- #1-2 - Origin: Etrigan, Merlin, Jason Blood; (Morgaine le Fey, Warly). Intro: Randu Singh, Harry Matthews, Glenda Mark.
- #3 - The Reincarnators
- #4-5 - Ugly Meg and the Iron Duke (Kamara, #4)
- #6 - The Howler
- #7 - Klarion the Witchboy (last Merlin)
- #8-10 - Phantom of the Sewers (Farley Fairfax)
- #11-13 - Baron von Evilstein (Rakenstein)
- #14-15 - Return of Klarion the Witchboy
- #16 - Morgaine le Fey, Warly the Warlock
I have been trying to remember the first "Demon" comic I read. I bought the Matt Wagner mini-series new off the shelves, so that may have been it. I was buying Alan Moore's Swamp Thing as backissues right around the same time, so #25-27 of that series may have been it as well. I was also buying backissues of Jack Kirby's original series right around then, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't it. I bought Amazing Heroes #93, which cover-featured the then-upcoming Matt Wagner series, and I know I read that before reading any of Kirby's. In that issue, J. Vance provided a "Hero History" of The Demon which I found fascinating. He didn't like all of the issues (he classified them loosely as "The Peak" (#1-6), "The Plunge" (#7-10) and "The Pits" (#11-16), but I found even the descriptions of the issues he didn't like to be fascinating. For the record, I disagree with his assessment, or at least his conclusions; I find the entire series to be of a kind, and you either like it or you don't.
Vance went on to detail all of Etrigan's appearances between Kirby's series and Wagner's (Brave & the Bold, Detective Comics, Wonder Woman, DC Comics Presents, Swamp Thing, Blue Devil), which I used as a roadmap to plot my near-term backissue purchases. I found most of them and read all the ones I did, but I've read few of them since. Later this month DC will publish a "DC Finest" collection of the original series plus a good number of the follow-up stories I mentioned. What took me weeks (if not longer) to acquire on the backissue market back in the late '80s, will soon be available in one swell foop... and if you tell modern fans they're living in a Golden Age of comics, they won't believe you. But I digress...
I have read the original Kirby series quite a few times over the years, but what I'm really looking forward to (re-)reading are those post-Kirby stories. Yet I nevertheless felt the need to refresh those first 16 issues in my mind before jumping into Detective Comics #482. So review (or not) as you see fit, and I'll see you back here on February 25 (or thereabouts).
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The Demon's first non-Kirby appearance was The Brave and the Bold #109 by Bob Haney and Jim Aparo, released between The Demon #13 and #14, which is where the editor slotted it in this collection. I understand why he did it, but it breaks up the "Kirby" flow. If it'd been me, I'd've been tempted to slot it after #16. The Haney story isn't very good, but the Kirby series isn't all that great, either. As Cap put it (in another discussion): " I wouldn't be feeling particularly inspired, either, if my magnum opus had been canceled out from under me." I bought it the DCF primarily to have the post-Kirby material on good paper stock between two covers, but that makes for a pretty slim volume, I must admit. I cannot recommend it on that basis, but if you need The Demon #1-16 as well, this would be a good buy.
The story concerns a creature bent on killing every sailor in Gotham in revenge for a death sentence passed on its mortal form 90 years before. Here's what J. Vance had to say about it: "Jim Aparo's art was good, but unusually muddy in reproduction [corrected in the collection]. Far worse was Bob Haney's script, which, though fairly consistant in terms of story, betrayed a total misunderstnding of Kirby's characters. Etrigan spouted warmed-over Thor dialogue ("Aye, Randu, and thither fly we to rescue Batman..."). For the sake of 'drama,' Merlin was dragged in to behave like Odin at his most childish, removing Etrigan's 'demon power' (as opposed, one must presume, to Batman's human power) simply because his busy servant had missed an appointment, putting him at the mercy of the killer creature, only to restore it four panels later. As mediocre as the solo stories had become, this was infinitely worse."
