Archangel Michael
And lo, it was tasked to Michael, "cast out ye rebellious brethren and whoop some monkey ass". And God saw that it was good.
"But instead of handing over St. Peter's keys like some kind of two-dollar pussy carjacking victim, God takes one look at this thing and is just like, "Mike, show this fucking douchebag the door". The Archangel Michael calmly nods his head, slowly takes the cigarette out of his mouth and flicks it onto the floor, cracks his knuckles and confidently strides towards Lucifer."
"And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer."
The Archangel Michael is one of three named angels in Abrahamic tradition, and is ranked as the commander of the army of God. Generally seen as the Foil to Satan (former angel Lucifer), Michael is one of the most important Angels in the Company of Heaven, as well as the most Badass. Unless Jesus (or Mary) does it personally, Michael will be the one who finally banishes or kills Lucifer for good. Interestingly though, while the Book of Revelation (as quoted above) depicts Michael as leading the heavenly host in this fight, the iconic image of him standing over a defeated Lucifer and kicking him out of heaven personally actually comes from non-canonical texts, and got folded into popular mythology over time.
Michael has commonly been depicted banishing Lucifer from heaven by using the sword, so the Sword of Michael may show up in fiction quite a bit. Said sword is often granted the epithet "Flaming" and Michael himself is strongly associated with the fire element.
Because of meaningful names, most characters simply named "Michael" will generally be good guys. Since they are Michael In Name Only, please don't list them here.
Not that this means that Michael himself has to be a good guy; banishing your own brother to Hell, even under orders from God, can still be seen as Good Is Not Nice.
See also Archangel Gabriel, Archangel Raphael, Satan, and Our Angels Are Different.
Examples of Archangel Michael include:
Anime and Manga
- In Bastard!! Michael is presented as an extremely busty female because, you know, Japan. As a point of interest, some religious sources say that angels are genderless, so Michael would not be partial to what form he/she/it takes when on Earth.
- In My Balls (of all places) Michael accidentally seals Emmaniel, The Queen of Terror, into one of Kouta's ... family jewels. He does come back later to defeat Satan, in a sense. (Let's just say it brings a whole new twist to Michael using his "Sword" to defeat Satan...) Needless to say, this is a raunchy comedy.
- He is the guardian ghost of Marco in Shaman King, and the first Angel seen there.
- Later volumes of A Certain Magical Index introduce Fiamma of the Right, leader of God's Right Seat. Aligned with Archangel Michael, he possesses the very power Michael used to defeat Lucifer and give the human world "one thousand years of peace": The Holy Right. Described as the greatest weapon in history, this power makes Fiamma one of the most broken characters in the series, surpassing even Archangel Gabriel (who is confirmed as being able to wipe out every life form on the planet with a single spell).
- There's also the sword Curtana Original and its replica, Curtana Second, said to grant its wielder(s) the same type of power as that of Archangel Michael so long as they're within the borders of England. They still won't be as powerful as Fiamma though, since Curtana is a mere human imitation of a divine power and not a direct bestowal like Fiamma's is, and Fiamma isn't limited to wielding Michael's power alone.
- In Amon: The Darkside of the Devilman Satan has flashback to his battle with Michael, or rather being kicked in the head by him so hard he felt on Earth. Michael is probably the only angel in Devilman that looks like his classic portrayal.
- Michael appears in "Saint Oniisan" along with Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel. He constantly worries that Jesus might be persecuted while on his vacation on Earth. It's been mentioned that he has a slight temper, but can be appeased by cute pictures of cats. He is also not good at telling lies. At all.
Comic Books
- He shows up in Lucifer. He and the title character are on suprisingly good terms.
- Archangel Michael is a character in Battle Pope. As commander of celestial host, he looks pretty much like winged General Patton.
Fan Fiction
- In the Good Omens fanfic Manchester Lost by JA Moczo, Michael is a well-meaning, demon-smiting Leeroy Jenkins and wants to be the one to kill Lucifer. Despite this, he and Lucifer have a good deal of Foe Yay and in the sequel, the denizens of Hell debate whether Michael should be slashed with Satan or the other brother, Gabriel.
Films -- Live-Action
- In End of Days, Jericho Cane, currently possessed by Satan, impales himself on a sword held by a statue of Michael to stop Satan from having sex with Christine York.
