Cain (DC Comics)

[Cain and Gregory move out in the final issue of The House of Mystery, #321 (October 1983). Art by Michael Kaluta.

Cain told tales of various people who boarded at the House of Mystery. Abel stammeringly took abuse from both Cain and the House of Secrets itself, and had an "imaginary" (it was always rendered in quotes) girlfriend named Goldie, who berated him too.[1]

Cain is a thin, long-limbed man with an angular, drawn face, glasses, a tufty beard, and hair drawn into two points above his ears. Cain is often mean to Abel, but he is jovial and a friendly storyteller to children and did everything he could to help Superman when the need once arose; however, he has no qualms trapping innocent people inside his television set[12] and he was once employed by a vicious mink furrier.[13] Abel is a nervous, stammering, kind-hearted man. Abel also has a tufty beard and hair that comes to points above his ears, though his hair is black rather than brown. He is shorter and fatter than Cain, with a more open face. It is eventually stated (in Sandman #40) that the only time he doesn't stutter is when he is telling a story, and this was characteristic of his earlier appearances. Cain owns a large green draconian gargoyle named Gregory, who first appeared (as a baby) in House of Mystery #175, apparently the offspring of enchanted sculptures who come to the house for a French sculptor who murdered the artist who designed them. Gregory grew to maturity over the course of the series and continued to appear in Sandman stories. Gregory ate the Earth-1 counterparts of writer Paul Kupperberg and editor Jack C. Harris.[14] Cain also used to have a black cat named Oskar, who did not get along with Gregory.

Abel moved in with Cain in the House of Mystery shortly before DC Special #4, which Cain states is a temporary situation until the House of Secrets is transported (which occurred in House of Secrets #81, which appeared one month later). Their ages are vague, but Abel presents a story that he claims to have heard from Cain, who scared him with it as a child in 1957.[15] The story in question originally appeared in Tales of the Unexpected #17 (September 1957).

In the final issue of The House of Mystery, Karen Berger, whom Cain first met in issue #292—the first issue she edited for DC—arrives as an unexpected guest at Cain's birthday party, takes him through a secret door that leads to the DC offices, and tells him that his series has been canceled and that he is too old-fashioned. The House is torn down, and Cain metafictionally analyzes his own existence as a character in a comic book.[16]

In 1985, the characters were revived by writer Alan Moore, who introduced them into his Swamp Thing series in the issue #33, retelling the Swamp Thing's original origin story as depicted in a 1971 issue of House of Secrets. Cain kills Abel for revealing a secret (the difference between a mystery and a secret is that a mystery can be shared and still remains a mystery) and declares to Abby Holland, "I invented murder!" In Blue Devil #20 (January 1986), Cain is the caretaker of "The House of Weirdness" until Blue Devil moves in, and discovers that Abel is there, too. He states that the California mansion is owned by "a publishing company back East". During the Crisis, although not mentioned in that series, Elvira stumbled onto the House of Mystery, which charged her to find Cain, who had disappeared. Metropolis can be seen through a window in the garage of the House of Weirdness.[17] Cain and Blue Devil can be seen peering at Elvira in Elvira's House of Mystery.[18] Cain and Abel reappeared in Swamp Thing #49-50, where they acted as observers and commentators on a fierce battle in Hell.

He was depicted together in Abel's first appearance, and they parted to their respective Houses at the end of the story, the House of Secrets having been recently moved, with Cain promising things not to go the way they happened before. Although Cain would abuse Abel, he was not shown killing him until Swamp Thing vol. 2 #33. More often than not, though, they did not appear together, and Cain directed more of his taunts at the reader, while Abel tried to reassure Goldie or the reader. Indeed, in The House of Mystery #257 (April 1978), an asylum escapee, "Killer" Cowan, kills six people on Christmas Eve, storming into the House of Mystery wearing a Santa Claus suit and demands Cain to keep him occupied by entertaining him with stories. Cain protests that he does not want to entertain someone who ruins all that the holiday stands for.

The anthology series that starred Cain as a host were childhood reads of Neil Gaiman. The fictional character was a roster of many character hosts that were revived by Gaiman within The Sandman comic books.[19][20] Within the books he appear as major supporting characters in it and The Dreaming spinoff series.

In Gaiman's Sandman universe, it is implied by dialogue between Lucifer and Cain (who had been sent by Dream as a messenger due to his invulnerability) that the biblical Cain and Abel came to live in the Dreaming at Dream's invitation. To support this, Lucifer quotes the verse in the Bible which says that Cain was sent to live in the Land of Nod. This could be a post-Crisis retcon, however, as Destiny claimed in Weird Mystery Tales #3 that they were not the same as the Biblical Cain and Abel. The nature of reality in the Dreaming is often multiple and when Cain, Abel, and Eve are telling young Daniel Hall three stories, Cain objects to Abel's "Lil' Endless" style retelling of their origin claiming that "... they (the Endless) didn't even look remotely human, none of us did!" Abel later responds to Matthew the Raven's query about whether they are their biblical namesakes or not by stating; "...oh, none of this happened on Earth..." before being interrupted by Cain. Eve also states that she is not Cain's mother to which Cain replies, "You're everyone's mother".[21] This sequence of events would seem to indicate that rather than being the actual literal beings Cain, Abel, and Eve the Dreaming's incarnation of them are closer to their archetypal roles of first murderer, first victim, and first mother. This is supported by several incidents when Cain or Abel have identified themselves as such and claimed that their cycle of murder and resurrection is punishment for their role in the first murder.[22] This would also allow Joe Kubert's DC Comics adaptation of the Cain and Abel story from the Bible, in which he ignored their "Mystery" likenesses, to fit neatly into canon.[23]

