Who is Azrael (aka Jean-Paul Valley)? Origin explored as DC features the Batman replacement in new mini series

Azrael is back in the DC Universe and is more violent than ever. Returning in a new, epic miniseries, this character that used to roll with the Order of St Dumas will once more take up the mantle .

Written by Dan Watters and illustrated by Nikola Cizmesija, comes a new comic series titled Sword of Azrael. The comic is a six-part series that will see him pick up the sword once again even though he went into retirement.

Azrael does so in order to protect a girl that has joined the order as well. Not wanting her to go through the same pain, he comes out of retirement and dons the suit once more. So with that being said, let's take a look at exactly who Jean-Paul Valley is in the Batman universe.

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Exploring Azrael's origins as a new comic series has been announced

Cover of the comic (Image via DC Comics)

Azrael is a DC Comics character that was created by Denny O'Neil, Joe Quesada and Peter Milligan. He debuted in Batman: Sword of Azrael, which was released back in October 1992.

The title of the anti-hero has been held by many, but here we will be talking about Jean-Paul Valley, the original proponent of the trope. He is an anti-hero who has had many encounters with Batman. The two have clashed and aided each other in multiple occasions.

Valley is a university graduate who studied computer-science in Gotham, although there is a family secret that he is completely unaware of and one that is going to haunt him. Being the latest in a long line of assassins for the Order of St Dumas, Valley gets kidnapped and brainwashed into becoming an assasin.

Valley later learns of his past when investigating an arms dealer by the name of Carleton Leah. The latter was one of the order's assassin who turned rogue and killed Valley's father. While investigating her, he runs into Batman and captures him. He dons the batsuit and with the help of Alfred, starts investigating Leah.

He then turns on the order and while donning the batsuit, kills a lot of its members and then starts tracking Leah. He ultimately realizes his mistakes as he saves Bruce during the mission and fights alongside Batman to bring the criminals of Gotham to justice.

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Valley's turn as Batman

Valley also played an important role in the storyline Knightfall. Over there, Bane breaks Batman's back, which puts him out of action. Valley then dons the batsuit and takes up the mantle of Dark Knight.

In his role as Batman, he was quite merciless and extremely violent. He eventually realized that Batman's methods were obsolete and needed to be more violent to make a difference.

He creates an enhanced batsuit for himself and uses it to defeat Bane against Bruce's wishes. Valley also had an issue with members of the Bat Family, as a he once almost strangled Tim Drake to death and didn't allow him to step into the Batcave ever again. This happens due to Valley's conditioning as he starts losing a hold over himself.

With Bruce having enough of him, he tricks Valley into a bright ray of sunlight which snaps him out of his conditioning. The latter realizes his mistakes and gives over the identity of Batman back to Bruce.

With the new series here, of course, we are going to see Valley don the suit once more to save a girl. Fans can check out the official synopsis from DC below:

"The warrior angel of St. Dumas returns! Jean-Paul Valley does not want to be Azrael ever again. All it has brought him is pain, violence, and misery. He has sequestered himself away at a monastery in Europe to find peace. But when a young woman who claims to have the same System programming that made Jean-Paul into Azrael arrives at the monastery, he won't have a choice but to don his violent mantle of Azrael once more to protect her from the deadly assassins who wish her harm."

The story here definitely sounds interesting and we can't wait to see where it leads once the comic releases in August.

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