Theatre of Pain (comics)

Brimstone Love
Cover to X-Men 2099 #13 feat. Brimstone Love and Xi'an
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	X-Men 2099 #3 (1993)
Created by	John Francis Moore and Ron Lim
In-story information
Alter ego	Unknown
Species	Human Mutant
Team affiliations	Theatre of Pain
Abilities	superhuman strength and generation of fire, magma, light, and heat

Brimstone Love is a fictional character appearing in the comic books published by Marvel Comics, under their Marvel 2099 imprint. He is a mutant supervillain who repeatedly appeared as an antagonist for the X-Men of 2099.

In the alternate future of 2099, a sociopathic mutant named Brimstone Love begins to explore alternate mediums of art. He creates the Theatre of Pain, an organization devoted to turning pain and suffering into art. Some time before the story begins in X-Men 2099 #1, Brimstone Love captures a young woman named La Lunatica—a mutant with the ability to trigger painful memories in others—and forces her into his employ so that he can record the traumatic events and resell them to his clientele.

Following the formation of the X-Men by Cerebra, Brimstone Love notices a spike in mutant activity and sends La Lunatica (later known as Luna for short) out to investigate. She captures Bloodhawk for him and he is so delighted by the exquisite images of pain from the man's mind that he sends Luna out to get more mutants. She comes upon Skullfire, Krystalin and Meanstreak and captures the trio to bring back to the Theatre of Pain. When Luna attempts to access Skullfire's memories of when he accidentally killed his girlfriend, he releases a huge burst of energy, freeing him and his friends—as well as Luna—from their bonds.

Luna escapes from Brimstone Love and allies herself with the X-Men. However, Brimstone Love does not want to allow his best agent to go free, so he pursues her. Following Skullfire and Xi'an on a motorcycle ride to find the enigmatic Driver, Luna barely outruns Brimstone Love. He finally catches up to them when they stop for information on the Driver's location, but he decides not to make his presence known. Instead, he takes a fascination to Xi'an, who recently began to digress into his more evil persona. Wanting to capture Xi'an for the Theatre's usage, Brimstone Love follows the trio—with the addition of Junkpile—to the Driver's hidden lair. There, he dismantles the Driver's mutant cataloging computer system, as well as Junkpile's body, and offers Xi'an a position in the Theatre of Pain. Shockingly, Xi'an accepts and the two leave together.