Blue Devil: Hilarious Horror Comedy Superhero Comic

“We were lucky to be around during one of those unusual times.”—Blue Devil co-creator Dan Mishkin

Horror comedy comic book series Blue Devil starred a reluctant monster superhero who served as a kind of opposite-bookend to the legendary Swamp Thing series written by Alan Moore. Both series—Blue Devil and Swamp Thing—took place in the DC Comics universe.

And while Swamp Thing took the opportunity to be creepy about it, Blue Devil crossed paths with the same supernatural forces—hilariously so.

Making his debut in Fury of Firestorm #24 (1984) before kicking off he’s own series with Blue Devil #1 (1984), movie stuntman Daniel Cassidy put on some technological armor to pretend he was, well, a blue devil.

During the filming of the scene, there was a real demon. And there was magic. And Cassidy was bonded with the armor.

So, now he’s a monster—and he’s super powered. And the guy who had been pretending to be a superhero has to be be, well, an actual superhero.

Created by Dan Mishkin, Gary Cohn, and Paris Cullins, the original Blue Devil comic book ran for 31 issues and one annual. Other versions of the character Blue Devil have shown up in later comics, but they seem to have diverted from what made the original run so hilarious. So, as far as I’m concerned, we are only going to talk about the original comics.

Find the original issues of Blue Devil at Amazon (affiliate link)

In this interview, Mishkin talked about the fun era when he co-created Blue Devil, as well as the fantasy series Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld:

“We were asked to come up with new series. Each of those grew out an invitation to invent a lead feature for one of DC’s ‘mystery’ titles, as ‘I…Vampire’ was for House of Mystery. But for whatever reason, they caught the attention of higher-ups who wanted to original series in brand-new titles. We were lucky to be around during one of those unusual times when the company was looking to broaden its offerings. DC decided in both cases that the characters could support their own brand-new books.”—Dan Mishkin talks DC’s supernatural anthology titles and ‘I...Vampire.’ (DC in the 80s)

Blue Devil was the story of Dan Cassidy, a stuntman and Special Effects expert who was part of the crew for a monster movie. He created an amazing, full-body prosthetic devil suit chock full of Practical Effects, and—since this was DC Comics—a strength-enhancing exoskeleton, too.

It was just supposed to be a movie prop. Of course, things got worse.

The movie was being filmed on location in a Lost Mayincatec Temple of Doom. And the film crew accidentally woke up a demon named Nebiros.

Cassidy, fighting the demon in his tech costume, drives it away to save the others. Alas, during the fight he gets zapped by the demon—and discovers that he can no longer take off the suit. It’s now fused to him.

Thanks to this mix of magic and tech, Cassidy is now Blue Devil—and a “Weirdness Magnet.” The unnatural blend of magic and technology caused him to draw the attention of otherworldly beings—ranging from the House of Mystery to Deadman and Etrigan the Demon and everyone else in th DC universe that serves on the occult side.

Terrified at being stuck in the suit forever, Cassidy looked for ways to separate himself from it. Along the way, he became a reluctant superhero. Cassidy had a trident—a mechanical stunt device that was also now magical. Cassidy even had a sidekick, Kid Devil.

The comic book Blue Devil was a hilarious, fun-filled romp through the superhero universe. Find the original issues of Blue Devil at Amazon (affiliate link)

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Further reading online

• The 25 Most Powerful Supernatural DC Characters (CBR)

• Blue Devil's Ian Ziering wasn't 'interested' in talking to people during 'Swamp Thing' filming (Page Six)

• 10 Supernatural DC Heroes Who Need To Return to the DCU (ScreenRant)

• In an age of self-aware superheroes, Blue Devil deserves the spotlight (Syfy)

• The Supernatural World of Golden Age DC Comics (Cosmic Teams)

• Captain Carrot And The Zoo Crew, DC Comics Funny Animal Superheroes, Explained (CBR)

• Supernatural vs DC and Marvel: 15 Marvel and DC characters the Winchesters could beat (Bam Smack Pow)

• David Harbour Offers Creature Commandos Update, Promises ‘Wildly Funny’ Series (SuperHeroHype)

• 10 Characters Reddit Wants To See In James Gunn's DC Universe (Collider)

• 10 Worst Things The Spectre Has Ever Done (WhatCulture.com)

• 10 Justice League Dark Heroes Fans Want in the DCU (CBR)

• DC's Creature Commandos Is 'Wildly Funny,' Says David Harbour (CBR)

• How SWAMP THING Promises to Bring Horror to the DCU (Nerdist)