic series by Image Comics and it's two sequels including the follow-up specials "Moriarty: The Jade Serpent" and the "Moriarty: Endgame". A brilliant criminal mastermind who after twenty years of believing Sherlock dead and abandoning his empire regains his desire for power and ultimately desires to rule the world though he must fight off a variety of criminals in his journey.
History[]
The Dark Chamber[]
In his youth James Moriarty was a physics professor at Durham University, in the fact his was a respected professor that secretly ran a large criminal empire, conducting experiments to gain more power until eventually a confrontation twenty years before the story takes place with Sherlock Holmes at Reichenbach Falls. After seemingly killing Sherlock, Moriarty decided to fake his death believing he lost any purpose but instead became a criminal assistant while taking the new identity of "Trumbold". Eventually Moriarty learns from a mysterious government official known as Agent Smith that Mycroft Holmes went missing around the same time as Professor Rupert Thomason, he quickly deduced that it being a coincidence when both were very educated people was rather unlikely. Moriarty searched for both men and confirmed the rumors that Professor Rupert Thomason indeed was in extreme debt to the point his credit was ruined, something Moriarty found very odd as when they taught together Thomason was seemingly very responsible. Eventually he finds a lead with Mycroft with one of his friends claiming that he was seen associating with an eccentric scientist and government official known as Lord Hollingsworth who was fascinated with both science along with the occult but after searching the Mycroft's flat, he discovers blueprints in a secret room alongside an invitation to a party at Lord Hollingsworth's estate. With little else to work on Moriarty goes to an old associate and implied lover named Jade who ran a group of assassins known as The Jade Serpent. After a brief fight they arrange another meeting with the Black Hand. As Moriarty attends the ball, he finds Thomason indeed worked with Lord Hollingsworth on some sort of device and Mycroft was investigating Thomason. As Moriarty tries to leave, he sees Agent Smith and Lord Hollingsworth killed by terrorist known as Tartarus before he sets off an explosion with the intent to frame him for these murders. With this Moriarty feels for the first time in twenty years a thrill and decides to abandon the "Trumbold" alias once and for all.
Not long after he catches Jade off guard and asks what she knows only to be informed both criminals and the police know who he truly is and want him gone because they believe he has "The Dark Chamber", together they go to a country manor just south of Yorkshire where the last members of the Black Hand have gone into hiding in hopes of finding Tartarus. As Moriarty and Jade enter, they find that most of them are dead, the last member alive tells them of how he killed Archduke Fredinand under Tararus' orders being told with the Dark Chamber would allow them to save the world but instead betrayed them by driving them crazy. As this happens Moriarty question if Jade plans to betray him now or later, she admits now but then points out she's trying to become more independent and that now is their chance, her former associates attack the two, but they work together to fight off the assassins. As they return to London they question a former associate, Mata Hari, that they knew had connection to the Black Hand due to realizing she had worked with Tartarus. As they meet at the location, they were provided they meet up with Dr. John Watson, Watson does confirm he and some of the government is aware Moriarty is being framed but also points out the local law enforcement were not yet made aware. Soon Dr. Watson points out they have an incomplete version of the Dark Chamber but can't make it work as they lack the code that the blueprint, while confirming while it was never perfected its original design dates back to ancient Greece. Soon Moriarty confirms the device causes nothing but madness which Tartarus plans to use to drive the world to go insane so he can rule whatever remains as a God. Dr. Watson fearing this pulls a gun demanding the way to access the device only to have his arm cut, even then all Dr. Watson can do is insult Moriarty calling him a coward while Moriarty make an escape determined to end Tartarus.
