The Darkness (character)
The Darkness (Jackie Estacado) is a superhero created by Marc Silvestri, Garth Ennis, and David Wohl, who first appeared in ''Witchblade'' #10 (Nov. 1996), published by Top Cow Productions (an imprint of Image Comics). Jackie Estacado is a New York mafioso who, after turning 21, inherits the curse of the Darkness. Publication history The Darkness debuted in ''Witchblade'' #10 (Nov. 1996) by Marc Silvestri, Garth Ennis, and David Wohl. The comics series ''The Darkness'' ran from December 1996 to August 2001. Volume 2 ran from December 2002 to November 2005. Volume 3 ran from December 2007 to December 2013. Fictional biography The Darkness The Darkness is depicted as a cosmic entity predating recorded history. It is the embodiment of chaos that exists prior to God's light – embodied in the comics as the Angelus. As the cosmos forms, the Darkness grows to resent God and His creation. Conjuring a legion of demons, the Darkness declares war upon the Angelus and her host. This las ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Top Cow Productions
Top Cow Productions is an American comics publisher, an imprint of Image Comics. It was founded by Marc Silvestri in 1992. The company is known for publishing titles such as '' Cyberforce'', '' The Darkness'', ''Sunstone, Wanted,'' and '' Witchblade''. It was the original publisher of Michael Turner's ''Fathom'' and published the first ''Tomb Raider'' comics. History 1990s Marc Silvestri was one of the original seven founders of Image Comics, along with Erik Larsen, Rob Liefeld, Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Jim Valentino, and Whilce Portacio. When Image Comics first launched in 1992, Silvestri was still part of the Homage Studios group which at the time he co-owned Lee, Joe Chiodo, Portacio, and Scott Williams. Silvestri's first title for Image Comics was '' Cyberforce''. By the time the second issue was released in March 1993 Silvestri was publishing under the Top Cow Productions name. Silvestri says that naming his company "Top Cow" was a drunken decision. He was abou ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sara Pezzini
Sara Magdalene Pezzini is a fictional superheroine starring in the ''Witchblade'' series. Sara also appeared in a Turner Network Television live-action feature film and TV series of the same name and she was portrayed by Yancy Butler. She is an NYPD homicide detective whose life changed when she came into contact with a powerful ancient weapon known as the Witchblade, which bestows its wielder with supernatural powers. Fictional biography Sara Magdalene Pezzini was born November 18, 1970, and is of Italian descent. Her major enemies are Kenneth Irons and Ian Nottingham. As one of the current hosts of the Witchblade, Sara has been granted many unique abilities, including the power and ability to heal herself, to create (often very revealing) armor over her skin (as the Witchblade tends to rip away all of her clothes), to shoot energy blasts, to extend razor sharp tendrils and even winged flight. She has yet to explore the full limits of the Witchblade, and thus does not know wh ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Corrosion
Corrosion is a natural process that converts a refined metal into a more chemically stable oxide. It is the gradual deterioration of materials (usually a metal) by chemical or electrochemical reaction with their environment. Corrosion engineering is the field dedicated to controlling and preventing corrosion. In the most common use of the word, this means electrochemical oxidation of metal in reaction with an oxidant such as oxygen, hydrogen, or hydroxide. Rusting, the formation of red-orange iron oxides, is a well-known example of electrochemical corrosion. This type of corrosion typically produces oxides or salts of the original metal and results in a distinctive coloration. Corrosion can also occur in materials other than metals, such as ceramics or polymers, although in this context, the term "degradation" is more common. Corrosion degrades the useful properties of materials and structures including mechanical strength, appearance, and permeability to liquids and ga ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Teleportation
Teleportation is the hypothetical transfer of matter or energy from one point to another without traversing the physical space between them. It is a common subject in science fiction and fantasy literature. Teleportation is often paired with time travel, being that the traveling between the two points takes an unknown period of time, sometimes being immediate. An apport is a similar phenomenon featured in parapsychology and spiritualism. There is no known physical mechanism that would allow for teleportation. Some scientific papers and media articles describe "quantum teleportation", a scheme for quantum information transfer, which does not allow for faster-than-light communication. Etymology The use of the term ''teleport'' to describe the hypothetical movement of material objects between one place and another without physically traversing the distance between them has been documented as early as 1878. American writer Charles Fort is credited with having coined the wor ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Telepathy
Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), and has remained more popular than the earlier expression ''thought-transference''.Glossary of Parapsychological terms – Telepathy – Parapsychological Association. Retrieved December 19, 2006. Telepathy experiments have historically been criticized for a lack of proper controls and repeatability. There is no good evidence that telepathy exists, and the topic is gene ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Goblin