The second non-Kirby "Demon" is The Brave and the Bold #137, also by Bob Haney, which appeared nearly three years after the last issue of The Demon, actually inferior to the first. Vance again: "An ancient Chinese wizard called the Shanhn-zi returned for a rematch wuth Batman (who'd previously defeated him with an assist from the Spectre). Jason and glenda, having sorted things out so far as to having become engaged during the intervening years, happen upon the situation while playing tourist in Gotham's chinatown. Jason offers Batman his aid, to Glenda's consternation (but then, she should've known that bettothal to a demon from Hell would have its drawbacks). The Shanhn-zi's goal is world domination, of course, and to keep the mis-matched heroes out of his hair he turns Etrigan into a fly, Batman into a vampire bat, and finally himself into a cobra. (Don't ask.) Author Haney calls Merlin in from left fieldagain to stingily grant Etrigan shape-shifting ability on a one-time basis. Becoming a mongoose, the Demon brings the threat of the Shanhn-zito an end, allowing all involved to return to human form--except the story, which stayed a turkey from beginning to end."
A year later, Etrigan guest-starred in the "Man-Bat" feature of Batman Family #17, with art by Michael Golden. Although J. Vance did cover this story in his Amazing Heroes article, this is not one I picked up back then and read it for the first time today. To say that I am not a Man-Bat fan would be an understatement, but Etrigan and Morgaine Le Fey haven't looked this good since Kirby. Batman, Batgirl and Huntress also appear, and Golden draws himself into the story as a security guard.
I've read up through here so far in the DC Finest, and this is definitely the best of the three non-Kirby stories so far (faint praise, though I liked the first Brave & Bold teamup more than you or Vance). Golden's art is really appealing. Just a couple more stories left in this volume, though I remain surprised the Blackbriar Thorn story from DC Comics Presents wasn't reprinted here; it might have more to do with how subsequent volumes are mapped out.
The Demon next appears in Detecive Comics #482-485. Although parts 2-4 have been reprinted in The Steve Ditkko Omnibus v2 (as well as The DC Universe by Steve Ditko Omnibus), I have waited many years for the first chapter, by Michael Golden, to be reprinted on high-quality paperstock. the transition ffrom Golden to Ditko is interesting, plus it's always interesting to see Ditko's "take" on a Kirby character (see also Marvel's Machine Man). this four-parter alone make the DCF collection worth it to me.
One thing that surprises me about the DC Finest volume is that they didn't include any material from the Kobra stories that Randu appears in. I assume those issues are where he was stricken with the blindness mentioned in Batman Family. True, they're not Demon stories per se, but the Green Arrow volumes inclide Black Canary stories!
Yes, that is when Randu was struck blind (and no, it would not be out of place to include select panels or pages from Kobra).
The Demon doesn't appear again for another two years, when he, his supporting cast and Klarion the Witchboy were brought in for the conclusion of an ongoing storyline concerning a think-tank called the Delphi Foundation in Wonder Woman #280-281. I was almost certain I bought these as backissues back in the '80s, but I see now that I did not. The good news is that that brings the total up to four comics I had never read before in this DCF, and ten non-Kirby "Demons" under the same cover on good paper; the bad news is, these comics aren't very good. that's all right, though! The point of these collections (or a point, for me) is to show the evolution of a character over time.
Wonder Woman #281 brings the DCF to a close, but if DC had included just one more issue, they could have ended the volume on a high note. OTOH, perhaps their intention is to begin the next volume on a high note. Luckily, this is one I bought as a backissue back in the '80s, and I have no idea when, if ever, a second DCF volume will be forthcoming. Three years pass, and Etrigan makes his next appearance in DC Comics Presents #66, written by Len Wein (who wrote the four-issue serial in Detective Comics) and illustrated by Joe Kubert. If it's interesting to see both Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko put their individual stamp on a given character, it is evem more interesting to see a character handled by Kirby and Ditko and Kubert. In this story, Wein drops the Demon's supporting cast (except for Glenda) as well as all the trappings of the original series (Merlin, the Philosopher's Stone, the wrestling, etc.) and adds one of his own: rhyming. He flirted with the idea before, and even Jack Kirby had Etrigan speak in rhyme as far back as The Demon #3, but in this story he speaks entirely in couplets, foreshadowing things to come. I'll tell you what I really wish: I wish DC had started the DCF with the non-Kirby material and left off the original series, which has already been reprinted many times.
This was probably my first Demon comic -- which is why it came as a surprise to me later that the Demon didn't always rhyme! I thought that was his thing!
Etrigan's next appearance (and the Kamara's) was in Swamp Thing #25-27 in what proved to be the best use of the character since Kirby, arguably the best use of the character ever. for a more detailed look at this three-parter, see the Swamp Thing discussion, starting on page 11.
Later, Etrigan appeared in Hell in Swamp Thing Annual #2.
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