Iblis (alternate)

This article has a separate continuity. This article is in a separate continuity, which is related to the Original Series. Be sure that your contributions to this article reflect the characters and events specific to this continuity only.

This article covers the various depictions of Count Iblis from the tie-in novelizations, comic books, and other media.

Iblis is one of the few pivotal "one-shot" characters never to have appeared in either the Dynamite Entertainment or, even earlier, Marvel comics.

Dynamite Entertainment

Three distinctly representations of Iblis appear in Dynamite Entertainment's series: Battlestar Galactica vs. Battlestar Galactica and Battlestar Galactica: Folly of the Gods hue closely to the Original Series, while Steampunk Battlestar Galactica 1880 presents a wholly separate interpretation of that character.

It is noted that both Dynamite's aforementioned Original Series stories have their own disparities, and are treated thusly.

Battlestar Galactica: Folly of the Gods

Iblis reassumes his true form after his failure to wipe out the Seraphs, the humans who shunned him, and even his Cylon creations (Classic Battlestar Galactica Vol. 3 #5).

In Iblis' first Dynamite appearance, he returns to unleash his plan to destroy the Seraphs by creating a black hole that transports The Fleet — and Lucifer's pursuing basestar — to another realm. Said realm features a planet where his pig-like brethren have been laid to rest after a disastrous end, much like the red planet previously encountered. On this planet, Cylons and other wayward space travelers are shipwrecked after falling through the black hole; Iblis uses the Cylons to his own advantage, creating the Meclons and bolstering their numbers by hunting down survivors of the shipwrecked vessels and repurposing their bodies (Classic Battlestar Galactica Vol. 3 #1-Classic Battlestar Galactica Vol. 3 #3).

To further draw the Seraphs into the trap, he transports Baltar from the planet that he had been exiled to with the promise of freedom, and takes over Adama's mind. However, with the help of Apollo—having wholly shunned Iblis and been resurrected by the Seraphs—Iblis is cast out and the Seraphs intercede to save Iblis' victims at the expense of their their own ship (Classic Battlestar Galactica Vol. 3 #5).

Iblis returns to his failed trap of a planet, shedding his human visage and reassuming his true face, and resurrects his like-faced followers in his quest for vengeance against the surviving humans, their new Cylon friends, and the surviving Seraphs (Classic Battlestar Galactica Vol. 3 #5).

Battlestar Galactica vs. Battlestar Galactica

In Iblis' second Dynamite appearance, Iblis enters into a relationship with Kali, the exiled creator of the robotic life that assumed her race's name and identity. At his bidding, Kali builds a wormhole between two different Battlestar Galactica universes (the Original and the Re-imagined) in a bid to exact revenge against Adama and his Fleet. Assuming influence over Cain, Iblis reunites Cain and Pegasus with the two disparate Fleets in order to undermine the humans' efforts against the Cylons—however this does not go to plan as Cain is able to break Iblis' and Kali's hold over him, and thwarts Iblis' revenge bid (Battlestar Galactica vs. Battlestar Galactica).

Maximum Press comics

Iblis is responsible for allowing the Cylons to follow the Colonials to Earth, and his powers have increased since the previous encounter.

Iblis is indirectly responsible for slaying Adama (although Adama himself is terminal), who stays behind on Adam and Eve's ark to learn about the ancient Kobollian technology. This event occurs during the Cylon attack, when Adama protects Adam from being slain by Baltar, who Iblis transports to Earth (War of Eden 1—4).

Realm Press comics

The two faces of Iblis: reptilian Cylon and human.

At the dawn of the first millennium of man, Count Iblis convinces the Cylon dictator Sobekkta to create a race of robotic creatures that would later take on the name "Cylon," after the extermination of their reptilian creators. Due to this interference and other transgressions, he is sentenced to "live only in death" for 7,000 yahren (Eve of Destruction - Prelude I: Nostalgie De La Boue). It is after his sentence ends that he encounters the humans fleeing from the robotic Cylons and attempts to subjugate them, resulting in the events depicted in "War of the Gods."

Amongst Iblis's powers, he is also capable of changing his appearance. To the Colonials, he appears human; to the reptilian Cylons, he appears as a green-skinned Cylon with a singular eye slit (Eve of Destruction - Prelude I: Nostalgie De La Boue).

Notes

• The Realm Press comics use the likeness of Patrick Macnee, the actor who portrayed Iblis in "War of the Gods," for the older Count Iblis in Realm Press's Eve of Destruction.

Original Series definition: a title of nobility (e.g. Count Iblis)

Re-imagined Series definition: battlestar landing bay mechanism that arrests a landing Viper, Raptor or other small craft ^{(TRS: "Final Cut")}