Over the next few days Moriarty was unable to sleep at all due to his exposer to the Dark Chamber in Lord Hollingsworth's mansion earlier, he instructs all he can to search the city before finding a dying Thomason who reveals he was tortured by Tartarus until he escaped. Moriarty questions them on a clue on how "Pontus" was used in Tartarus' notes along with tied to the Greek god of the same name as a child of Chaos to which all Thomason can say is in this case it is the ocean before dying. Moriarty forces Inspector Lestrade to deliver a message to Dr. Watson, while it is being delivered, he attacks a ship with some of Tartarus' men, there he finds a vat that leads to an underwater hideout where Tartarus has been hiding though nearly drowning in the process. A he gets up he is surrounded by Tartarus and his minions as Tartarus brags of his plans to remake the world by modifying an airship to act as a much larger Dark Chamber before Dr. Watson arrives, creating enough of a diversion alongside Jade to turn the tides. As Tartarus attempts to go forward with his plot to drive the world insane Moriarty manages to grab a chain allowing him to climb aboard the ship. As the Dark Chamber prepares to activate as the ship rises above London, Moriarty is able to shatter the chains connecting it leading it to explode upon falling to the ground. Determined to stop Tartarus, Moriarty declares he will kill the terrorist immediately but demands to know what has been done to Mycroft. After a brief battle, Moriarty disarms and slashes Tartarus across the face and removing his eye, as Tartarus is nearing death he gloats he left Mycroft at Reichenbach Falls before setting off an explosion to destroy the airship. After escaping unscathed, as a form of closure goes to Reichenbach Falls to investigate. Upon his arrival, Moriarty finds a note from Sherlock confirming he was masquerading as his brother who was on vacation and is still out there to thwart Moriarty. Thrilled upon learning of Sherlock's survival, Moriarty vows to retake his empire and use what he has learned from the effects of the Dark Chamber to best his rival.
The Lazarus Tree[]
The events of the Dark Chamber had lasting effect on Moriarty, his perception of reality was changed due to exposure with him seeing glimpses of an impending death every time he slept in varying ways though always involving a tree, a boy and Sherlock. Consumed with a desire to alter this glimpse of the perceived future and harness power of some mysterious dark matter for his own ends he took a ride on a ship to India, while on the ship he is attacked by some thugs who he quickly by cutting off some of the leader's fingers as a warning. After arriving in Kyauktada, Burma, Moriarty starts looking for a man Eustace Morely as he resembled a boy he kept seeing in his visions. During his investigation he learns of talk of a rebellion and how eight natives were killed from an Officer Blair who escorts him to a club filled with fellow businessmen and public officials. Trying to find Morely by any means Moriarty planned to interrogate a local doctor but was summoned by a slaver, Idher Ao. U Suu Kyin, who demanded him to a meeting. As U Suu Kyin tries get Moriarty drop his case saying that Morely was killed. U Suu Kyin tries to bribe Moriarty by offering him anything in the room including some of the women in another attempt to have him stop his investigation, in anger Moriarty knocks down two body guards before pulling out a gun demanding answers to which U Suu Kyin pathetically admits he doesn't know where Morely is. As this happens Officer Blair rushes in with men asking what's going on only for Moriarty to ask to see the prison morgue to investigate, there he finds that each body of the eight natives that were killed had no fingerprints and baby teeth with every indication they were killed by a skilled assassin. While investigating these bodies, Moriarty talks to the local doctor and believes there might be a conspiracy to have illegal distribution of opium only to be informed Morely had a lover named Ma Ba May.
Visiting Ma Ba May, Moriarty is told of a tree that supposedly could revive the dead by absorbing their souls and create new bodies with its branches located in the jungle. As they talk Moriarty learns that Morely and Ma Ba May had a child who died, quickly finding out Morely went missing looking for this tree and swears he will return Morely to her alive at any cost. As Moriarty thinks of what to do an old man known as The Weiksa greets him, mocking of how Moriarty once wished to rule the world yet now determined to control destiny by looking for the tree. Moriarty learns that for the tree to work you need to die and that some of the people at the club believe this to be true and are trying to cover it up, Moriarty quickly points out he already suspected but announces if Weiksa every reveal to anyone who he really is he'd kill The Weiksa. As Moriarty convinces local law enforcement to search the jungle they find several dead natives, some overdosed with tainted opium and others shot with some re-dressed in a lazy attempt to hide evidence only to be ambushed by a sniper. After local officials shoot the sniper, Moriarty demands answers from the mortally wounded sniper namely were a man named Moran was, the officials decide to pull guns on him only to leave when the city was attacked by others with guns forcing them to let Moriarty go for now.
