Zealot (Wildstorm)
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Zealot is the name of a comic book character from DC Comics/Wildstorm.
[edit] History
Zealot's real name is Lady Zannah of Khera. Like the other Kherubim on Earth, Zannah and her daughter Kenesha (who at the time believed Zealot was actually her sister) were stranded thousands of years ago when their Explorer ship crashlanded after a battle with a Daemonite warship. Zealot just survived thanks to her lover, Stratos, who put her in an escape pod. Zannah and the other survivors were scattered, forced to hide themselves amongst the human population. Their enemies had likewise been forced down, and though less humanoid, the Daemonites used their powers of possession and shapeshifting to blend in too. For the next few millennia, a secret war raged, with the Kherubim defending the vulnerable and oblivious humans from their would-be conquerors.
Zannah took the name Zealot when she formed a sisterhood of warriors, known as The Coda, on earth. She fought with them for many years, even leading the group for a while. However, an incident occurred in Troy (presumably during the Trojan War), causing her to be branded a traitor and expelled from the order. She arranged for the Coda to help the Greeks conquer Troy in exchange for 99 female babies to be raised as new coda. She helped Ulysses conceive of the trojan horse and stationed Coda warriors inside it. During the fighting she decided that the killing of all of the unarmed women and children of Troy was going too far, so she saved the life of the royal family. In doing so it was decided by her fellow Coda that she had betrayed the precepts of the Coda. She was engaged in combat by her closest friend, whom she beat, but refused to kill. This was considered by the friend a mortal insult. The two violations of Coda precepts made her a lifetime (in their case nearly immortal lifetimes) enemy of the Coda. Subsequent to this event, Zealot spent a century serving the witch known as Tapestry. She did this as payment for Tapestry saving Kenesha's life after having been poisoned. During this period Tapestry tried to brainwash Zealot to her way of thinking, but although Zealot was changed by her time working for the witch, she managed to retain her true self inside. During her stay with Tapestry though, Zealot became a proficient weilder of magics. The magic taught though was dark magic and soul corrupting. Because of this Zealot swore never to use it again, but had to break her promise when she battled Tapestry many years after her original servitude.
For a period in the 20th century, Zealot lived in America and went by the name Lucy Blaize. During this time she worked for the US Government and went on to become a member of the ill-fated Team One, with fellow Kherubim Mr. Majestic (the father of Savant) and Lord Emp.
Years later, Zealot formed a close relationship with Cole Cash, and took the unprecedented step of training him, a man, in the ways of the Coda; he became the superhuman known as Grifter. Later both of them joined the WildC.A.T.s. She served with them for a number of years, though she also briefly joined Wildcore during a period when the rest of the WildC.A.T.s were believed dead.
At one point Zealot was believed dead, when in fact she was captured and sentenced to death by Earth's Coda Sisterhood. While captured she was tortured to near death multiple times. It was her old friend Grifter (in control of the android Ladytron) and his ragtag group of warriors that later came to her rescue.
Once more on the loose she had to team up alongside Mr. Majestic yet again to fight an evil plot from the Shapers Guild to recreate Kherubim on Earth (using a device known as the planet shaper). Not long after, Zealot has teamed up with many former Wildcat members, such as Grifter and Majestic, to fight Zealot's long time rival, Nemesis.
Currently Zealot is still with many of her ex-Wildcat teammates in an as of yet unofficial form of the group as they fight with Captain Atom.
[edit] Notes
- It has been strongly hinted that Winter is Zealot's missing son.
- Artist Mike Deodato loves the character of Zealot so much that when he took over as artist of the comic book Wonder Woman he used Zealot's physical appearance as a template for the then new character Artemis of Bana-Mighdall.
- Zealot's lover, Stratos, didn't die during the crash. He found the time-travelling WildC.A.T.s-member Condition Red on the ship before the crash and was taken along when Condition Red travelled back to the present in WildC.A.T.s #49. Stratos' storyline hasn't been touched upon since then.
