Cain (DC Comics)

Cain and Abel are a pair of fictional characters in the DC Comics universe based on the biblical Cain and Abel. They are key figures in DC's "Mystery" line of the late 1960s and 1970s, which became the mature-readers imprint, Vertigo, in 1993.

Cain is based on the Biblical Cain while Abel is based on the Biblical Abel, but are altogether different character than their Biblical counterparts. Cain and Abel are one of many human (with pet companions) key figures in DC's "Mystery" lineup referred to as horror hosts of the late 1960s and 1970s, which later became a part of the mature-readers imprint, Vertigo. They are both depicted as brothers and they are also sons of Eve (another DC horror host based on a Biblical figure called Eve). In 1993, host characters like Cain, Abel, Eve and Lucien were retconned as a part of the Dreaming in the critically acclaimed Sandman comic books. The character Cain is also commonly associated with his pet gargoyle Gregory.

Publication history

Cain

Originally, Cain was the "host" of the EC-style horror comic anthologies ''The House of Mystery'' which ran from the 1950s through the early 1980s. Cain, "the Able Care-Taker", created by Bob Haney, Jack Sparling and Joe Orlando, first appeared in ''The House of Mystery'' #175 (July – August 1968), modeled on writer Len Wein, who was new to the field.Mark Waid. ''Millennium Edition: House of Mystery'' #1 (September 2000), inside back cover A photograph of Wein as Cain can be found in ''Elvira's House of Mystery'' #4.

''The House of Mystery'' was cancelled in 1983. The final issue showed Cain in front of the House for sale, with his bags packed, and Gregory, his pet gargoyle, behind him. The cover of Vertigo's mostly- reprint ''Welcome Back to the House of Mystery'' showed him returning with Abel and Gregory. ''The House of Secrets'' and '' The Witching Hour'' were eventually merged with '' The Unexpected'' and cancelled around the same time. Cain then became a supporting character in '' Blue Devil'', with Abel and Gregory making occasional appearances as well.

Abel

Originally Abel was the respective "host" of the EC-style horror comic anthology ''The House of Secrets'', which ran from the 1950s through the early 1980s. Abel, created by Mark Hanerfeld, Bill Draut, and Joe Orlando, first appeared in ''DC Special'' #4 (July – September 1969) and began hosting ''The House of Secrets'' with #81 (August – September 1969). Hanerfeld was the model for Abel, and he also appeared in a photograph in ''Elvira's House of Mystery'' #4.

Together

During the 1970s, they also co-hosted (along with Abel and Eve) the horror/humor anthology ''Plop!'' Both comics had been running ''Dial H for Hero'' and '' Eclipso'', respectively, before the introduction of the new host characters. ''The House of Secrets'' and '' The Witching Hour'' were eventually merged with '' The Unexpected'' and cancelled around the same time.

The cover of Vertigo's mostly- reprint ''Welcome Back to the House of Mystery'' showed Abel returning with Cain and Gregory. Both of the anthologies that Cain and Abel debuted in are cited as one of the comic books that Neil Gaiman grew up with which helped pave the way for Cain and Abel revival within '' The Sandman'' comic books.

On the letters page of ''Weird Mystery Tales'' #3 (November 1972), Destiny stated that Cain, along with Abel and Eve, were ''not'' the same characters as their Biblical counterparts, whom Destiny said he found much more pleasant. Cain, Eve and, to a lesser extent, Abel, subsequently taunt Destiny for being dull. ''The Dreamings early issues (#1-4, #8) established that Cain and Abel are their biblical counterparts. It was annotated that they did not know whether they were or if they had false memories but found evidence tying them to their biblical counterparts during the course of the story. In the 8th issue, their wives, Jumella (Abel's twin and Cain's wife) and Aclima (Cain's twin and Abel's wife), who are also their twin sisters, and Seth were introduced to the DC Universe.

Fictional character biography

''House of Mystery/Secrets''

Cain told tales of various people who boarded at the House of Mystery. Abel stammeringly took abuse from both Cain and the House of Secrets itself, and had an "imaginary" (it was always rendered in quotes) girlfriend named Goldie, who berated him too. In the early issues, Abel told the stories directly to Goldie, although he always appeared to be alone. He said she was a ghost.

