Kid Devil

Red Devil
Kid Devil, from a panel in Teen Titans (vol. 3) #56. Art by Eddy Barrows.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	As Edward: Fury of Firestorm #24 (June 1984) As Kid Devil: Blue Devil #14 (July 1985)
Created by	Alan Kupperberg Dan Mishkin Gary Cohn
In-story information
Alter ego	Edward Alan "Eddie" Bloomberg
Team affiliations	Young Justice Teen Titans
Notable aliases	Kid Devil
Abilities	Enhanced strength and agility Ability to breathe fire Skin hot enough to burn others when touched Healing Factor Teleportation Flight

Red Devil (real name Edward Alan "Eddie" Bloomberg), formerly known as Kid Devil, was a superhero in the DC Comics universe. Created by Alan Kupperberg, Dan Mishkin, and Gary Cohn, he first appeared in Blue Devil #14.

Fictional character biography

Origin and early heroics

Eddie had the good fortune of being a gofer in his Aunt Marla's film company. He met Blue Devil on a film set, and became quite a fan of the hero, dreaming about one day becoming Blue’s sidekick.

Edward snuck into Blue Devil's workshop at night and, using his prodigious knowledge of electronics, created a battlesuit incorporating the designs of the Blue Devil suit. Even though Blue Devil didn't want a sidekick, Eddie was determined to make a go at being a hero. As "Kid Devil", he assisted his hero in foiling an airplane hijacking, and later helped defeat one of his enemies, the Vanquisher. After these adventures, his parents left Eddie's education and supervision to professors at the Institute of Hypernormal Conflict Studies.

After Eddie's Aunt Marla died in a helicopter crash, Eddie attempted to live up to her name and succeed in the movie business. His attempts failed, however, and Eddie continued to have adventures as Kid Devil. He helps Young Justice's assault on Zandia, a small country that has become a refuge for supervillains.^[1]

Changes and Titans

Since the events in Infinite Crisis, Eddie has tried to join the Teen Titans with little success. Pulsar helps Eddie into a project Lex Luthor has been using to give normal humans superpowers. However, Eddie fails because of "psychological problems." One evening, Eddie is visited by a cloaked figure who gives him a candle. Eddie then goes to find his friend, Zachary Zatara. Zatara, being a magician, knows a little about magic and tells Eddie that the candle is a demon stick, forged in demon's blood. Zatara tells Eddie that if you light it, it will take you to its creator (which could be anyone). Eddie asks if after teleporting them both to the creator, whether Zatara could just teleport them back. Zatara brags that he could, even though his magic could only affect things, not people. Not knowing Zatara's inability to teleport anybody anywhere, Eddie decides to light it, and the two are taken to Neron. Neron makes a deal with Eddie, transforming him into a new Kid Devil. Neron's magic gives Eddie a new, demonic appearance and inherent superpowers. As part of the deal, Eddie won't lose his soul to Neron if he can still trust Blue Devil by his 20th birthday. Before Eddie leaves, Neron tells him that it is Blue Devil's fault his aunt died. Zachary helps Eddie join the Teen Titans, they battle Kid Crusader, and Zachary promises to keep his secret.

One Year Later, a rift has formed between Eddie and Zachary. Though Eddie is still friendly with Zachary, the boy magician wants nothing to do with Eddie or any of the other Titans. Eddie also forges a bond with Rose Wilson, as both new members feel like third string Titans. For many months, Eddie tells the Titans of multiple daily phone calls to Blue Devil as his way of confirming that "everything is fine".^[2]

On a Titans mission, Eddie is disemboweled by Plasmus and the EMTs are unable to help him. The new Doom Patrol arrives and take Kid Devil to their HQ for treatment, where the Chief heals Eddie, while also attempting to manipulate him into joining the Doom Patrol (as he has done to the other DP members). During the operation, the Chief revealed to Elasti-Girl that Kid Devil isn't truly a demon by nature, but rather his powers are the result of metahuman gene manipulation. Robin calls Blue Devil, as he is on Kid Devil's emergency contact list, but finds that the number is out of order. Robin eventually tracks down Blue Devil and tells him the situation. Blue Devil tells Robin that he hasn't seen or spoken to Eddie in two years. When Robin confronts Eddie about his relationship with the Blue Devil, Eddie confesses he was only pretending, in order to better fit in with the Titans. The Chief's manipulation is stopped by both the Titans and the other members of the Doom Patrol, which makes Eddie feel as if he is finally accepted as a Titan since they stood up for him. He also tries rekindling his bond with Blue Devil, but the man does not show up to a meeting Eddie invited him to. Later, Eddie finally finds and confronts Blue Devil.^[3] Blue admits that he was to blame for Aunt Marla's death, as an accident. As part of a deal for gaining fame and fortune, Blue Devil was tasked by Neron to destroy an unmanned power plant. Despite Blue Devil's various precautions, a resulting power surge accidentally killed Marla, who was scouting the nearby area for a film. Eddie storms off before Blue can explain further, telling Blue to stay far away from him. Now having lost his trust in Blue Devil, Eddie knows that he will lose his soul to Neron. Still, Eddie decides to make the best of his remaining years by having a good time with his friends. He comforts himself by saying at least he has Marla's memory and Neron can't take that away from him. However, it is revealed that Neron is holding Marla's soul captive.

