Both of these characters have been through a lot of changes over the years, in appearance and attitude. I prefer both of them in their more action-comedy phases - Blue Devil from his original series and Wonder Man palling around with The Beast in Hollywood. Attempts to darken these guys didn't really do much for me as a reader.
Wasn't Blue Devil killed by holy water in an issue of Starman by The Shade's daughter?
ReplyDeleteOf all his costumes, I liked the "safari jacket" Wonder Man best from the late '70's early '80's.
Yeah but he got better.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of fashion? Maybe.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of being grim and gritty a la Batman? Not so much. :-(
i loved blue devil back in the 70's so much that my cb handle was blue devil....how's that....lol
ReplyDeleteBlue Devil was killed by The Mist's daughter and was first published in March or April 1984.
ReplyDeleteI should really look it up, Ross, but I think Blue Devil was one of the post-COIE heroes. BOOSTER GOLD, BLUE DEVIL, BLUE BEETLE, and 'MAZING MAN likely came out around the same time.
ReplyDeleteHas 'MAZING MAN ever appeared here? I don't comment much, but I love this blog and your efforts. I have the site bookmarked.
Haven't used 'mazing man yet.
ReplyDeleteI really love this pairing. I enjoy when you come up with these connections that make complete sense give the hero's backstory. It's usually a case of, "Oh, it seems so obvious now that Ross has put it together." Great work Ross!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Tim!
ReplyDeleteWayne Allen Sallee said...
ReplyDelete"I should really look it up, Ross, but I think Blue Devil was one of the post-COIE heroes. BOOSTER GOLD, BLUE DEVIL, BLUE BEETLE, and 'MAZING MAN likely came out around the same time."
No, BD gained his powers a little while before COIE: I think that the Crisis Crossover issues of his series were c. #14-15.
I really liked that series. When I sold most of my old comics collection about 15 years ago (after I'd stopped adding stuff early in 1991) that was included in the single box of stuff that I deliberately kept (along with Walt Simonson's run on 'Thor', a complete set of 'Coyote', an almost-complete set of 'Badger', and smaller numbers of favoured issues from quite a wide range of other titles).
I had high hopes for Blue Devil when it came out in '84, but dropped it after 3 or 4 issues. I thought the writing was really weak. But he became a good cameo character, popping up in other peoples books.
ReplyDelete@Junior: I feel the same way about Charles Grodin. The guy's hilarious as co-starring comedy relief. But, lead actor? Not so much!
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