May Bennett

May Bennett, also known as Mother Mayhem, was the biological mother of Sebastian Sanger and served as the leader of the Church of Blood until her death at her son's hands.

Biography[]

Early life[]

In 1996, May went through a series of jobs and encountered Dr. Adamson after she was fired from her most recent job at Rotary Resources Group. He recruited her to the Organization despite her initial skepticism. A year later, she lives with the cult of Trigon alongside Gina and enjoy strawberries together before they are interrupted by Adamson and invited to partake in a trial of sorts, which the two women endure a month later.^[1]

May was chosen to mother a child to Trigon and was honored to do so, bringing a child to term in 1998. She and the child were deemed failures and a heretics when the child was born a boy, as Trigon's prophecised heir would be a daughter, and May insisted that Sebastian was the one. Her son was taken from her and May was locked in the same Asylum as Angela until she was inadvertently freed when Koriand'r burned the establishment down and Gina rescued her.^[1]

At some point, May discovered the whereabouts of her son Sebastian.

Sometime after 2019, May began working with Lex Luthor in an attempt to find a cure for his Kryptonite poisoning under the guise of being an archaelogist and claimed that she had been working on the project since as early as 2014.^[2]

Church of Blood[]

In the years following her escape from the asylum, May formed a cult of her own named the Church of Blood with Gina by her side.

Personality[]

She is a natural leader who always carries the threat of violence with her... a predator in human form with an unfettered belief in her mission in the world. She holds onto the belief that her son, Sebastian, is the rightful heir to Trigon and fights for him against anyone to stands in her way.^[3]

May is shown to be passionately devoted to those she loves. She impressed Trigon with her heart when she encouraged and held up Gina during the trials, and her adoration for her son haunts her for over eighteen years after she is imprisoned, and she tolerates being marked a heretic for her loyalty to her son. May appears to care for some others too, particularly Gina, whom she forgave for her betrayal and remained a loyal friend to for many years: she was reluctant to kill Gina as Trigon had commanded, despite Gina accepting it, and embraced her friend before killing her.^[4]

Powers and Abilities[]

Powers[]

May was born with magical powers that developed over time. Her notorious aptitude for magic caught the attention of Dr. Adamson, who convinced her to join the Organization. By definitively becoming Mother May and leader of the Church of Blood, she potentially became stronger.

• Magic: May has magical powers that initially manifested themselves imperceptibly. However, upon joining the Organization and becoming leader of the Church of Blood, she experienced an increase in her magical power, which now manifests itself in the form of a dark mist with red rays. She can channel her magic both to cast spells and for attack and defense.
  • Magical Energy Projection: May can generate and release magic in the form of powerful reddish beams that have proven strong enough to throw Conner away and stun him. She can also transmit her magical energy as electrical rays through matter, as she did when causing damage to Gar and Tim. During the battle against the Titans, she was able to use her magical energy to resist, for a certain time, the combined attacks of the magic of Rachel and Kory's burst of energy.
  • Magic absorption: When being attacked by Rachel, May took advantage of the situation to absorb the titan's dark magic for her future ritual.
  • Magic Resistance: May has been shown to be more resistant to spells than other magic users. She was able to easily and quickly free herself from Jinx's paralyzing magic.
• Casting Curses: Being a sorceress, May can cast spells and curses. She has an affinity for a characteristic blood curse that kills its victims by forcing them to grow and expel large black snakes that kill the victims shortly thereafter. She can also take advantage, while the snake is still in the target's body, to use it as a parasite, as she did inside Conner to slowly kill him.
• Necromancy: May is able to reanimate and control corpses, including more than one at once. She formed a troop of "magical zombies" and sent them to get her son. May even managed to reanimate Deathstroke's body, but with the difference that he was stronger and more resistant than other reanimated zombies.
• Possession: May is able to command bodies through her magic, both the living and the dead. Even remotely controlling her troop of zombies, she controlled the movements of Deathstroke's corpse as if it were her own body. To possess the living, May needs her magic to penetrate their bodies, as it was with Conner, using her serpentine curse to possess him and communicate with Sebastian through this.
• Blood Manipulation: May has demonstrated the ability to manipulate and make blood constructs. This power was the basis of his curses, which developed a huge black blood serpent within his victims.
• Illusion Manipulation: May can create illusions and use them to change her voice, to create her doppelganger, who can fool even Superboy into believing he is real even after touching and killing her.
• Plant Manipulation: May was shown to be able to bring dead plants back to life, as she did with the seedling that was in the office where she worked.
• Technopathy: May can use her magic to interact with machines and electronic devices. She managed to fix a broken printer in the office where she worked.

• Telekinesis: May can interfere with the movement of objects with her magic. While fighting Nightwing, she paralyzed him and then threw him through the air without needing to touch him.
• Teleportation: May was able to reach Elko's Diner in moments via teleportation...

Abilities[]

• Staff Mastery: She could match the skill of Nightwing with her staff.
• Occutilism: She is very skilled in magic knowledge.
• Master Deception: She is very good at manipulating people. She was even able to trick Lex Luthor into believing her ruse of being merely an archaeologist for a number of years.

Weaknesses[]

• White Magic: Rachel Roth was overpowering her shields using white magic, causing her to ask for Sebastian's help.

Equipment[]

• Staff: May wields a long staff to perform magic and various abilities. ^[5]
  • Energy Absorption/Deflection: The staff can absorb and deflect Superboy's heat visison.
  • Soul-Self Absorption: The staff also absorbed Raven's umbrakinesis, thus absorbing her Soul-Self with it.
  • Electricity Generation: It generated enough electricity to shock all the Titans, before Starfire fought her way out of it.

Appearances[]

Season 4[]

• "Lex Luthor"
• "Mother Mayhem"
• "Jinx"
• "Super Super Mart"
• "Inside Man"
• "Brother Blood"
• "Caul's Folly"
• "Dick & Carol & Ted & Kory"
• "Game Over"
• "Project Starfire"

Gallery[]

Promotional stills[]

Season 4[]

Concept art[]

Trivia[]

• In 2019, May Bennett was an inmate in the Agnews Asylum while Koriand'r was burning down the Agnews Asylum and escaping the facility with Dick, Rachel and Gar.
• Franka Potente who plays May is barely more than six older than Joseph Morgan, who portrays her son Sebastian.

Behind the Scenes[]

• In the DC comics, Mother Mayhem is a high-ranking member of the Church of Blood. Living in Zandia, she becomes wife to the current Blood and raises his heir. The first woman to use the name was Anna Resik, mother to the eighth Brother Blood. Her successor is May Bennett, mother to the ninth Brother Blood. 

References[]