Description:
Seth is tall, blond, blue-eyed,
and musclebound, the
stereotypical American action movie hero. His face looks like a
lizard's, and he has a crescent-shaped scar from eyebrow to lip
on each cheek. Costume varies, but he was last seen wearing
Gap blue Jeans, purple Nikes, a red Yaga shirt, and a brown
duster jacket with many pockets. Carries a wicked spike-handled
machete and small double-barreled sawed-off shotgun in
sheathes on his back. Has many suspicious-looking bulges in his
clothes, probably hidden weapons of some kind.
Background:
Seth is an immortal of eight
thousand, nine hundred and
ninety-nine years of age. His many exploits are too numerous to
fully recount in this article, and his history is still being written.
He
is immortal due to a spell that renders him immune to aging,
disease, any hostile material except iron and lead, all poisons,
explosions of any kind, weight loss or gain, fire, extreme
temperatures, thirst, and starvation. The spell also allows him
limitless energy and the ability to live without sleep. Laser blasts
and other things that would severely harm a normal human are
greatly diminished in effect when they strike him, and all hostile
objects not made of lead or iron that hit him (bullets, sword
slashes, etc) just fly right through him, then the wound heals.
Only iron and lead can wound him, and his facial scars are due to
an iron knife. However, the spell is powerful enough to prevent
his actual death by a lead or iron instrument. To his best
knowledge, the spell was cast by a white-haired, blue-skinned
man in red armor, probably Oberon, who has never told Figaro
why he cast it.
Figaro has taken advantage
of the spell to become a
self-styled vigilante of the worst kind. He has lived through almost
nine thousand years of world happenings, but will not discuss
what he's seen and done with just anybody. Figaro joined the
Illuminati as an assassin and information-gatherer in the early
days of the Roman Empire, when he was a bit player named
Decius Brutus in the assasination of Julius Caesar. This was just
one of many historical personages he lived the lives of and then
used the Illuminati's resources to hide the fact that they were all
the same person. Other personages he took on included Sir Kay
of King Arthur's Court, Captain William Clark of the Lewis and
Clark expedition, and the leader of the ill-fated Clanton gang. He
was also one of the five warriors who conquered Afghanistan's
Valley of the Five Lions in the "legend," and served as Hakon's
lieutenant in the Viking attack on Castle Wyvern. In the latter
role, he prevented Hakon's men from brutally raping Princess
Katherine before Goliath showed up, and was pushed off the cliff
by Hakon shortly before the Viking lord's own tumble.
In the Illuminati, Figaro
came into constant competition
for the award of "most-favored operative" with a skeletally-figured
black-haired and green-eyed man who was a year older than he,
under a similar immortality spell (it's currently unknown who cast
it), and had also taken on several historical personages. This
man is today the Illuminati assassin-for-hire known as Ares
Gerard O'Neil. Silvan Farrow, who was even then the head of the
Illuminati, wanted to keep both of them, so he put them both on
the Lewis and Clark expedition to get used to working with each
other. O'Neil, as Meriweather Lewis, proved a much more
capable explorer, and the two failed to work together with any
kind of good relationship. Their enmity increased through the US
Civil War, and culminated when Silvan realized he had to keep
one or the other. To decide, he pitted the two against each other
in the Battle of Little Bighorn. O'Neil, as Crazy Horse, took time
to
carefully plan a strategy and fight effectively while Figaro, as
General Custer, got angry at his old rival and charged blindly into
combat with his troops. Needless to say, O'Neil won the battle
and became the Illuminati's premier assassin in the 20th century.
After the battle, Figaro's
tendency to let his anger and
emotions overwhelm him while on assignment eventually forced
him to be dishonorably discharged from the Illuminati in the
1920s, as he could not be killed without removing the spell and
only Oberon could do that. He struck out to make a life of his
own, keeping Gina Klay's predecessor as his source inside the
Society in case he ever needed to know of its doings. This role
has extended to Gina as well.
Figaro has fought in both
World War 2 and the Vietnam
War. In the former war, he saved the life of Elmer Maddux, the
man he currently lives with. In 'Nam, he served in the same unit
as Major Fred Donovan, third-in-command of the Illuminati milita
known as Lincoln's Commandos. After getting really drunk, he
massacred an entire village of innocent South Vietnamese and
was given his cheek scars by an angry corpsman with an iron
knife. Figaro also served in GI Joe as the quick-to-anger,
terrorist-hating Lowlight back when the Joe team was still around.
Until recently, he was a member of the NYPD and is currently a
New York street vigilante.
Personality:
Figaro has one of the worst
tempers of any man you can
meet. Anyone who has wronged him in the past, or anyone who
continuously harms innocent people, is fair game for his gun,
knife, or fists. Anyone who gets in the way of his rampages
enjoys the same privlieges. To all others, he is a smart-aleck,
jerk of the first rank, and not the kind of person most prefer to
hang around. He is always bitter on the inside, and, in battle,
becomes a psycopathic killing machine. To the gargoyles, he is
indifferent, not even appreciating their aid in his quest to rid New
York City, then the world, of crime. To Gina, Doc, and Elmer, he
is at least partially friendly, but his only loyalties are to his own
agenda and himself.
Appearances:
Figaro first appears in
"The Fall of Nightstone" as Officer
Morgan's poorly-paired partner. He fights the street gangs
Demona has assembled to fight the gargoyles and ends up killing
Wolf and shooting Brooklyn after the latter got in his way. As a
result, he is thrown out of the NYPD by Captain Chavez.
In "The Past Returns," Figaro
is informed of the
ressurection of the Cobra terrorist organization by Gina Klay and
ends up helping the gargoyles and Ares O'Neil kill all its
members, even if he never learns of O'Neil's involvement. By this
time, it is apparent he has become a self-styled vigilante like the
Punisher, only more psychotic and less heavily armed.
In "Final Hunt," he leads
a small vigilante street gang
called the Sparks of Friendship against the warring gangs of
crime bosses Kingpin and Silvermane. They leave a trail of
destruction and dead bodies, including all the Sparks except
Figaro and several of the crime bosses's supervillian associates,
in their wake. Figaro also saves Goliath and Brooklyn's lives in
that story and helps the latter kill a Predator alien, ending their
grudge against him for shooting Brooklyn the first time they met.
A Glimpse of Upcoming Appearances:
Seth Figaro will have more
of his past revealed in
upcoming stories, especially "After the Flood." More of his history
with O'Neil, and some of the latter's past, will also be revealed in
that flashback tale that tells of the creation of the first gargoyles
and the Illuminati.
Unbeknownst to Figaro, Silvan
Farrow, head of the
Illuminati, and his subordinates are putting together a
cybernetically-enhanced "Ultra Pack" to wipe out the world's
gargoyles. Wolf, Jackal, and Hyena have been brought back as
cyber-ghouls, and the group also contains all three Cold-
gargoyles and the clones. A cybernetically enhanced Thailog
leads it, and it will begin its wave of destruction in "The Ultra
Pack Cometh." Figaro may be forced into fighting the Ultra Pack
to save his fellow anti-crime crusaders, even if they do have their
differences.
Another confrontation between
Figaro and O'Neil, this
one final, is also far in the future. Both he and the gargoyles will
be pitted against the militia of Lincoln's Commandos in "End of
the Rage."