Friday, June 22, 2018

Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil - Blue Devil #1

Blue Devil #1
Cover: Paris Cullins and Dick Giordano
Writer: Dan Mishkin
Artist: Paris Cullins and Pablo Marcos

When I started Dantastic Comics in 2016, I made a stack of comics from my long boxes that I meant to review for it.  Then I forgot about most them.  I was rummaging around for DC Comics Presents #31 when I found this.  I rescued it from the quarter bin sometime in the dim past and I don't remember if I actually read it or not prior to this.

Some men approach ancient ruins when The Blue Devil springs upon them!  In a nice swerve, it turns out they're part of the Blue Devil movie.  Dan Cassidy, a stuntman, is inside the Blue Devil suit, giving him super strength and other powers.  Right away, this feels more like a Marvel book than a DC book.  Dan is lamenting over being a genius with gizmos but not being able to tell Sharon how he feels.

Anyway, the actors are fucking around inside the ruins and awaken the demon Nebiros.  Sharon comes running to Dan and he puts on the Blue Devil suit to fight off the demon.  See where this is going?

Naturally, the director gets the fight on film.  Nebiros blasts Blue Devil and goes on the rampage.  Blue Devil recovers and battles Nebiros and gets taken out a second time.  The star of the movie distracts the demon long enough for Blue Devil to blast him back into the chamber he came from.  With Nebiros defeated, Blue Devil has no trouble talking to Sharon but find that he can't take the suit off!  He's now Blue Devil forever!

I've never heard of Dan Mishkin but this was an action packed tale.  The dialog had a funny edge to it and it felt like a silver age Marvel tale at times.  I was already a Paris Cullins fan from his work on Blue Beetle not long after this and he did a great job on Blue Devil and Nebiros.

This was a solid first issue and made me want to read more Blue Devil.  I think I have more issues in the long boxes but I'll have to dig.  I can see why this series was never popular but I have to think it had a loyal cult following back in the day.  It's quirky and has a sense of humor about itself, not something that was terribly popular in the post-Watchmen world. It was probably a case of wrong comic, wrong time.  I think a Blue Devil revival would work well today.




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