Kid Devil is attacked by Kid Crusader who vows to "save" him from Neron by turning Eddie back into a human and killing him.^[4] Kid Crusader appears to succeed, when he exorcises the demon from Eddie and returns him to his human form, but the demon is then bound to Kid Crusader himself. When given the choice later to either return to his demonic form or stay human, Eddie chooses his demonic form, not wishing to damn anyone else (even his enemy) to his fate as Neron's protégé.

Titans Tomorrow

In Teen Titans #51 (vol. 3), the Titans Tomorrow (a possible future version of the current Titans team) arrive in the present to aid the Teen Titans against Starro-controlled villains. Kid Devil is shown as part of the team, now known as Red Devil. He claims that even though the loss of his soul to Neron at 20 was bad, the power he receives far outweighs the consequences.

Eddie initially watches as Ravager battles alone against Rampage and Livewire, before betraying his older self in order to aid Rose. Later, Rose, Red Devil, and Eddie return to the Titan's Lair (home of the original Teen Titans), where they meet with Blue Beetle. There, Eddie learns that he is supposedly destined to murder the Blue Beetle some point in the future.

Shortly after Eddie, Rose, and Jaime find themselves surrounded by an army of Titans led by Lex Luthor, before they all battle against an invading army of Starros. Thanks in large part to Blue Beetle's powers and Robin and Wonder Girl managing to supposedly alter Robin's future (and thus alter the future of the Titans as a whole), the army of Titans is supposedly defeated. However, prior to his vanishing, Red Devil warns Eddie against trusting Blue Beetle.

Terror Titans

In Teen Titans #56 (vol. 3), a group of supervillains under the leadership of the new Clock King began a systematic assault on the Titans. With Wonder Girl, Blue Beetle, Ravager, and Robin away, and Miss Martian still reeling from the battle with her future counterpart (whose mind is revealed to have taken refuge in Megan's), Eddie decides to throw a party in Titans Tower and invites several Titans fans. The party quickly gets out of hand when the guests trash the place, go through personal items, and prank calls Batman. Lectured by all members of the team, (except Miss Martian, who had left for the week to resolve her own problems) Eddie goes into town with one of the guests, who reveals himself to be Dreadbolt, son of Bolt. A fight ensues and the arrival of the rest of the Terror Titans puts a quick end to the battle.

In the aftermath, Kid Devil finds himself chained to a wall and severely injured, captive of the Clock King, who then begins shattering his self-confidence telling him that Rose Wilson couldn't care less about his status, encouraging him to accept his place as a monster. Brought to the Dark Side Club as a challenger, he's imprisoned in the same cell in which Miss Martian is later brought, who finds him reduced to a rampaging, savage monster due to his physical and mental ordeal. M'Gann tries unsuccessfully to undo the damage, but Eddie is brought to face Hardrock in a death match.

Red Devil

After the crisis with the Terror Titans is settled, Kid Devil is saved, and with the help of the Teen Titans is able to rebuild his mental sanity while he's nursed to health.

Still trying to prove himself, he begins searching for Shockwave, who's rampaging apparently without a pattern throughout America, deliberately hiding from Robin his suspicions to avoid burdening the decimated Titans with an apparent wild goose chase.

He is forced then to accept the unwilling cooperation of Blue Beetle, who, demonstrating to be a better detective than him, and a more seasoned fighter despite his later induction into heroics, goes on alone. In a fit of anger, spurred by his inability to come in and fight Shockwave, he finally unlocks the full might of his demonic powers, as demonstrated by his future counterpart, teleporting effortlessly from Salt Lake City to Denver, and melting off Shockwave's exoskeleton with a touch.

Kid Devil is able to resolve his jealousy issues about Ravager when he learns that Blue Beetle had no interest in her at all. He then honours his newfound maturity by taking the sobriquet of Red Devil. Jaime happily teases Eddie about his new costume, hinting that while in the Tomorrow history they were sworn enemies, at present they have a budding friendship, signified by Eddie giving Jaime the playful nickname "Bug-Butt" which Jaime reciprocates by calling him "Sizzle-Shorts".