Cain is a thin, long-limbed man with an angular, drawn face, glasses, a tufty beard, and hair drawn into two points above his ears. Cain is often mean to Abel, but he is jovial and a friendly storyteller to children and did everything he could to help Superman when the need once arose; however, he has no qualms trapping innocent people inside his television set and he was once employed by a vicious mink furrier.''The House of Mystery'' #254 Abel is a nervous, stammering, kind-hearted man. Abel also has a tufty beard and hair that comes to points above his ears, though his hair is black rather than brown. He is shorter and fatter than Cain, with a more open face. It is eventually stated (in ''The Sandman'' vol. 2 #40) that the only time he doesn't stutter is when he is telling a story, and this was characteristic of his earlier appearances. Cain owns a large green draconian gargoyle named Gregory, who first appeared (as a baby) in ''The House of Mystery'' #175, apparently the offspring of enchanted sculptures who come to the house for a French sculptor who murdered the artist who designed them. Gregory grew to maturity over the course of the series and continued to appear in ''Sandman'' stories. Gregory ate the Earth-1 counterparts of writer Paul Kupperberg and editor Jack C. Harris. Cain also used to have a black cat named Oskar, who did not get along with Gregory.

Abel moved in with Cain in the House of Mystery shortly before ''DC Special'' #4, which Cain states is a temporary situation until the House of Secrets is transported (which occurred in ''The House of Secrets'' #81, which appeared one month later). Their ages are vague, but Abel presents a story that he claims to have heard from Cain, who scared him with it as a child in 1957. The story in question originally appeared in '' Tales of the Unexpected'' #17 (September 1957).

In the final issue of ''The House of Mystery'', Karen Berger, whom Cain first met in issue #292—the first issue she edited for DC—arrives as an unexpected guest at Cain's birthday party, takes him through a secret door that leads to the DC offices, and tells him that his series has been canceled and that he is too old-fashioned. The House is torn down, and Cain metafictionally analyzes his own existence as a character in a comic book.

In 1985, the characters were revived by writer Alan Moore, who introduced them into his ''Swamp Thing'' series in the issue #33, retelling the Swamp Thing's original origin story as depicted in a 1971 issue of ''House of Secrets''. Cain kills Abel for revealing a secret (the difference between a mystery and a secret is that a mystery can be shared and still remains a mystery) and declares to Abby Holland, "I invented murder!" In '' Blue Devil'' #20 (January 1986), Cain is the caretaker of "The House of Weirdness" until Blue Devil moves in, and discovers that Abel is there, too. He states that the California mansion is owned by "a publishing company back East".

During the ''Crisis'', although not mentioned in that series, Elvira stumbled onto the House of Mystery, which charged her to find Cain, who had disappeared. Metropolis can be seen through a window in the garage of the House of Weirdness. Cain and Blue Devil can be seen peering at Elvira in ''Elvira's House of Mystery''. Cain and Abel reappeared in ''Swamp Thing'' #49-50, where they acted as observers and commentators on a fierce battle in Hell.

They were depicted together in Abel's first appearance, and they parted to their respective Houses at the end of the story, the House of Secrets having been recently moved, with Cain promising things not to go the way they happened before. Although Cain would abuse Abel, he was not shown killing him until ''Swamp Thing'' vol. 2 #33. More often than not, though, they did not appear together, and Cain directed more of his taunts at the reader, while Abel tried to reassure Goldie or the reader. Indeed, in ''The House of Mystery'' #257 (April 1978), an asylum escapee, "Killer" Cowan, kills six people on Christmas Eve, storming into the House of Mystery wearing a Santa Claus suit and demands Cain to keep him occupied by entertaining him with stories. Cain protests that he does not want to entertain someone who ruins all that the holiday stands for. Abel is said to be a voyeur in ''Secrets of Sinister House'' #14, and shown to be such in '' The Sandman'' vol. 2 #60.

''The Sandman'' and ''The Dreaming''

The second volume of ''The Sandman'', written by Neil Gaiman, reintroduced the characters. It is implied by dialogue between Lucifer and Cain (who had been sent by Dream as a messenger due to his invulnerability) that the biblical Cain and Abel came to live in the Dreaming at Dream's invitation. To support this, Lucifer quotes the verse in the Bible which says that Cain was sent to live in the Land of Nod. This could be a post-''Crisis retcon'', however, as Destiny claimed in ''Weird Mystery Tales'' #3 that they were not the same as the Biblical Cain and Abel. The nature of reality in the Dreaming is often multiple and when Cain, Abel, and Eve are telling young Daniel Hall three stories, Cain objects to Abel's "Lil' Endless" style retelling of their origin claiming that "... they (the Endless) didn't even look remotely human, none of us did!" Abel later responds to Matthew the Raven's query about whether they are their biblical namesakes or not by stating; "...oh, none of this happened on Earth..." before being interrupted by Cain. Eve also states that she is not Cain's mother to which Cain replies, "You're everyone's mother". This sequence of events would seem to indicate that rather than being the actual literal beings Cain, Abel, and Eve the Dreaming's incarnation of them are closer to their archetypal roles of first murderer, first victim, and first mother. This is supported by several incidents when Cain or Abel have identified themselves as such and claimed that their cycle of murder and resurrection is punishment for their role in the first murder. This would also allow Joe Kubert's DC Comics adaptation of the Cain and Abel story from the Bible, in which he ignored their "Mystery" likenesses, to fit neatly into canon.

