Blue Devil

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This article is about DC Comics character. For the university mascot, see Duke Blue Devils.
Blue Devil

Portion of the promotional art for Shadowpact #4 (October 2006) cover, by Steve Scott.
Publication information
Publisher DC Comics
First appearance Fury of Firestorm #24
(June 1984)
Created by Dan Mishkin (writer)
Gary Cohn (writer)
Paris Cullins (penciller)
In story information
Alter ego Daniel Patrick Cassidy
Team affiliations Shadowpact
Justice League
Sentinels of Magic
Abilities Superhuman strength, durability, vision, and hearing
Healing factor
Can find demons on Earth and banish them to Hell.
Highly trained martial artist and acrobat.

Blue Devil is a superhero featured in material published by DC Comics. He first appeared in a preview story published in Fury of Firestorm #24, cover dated June 1984. That story lead directly into Blue Devil #1, also cover dated June 1984.

Contents

[edit] Fictional character biography

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Blue Devil #1 (June 1984), cover art by Paris Cullins.
Blue Devil #1 (June 1984), cover art by Paris Cullins.

Daniel Patrick Cassidy was a special effects wizard and stuntman hired to create and play the title character in the movie Blue Devil. To that end Cassidy created a full-body costume with a hidden powered exoskeleton and built-in special-effects devices. When two of his co-stars accidentally freed a demon named Nebiros, Cassidy used his costume to drive the demon back, but not before being blasted with mystical energy. After the fight, Cassidy found that the blast had permanently grafted the Blue Devil costume to his body.

Cassidy quickly finds himself embroiled in repeated adventures and conflicts with supervillains, as his newfound status has turned him into a "weirdness magnet". Never stopping to seek a way to remove his costume, Cassidy starts to enjoy his new lifestyle, and becomes more and more confortable as a superhero, even accepting a place in the Justice League of America. He gains a sidekick of some sort, when Eddie Bloomberg, his former gopher and fanboy, designs a suit similar to his own to adventure as the Kid Devil.

[edit] Blue Demon and later alliances

Seeking more fame and thrills, at some point in his life after his accident, Blue Devil is approached by the demon Neron, offering faustian bargains to heroes and villains in exchange for more power, or, in Cassidy's case, fame. Neron grants him his desire, and sends him to destroy an unmanned electrical substation in the desert. Blue Devil complies, as apparently it's only an harmless nuisance, but it causes the death of Marlene, his best friend and aunt of Eddie. Even if the mediatic effects of the loss are enough to attract several movie offers, years later Neron is able to pit Eddie against his former idol, shattering their bond of trust seemingly forever, damning Eddie to Hell and servitude in future and Daniel to a lifetime of remorse.

Opposing Neron, Blue Devil is able to foil partly his short-terms plans, but dies in the process, only to be restored to life as a real devil, no more a man in an organic suit. Ironically, Cassidy is a devout Catholic, even if now despised from the Catholic Church and even unable to set foot on consacrated ground without self-immolating.

Cassidy then joins the Justice League again, until his second death at the hand of Mist, showered with holy water. His bones are retrieved by Sebastian Faust, who much later restores him again to life, seeking help to restart the fires of Hell during the Day of Judgment storyline. Blue Devil has now the chance to confront Nebiros himself, empowered by a magic trident seemingly given by the King of Lies himself; he uses his chance to stall Nebiros, stripping him of his trident and allowing Firestorm to deal the killing blow, while back on Earth the other heroes of the Sentinels of Magic save the world again.

Cassidy then joins the Sentinels of Magic and partners with Faust, though this friendship was not all Cassidy's will. As an act of kindess and care, Faust restores to Cassidy his last bone, and his freedom. Blue Devil, unable to hold back, sacrifices again his life against Hermes Trismegistus, but once again as a true devil is restored to life again, tasked to roam the Earth with Lucifer's Trident banishing escaped demons back to Hell.


[edit] One Year Later

One Year Later Cassidy is employed as a bouncer at the Oblivion Bar, an interdimensional place for magical beings, and there is recruited by Ragman, Enchantress and the Detective Chimp to fight against Spectre in Day of Vengeance. With his enhanced demonic strengh, he's the heavy hitter of the Shadowpact, the so-called assemble of magical heroes devoted to fight for every lost cause, even able to wound Eclipso. Feeling again necessary, he stays with the team, to look over the wild magic of the Tenth Age.

He spends the missing year trapped in Riverrock, Wyoming, a city hidden by a blood shield by an assembly of evil magical being, called the Pentacle. There he meets, or rather meets again, Jack of Fire, a red, muscular demon (very like Hellboy) hiding a disfigured, boney face under a black bandana, claiming to having being turned into a demon by the actions of Daniel, as in the very same moment Neron granted fame and powers to Cassidy as the Blue Devil, the dead parents and siblings of Patrick were dragged from Heaven to Hell.