- Michael is summoned to fight the djinn in one of the Wishmaster movies.
- Naturally, the John Travolta movie Michael, in which said archangel is found living on earth.
- In the Prophecy trilogy, Michael is leading the Good Angels in the second part.
- He's the only angel on our side in Legion, though he cuts his own wings off at the beginning of the movie and so winds up physically human. He gets eviscerated by the razor-edges of Gabriel's wings and dies, but gets better and spares Gabriel's life.
- Michael is name-dropped in the Ghost Rider Film, when Johnny takes refuge in St. Michael's church. The stained glass windows in the church depict Michael in his traditional spear-wielding pose. The gravekeeper doing Jonny's stitches mentions "Saint Michael himself" banishing the Devil from Heaven.
Literature
- Has a huge part in Paradise Lost.
- In The Dresden Files, Flat Earth Atheist Knight of the Cross Sanya got his holy sword Esperacchius from Michael. For bonus points, the first knight we're introduced to is named Michael Carpenter, and Dresden refers to him as "The Fist of God".
- Michael has been alluded to on several other occasions, such as by Queen Mab in Small Favor, who knows him as "the Prince of the Host".
- There are hints that Mike, The Protagonist of Stranger in a Strange Land, may actually be the Archangel Michael in human form.
- In the first book of the Young Wizards series, The Lone Power has Archangel Michael on the phone as he sits at his office desk, casually calling him Mike and asking if he sent the protagonists into the alternate New York. "Moonlight and starfire - you know, your kind of stuff." While they seem to be on generally good terms with each other, it's clear that they're still officially at war.
- "Archangel Michael" is just one of the identities s/he's been given by humans. The books so far mention s/he's also been identified as Thor, Athena and Prometheus, and s/he most probably shows up in a lot of other mythologies.
- Within the books themselves, the Michael Power has also appeared as a prophetic parrot, and while co-inhabiting the body of an Irish teenager.
- In addition to Michael's traditional duties, s/he also has the duty of keeping God's True Name in two separate pieces, since if it was kept in one piece its raw power would destroy several universes.
- "Archangel Michael" is just one of the identities s/he's been given by humans. The books so far mention s/he's also been identified as Thor, Athena and Prometheus, and s/he most probably shows up in a lot of other mythologies.
- I, Lucifer has the Archangel Michael discussed in passing and eventually having a tense conversation with Lucifer himself.
- Michael from The Guardians isn't the Michael... But he was named after his father's best friend, who is.
- Manwe from The Silmarillion isn't exactly Michael, but he's very clearly positioned as Middle-Earth's counterpart to him, down to being the highest ranked divine being after Eru and being the good counterpart to Morgoth.
- Tulkas is more alike in terms of personality, as he's the Vala who likes to wrestle and fight, though he's a comparatively low-ranked Vala rather than anything close to a leader or "God's right-hand".
- He is the embodiment of elemental arse-kicking, though. In that respect, he can be seen as stronger than his brothers and sisters, and Morgoth was actively afraid of him.
- Tulkas is more alike in terms of personality, as he's the Vala who likes to wrestle and fight, though he's a comparatively low-ranked Vala rather than anything close to a leader or "God's right-hand".
- In Katherine Kurtz' Deryni novels, there is an order of warrior-monks, many of whom are also powerful sorcerers, called the Order of St. Michael; you don't mess with the Michaelines. (They are contrasted with a pacifistic order of healer-monks called the Order of St. Gabriel.)
- In one of his many essays CS Lewis points out that that The Devil, who is (regrettably) intelligent and the most beautiful of all angels (things which are pretty much always Good) is not, in fact, the opposite and rival force of God, but he's in fact the Rival and Anti-Michael.
- The cosmology of Stationery Voyagers would agree with CS Lewis above. Martarel is so obnoxious that the Vile Chameleon desires his overthrow almost more than God's overthrow. While Minshus finds the Chameleon absolutely annoying, balancing the budget sheet of Volition Dilemma is a much bigger deal to him.
- Mihka'il is an Anti-Villain in Storm Constantine's novel Burying the Shadow.