Cain frequently kills Abel in a kind of macabre form of obsessive-compulsive disorder, re-enacting the first murder. In the Dreaming, Abel's death is impermanent, and he seems to recover after a few hours. Cain seems unable to control his frequent murders of Abel, and occasionally expresses remorse over them; there is a genuine bond between the two, beneath the surface contempt. Abel remains dedicated to Cain, and frequently dreams of a more harmonious relationship between the two.

In turn, in the graphic novel '' The Sandman: The Wake'', Cain is so distraught when Abel is murdered permanently by the Kindly Ones, he sinks into a rambling mess when asking the new Dream to restore him. In preparation for the funeral services for the deceased Dream, Cain's anger boils over yet again when Abel reveals a secret, but he is calmed by a reprimand and restrained from murdering Abel. He displays a contract, renewed in 1989 (the year ''The Sandman'' began) that states that only he is allowed to kill Abel, because Abel can resurrect only when Cain kills him.

In the first appearance of the characters in ''The Sandman'' vol. 2 #2, Cain gives Abel an egg that soon hatches into another gargoyle, a small golden one. Abel is delighted and names the gargoyle "Irving", but Cain forcefully insists that the names of gargoyles must always begin with a "G". When Abel resists, Cain murders him, and after Abel revives he renames the gargoyle "Goldie", after a friend of his who "went away".

The main function of Cain and Abel throughout ''The Sandman'' is as comic relief. However, the two play significant (though not key) roles at several points in the series; it is they who take Morpheus in until his strength is restored following his 72-year-long imprisonment. In the fourth story arc, ''Season of Mists'', Cain is sent to Hell to give a message to Lucifer because the Mark of Cain protects him. Those who would harm Cain would have the full wrath of God visited upon them. Lucifer merely finds this funny, since he is already in Hell.

Cain and Abel also aid The Corinthian with the child Daniel during '' The Kindly Ones'', the penultimate story arc of the series. They also appear with Morpheus in ''The Books of Magic'' #3.

Recent history

Recently, both Cain and Abel have appeared in the new ''House of Mystery'' title. Abel appeared in the missing House of Mystery with Goldie, claiming to be on a secret mission to retrieve the various nightmares that were still in the house when it vanished. Meanwhile, Cain, under the guise of a mysterious coachman, plotted with various groups to retake the House of Mystery, which he saw as his rightful property. Eventually, Cain was able to broker a deal to become the co-manager of the House of Mystery's current incarnation as a bar, and both he and Abel have become regular members of the series' cast.

Other characters

Gregory

Gregory is a large green gargoyle and the pet of Cain. He communicates in "grunts", which the inhabitants of the Dreaming appear to understand. He helps Goldie re-assemble Abel when Cain kills him. He first appeared as the child of two stone gargoyles in ''The House of Mystery'' #175, wherein his parents perched on the House of Mystery until they were able to kill their sculptor, a boarder in the house who had murdered their designer, and left without their egg. He later appears during the ''Blackest Night'' crossover event, defending Scandal Savage, the new owner of the House of Mystery, from the members of the Suicide Squad.

Eve

Eve, a minor fixture of the DC Comics universe, is based on the Biblical Eve, the mother of humanity and the wife of Adam within the Bible narrative in the Book of Genesis, while being an altogether new and different character. She was depicted as an original horror host for the publication company. She is depicted as the mother of both Cain and Abel (though she often denied it) and ''Who's Who in the DC Universe'' stated that they were cousins. She would be revived by Vertigo Comics with her character being retconned as part of the Dreaming. She is one of four recurring hosts of horror / suspense anthologies that were revived in ''The Sandman'' that are part of the Dreaming, with the other three being Cain, Abel and Lucien.

Eve originally appeared in ''Secrets of Sinister House'' #6 (August–September 1972)