Chastity is a fictional
horror and
superhero
A superhero or superheroine is a stock character that typically possesses ''superpowers'', abilities beyond those of ordinary people, and fits the role of the hero, typically using his or her powers to help the world become a better place, ...
comic-book character created by writer
Brian Pulido
Brian Pulido (born November 30, 1961) is a creator, writer and producer of comic books and films.
Early life
Growing up in Long Branch, New Jersey, Pulido first developed an interest in the horror genre after the release of ''Night of the Livin ...
and artist
Steven Hughes
Steven Jay Hughes (February 12, 1954 – February 18, 2000) was an American artist for the Chaos! Comics company. Hughes provided the art for many of the company's comics, including ''Lady Death'', ''Evil Ernie'', and the short-lived superhero s ...
. She first appeared in ''
Evil Ernie
Evil Ernie, an undead psychotic killer, is a fictional supervillain created by writer Brian Pulido and artist Steven Hughes in 1991 and originally published by Eternity Comics. The imprint shifted hands in 1993 to Chaos! Comics and then Devil's D ...
: Straight to Hell'' #1 (October 1995). Originally produced and published by
Chaos! Comics
Chaos! Comics was a comic book publisher that operated from 1993 until 2002, mostly focusing on horror comics. Their titles included ''Lady Death'', ''Purgatori'', ''Evil Ernie'', ''Chastity'', ''Jade'', '' Bad Kitty'', and ''Lady Demon''. Chaos! ...
, Chastity and the Chaos! library of characters are now owned and published by
Dynamite Entertainment
Dynamite Entertainment is an American comic book publisher founded by Nick Barrucci in 2004 at Mount Laurel, New Jersey. It is best known as the owners of '' The Boys'' franchise across several IP medias. Dynamite primarily publishes adaptation ...
. Chastity is a
punk rock fan turned
vampire
A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...
. Undetectable to other vampires and spiteful toward her fellow occult beings, she became an assassin and slayer of vampires. Chastity was one of the most popular "bad girls" among a trend in 1990s comic books.
Publication history
Chaos! Comics
Initially appearing as a guest character in an ''
Evil Ernie
Evil Ernie, an undead psychotic killer, is a fictional supervillain created by writer Brian Pulido and artist Steven Hughes in 1991 and originally published by Eternity Comics. The imprint shifted hands in 1993 to Chaos! Comics and then Devil's D ...
'' miniseries, Chastity went on to star in her first miniseries in 1997, ''Theatre of Pain''. Four more miniseries, several one-shots and guest appearances followed through 2002, when
Chaos! Comics
Chaos! Comics was a comic book publisher that operated from 1993 until 2002, mostly focusing on horror comics. Their titles included ''Lady Death'', ''Purgatori'', ''Evil Ernie'', ''Chastity'', ''Jade'', '' Bad Kitty'', and ''Lady Demon''. Chaos! ...
ceased publishing due to bankruptcy. The Chaos! line was sold to comics retailer Tales of Wonder, which then sold them to
Devil's Due Publishing
Devil's Due Publishing (often abbreviated as DDP) is an independent comic book publisher in the United States. Based in Chicago, Illinois, DDP is best known for its wide selection of genres, including licensed and original creator-owned proper ...
. Though other Chaos! characters appeared in titles published by Devil's Due, Chastity did not.
Dynamite Entertainment
Dynamite Entertainment
Dynamite Entertainment is an American comic book publisher founded by Nick Barrucci in 2004 at Mount Laurel, New Jersey. It is best known as the owners of '' The Boys'' franchise across several IP medias. Dynamite primarily publishes adaptation ...
now owns the Chaos! library and has been publishing titles starring the characters since 2010. Chastity appeared in the imprint-launching title ''Chaos'' written by
Tim Seeley
Tim Seeley is an American comic book artist and writer known for his work on books such as '' Grayson'', '' Nightwing'', '' G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'', ''G.I. Joe vs. Transformers'' and ''New Exiles''. He is also the co-creator of the Im ...
and drawn by Mirka Andolfo. She has since starred in her own eponymous 2014 miniseries written by
Marc Andreyko
Marc Andreyko (born 20 June 1970) is a comic book writer and screenwriter, best known for the true crime series ''Torso (Image Comics), Torso'' he co-wrote with Brian Michael Bendis and for co-creating the character Manhunter (Kate Spencer), Kate ...
