Stark

James Butler Hickok Stark, more commonly referred to as Stark and generally feared or reviled as Sandman Slim, is the protagonist of the Sandman Slim series of novels written by Richard Kadrey.

Born a Nephilim, the son of the Angel Uriel and his human lover, however he was raised by his mother and his step-father, Stark. He is also the great-great-grandson of Wild Bill Hickok and the half-brother of King Bullet. A talented magician from birth due to his angelic nature, he was brought into the Sub Rosa at a young age, often showing off his ability to “improvise” spell-casting much to the chagrin of his fellow magicians, Mason Faim in particular. Stark met Alice at some point and the pair fell in love. When he was nineteen he was invited by Mason and The Circle to witness a ritual, but he was manipulated and became the subject of said ceremony as Mason sent him to Hell while he was still alive.

Subjected to innumerable horrors while in Hell, including enduring as a enslaved gladiator and later the personal assassin of Azazel, a high-ranking General of the Legions of Hell, he developed scars that adapted his body to any injury he was subjected to, each of which acts as protection against an attack similar to the one that caused the scar. Enduring eleven years and even earning a reputation, he eventually plotted his escape when he learned of Alice’s death. Murdering Azazel and stealing the Key to the Room of Thirteen Doors, he escaped from Hell back to Los Angeles.

He sacrificed his life to end King Bullet's reign by placing a piece of the Mithras inside of himself, detonating it as he was killed&mdash;briefly destroying the world before it was fixed by Mr. Muninn. He, albeit reluctantly, resides in Heaven alongside Father Traven, Alice and Vidocq as a celebrity to the people and claims that if Hell couldn’t hold him, Heaven didn’t stand a chance.

Equipment
He has a fondness for Hell-sourced Malediction cigarettes ("It tastes like a tire fire in a candy factory next door to a strip club"), black with silver tips, and Aqua Regia liquor, so red it’s almost black and served in a square tumbler ("goes down smooth, like gasoline and pepper spray").

His Hellion weapons include Azazel's knife, known as the Black Blade, and the na'at. The Black Blade can be used to start stolen vehicles and pick door locks. The na'at is an intricately machined weapon with teeth, spikes, and spines that can be configured into a whip or a spear via triggers, and when fully extended via spring-loaded mechanism is ten feet long. "The name is a Hellion joke. They call a na'at a 'thorn' because its full name, na'atzutz, is the kind of bush they used to make Christ's crown of thorns."