From then on, Blue Devil's life starts going downhill: even if in his personal timeline passed only a few days, the Enchantress was forced to steal a year of life out of every Shadowpack member to shatter the bloody barrier, in fact reshaping reality into making the whole Shadowpack disappear under the blood barrier from an entire year. Blue Devil so returns home, presumed dead and risking to lose his possessions, and haunted by his actions.

Even if he tries to avoid a confrontation with Kid Devil, his protegee now turned into a demonic-looking metahuman by Neron himself, he's forced to explain to him his role in Marla's death: Kid Devil, who swore eternal loyalty to Neron when he turns out-of-age unless he could still trust Blue Devil more than anyone else, feels so deeply betrayed to distance himself from his former idol, resigning himself to an eternity of servitude.

To add further misery to his condition, Blue Devil is demoted to the rank of 'rhyming demon', in fact aknowledged as one of the most powerful and influent demons in Hell (in DC Universe Hell, a demon is as influent as his rank is low), and Zauriel is dispatched by Heaven to fight him. His demotion is explained the paradoxical condition of his being both a hero and a demon: being famous and loved by everyone, he makes Hell a glamorous place, spurring weak minds to attain his glamour by selling their souls to hell. Zauriel, on behalf of his good faith, accepts to take Blue Devil's place in the Shadowpact, giving him enough time get out of his infernal deal.

He then puts his case in the hands of an eager lawyer, more than happy to be able to confront Hell itself in an hall of Justice, while he accepts to fight 13 labours, as the mythical Hercules before him, on behalf of the Catholic Church as a show of good will.

Returning to Hell for the final hearing, he discovers that Jack of Fire was the one selling his sibling's soul first, with Daniel merely following unwillingly. As his lawyer remarks to the Infernal Court that Blue Devil never became a successfull actor, the Infernal Court declares his contract void, as no one, not even a demon, has the right to sell the soul of others. Lucifer's Trident, and Blue Devil's rank, are transferred to Jack of Fire, and Daniel turned back into a mere human.

However, as Jack of Fire is now allied with the all-powerful Sun God, but plots to betray him in retailation for his harsh treatment and lead an army of demons on Earth, Daniel feels forced to unearth a new suit of armor, very similar to the one he wore during his Hollywood years, but more powerful. He sets of to fight his brother, who refuses the fight altogheter. Instead, after a brief confrontation, aknowledging that the Sun God will eventually kill him for his betray, commits suicide in front of Blue Devil, naming him inheritor of all his powers and demonic status - but now along with a soul. Blue Devil rejoins the Shadowpact to fight and win the Sun God, and Zauriel finally gives his role and place in the group back again.

[edit] Powers

Even before he became Blue Devil, Dan Cassidy was a highly trained martial artist and acrobat. His costume included Kevlar body armor, visual and auditory amplifiers, radio gear, mini-gills allowing underwater breathing and servo-motors which increased his strength at least twentyfold. After being grafted to Cassidy's body the costume became organic and gained the ability to self-repair at an extremely fast rate (effectively a healing factor). Cassidy's abilities seem to have been changed little by his transformation into an actual demon.

In his current incarnation, Blue Devil still possesses some degree of superhuman strength, capable of going toe-to-toe with beings like Eclipso, and knocking out a power-drunk Enchantress in one punch. He is also remarkably resistant to physical damage, evidenced when Eclipso threw him a distance of approximately 500 feet upwards, he didn't even require time to recover before getting up and heading back into the fight.

Originally, Blue Devil wielded a trident of his own design which included, among other things, rocket engines capable of carrying two people at high speeds. He now carries the Trident of Lucifer, which allows him to find demons on Earth and banish them to Hell. During a battle with Eclipso and the Spectre the Trident was thrown into the ocean; it was recovered shortly after by Aquaman who returned it to Cassidy, and much later given to Jack of Fire.

Briefly resuming his human body with a more powerful exosuit, Cassidy is given back his Trident and demonic powers by Jack of Fire, but as a "demon with a soul".

[edit] Other versions

  • In Kingdom Come, there is a background character named Blue Devil II, an indigo-skinned demon with wings who was visually based on Chernabog, the demon from the Disney film Fantasia.
  • In the comic book adaptation of Justice League Unlimited, Blue Devil is the featured character of issue number 25.
  • Blue Devil has appeared in a few episodes of Justice League Unlimited, including "Dark Heart" and "Destroyer" (in which he had a brief speaking role). In the episodes he appeared in his original costume.

[edit] External links