and drawn by Dave Acosta. Subsequent appearances include the Dynamite
crossover
Crossover may refer to:
Entertainment
Albums and songs
* ''Cross Over'' (Dan Peek album)
* ''Crossover'' (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles album), 1987
* ''Crossover'' (Intrigue album)
* ''Crossover'' (Hitomi Shimatani album)
* ''Crossover'' (Yoshino ...
event ''Swords of Sorrow,
Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer whose career spans over five decades. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusions, including pyrotechnics, guillot ...
vs. Chaos!'' and a crossover with
Tim Seeley
Tim Seeley is an American comic book artist and writer known for his work on books such as '' Grayson'', '' Nightwing'', '' G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'', ''G.I. Joe vs. Transformers'' and ''New Exiles''. He is also the co-creator of the Im ...
's ''
Hack/Slash''. In 2019 Dynamite launched a new volume of ''Chastity'' written by Leah Williams and drawn by Daniel Maine. She made an appearance in the
Vampirella
Vampirella () is a fictional vampire superheroine created by Forrest J Ackerman and comic book artist Trina Robbins in Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror comics magazine ''Vampirella'' #1 (Sept. 1969), a sister publication of ''Creepy'' ...
spinoff comic called Sacred Six.
Fictional character biography
Original Chaos! Comics
Chastity Marks was an average American teenager to begin with. She was born and raised in
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...
by an abusive father. In 1976 Marks - now seventeen years of age - decides to run away from home. Her goal was to travel to
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
to train with the
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, St ...
and become an actress. She made it to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, and arrived in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
on
Halloween
Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observanc ...
, broke and hungry. In order to make some money for food and further travel, she attempted to get a job as a
nightclub
A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music.
Nightclubs gener ...
dancer, but swiftly found the profession not to her liking.
Leaving the club, she was witness to an argument between a black private investigator, Jackie Slade, and the club's manager, as Jackie endeavored to retrieve his young niece from the establishment. The manager attempted to kill Slade, and Chastity stopped him, though they were still far from safe. Slade got Chastity off the premises alive, and gave her all the money he had on him, before going back for his niece again. He died shortly afterwards in the ensuing gunfight.
Finally reaching London, Chastity's dreams of making it as an actress were dashed when she was turned away at the Academy's door. Chastity instead got involved in the newly emerging
punk rock scene. Not too much later she was running a late night errand for a band called the Nobs when she was attacked by an obese
vampire
A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...
called Farley. She escaped by stabbing him in the eye with a
drumstick, but she didn't get away with her life.
Chastity awoke from the encounter to find that she was a guest of the Countess, a prominent member of the undead community. The Countess explained her new existence to her, and having discovered that she was uniquely undetectable to other vampires, trained her to be an assassin. She spent the next few years trying to stop her new peers from killing her mortal boyfriend, Billy Zone, lead man for the Nobs, and winning the grudging respect of the European Council of vampires.
Chastity returned to America in 1980, again traveling to Manhattan, where she became part of the burgeoning
Goth
A Goth is a member of the Goths, a group of East Germanic tribes. Two major political entities of the Goths were:
*Visigoths, prominent in Spanish history
*Ostrogoths, prominent in Italian history
Goth or Goths may also refer to:
* Goth (surname) ...
scene. That Halloween she was surprised to see Jackie Slade enter a club she was in and murder apparently innocent musicians. Afterwards she went to the
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...
to do some research, and discovered that ever since he died in 1976, his ghost was reported to return each Halloween to slaughter musicians. A bit more digging revealed that his targets, far from being innocent, were members of a group run by a mystery man called Danton, and calling itself the Church of the Immortal. Chastity disguised herself and tried to locate the cult, eventually being captured by some of them and taken to their leader. Danton revealed that he was a six-hundred-year-old demon who drained his victims' life forces to survive, and that he was planning to use his musicians to place
subliminal message
Subliminal stimuli (; the prefix ' literally means "below" or "less than") are any sensory stimuli below an individual's threshold for conscious perception, in contrast to stimuli (above threshold). A 2012 review of functional magnetic resonance ...
s in their work so that others would be ensnared by his Church, just as Jackie's niece had been.
