The Angelus

The Angelus is a manifestation of light born during Creation, and mortal enemy of The Darkness. From time immemorial she, and her light-born servants, have fought The Darkness in the hopes of finally destroying it utterly. If The Darkness were to be destroyed, then The Angelus would be unopposed in her plan to reshape the world into a place of perfect law and order.

The Angelus came close to her goal when she waited for Jackie Estacado to come into his power as the sole remaining mortal vessel of The Darkness. If she had been able to kill him, she would have sealed away The Darkness permanently. Her plans never quite worked out, however, and her physical body at the time was slain. She was summoned by Jackie's adoptive sister Appolonia in the hopes that The Angelus' power could be used to kill Jackie, but she possessed Appolonia's mother instead. She returned to the quest to kill Jackie, but time and again proved not up to the task and her body was slain by Appolonia and the Spear of Destiny. She briefly made a host out of The Magdalena, but was forced out by The Magdalena's strong will and sense of justice.

The Angelus next possessed Celestine Wright, a deeply troubled girl driven to murder by her compulsion to balance good and evil. The Angelus used Celestine as a host until Sara Pezzini's baby was born, and her attempt to kill the baby cost her her entire army. The Angelus then, for the first time, considered that perhaps she was wrong in her goals, and allowed Celestine control of her body again; only appearing when called upon. Whatever The Angelus' conclusions from this experiment were, she was firmly back in control during the war of the Witchblades, where Celestine's body was killed by Jackie.

The Angelus next found her host in Finch, Danielle Baptiste's roommate. This would prove short-lived, and she returned to the battlefield with only enough time to transfer again to the mortally wounded Danielle. With her Witchblade replaced by the power of The Angelus, Danielle was able to purge The Darkness from Sara's mind and bring an end to the war. Unlike previous hosts, Danielle was in complete control of The Angelus, and was not even able to contact the personality that had ruled previous hosts.

After these events Baptiste moved back to her hometown of New Orleans with Finch, now her girlfriend. There she had a brief power stuggle with her warriors that ended with her lead warrior consumed by Darkness and exiled to hell, and Danielle still in complete control of The Angelus

During the Artifacts event The Angelus fought alongside the Witchblade and others against The Curator and his combined forces, but ultimately lost when Jackie Estacado created a new universe to save his daughter Hope. In this new universe the power of The Angelus was broken up and shared among all her warriors, and Danielle was a normal NYCPD detective. Tom Judge, The Rapture, was the only person aside from Escado to realise the universe had changed, and set about to right it, starting with The Angelus. The plan did not quite work out, however, as the fragments of The Angelus were instead absorbed by the suddenly appearing Finch, a dance instructor who had never met Danielle in this universe.

After merging The Angelus took over entirely, and as she had countless times before, sought out The Darkness. The two seemed capible of killing one another until Judge showed up and forced a cease fire. The Angelus left with her warriors, but later appeared to Danielle, as Finch again, asking for help dealing with the changes in her life.

Alternate Versions
The Darkness videogame has concept art for a more abstract looking Angelus. She never appears in game, but one character mentions angels appearing around the burned down orphanage. In one ending of The Darkness II Jenny's spirit becomes The Angelus and traps Jackie inside The Darkness, although what powers and motives this universe's Angelus has are unknown.

Abilities
The Angelus is an immortal, invincible spirit, but without a host she has no power. After possessing a woman The Angelus will retain the memories and personality of her host, but her will completely overrides any actions by the original owner of the body except in the most extreme cases. In a body The Angelus draws her power from the sun, using it to form wings, energy blasts, objects, and humanoid warriors. These warriors of light are unerringly faithful to The Angelus, and can take the form of humans, but usually take the form of glowing, angelic male and female humanoids. While The Angelus can store power to be used in the dark, without a source of light she gradually weakens until losing all powers.