Damnation Army

The Damnation Army is a fictional organization featured in comic books published by DC Comics. It is associated with the Constantine line of comic titles and first made a partial appearance in Hellblazer #4 in April, 1988. They made their first full appearance in Hellblazer #6.

History
The Damnation Army is a legion of lost souls enslaved and pressed into service by the demon Nergal. The group is responsible for a series of mass murders and suicide pacts throughout the London area in the late 1980s. Primarily, Nergal's efforts were focused on defeating his most notorious adversary John Constantine. Destroying Constantine was not enough for Nergal however. Instead, he wanted to recruit him.

One of the members of the Damnation Army (known only as The Man) performed a series of bizarre rituals in the cellar of his forest cabin. He abducted young girls and brainwashed them into becoming his brides. To consummate the marriage, he choked each of his brides with a thick cord near to the point of death, leaving a "wedding ring" scar across their throats. Ten-year-old Gemma Masters, niece to John Constantine, became one of the Man's brides, but John managed to rescue her before the Man could cause her any undo harm.

Nergal next recruited four Londoner Neo-Nazi youths known as the Britain Boys. First he slaughtered them, then fused their severed limbs and heads together, forming a composite creature known as Ironfist the Avenger. Nergal sent Ironfist to find John Constantine and the search led the monster to the flat of John's paramour Zed. The creature attacked them, but fortunately, John's quick wits convinced Ironfist to destroy himself, enabling John and Zed time to escape.

Upon learning of the destruction of his most recent creation, Nergal telephoned Constantine and warned him that it would be in his best interests to join the Damnation Army, or else he would suffer Nergal's wrath.