Chastity escaped, and feeling indebted to Slade for what he had done years before, she set out to eliminate Danton. Initially he eluded her, but she finally caught up with him during the
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
Costume Parade, where he was stealing the life forces of those in attendance. On her unfortune, he was too powerful, and far from ending his threat, he managed to drain her life too. This proved to be a mistake; now that he was contaminated with her vampirically tainted energies, Danton finally became vulnerable to Slade. The ghost made short work of the demon, freeing the spirits he had captured, including Chastity and his niece. His last communication with the vampiress was that she should live, for all of Danton's victims, advice she has taken to heart ever since. Following in Slade's footsteps, she tries to fight evil and protect the innocents, because she was one herself once. She'd love to live a normal life, but knows she can't. After
Evil Ernie
Evil Ernie, an undead psychotic killer, is a fictional supervillain created by writer Brian Pulido and artist Steven Hughes in 1991 and originally published by Eternity Comics. The imprint shifted hands in 1993 to Chaos! Comics and then Devil's D ...
decimated the city in the early 1990s she gained a new goal, to see him eradicated once and for all. After a confrontation with Evil Ernie she suddenly developed a serious crush on him. Later on, she asked him if he wanted to join her in a "relaxing" murder spree in
Graceland
Graceland is a mansion on a estate in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, which was once owned by rock and roll icon Elvis Presley. His daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, inherited Graceland after his death in 1977. Graceland is located at 3764 Elv ...
, but Ernie rejected her.
New Chaos! Comics
In 1976, teenager Chastity Marks was an American runaway living in London. Punk rock was all the rage, and Chastity was soon running errands for a local band. One night while on the job she was attacked by a vampire. She escaped, but not with her life: Chastity was now a vampire, but with a twist. To the rest of the vampire world, she was completely undetectable.
Today, Chastity works freelance for the Cabal, a secret society of vampires, werewolves, and witches who rule over the monster underworld. As strong as ten men and a master martial artist, Chastity serves (on her terms) as the Cabal's most efficient and merciless assassin, all the while trying to live a normal life.
Chastity comic series
Chaos! Comics
*''
Evil Ernie
Evil Ernie, an undead psychotic killer, is a fictional supervillain created by writer Brian Pulido and artist Steven Hughes in 1991 and originally published by Eternity Comics. The imprint shifted hands in 1993 to Chaos! Comics and then Devil's D ...
: Straight to Hell'' (1995)
*''Chastity: Theatre of Pain'' (1997)
*''Chastity: Rocked'' (1998–1999)
*''Chastity: Lust for Life'' (1999)
*''
Purgatori
Purgatori is a fictional comic book character, created by writer Brian Pulido and artist Steven Hughes. A crimson-skinned, winged vampire goddess, she first appeared in ''Evil Ernie: Revenge'' #1 (October 1994), published by Chaos! Comics. She ha ...
vs. Chastity'' (2000)
*''Chastity: Reign of Terror'' (2000)
*''Untold Tales Of Chastity'' (2000)
*''Chastity'' 1/2 (2001)
*''Chastity Love Bites'' (2001)
*''Chastity: Shattered'' (2001)
*''
Bad Kitty: Reloaded'' (2001)
*''
Lady Death
Lady Death is a fictional goddess appearing in American comic books published by Coffin Comics. Created by Brian Pulido, Lady Death first appeared in ''Evil Ernie'' #1 in December 1991.
Lady Death then reappeared in the ''Evil Ernie: The Resur ...
& Chastity'' (2002)
*''Chastity: Heartbreaker'' (2002)
*''Chastity: Crazy Town'' (2002)
*''United: Lady Death & Chastity & Bad Kitty'' (2002)
*''Chastity: Re-Imagined'' (2002)
Dynamite Entertainment
*''Chaos'' (2014)
*''Chastity'' (2014)
*''Swords of Sorrow'' (2015)
*''
Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer whose career spans over five decades. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusions, including pyrotechnics, guillot ...
vs. Chaos!'' (2015)
*''
Hack/Slash vs. Chaos!'' (2018)
*''Chastity'' (2019)
*''Red Sonja: Age of Chaos''
*''Sacred Six''
References
{{Dynamite Entertainment
Chaos! Comics titles
Chaos! Comics vampires
Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds
Comics characters with accelerated healing
Comics characters with superhuman strength
Devil's Due Publishing titles
Horror comics
Fantasy comics
Fictional characters with immortality
Fictional vampires
Vampires in comics