Stalker (comics)

Stalker
Cover of Stalker #1. Art by Steve Ditko
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Stalker #1, (June/July 1975)
Created by	Paul Levitz (writer) Steve Ditko (artist)
In-story information
Alter ego	Elpis
Abilities	Superhuman strength, senses and speed, various mystical abilities, expert fencer

Stalker is a fictional antihero and swords and sorcery character published by DC Comics. The character debuted in Stalker #1 (June/July 1975), and was created by Paul Levitz and Steve Ditko.

The Stalker title lasted four issues, to Dec. 1975/Jan. 1976 before it was cancelled by DC.

A young warrior seeking immortality and power challenges and defeats the Demon Lord Dgrth, winning immortality but losing his soul. The young warrior now known as Stalker the Soulless begins a quest to regain his lost soul. However, the more he traveled the greater his power grew, and the more he physically resembled Dgrth. Stalker eventually fights his way to the demon god in the depths of that dimension's netherworld, and defeats him, only to discover that the deity has already used up the energies of the traded soul. The only way to get his soul back would be to end the existence of that dimension's supreme deity, a solution which could only occur after the abolishment of all war.

Stalker the Souless later appeared in Swamp Thing Vol. 2 #163, arriving on Earth alongside Claw the Unconquered, Isis, Arion and Starfire. This storyline suggested that all DC "heroic fantasy" worlds were creations of Jim Rook (Nightmaster)'s mind, but this has been contradicted since.

Stalker appeared in All-Star Comics (vol. 2) #1, and as a recurring theme in a retroactive story featuring the Justice Society of America at the end of World War II, the so-called "JSA Returns" event. Here, the soulless Stalker had evolved into an insane demon/supervillain, looking a lot like Dgrth, and bent on destroying dimension after dimension in his quest to end all conflict by ending all life. He was defeated and seemingly destroyed in a time warp generated by the Hourman android.