Cain frequently kills Abel in a kind of macabre form of obsessive-compulsive disorder, re-enacting the first murder.[1] In the Dreaming, Abel's death is impermanent, and he seems to recover after a few hours. Cain seems unable to control his frequent murders of Abel, and occasionally expresses remorse over them; there is a genuine bond between the two, beneath the surface contempt. Abel remains dedicated to Cain, and frequently dreams of a more harmonious relationship between the two.

In turn, in the graphic novel The Sandman: The Wake, Cain is so distraught when Abel is murdered permanently by The Kindly Ones, he sinks into a rambling mess when asking the new Dream to restore him. In preparation for the funeral services for the deceased Dream, Cain's anger boils over yet again when Abel reveals a secret, but he is calmed by a reprimand and restrained from murdering Abel. He displays a contract, renewed in 1989 (the year The Sandman began) that states that only he is allowed to kill Abel, because Abel can resurrect only when Cain kills him.

In the first appearance of the characters in Sandman, issue #2, Cain gives Abel an egg that soon hatches into another gargoyle, a small golden one. Abel is delighted and names the gargoyle "Irving", but Cain forcefully insists that the names of gargoyles must always begin with a "G." When Abel resists, Cain murders him, and after Abel revives he renames the gargoyle "Goldie", after a friend of his who "went away".

The main function of Cain and Abel throughout The Sandman is as comic relief. However, the two play significant (though not key) roles at several points in the series; it is they who take Morpheus in until his strength is restored following his 72-year-long imprisonment. In the fourth story arc, Season of Mists, Cain is sent to Hell to give a message to Lucifer because the Mark of Cain protects him. Those who would harm Cain would have the full wrath of God visited upon them. Lucifer merely finds this funny, since he is already in Hell.

Cain and Abel also aid The Corinthian with the child Daniel during The Kindly Ones, the penultimate story arc of the series. They also appear with Morpheus in The Books of Magic (vol. 1) #3.

Recently, both Cain and Abel have appeared in the new House of Mystery title. Abel appeared in the missing House of Mystery with Goldie, claiming to be on a secret mission to retrieve the various nightmares that were still in the house when it vanished. Meanwhile, Cain, under the guise of a mysterious coachman, plotted with various groups to retake the House of Mystery, which he saw as his rightful property. Eventually, Cain was able to broker a deal to become the co-manager of the House of Mystery's current incarnation as a bar, and both he and Abel have become regular members of the series' cast.

• Cain appears in the Justice League Action episode "Trick or Threat", voiced by Trevor Devall. He is the owner of the House of Mystery, a house filled with magical artifacts, capable of disappearing, and acts as the narrator of the episode. He tells the viewers of the time when Klarion the Witch Boy turned Batman, Zatanna, Doctor Fate, and John Constantine into children on Halloween so that he could lure them into the House of Mystery and steal the Helmet of Fate.
• Tom Welling portrays Cain in the TV series Lucifer. At the start of season 3, he goes by Lt. Marcus Pierce, but he is later to be revealed as Cain.[24] Lucifer, looking to help him find a way to die, assists Cain throughout the season, but eventually kills him in the end after his mark is removed.
• Cain is set to appear in the upcoming tv adaptation of The Sandman portrayed by Sanjeev Bhaskar.[25]

• Cain has a one-page cameo in The Batman Adventures #5 as wardens of Arkham, although this may be a hallucination of Dr. Crane.
• Cain appears in All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold #12 based on the TV show.
• Cain appears in the Sandman Audible adaptation portrayed by Michael Roberts.[26]

Within the comics, Cain is depicted as someone who kills Abel in various gruesome ways much like a recurring dark comedy trope. Cain frequently kills Abel in a kind of macabre form of obsessive-compulsive disorder, re-enacting his first murder. Even describing himself as the inventor of murder.[28][1] The theme was adapted by the original tale in Genesis 4. Cain slays Abel within the narrative by jealousy of the Hebrew God where he accepted Abel's offering but not Cain. In the Biblical narrative, Cain was the first murderer and Abel was the first murder victim. So the same within DC Comics stories.[2][29][30] The relationship of Zelda Spellman and Hilda Spellman within The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina has been compared to the dynamic of Gaiman's portrayal of both Cain and Abel by editors such as Christian Holub of Entertainment Weekly and David Opie of Digital Spy.[30][29]