Live-Action TV
- In Supernatural Dean Winchester, Michael's vessel, is described as "The Michael Sword". In this form Michael is destined to slay his brother Lucifer (who will occupy Sam's body) to end the Apocalypse and bring about Paradise on Earth. Michael himself has finally made an appearance by way of the 1970s version of John Winchester, revealing that the Winchester bloodline is made up of his vessels. Dean is not happy to learn this. Also, he's just as much of a know-it-all dick as Lucifer. And then it turned out that Adam could also be used as the vessel. While inhabiting Adam, he's thrown into Lucifer's cage along with his brother in the season 5 finale.
- A recurring character in Xena: Warrior Princess season 5.
- Michael is alluded to numerous times by demons in Reaper, and his famous sword becomes an object of interest toward the end of the first season as well.
Religion
- Latter-Day Saints believe that Michael assisted in the creation of the world, and subsequently came to earth as the first man, Adam.
- Seventh-Day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Michael is another name for Jesus Christ, used in his pre-Earthly existence.
- While Michael is commonly perceived as one of the highest-ranking angels, some Christian traditions place archangels at the bottom of the angelic hierarchy, as God's lowly messengers and soldiers. The highest orders in these traditions are inhuman in appearance and have more metaphysical duties. Others differentiate between lower-case and capital-A Archangels, with the latter being above all the ranks and Michael being the highest of them. However, angelic hierarchies are Word of Dante, as angel talk is extremely limited in both the Hebrew scriptures and the Greek scriptures. Hebrew Canon never even uses the term "archangel."
Tabletop Games
- Michael is the Archangel of War in In Nomine.
- In In Nomine Satanis / Magna Veritas, he's a converted Viking that sometimes relapses into some pagan practices (such as weapon worship or keeping trophies). Also, he still wields a battle axe instead of a "noble" weapon. But nobody says anything, because without him Heaven forces would lose their best warrior.
- Archangel Michael was a prominent figure in the Old World of Darkness fluff. In Demon: The Fallen, he succeeds Lucifer as the Voice of God after his Fall but loses to him in the first engagement of the War of Wrath, despite wielding what is likely the very first weapon Created specifically to fight (his Flaming Sword). Later, he was the one to announce God's curses upon the Fallen Houses. In Vampire: The Masquerade, he delivers one of God's four curses upon Caine, the first vampire.
- In the Armageddon expansion of Witchcraft, Archangel Michael left Heaven and founded The Alliance because she was pissed off at Gabriel. Gabriel is one of the setting's biggest pricks.
Videogames
- Appears as one of the Seraphs in the main Shin Megami Tensei series.
- Commonly a high level persona of the Judgment Arcana in the Persona series.
- In Persona 3: FES, personas can be infused into a certain material to make special weapons. Most personas give rise to a generic weapon whose power depends on the starting level of the persona, but Michael is one of the few exceptions – his weapon is a very powerful one-handed sword that enhances magic.
- Commonly a high level persona of the Judgment Arcana in the Persona series.
- In the Guilty Gear series, one of Justice's moves (And later its Overdrive variant) reference Michael and his weapon (Michael Sword and its Overdrive version "Michael Blade") It stands out amongst the series' myriad Shout Outs to heavy metal bands.
Webcomics
- He's the principal of the school in Evil Diva.
- The story arc in #250-253 of Pokey the Penguin involves Pokey dying, going to heaven, driving over the Archangel Michael with his new formula one racecar, and volunteering to be the new Archangel.
"LET ME DO IT I AM A GOOD ARCHANGEL! I ALREADY HAVE THE WINGS AND THE GUN! JUST GIVE ME THE WHISKEY!!!"
- He takes a role in Thunderstruck.
- Mike from CRFH might be him, according to a recent dream/flashback sequence, which would make this a late-established Meaningful Name.
Web Originals
- In The Salvation War, Michael is a Magnificent Bastard trying to make it look like Yahweh is subjugating the angelic population of Heaven, so that when the armies of Earth invade Heaven, they'll think the angels were just as much victims of Yahweh as the dead humans that the angels are using as domestic slaves.
Western Animation
- The main angel seen in South Park.
- One-shot character Groovy makes mention of "The Sword of Michael" in a second-season episode of The Venture Brothers. An Expy of Scooby that only the Expy of Shaggy believes can talk, it tells him that he is the sword, says something about cleansing fire, and was likely prompting him towards serial murder a la Son of Sam.
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