Moriarty on his way back to the city in an attempt to help civilians, remanences of how when he was able to take over several shipping ports when he was still a professor and wanted to use Eustace Morely Jr., one of his students at the time, as a means to control a shipping port in India. When Morely reveals he can't as his father was wanting him to help with his sugar plantation in Kingston, Jamaica, hearing this Moriarty hires Colonel Moran as an enforcer while trying to find Morely's father, Eustace Morely Sr., only to be confronted by a man promising him a meeting. Upon meeting Eustace Sr., Moriarty confronts him on his use of slaves though the man brags how he has all the connections and could have Moriarty killed. Moriarty convinces Eustace Sr. and his associates to meet him at a club to talk over cards around nine at night, in truth Moriarty has Moran set to kill these them starting with Eustace Sr. but informs him he wants Moran to spare one. While Moran waits for all to arrive to kill them Moriarty goes and personally frees all of the slaves, stealing all of the documents and assess of Eustace Morely Sr. to gain control of Kingston while also allowing Eustace Morely Jr. to be his enforcer in India. Moriarty's attention is brought back to the present when they arrive to the city in chaos, advising Blair that he should get his men and go protect the European Club as that's where the political leaders will be holding out promising to meet them there by midnight. Deciding to ensure the local doctors are safe, he rushes to them only to see him about to be executed, saving both him and one of the political leaders named Gadabout but deducing they poisoned the opium in an attempt to stop a rebellion. Before he can leave, he is confronted by Dr. Watson who Moriarty figures started the rebellion to gain control of the tree while having Blair take the fall for looking incompetent. Forcing Dr. Watson to stand aside, Moriarty has the doctor and the other man to safety as a compromise over letting Dr. Watson killing them, insisting they take their families as well. As the two thank Moriarty he informs them it isn't for free as they will be taking a ship to Bombay where both will now work for him as payment for their lives. Deducing Morely likely found the tree and resurrected their son, Moriarty finds them at a mission and carries them both to Weiksa after realizing he was Ma Ba May's father due to noticing a family resemblance. As the family embrace, Moriarty tells them to meet the doctor at the train station right away but asks for where he can find an opium farmer who had ties to Morely much to Weiksa's shock as he figured Moriarty would resort to violence but is happy to tell Moriarty is to meet the man he's looking for.
On his way to find Blair and have his help finding the opium farmer, Moriarty has a moment of his conscience confronting him on how he is behaving odd, the conscience taking the visage of a silhouette of Sherlock Holmes. This visage claiming Moriarty hates slavery out of any righteous anger but a hatred of feeling he's not in control of his destiny and telling him before he can conquer this fear and take back control, he will have to face death yet again. As Moriarty meets Blair, he once again pulls a gun demanding answers and referring to Moriarty by his real name. As they travel across the jungle by boat, Moriarty and Blair start talking revealing a little of each other's mentality with Moriarty admitting he has started pondering on forces beyond humanities understanding like the arcane though insisting it is some sort of "dark energy" to which could grant people who master it unlimited power and even change one's destiny. As he talks to Blair, he theorizes that the energy might have altered reality in reviving Sherlock Holmes as he remains convinced that he once killed him all those years ago. As they journey to meet the opium farmer, they meet a tribe of natives whose leader shows them Morely's body among many others, apparently Morely was killed while looking for the tree by a gunshot. As Moriarty examines his friend's body the tribe is shot wounding Blair and killing more natives, Moriarty tells the leader to keep Blair alive and should Blair die that Moriarty will burn the entire area down in vengeance. Taking Morely's body, Moriarty rushes out quickly deducing where Moran was and he leads Moriarty to the tree as he was left to die by the government not long before. Moriarty quickly tells Moran he'd like for him to meet more the doctor in Bombay before taking Morely's body with him in hopes of reviving his friend to under the tree. As he drops Morely's body, Moriarty sees the government has been mining some material, immediately jumping down and knocks over a torch setting the place on fires. As Morely is reborn through one of the tree's flowers and Moriarty kills some of these miners the area explodes destroying the tree but not before Moriarty escapes with some material. Together Moriarty, Blair and Morely decide to return to camp and ultimately England with Moriarty still determined to master his fate but feeling like he hasn't changed his fate yet.
The Jade Serpent[]
After making it back to Europe, Moriarty headed to Tokyo when he heard Jade had travelled back to her birthplace in order to help her take care of the network that had betrayed Jade. Before long Jade comes asking Moriarty as she's being blackmailed by the government into finding out who assassinated an important official. As they investigate the body, Moriarty realizes the likely reason was paranoia as a lot were afraid of Germany's growing power in Japan and deduces that despite the body being stabbed the man's whiskey was poisoned by a prostitute. As they travel through a hidden tunnel Moriarty confronts Jade as he knows she asked one of the girls to kill the man and planned to kill some more due to her being made a slave by a buisness as a child. To help his friend, Moriarty pays for an entire establishment to be theirs for the night, as others customers are cleared out Moriarty offers the prostitutes and other women enslaved new lives. In doing so he has them kill all the workers and the owner, making sure to set fire to the building once the act is done. Once all are outside Moriarty tells Jade that these women are her new army, but tells her that while she has her freedom he will call on her when needed. Before departing to head back to London, Moriarty tells she was skilled with a knife but lacked the physical strength needed while assuring her Jade will train her well.
