Disciple (Image Comics)

The Disciple is a fictional character from Todd McFarlane's Spawn. Heaven's first and greatest soldier in their war against the forces of Hell. His origins are unknown but his power is great. He appears to be the archetype for the The Redeemer, and is definitely a formidable enemy for Hellspawn. His appearance is that of a large, armored warrior. His black suit is covered in a silver armor and he bears a mask with a cross like the Redeemer, but with a flaming XII over his right eye. He appears to have suffered a large amount of battle damage, as his ravaged armor and mask have numerous gouges and holes and from them spills Celestial Fire. This fire is controlled and flows with his will, unlike when the second Redeemer's hand was lopped off and the fire poured uncontrollably from the wound blasting everything in its path. The fire also appears to take the form of wings on his back.

In their first encounter The Disciple ripped Spawn apart and completely dismembered his body while in the Deadzone before walking off and throwing Spawn's head in the trash.

In issue 160, it is revealed that the Disciple is really one of twelve heavenly warriors, created from the souls of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ. The Disciple depicted above, with the 'XII' numeral on his helmet is referred to as James the Less, the weakest of the twelve. Another named Disciple is 'XI', who calls himself Simon Peter, the Rock. The final Disciple, whose helmet is branded with 'J', is none other than Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Jesus.

The Disciples apparently owe their allegiance not to heaven, but to Mother, the mysterious being who created the universe. Since Mother revealed that it was she who walked among mortals as Jesus Christ, it is unsurprising that the Disciples would serve her above all others.

Mother set the Disciples to guard the Garden of Eden, and informed Spawn that the only way to stave off Armageddon would be to fight his way through the Disciples and eat a piece of fruit from the Tree of Life and Death. However, when Spawn had defeated Judas, the final Disciple, Cyan called out to Spawn to allow Judas to win. Hesitating, Spawn is impaled on Judas' fiery sword, just as the last of his necroplasmic power reaches zero.

Powers
The Disciple is immensely strong, powerful enough to tear apart Spawn's necroplasmic body with his bare hands. He has two fiery wings that engulf parts of his body, and is capable of shaping these flames into weapons - he is shown wielding an axe of fire in issue #160.

The other eleven Disciples are similar in appearance to the XIIth. They all have silver armor and fiery wings, though some appear much less human than XII. Many of them wield weapons.
 * XII - An axe made of heavenly fire
 * XI - A staff of fire
 * X - Two sickles
 * IX - No visible weapon
 * VIII - A scythe
 * VII - A ball and chain
 * VI - No weapons, but his lower torso is snake-like and tipped with a pointed tail
 * V - Double-bladed glaive
 * IV - No visible weapon
 * III - Two long javelins
 * II - No visible weapon
 * I - A fiery sword, the flames coming seemingly from a burning skeletal hand on the crosspiece.