D'Spayre is a creation of the Dweller-in-Darkness, a powerful demon who created him to act as an agent on Earth while the Dweller-in-Darkness is banished from Earth. D'Spayre's first action is to kill the sorceress Zhered-Na who was the one to banish his creator. To do this, D'Spayre manipulates a barbarian into killing Zhered-Na. Over the next millennia, D'Spayre repeatedly fights Dakimh the Enchanter. Eventually, D'Spayre captured Dakimh and pupil Jennifer Kale, but was defeated by Spider-Man and Man-Thing. D'Spayre tends to prey on victims who are in despair, using their fear and despair to strengthen himself. He terrorizes Scott Summers and Lee Forrester after Lee's father committed suicide, but is defeated by Summers who resists D'Spayre's illusions and finds resolve in the memory of Jean Grey. This resolve fuels the creature known as Man-Thing who attacks D'Spayre and D'Spayre flees. He then attacks Doctor Strange when Strange is feeling distraught over separation from his girlfriend Clea, but Strange defeats D'Spayre as well, the first of many battles between the two of them. The Dweller-in-Darkness also menaces D'Spayre at this time. He later impersonated Darkimh in a vain attempt to drive Doctor Strange into despondency. Together with Nightmare, he later attempted to victimize Betty Ross, but was thwarted by the Hulk. He was next defeated and temporarily weakened by Rachel Summers. . Art by Brent Anderson. Over the years, D'Spayre has tried to bring many heroes to despair, resulting in numerous failures. In one instance, he manipulates the Fear Lords, powerful demons and gods who feed upon humanity's fears into creating the Great Fear. With their powers combined, the Fear Lords believe that they can plunge humanity into a permanent state of terror. Most Fear Lords are defeated by Doctor Strange, but Nightmare and the Dweller-in-Darkness manage to create the Great Fear. They then discover that D'Spayre has been manipulating them, as the Great Fear causes so much terror in humans that they stop fearing and succumb to despair, thereby feeding D'Spayre who becomes more powerful than the two of them. Doctor Strange manages to stop D'Spayre, while the Fear Lords flee. D'Spayre is then defeated by Amanda Sefton and Nightcrawler. D'Spayre was also revealed to have infused Cloak and Dagger with portions of his soul, called the Dark Form and Light Form, respectively. He was also revealed to be the creator of the addictive drug called dark-light or "D-Lite" and apparently was consumed by the Dark Form. D'Spayre attempts to enhance his power by using a Cosmic Cube to draw on the grief of the general public in the aftermath of Captain America's assassination following the "Civil War" only for his use of the Cosmic Cube to have an apparently unintended side-effect when it granted the 'wish' of those who wanted Captain America back by drawing the Invaders into the present. He was defeated in a confrontation with the New Avengers when Echo proved immune to his powers due to her deafness, allowing her to take the cube from him. During the 2011 "Fear Itself" storyline, D'Spayre is among the demons that meet at the Devil's Advocacy to discuss the threat of the Serpent.
Powers and abilities
D'Spayre's demonic nature provides him with superhuman strength and durability and the ability to levitate himself and to travel between dimensions. D'Spayre also has the mystical ability to instill fear in human beings and to draw psychic sustenance from the fear, anguish, and despondency suffered by human beings, and other mystical abilities. He has telepathic abilities enabling D'Spayre to perceive a victim's psychological vulnerabilities and to project illusions into the victim's mind. He has a vulnerability to physical harm when weakened by lack of psychic sustenance, and his powers rely on people hearing his words, allowing the deaf Echo to defeat him. D'Spayre created Darklight, an addictive drug inducing pain in its victims.
In other media
A different depiction of D'Spayre appears in the second season of Cloak & Dagger, portrayed by Brooklyn McLinn. In this show, the character is Andre Deschaine, a former jazz musician who gave up his career due to developing severe headaches after a performance in which he attempted to hit a special "blue note". The headaches led him to attempt suicide by jumping off of a bridge at the same moment that Roxxon's oil platform blew up. After being exposed to the energies that were released, Andre gained the ability to drain people's hopes, which allow him to feed off of their despair for relief from his headaches. To provide himself with victims, he opens up a "community center", along with assistant Lia Dewan, which is actually a front for a kidnapping and sex trafficking ring. He keeps his victims' emotions in the form of "records" in a metaphysical record store. After kidnapping Tandy Bowen to the Viking Motel with Lia's help, Andre lies to Tyrone Johnson about Tandy's whereabouts and endeavors to put under a spell. Later on, Andre visits Voodoo priestess Chantelle Fusilier to try to find information about his veve. Chantelle visits his metaphysical record store and tells Andre he can become a Loa if he unlocks the veve. Mayhem starts smashing records in the store, releasing the records' victims from their despair, and Tyrone helps Tandy escape from the Viking Motel. Andre then enthralls the people of New Orleans. Despite Tandy and Tyrone managing to land one of Tandy's attacks on him, Andre and the people disappeared. Andre eventually unlocks his veve and becomes D'Spayre, but is followed to the Loa realm by Tandy and Tyrone with the earthly assistance of Mayhem and Voodoo priestess Evita. After Andre is hit by Tandy's light attack, Melissa Bowen, Mikayla Bell and Mina Hess hold him as Cloak and Dagger land the finishing blow on Andre which finally killed him. Andre is later given a Loa funeral by Evita.
