The Religion of Crime is a religion and form of secret-society which practices a faith revolving around crime and the endorsing of amoral actions like murder, sexual assault and robbery. They have proven themselves recurring enemies of Batwoman and the Question.
History[]
The Religion of Crime, also known as the Dark Faith, is an old, secret organization that follows the word of the Crime Bible and its lessons of deceit, greed, lust and murder.
The Crime Bible is features Cain or "The First" as its main character and like the Christian bible is divided into different books. This includes the Book of Moriarty (named after Prof. James Moriarty, a Sherlock Holmes villain often attributes to being the first super-villain in pop-culture) and the Book of Kurten (named after real-life German serial-killer Peter Kürten who would drink the blood of his victims). Among the contents of the book there are the Four Lessons of Blood which mirrored the Ten Commandments only with its lessons being in Deceit, Lust, Greed and Murder.
As according to Renee Montoya's research, there are only three known copies of the Crime Bible which are complete.
The Dark Faith is most notably practiced by the criminal organization of Intergang, a Metropolis based syndicate which served the New God war-lord Darkseid. It is believed that Darkseid and his planet Apokalips has some history in the creation of the Crime Bible as along with their Intergang connection, the trial of blood references the New Gods.
Members[]
- Stanton T. Carlyle and Giselle Carlyle: Stanton was a Professor who wrote a book entitled A Blasphemous Mythology: The Religion of Crime which "debunks" the "hoax" of the Religion of Crime. It's real purpose was to provide the teachings to the general public without their knowledge. Stanton was killed by his wife, Giselle, in an attempt to increase the popularity of the book by creating a scandal in which it appeared the Religion of Crime sought revenge for the publication of the book. Giselle was captured by the Question.
- Abigail Lincoln-Gray a.k.a. Mother Superior: Abigail Lincoln-Gray is the leader of a "House of Lilith" (i.e. a brothel) in which, among other things, people are converted to the Religion of Crime and/or blackmailed. The House was located in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Renee Montoya, under an alias, visited the House regularly in order to collect information. During her visits she was frequently "partnered" with Elicia, who attempted unsuccessfully to seduce Renee. Ultimately Elicia was hit by Abigail for her failures and, that night, Renee gave in to her advances. Immediately afterwards, Renee stopped a ritual during which the House was burned down. Elicia, and numerous other "daughters" escaped but Abigail planned to rebuild. Elicia later turned up a prisoner of the Order of the Stone but was rescued by the Question.
- Sinclair: Sinclair is the leader of a Gotham City branch (called "coven") of the Religion of Crime. He was accosted by Batwoman and Question and forced to reveal and participate in an auction of a Crime Bible. Batwoman took him down at the auction thereby hiding his participation in the event.
- Isabella Cordoba: A Daughter of Lilith from Barcelona, Spain. She is mentioned as having referred Renee Montoya to the Chevy Chase, Maryland House of Lilith.
- Nikki and Taylor: Two of the Chevy Chase Daughters of Lilith. Nikki was about to be sacrificed in a ritual and was rescued by Renee Montoya.
- Mistress Alice: briefly became the leader of the thirteen Gotham covens and tried to use the organization to kill everyone in Gotham City. She was stopped by the Batwoman.
- Sister Shard
Equipment[]
- Crime Bible