Den (comics) - Fictional Character Biography

Fictional Character Biography

"Den" is the name of two characters: The hero featured in the short film Neverwhere; and the identical hero featured in all the subsequent comics.

The first Den story, as told in the short film Neverwhere, is clearly inspired by the Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter of Mars novels. In the beginning of the film, an office worker is shown reading the 1963 reprint of A Princess of Mars, before he is turned down for a date by a coworker and quits his job. He then builds a machine that opens a portal where a "deposed queen" beckons him to enter another world. Turning into a muscleman he fights several monsters, including four armed monsters reminiscent of Burroughs’ Green Martians. Den is then sent on a mission by the Queen to retrieve the Locnar and, after succeeding, returns home to his mundane life.

In its comic-book sequel, Den is a young man named David Ellis Norman. Following directions left for him on a note and a diagram from his missing uncle Dan, David builds another electronic apparatus. The apparatus opens a gateway to a fantasy world named "Neverwhere", where he was transformed into a hairless, nude, muscular, and prodigiously endowed adventurer. Confused by his strange trip, he can only remember the acronym of his real name (DEN), and begins calling himself "Den". In his Earth incarnation, David had found a letter in one of the fantasy novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs left to him by his uncle Dan. Some images from the Neverwhere film are recreated in the first volume of Den as flashbacks.

Shortly after his arrival he meets an evil nude masked woman, known as the Red Queen (perhaps a reference to the character in Through the Looking-Glass) who seems to know Den and is about to sacrifice her doppelgänger, Kath, to Uhluhtc. After being rescued by Den, Kath reveals to him that, on Earth, she is a frail novelist called Katherine Wells (a reference to H. G. Wells, whose second wife was named Catherine). Kath is a native of London who, in 1892, was drawn to Neverwhere when she found another doorway after following the will o' the wisp while wandering through some marshes. Like Den she was transformed when she arrived to Neverwhere, in her case into a voluptuous, large breasted nude woman who was immediately captured by the Red Queen (who had created the portal to bring her to Neverwhere). Kath has a much better recollection of her former life than Den, but no wish to return because she feels she is not only healthier but "more of a woman" in the new land. Like Den, she is completely nude and hairless except for her blond bob hairstyle.

According to Jan Strnad's introduction to Denz, "The saga of Den's exploits... lusty and brawling, brimming with magic, intrigue, horror and betrayal... spanned generations and filled many exotic volumes. Now in his declining years, Den lives in a NeverWhere far different from the one he entered. Thanks to his magical Locnar, Den has brought peace and prosperity to his adoptive world. Meanwhile, on Earth, Denzel Easton Norman seeks to follow in his brother's footsteps...."