Am I the only one feeling demonic déjà vu?
Jumping into the Diablo 4 beta, I can't help but feel some déjà vu during the prologue's sinister church cutscene that introduces its main antagonist, Lilith. It's because it's only a few months ago that I was fighting basically the same Lilith in Marvel's Midnight Suns.
Not only do they similar horned, reptilian, high-cheekboned visages, but their modus operandi—mind controlling people to do their bidding and summoning demonic minions—seems pretty much the same too. The moment one of Diablo Lilith's followers calls her 'Mother', I'm transported back to a hundred fights against Hydra goons alongside Spider-Man and Nico Minoru. Both games even give you a supernatural connection to her that allows you to have visions of her activities.
I'm not accusing anyone of copying anyone's homework—both games will have been in development separately for years, and both are drawing on their own source material. Lilith was established as an important figure in Diablo's lore in Diablo 3, and Marvel's Lilith first appeared in the comics in the early 90s. Both have completely fair claims to her as a character.
They're both also, of course, inspired by the same mythology—Lilith is a figure from ancient legend, particularly in Jewish traditions. In some tellings she was the first wife of Adam who was banished from the Garden of Eden and cursed to become the original succubus, and she's sometimes depicted as a mother of demons—which clearly influenced the hypnotic, seductive, yet matriarchal depictions of both games.
But that doesn't make it any less of an odd feeling to already be playing another RPG where I'm fighting her. In this age of endless multiverse stories in entertainment, it feels like yet another crossover event, and I can't help but muddle features of the two together. I just need to keep reminding myself: red for Diablo, green for Marvel.
In other words, if I had a nickel for every time I've played an RPG where you try to stop the demon queen Lilith, I'd have two nickels—which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.