Endgame[]
In a distant possible dystopian future Moriarty has somehow survived along with his allies seemingly without aging, devising a massive technological empire and a variety of advanced weaponry with hopes of finally taking over the world while Sherlock also is attempting to rule it. He soon jumps from his spaceship with a force-field generator and attacks some mechs with his a grenade and cane to help Jade destroy some robots. Soon after he confronts an elderly Dr. Watson who angrily admits it was partly his fault that Sherlock would be able to become a global power. As Moriarty ackhnowledges he saw that Sherlock would aim to become a symbol of order which he noticed when he first thought he killed him all those years ago, a bitter Dr. Watson tries to shoot him only to be killed by Moran who advises Moriarty time to come back to their base. Before Moriarty can make it back to his airship he is confronted by Sherlock's forces to which Moriarty admits it is still ultimately just between them. What became of Moriarty and Sherlock or who won this battle is left unclear.
Appearance[]
James Moriarty is an elderly man with either very dark brown or black hair and a stubble that regularly wears a black suit, white dress shirt and tie. In addition on occassions he will wear a black tophat, long black overcoat and carries a cane sword. In a potential future, Moriarty wears a black overcoat with yellow cuffs, wears a harnass that can produce fore-fields and a staff capable of holding a grenade and presumbably other weapons.
Personality[]
Moriarty is a cautious man who prefers to fight dirty when forced to fight though this is often due to being vastly outnumbered. A pragmatic man, Moriarty always likes to keep the element of surprise and to keep around people he can easily manipulate to his own ends while preferring to only kill if necessary. This is shown when he hired some thugs to only beat up the men that had been following him, telling said thugs he knows the importance of leaving people alive whenever possible to avoid unnecessary complications from law enforcement. Moriarty is also shown to be a thrill seeker as he gave up his empire along with faking his death after he thought he killed Sherlock, something when decades later he found to not be the case caused he seemed to have mixed feelings on but overall content with the news. This respect is also shown as whenever others disrespect Sherlock in his pressence he quickly becomes angered to the point of willing to fight them despite being blatantly outnumbered on multiple occasions.
Moriarty will analyize every opprotunity to best decide what course of action he needs to furhter his goals of expanding his poweer by often only associating with those he can manipulate or those who are desperate to keep in his date. Moriarty is also shown a passionate scientist who conducts experiments to satisfy his curiosity and shows himself to be a skeptic in anything remotely supernatual, even angered when when Blair jokingly asked if he was starting to become more of a believer in God. Moriarty is obessed with what he calls "dark energy", beleiving with it one could reshape the world as we know it along with cheat his own death. A man obsessed with controlling destiny, Moriarty despises slavery with a passion on the grounds he believes ones own actions should decide their fate rather than race or nationality. Moriarty is also shown to be very protective of those he grows to like, while always claiming he's doing it for selfish reasons it is heavily implied to be a front as he percieves this care as a weakness that must never be shown. A man with a superiority complex, Moriarty openly ackhowledges that most see him as an evil individual while admitting he doesn't care about morality much and sees humanity as unworthy of some of his discoveries in the fields of science. Despite these traits however he doesn't like to fancy himself a godlike person and as mentioned before can be selfless even if he doesn't like admitting it. Even having found a way to seemingly prolong his life Moriarty doesn't delude himself as someone who will live forever or invincible, realizing he might one day be killed or his technology won't be able to keep him alive forever despite his attempts.
Powers and Abilities[]
Moriarty has shown himself a skilled strategist, detective and is shown to be very skilled in battle with his cane sword to the point regularly taking down several armed foes in short succession. In addittion to his blade the cane seems to have other weapons including in one instance a blow dart and another able to shoot out a small amount of fire capable of killing several people in an instant. Moriarty is also shown far more intelligent than even the most brilliant scientists of his time for the most part having achieved feats such as discovering both protons before others as well as a mysterious forms of energy he believes could give him enough power to rule the world. In one possible future it can be presumed he found a way to prolong his and others lives given despite it taking place in some distant future with a much older Dr. Watson he remains the same age as he did when went to India. With his harnassing of dark matter he created grenades and other weapons able to manipulate matter to an extent as well as destroy nearly anything within its range.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- This version of Moriarty both follows the trend of making him far more dangerous than the original who was merely an intelligent crime lord and keeps his more affable side that is often downplayed in later adaptations such as his sincere respect for Sherlock.
