EVOREALM Character Files #001

WARNING: Spoilers ahead for my book DEADLOCK.

When I was growing up reading comics, you could always tell who the good guys were and who the bad guys were. Sure, there were a few antiheroes running around, but for the most part, there was never any doubt. When I started writing my superhero fiction series, I wanted to capture that same clarity. I wanted the good guys to have a strong moral compass, doing what was right even if it meant risking their lives. And I wanted my villains to be irredeemable—the absolute worst of the worst. That’s why I created Zealot for my first book, DEADLOCK.

David Shaw, aka Zealot, is a serial killer. He exhibited the usual characteristics as a child. He was a loner who started killing stray animals. His teenage years were spent struggling with his perverse fascination and dealing with a father who was abusive and controlling. Everything came to a head when he finally killed his father and set him and his house on fire. He walked away and never looked back. David didn’t have a plan; he just knew he couldn’t stay in one place for too long. He took on odd jobs as he moved west and let his bloodlust take full hold, moving from killing animals to people. He targeted other homeless people, like himself, to keep his actions below the radar of law enforcement. No one would care if a homeless guy disappeared. He wasn’t as careful as he thought because he and his talents drew the attention of an organization that found and recruited him for murder-for-hire. Whenever they needed someone to be eliminated, especially if they wanted to send a message, they called on David. He made sure the assassination was brutal enough to get the right people’s attention, yet he was smart enough to never get caught. This allowed him to continue his murderous ways and make a living doing it.

In the middle of one of his jobs, David was abducted and taken aboard an alien spaceship. These aliens were battling with another alien civilization. They were at a deadlock and came to earth to finally end their war. Each side would pick a human and alter him to be the ultimate killing machine. They altered David down to his DNA, granting him powers no human had ever possessed. The process was more painful than anything he had ever experienced before. Not only did it leave him physically scarred, with bleached white skin and a voice that sounded as though razor blades were in his throat, but the aliens also wiped his memory. When he returned, he saw what he had become, and his mind snapped. He tried to remember who and what he was, but all he knew was that he was an instrument of war with one target—but he didn’t know who that target was.

Now going by the name Zealot, he wondered how he would ever find his prey. With no idea how to find his target and a mind that was no longer his, he started hallucinating a companion named Bruce—an imaginary friend of sorts, someone to talk to and get ideas from. With Bruce’s “guidance,” Zealot went on several highly publicized rampages. If he couldn’t find his target, he would destroy and kill until his target found him. The plan worked, and his enemy finally appeared.

Eddie, along with the government agency Cloak & Dagger, confronted Zealot in Kansas City, and the battle was brutal. There were both civilian and military casualties along with massive property damage. While Zealot was able to injure Eddie, he did not kill him. He, on the other hand, was severely injured and fled to fight another day. Shortly afterward, the aliens beamed him back aboard their ship to repair him. They warned him that the longer he went without killing Eddie, the more of his mind he would lose. They hoped this would motivate him to try harder.

Zealot’s mind deteriorated faster than expected. He had trouble forming simple ideas and his connection to Bruce faded in and out. By the time he caught up with Eddie again, Bruce was gone, and Zealot had become more monster than man, attacking and killing anyone who stood in his way. Deep in a tiny part of his mind, he held on to the hope that if he was able to win, he would regain his humanity and use his powers to take control of the planet. The final battle with Eddie was intense. It devastated Washington D.C., leaving a path of destruction that brought down a large section of the city including the obliteration of the Washington Monument. Zealot came close to defeating Eddie but was ultimately beaten. The fight was so horrific it left Eddie in a coma for eight months.

While Zealot might be filled with writing tropes that could make other writers roll their eyes, (yes, I could have tried to subvert your expectations), I felt this was exactly the kind of villain needed to launch my new superhero universe. We needed a violent, unstoppable force that would push our hero, Eddie, to the brink—and almost over it. A villain that everyone would take seriously and avoid engaging with, even if they had no choice. Zealot was my version of the monster in the closet, but in this case, the monster escaped and terrorized the world.

I had a lot of fun writing this character. Villains like Zealot give writers a chance to cut loose and let our imaginations run wild, drawing on our darkest ideas to see how they play out. I had no real-world themes attached to Zealot. He wasn’t a symbol of corporate greed or a stand-in for the decline of the mental health community. He was pure evil, and by using that, I pushed Eddie to his limits. The next villain Eddie would face would have to be even more terrifying. That, however, is a story for another day.