Around this time the events of 'Final Crisis' happen; Eddie becomes one of the last few super-powered resistance members operating out of the time-tossed Justice League Watchtower. The Miracle Machine restores everything back to normal.^[5]

Unfortunately, soon after Blue Beetle joins the team, Miss Martian, with whom Eddie had become increasingly closer, has opted to leave the team due in large part to her being merged with her evil future self. Still, Eddie appears to have become more content with his life amongst the Titans, and has become closer to Blue Beetle and his girlfriend Traci 13. During a Christmas trip to New York, Miss Martian appeared to him to wish him a Merry Christmas and promised that she would return soon.

Soon after, the Titans began having a membership drive, with Red Devil teleporting to each potential hero so as to offer them membership. Unfortunately none seem available or willing to join. The stress of multiple 'ports eventually causes Eddie to pass out on his return to the tower. On the night that follows, Robin opts to leave the team shortly before Brother Blood returns from Hell. During the battle against him, Blood manages to absorb the demonic power from Eddie, leaving him human again and supposedly free of Neron's debt.

Powerless

Eddie, now powerless, is offered by Kid Eternity to travel to Hell and see his contract with Neron in an attempt to regain his powers. Learning he hasn't signed the contract, he finds that Neron tapped into his metagene, which activated his demon powers. Blaze, having won the War in Hell, offers Eddie a new contract with his demonic powers now irrevocable, but with the same price of servitude as Neron's contract. Kid Eternity intervenes and summons Eddie's Aunt Marla. Marla convinces Eddie not to take the contract. Eddie continues to be a member of the team, but his ability to help is unclear.^[6] To add insult to injury, Eddie is asked by new Titan recruit Static if he is the "team janitor" due to his lack of abilities.^[7] During the prelude to the Deathtrap crossover, Eddie dons his old mechanical costume to combat the Tower's defense mechanisms, which had been overridden by crazed former Titan Jericho.^[8]

His way of helping, which Bombshell repeatedly makes fun of, is to be the eyes and ears for the Teen Titans when the new Fearsome Five reform under the Calculator. However, he is also seen as helping the team through communications and coordinating missions at Titans Tower.

He later died saving the city from a radioactive man who was about to explode while the other Titans were putting down a prison riot. It appears that this was all part of the Calculator's plan to get revenge at the Titans for the previous death of his son Marvin and injury of his daughter Wendy.^[9]

New 52

In The New 52, Eddie Bloomberg has been seen as the god-son to Blue Devil in DC Presents #12.

Powers and abilities

Originally, Eddie wore a Devil suit which gave him enhanced strength and agility, near impenetrable armor, a weapons system that included bright light burst effect, exploding bubbles, night vision, and mini-gills. He also had a rocket trident which could propel him through the air for distances of up to several miles and could emit flames and/or electric shocks.

After the events of Infinite Crisis and 52, Eddie has a demonic appearance and inherent abilities, both granted to him by Neron. His new form gives him a capacity to breathe fire, enhanced strength and endurance, and an ability to heal from non-fatal wounds ten times faster than a human. When punched in the stomach, Eddie can't control his fire breath. Eddie's blood is now a thick gasoline-smelling liquid, his breath is hotter than fire, his own skin is able to cause burns (being at two hundred degrees) and he has been seen to be able to increase this to the point of his skin turning white hot, he can fire streams of flame from his hands, has retractable wings underneath his arms, he possesses a prehensile tail, and his internal temperature is six hundred degrees. He learned how to create portals of fire through which he can travel long distances.

When Dr. Niles Caulder, leader of the Doom Patrol, tended Kid Devil's injury, he revealed that the young hero isn't a demon despite his powers being granted by the demon lord Neron. Rather, Neron activated Eddie's metahuman gene which gave him his powers. However, like a real demon, his skin still burns while inside a church, most likely due to his contract with the demon, Neron.

Eddie lost his powers due to an attack by the new Brother Blood, Sebastion, shortly before sacrificing himself to save the other Titans.

Other versions

Flashpoint

In the alternate universe of Flashpoint, Kid Devil is a member of the Resistance.^[10]

Tiny Titans

Kid Devil appears in Tiny Titans as a toddler. Raven often has to babysit for him. Her father, Trigon shows more of an interest in Kid Devil than in Raven when she does. He thinks of Kid Devil as "a cute little baby". Raven will often tell him that Kid Devil is not a baby, he is a little kid. However, he does not listen, and babies Kid Devil more. Kid Devil does not speak in this series, and relies solely on visual gags. In one issue, Kid Devil travels to the center of the earth with Terra, Hot Spot, and Beast Boy, and meets Etrigan.

References