A goblin is a small, grotesque, monster, monstrous humanoid creature that appears in the folklore of multiple European cultures. First attested in stories from the Middle Ages, they are ascribed conflicting abilities, temperaments, and appearances depending on the story and country of origin, ranging from mischievous Household deity, household spirits to malicious, bestial thieves. They often have magical abilities similar to a fairy or demon, such as the ability to Shapeshifting, shapeshift. Similar creatures include brownie (folklore), brownies, dwarf (mythology), dwarves, duendes, gnomes, imps, leprechauns, and kobolds, but it is also commonly used as a blanket term for all small, fay creatures. The term is sometimes expanded to include goblin-like creatures of other cultures, such as the pukwudgie, dokkaebi, or ifrit. Etymology Alternative spellings include ''gobblin'', ''gobeline'', ''gobling'', ''goblyn'', ''goblino'', and ''gobbelin''. The term "goblette" has been used ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Shamanism
Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into the physical world for the purpose of healing, divination, or to aid human beings in some other way. Beliefs and practices categorized as shamanic have attracted the interest of scholars from a variety of disciplines, including anthropologists, archeologists, historians, religious studies scholars, philosophers, and psychologists. Hundreds of books and academic papers on the subject have been produced, with a peer-reviewed academic journal being devoted to the study of shamanism. Terminology Etymology The Modern English word ''shamanism'' derives from the Russian word , , which itself comes from the word from a Tungusic language – possibly from the southwestern dialect of the Evenki spoken by the Sym Evenki peoples, or from the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jinn
Jinn or djinn (), alternatively genies, are supernatural beings in pre-Islamic Arabian religion and Islam. Their existence is generally defined as parallel to humans, as they have free will, are accountable for their deeds, and can be either believers (Muslims#Etymology, Muslims) or disbelievers (''kafir, kuffar'') in God in Islam, God. Since jinn are neither innately evil nor innately good, Islam acknowledged spirits from other religions and could adapt them during Spread of Islam, its expansion. Likewise, jinn are not a strictly Islamic concept; they may represent several pagan beliefs integrated into Islam. Islam places jinn and humans on the same plane in relation to God, with both being subject to Judgement Day in Islam, divine judgement and an Akhirah, afterlife. The Quran condemns the pre-Islamic Arabian practice of Jahiliyyah, worshipping or seeking protection from them. While they are naturally invisible, jinn are supposed to be composed of thin and subtle bodies () ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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United States Department Of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the United States Army, Army, United States Navy, Navy, United States Marine Corps, Marines, United States Air Force, Air Force, United States Space Force, Space Force, the United States Coast Guard, Coast Guard for some purposes, and related functions and agencies. As of November 2022, the department has over 1.4 million active-duty uniformed personnel in the six armed services. It also supervises over 778,000 National Guard (United States), National Guard and reservist personnel, and over 747,000 civilians, bringing the total to over 2.91 million employees. Headquartered at the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., the Department of Defense's stated mission is "to provid ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Drug Cartel
A drug cartel is a criminal organization composed of independent drug lords who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the illegal drug trade. Drug cartels form with the purpose of controlling the supply of the illegal drug trade and maintaining prices at a high level. The formations of drug cartels are common in Latin American countries. Rivalries between multiple drug cartels cause them to wage turf wars against each other. Drug cartels often transport both drugs and narcotics, and most often the term "Narcotics cartel" is not used to describe an organization that transports the latter legally defined set of illegal substances, such as marijuana. Structure The basic structure of a drug cartel is as follows: Falcons Considered as the "eyes and ears" of the streets, the "falcons" are the lowest rank in any drug cartel. They are scouts, who are responsible for conducting reconnaissance, such as reporting the activities of the police, the milit ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion of the Americas. South America is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the south by the Drake Passage; North America and the Caribbean Sea lie to the northwest. The continent includes twelve sovereign states: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela; two dependent territory, dependent territories: the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; and one administrative division, internal territory: French Guiana. The Dutch Caribbean ABC islands (Leeward Antilles), ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao) and Trinidad and Tobago are geologically located on the South-American continental shel ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Banana Republic
In political science, the term ''banana republic'' describes a politically and economically unstable country with an economy dependent upon the export of natural resource.A banana republic is a country with an economy of state capitalism, where the country is operated as a private commercial enterprise for the exclusive profit of the ruling class. Typically, a banana republic has a society of extremely stratified social classes, usually a large impoverished working class and a ruling class plutocracy, composed of the business, political, and military elites. The ruling class controls the primary sector of the economy by exploiting labor. Such exploitation is enabled by collusion between the state and favored economic monopolies, in which the profit, derived from the private exploitation of public lands, is private property. At the same time, the debts incurred thereby are the financial responsibility of the public treasury. Therefore, the term ''banana republic'' is a pejorative ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |