BIOGRAPHY
While the evil that is Belasco first rose almost three quarters of a millennium ago, it was thankfully dormant for most of that time. Unfortunately for the world and those that would suffer at Belasco’s hands, it was released by the curious expeditions of the man known as Ka-Zar, the Savage.
The full origins of the man now known as Belasco remain lost to time. The first known account of Belasco dates back hundreds of years when he was already an adult and student of the mystic arts in Italy. Belasco was member of a Sorcerers Guild when one of his peers named Ebrok magically created a race of Cat People. Ebrok’s new spell could transform common house cats into human-sized, bipedal & sapient creatures, and his “children” Flavius and Helene quickly learned to serve as his apprentices. Belasco and the other sorcerers enjoyed their own Cat People servants for a 
time, but the new race produced massive litters and threatened to overpopulate the humans in short order. In response, Belasco and the other members of the Sorcerers Guild banished the Cat People to the extra-dimensional “Land Within,” where their numbers would not threaten humanity. Instead, a single member of the Cat People, called the Balkatar, could be summoned by the Guild when they chose to invoke its power. [Adventures into Fear #22, What If..? (1st series) #35]
Belasco had dreams of power and immortality far beyond even his fellows in the Sorcerers Guild. 
Already long-lived through magic, Belasco wished to be completely immune to death. He petitioned a mysterious group of Elder Gods through alchemy and sorcery in order to achieve his goals. Given great sorcery and a demonic appearance by his patrons, Belasco was ordered to repay his debt by performing sacrifices to fill five Bloodstones in a pentagram amulet. Once complete, this amulet could open a gateway to Earth that would allow the Elder Gods to invade. Before he could finish, Belasco’s practices came to the attention of local authorities and he was convicted of heresy.
[Note: Many beings throughout history have claimed the title of “Elder Gods,” often to borrow glory and intimidate their worshippers. Earth’s true Elder Gods are a scattered pantheon including Chthon, Gaea, Set and Oshtur, who would not act as a collective of patrons. Belasco's masters would eventually be explained as the true N’Garai, Elderspawn of Chthon who ruled Hell on Earth eons ago, wield magic, and are far more cunning than the typical feral warrior caste of N’Garai seen in Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #143 and elsewhere. X-Infernus #4 showed the Elder Gods of Limbo and Belasco included one of the Pride’s Gibborim, which just raises more questions, frankly.]
Rather than this being his end, Belasco managed to escape Italian justice and kidnapped a woman named Beatrice, for whom he had long harbored a secret passion. Beatrice was the beloved of a man named Dante Alighieri, who set sail after the sorcerer, vowing to follow him to the ends of the Earth. The chase ended in the previously 
undiscovered continent of Antarctica, where Dante and his surviving crew chased Belasco into the Savage Land. This lost valley, filled with dinosaurs and dozens of undiscovered races of people, had originally been created as a game preserve 200 million years prior by an alien race called the Nuwali at the behest of the Beyonders. This “park” was abandoned by the Nuwali and discovered eons later by the original land-dwelling Atlanteans, the people from whom the current Atlanteans derive their name. Fifteen thousand years ago, Atlanteans had turned a section of this land into an amusement park.
Inside this warm, lush world, which he called Pangea, Dante found strange, inhuman peoples. However inhuman, they were sympathetic to Dante’s plight and joined his quest. Belasco, in the meantime, had found vast tunnels deep into the caverns of the valley in which to hide. By the time Dante and his men discovered the lair of the sorcerer, it was too late. Beatrice was mesmerized, wed and impregnated by Belasco during their journey. Dante’s beloved lay upon an altar, about to give birth to a brood of demonic children by Belasco, as promised by the sorcerer’s Elder Gods. The unholy experience of giving birth to a race of demons was too much for the young Beatrice, who died during the ordeal. Driven by fury, Dante fought the sorcerer, blade to blade, but the Elder Gods had kept their promise and made Belasco immortal. Eventually, Dante tired and Belasco managed to disarm his pursuer. All seemed lost until Belasco raised his sword to deal the killing blow. His steel blade opened a gash in an overhead pipe, from which spewed a freezing liquid that encased Belasco in a block of ice.
Whether it was as a result of Belasco’s damage to the park’s machinery, rage by the Elder Gods at losing their disciple, or by strict happenstance, an earthquake rocked the caverns. Dante managed to escape, but the collapsing caverns trapped Dante’s men and allies and seemingly forever sealed the frozen form of Belasco. Having lost his men and his beloved Beatrice, Dante returned to sea and the city of Florence. Years later, he would write his epic poem, the Divine Comedy, based loosely on the events that had just transpired. Belasco would lay in stasis for roughly 700 years. [Ka-Zar the Savage #11]
[Note: According to this story, then, Dante’s Inferno was not an inspired depiction of the Christian Hell, but the description of an Atlantean amusement park from 15,000 years ago which happened to have remarkable parallels to religions from millennia later. Historically, the real Beatrice died in 1290, inspiring Dante’s poem which he wrote from 1308 – 1320. As another historical touchstone, Flavius and Helene (Ebrok’s original Cat People) avoided banishment to the Land Within. They were discovered by the remaining Sorcerers Guild members while performing alchemy and inadvertently started the Black Plague in 1346.]
In the modern era, Ka-Zar of the Savage Land and his lover Shanna discovered the isolated valley of Pangea and began exploring it and its people. They battled a griffin over a dormant volcano and disturbed the mountain by dropping the creature into its mouth. The eruption which followed opened a fissure that revealed the entrance to the amusement park and (secretly within) 
began thawing Belasco from his cold slumber. Ka-Zar and Shanna explored the amusement park with their friends Buth, the winged Aerian and Dherk, last surviving android of ancient Atlantis. As they passed through “Dante’s Inferno,” they fought with the amusement park’s forgotten attractions, Belasco’s true sorcery mixing with the backdrop of Hell, and Belasco’s own demon children, still alive after centuries.
Over the course of their search, the group was separated one-by-one. Ka-Zar had come to suspect Belasco’s presence after reading a journal left behind by Dante, explaining his quest. By the time Ka-Zar found Belasco in his inner sanctum, he discovered that his companions had already fallen to Belasco’s influence. In fact, Shanna, Ka-Zar’s lover, had been declared by 
Belasco to be the perfect reincarnation of his Beatrice. Unlike Beatrice, he mused, she was not fragile and weak and would be able to withstand the rigors of childbirth. After becoming his bride, she would give birth to a new generation of demons. Belasco also hypnotized Buth and reprogrammed Dherk to ensure their passivity to his plans.
On the cusp of victory after so many centuries and having Ka-Zar and his lover so easily in his 
power, Belasco could not resist explaining his actions. He admitted the Elder Gods directed him to the Savage Land originally, the perfect location upon which to carry out the spell for their release. Beatrice had managed to lose the Bloodstone pentagram locket during their descent, leaving Belasco unable to complete his spell before the fateful encounter with Dante. However, Shanna had regrettably found the locket and delivered it right to him when they met. Now the pact he once made with the Elder Gods could finally be completed.
Rather than kill Ka-Zar, however, Belasco made the mistake of imprisoning him for a later death. Belasco’s mistake was further compounded when Dherk managed to free Ka-Zar from his icy chamber, even though the android had been dismembered and nearby destroyed under Belasco’s control. With the help of other dwellers of the caverns, all enemies of the dark sorcerer, Ka-Zar managed to arrive at Belasco’s unholy ceremony, just as he was completing the spell. A rift in space began to open, freeing the Elder Gods to return to Earth and re-conquer their old dominion. Once again on the cusp of success, victory was stolen from Belasco when Buth returned with an army of his people and attacked.
During the ensuing chaos, Ka-Zar made his way through Belasco’s army of harpies and grabbed the ancient locket before the spell fully took hold. Making haste of the moment, Ka-Zar tossed the locket into the fires of the volcano, destroying it and the Bloodstones it contained. Having failed once again, Belasco could only look up in vain at the tear of reality which was quickly closing. The glare of the Elder Gods beamed their hatred and accusations of failure into his black heart. Belasco pleaded with the Elder Gods to 
take him with them. Not tolerant of failure, the Elder Gods had other plans and cast Belasco into the fires of the volcano, screaming in pain the whole way down. With the dark sorcerer gone, his demonic creations ceased to exist, seemingly ending his threat forever. The crisis passed, Ka-Zar and his companions returned to the surface and their exploration of the Savage Land. [Ka-Zar the Savage #12]