The Challenges of Writing a Biblical Demon as a Villain in My Science Fiction and Fantasy Comic

The demon prior to the final battle in Zero Hour Epsilon Force.

When I decided to include a Bible-based demon as a major villain in the trilogy story arc portion of Zero Hour Epsilon Force, I thought it would be straightforward. An evil entity who opposes God and causes chaos.

But when I read the Bible and thought about the theology behind demons, it became a bit more complicated.

While Zero Hour Epsilon Force is largely a science fiction and fantasy comic series, it also takes place in a raw Christian universe. That means that I wanted the demon to actually have a Bible-based background.

And writing a biblical demon is different from writing a generic monster or some other type of fantasy demon often seen in fiction.

Because demons aren’t unaware of God’s existence. They know God is real and that he is all-powerful. And that creates some difficult comic storytelling problems when trying to stick closely to the Bible.

Demons Know the Truth… So Why Rebel?

I obviously don't have the answer to everything. And one of the challenges I had to think about when writing the demon villain was this:

Unlike humans, God doesn't offer redemption or any plan of salvation for fallen angels. So if demons know God is all-powerful, why would they rebel in the first place if I'm going on the assumption that they already knew it would have eternal consequences?

The demon in his dark shadowy form in Zero Hour Epsilon Force.

From a purely logical and self-preservation standpoint, rebellion seems irrational.

At first this seems to create a kind of theological “catch-22” for writers: Demons are intelligent, they understand consequences, but yet they still chose to oppose God.

This combination defies human logic, meaning demons cannot be (and shouldn't be) written like misunderstood anti-heroes. They also can’t be written like animals acting on instinct. They require a different framework.

Pride Can Sometimes Blind Rationality

We know that Satan is prideful. And one concept that helped me was realizing that pride can sometimes outweigh survival, which the comic subtly hints at during the fight between the heroes and the demon.

Human history already shows this too. People sometimes destroy their own lives rather than admit they’re wrong. People sometimes choose destructive paths even when they know the outcome will hurt them.

So for my comic, it helps to scale that mindset to a supernatural being like the Devil or one of his demons who are rooted in self-exaltation.

A demon isn’t just making bad choices because it doesn't know any better. And its rebellion isn't just a phase like some teenagers go through. It’s all a fixed orientation of the will, despite the consequences. And this is what many followers of Christ believe.

Knowing God Doesn’t Equal Loving God

Zero Hour Epsilon Force depicting Jesus casting out Legion in Matthew 8:28-34.

Knowing God exists is not the same as loving God. Scripture shows that demons obviously believe in God’s existence like in James 2:19 for example. But belief alone doesn’t produce humility, surrender or love.

A demon will tremble, fully acknowledge and obey God’s authority while still being on the opposing team, as we see when Jesus puts Legion into the pigs. This means their motivation isn’t confusion. It’s simply just rejection.

That helped shape how I approached my demon villain. He isn’t mistaken. And he's not mad about not getting salvation or any kind of redemption because he doesn't care about that.

He's simply fixated on his rejection of God and hates the idea of a universe where he is not the highest authority even though he knows he's destined to be tormented in the Lake of Fire.

But What If Demons Only Continue To Be Evil Because God Just Won't Give Them Another Chance?

Many followers of Christ also believe that God doesn't offer Satan and his demons another chance because since they spent time in the presence of God, they fully knew what they were doing when they decided to oppose him. So they don't deserve another chance. This is something I had to think about as well.

So I think about it like this. If a demon is in a fixed state of rebellion no matter what, it helps resolve the approach of God not being merciful to fallen angels like he is with human beings. Because even if God hypothetically did give a demon another chance, it wouldn't take it. Demons in their fixed states don't seem to regret their actions in the slightest.

Writing Demons as Ideological Villains Fueled By Pride

Biblical demon villains can represent ideas like “I should be God” or "I should have dominion instead of man because I'm superior". This can make their actions due to their rejection of God feel uniform to a degree.

So when they corrupt God's creation, manipulate human beings, twist good things, and are the reason for a lot of the different kinds of brokenness in the world, they can seem somewhat coherent.

In his prideful state, the demon in Zero Hour Epsilon Force wants to prove his belief is right and that God’s order is unfair even though he's clearly wrong and fears the Lake of Fire.

Basically, it helped to think of this villain as a prideful ideological villain rather than simply an “I want to destroy everything” monster.

Accepting That Evil Isn’t Always Logical

Another hard truth is that evil is not required to always make sense. We often want villains to be logically consistent. But real evil often isn't. It's self-defeating and short-sighted.

So the Bible isn't poorly written. It shows how reality actually is. Demons choosing a doomed path that leads to eternal punishment isn’t a plot hole. It’s a statement about the nature of corruption and sin.

Tying It All Together In My Christian Comic Book

When I figured out how to make the demon villain internally aligned with pride, self-exaltation, and hatred of both God's authority and humanity, everything worked out.

Unlike the previous villain, the time traveling cyborg Dr. Ore, I obviously didn't want the demon villain to have a tragic misunderstanding. And he obviously doesn’t get a redemption arc either because that would be unbiblical.

He needs a worldview that fundamentally rejects God’s authority and rule. That made him scarier and more honest to Scripture.

And the "fixed rebellion no matter what" ensured that I wasn't writing the demon as if he was jealous about not being offered a second chance. This avoids the possibility of readers feeling any sympathy for him unlike some of the other villains in Zero Hour Epsilon Force. Because we shouldn't.

Once that was all figured out, the science fiction and fantasy parts of the comic, such as how the demon gets to his final form to fight Tyrannogator and the heroes for example, were easy.

Final Thought

Writing biblical demons forces you to wrestle with uncomfortable ideas:

• Free will doesn’t guarantee rational choices.

• Knowledge doesn’t guarantee humility.

• Pride can be stronger than rationality.

Those tensions are hard. But they’re also what make faith-based villains feel intimidating and weighty instead of just your everyday cartoon. And I think learning how to navigate those tensions as best I could, made my story stronger.

I am not a pastor or affiliated with any specific denomination. I'm just simply a Bible-believing Christian who loves to write and draw different kinds of stories. And sometimes I love to show my Christian faith in my science fiction and fantasy story telling.

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If you're interested in a Christian-based science fiction and fantasy comic that covers darker and more mature themes and uses a Saturday morning cartoon art style, check out Zero Hour Epsilon Force at Spidercade Studios.