Charles Palene (Earth-616)

Charles Palene was a juvenile delinquent in San Francisco who by chance bumped into a cult sacrifice ceremony at the Library of Rhan in 1961. Rescued from the blade of a cultist (from which he grasped the Sacred Necklace of Rhan) by the timely arrival of SFPD, he was nevertheless judged and sent to a work farm but easily escaped. He then went on a spree of petty crimes, met with success thanks to (unbeknownst to him) the necklace.

He was eventually caught, and the series of crimes had him sent prison at Alcatraz Island, but allowed to keep a necklace he had grasped during the cult encounter. He found out in the prison library about its use in invocations and summoned Goblins who served him, helped him escape and contributed in him creating a new identity as Charles Palentine, a successful politician.^[1] With the Goblins wrecking havoc in San Francisco, Palentine gathered enough supporters to oust and replace the Mayor by claiming this was a Biblical event and that the citizens should burn the city to get rid of the threat, while the previous Mayor had suggested quarantine during the crisis.^[2] However, the Goblins summoned their own leader, Demogoblin, who found out and killed Palentine to replace him.^[3]

He knew some magics to invoke Goblins^[1] and to use the power of the Sacred Necklace of Rhan, even when not wearing it.^[3]

Sacred Necklace of Rhan^[3]

• Per the Sliding Timescale, this character may not be old enough to have served time in Alcatraz. Alcatraz stopped operating as a prison in 1963,^[4] meaning that if he was sent there at around 18 in 1963, he would have been born in 1945, and would have be around 50 at the time of the publication of the comics (1993-1994), but he'd have to be in at least his 70s when considering the sliding timescale - unless he discovered how to use magic to delay his own aging, either completely or illusorily. Venom: Enemy Within #2 has Palene's diary dated at June 3rd, 1961, date of his 17th anniversary, but doesn't discloses the period between this and his imprisonment at Alcatraz.