"The Day All Hell Broke Loose" |
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| Writers/Co-Creators: | Gary Cohn & Dan Mishkin |
| Penciller/Co-Creator: | Paris Cullins |
| Inker: | Gary Martin & Bill Collins |
| Letterer: | Bob Lappan |
| Colorist: | Shelley Eiber |
| Editor: | Alan Gold |
The evil megalomaniac Felix Faust is attempting to get his hands on two orbs. One is on the east coast, the other on the west. The one on the east he attempts to steal by using Durwood's Dictum of Digital Domination. Through this powerful spell he controls the Creeper and Man-bat to the purpose of procuring the orb from the Museum of Natural History. Thing is, he can only control Creeper and not the Creeper's alter ego. So Jack Ryder escapes with the help of Madame Xanadu, the Phantom Stranger, and Etrigan, which delays Faust for a while.
The other orb is in the possession of Dan Cassidy, though he doesn't know it. So during a test of some animatronics, Faust causes chaos to errupt, and he attempts to snare the orb while no one's looking. Phantom Stranger and Etrigan stop him.
After the Creeper and Man-bat get mystical protection from Durwood's Dictum, Faust has to resort to making the orbs hatch. That's right! The orbs were, in fact, eggs. Out spring a bunch of baby Nebiroses. Big trouble if any of these guys grow up. So on each coast, the heroes do what they can to get rid of 'em. For Etrigan, that means eating them. For everyone else, it means scooping them up in mystic nets that return them to Nebiros's Hellish dimension. And Black Orchid shows up using some basic brute force.
Okay. That's that, right? Uh uh. Faust opens a portal to his monster birthing pit and one baby Nebiros escapes, enters, and grows to Nebiros type proportions. Not only that, but it has Nebiros's powers and memories, meaning it wants nothing more than to kill your favorite blue hued devil. After that...well, this is taking too long so I'm gonna sum up. They all send the Nebiros spawn back from where he came--piece by piece--and then the Phantom Stranger punches Felix Faust, rendering him unconscious.
Felix Faust: Ah, sweet mayhem! And while that azure anthropoid is otherwise engaged--Faust the Cunning will seek his prize! (thinking) "Faust the Cunning"--that has a certain ring to it! (speaking) So this is the lair of the celebrated special-effects "wizard"...! Mere tricks of electronics and camea angles, these! But somewhere in this dross I'll find a far more diabolic entertainment! And it will be the means by which Faust the Cunning (Gods! I like that) shall rule the world!
Etrigan: Once, devil, I most wrongly called you foul and did regret my swiftness to indict! I make amends now and I name you "pal"! Stand clear! You're rescued by a demon's might!
Blue Devil: Huh?! Who invited you to this dance?!
Phantom Stranger: The game plays on! And you still warm the bench, Daniel?
Blue Devil: Aw, what the heck--send me in, coach! And later on you can tell me what sport this is!
Blue Devil: Who are you to tell me to keep calm, for Pete's sake?
Phantom Stranger: I am...a stranger!
Blue Devil: Well, hey, that sure clarifies things, all right.
Creeper: He's disoriented! That means it's my turn to play pin the wings on the Man-bat!
Madame Xanadu: Hold him, Creeper! He must be subdued!
Creeper: Easy for you to say...you don't have to smell his breath!
Etrigan: I see no qundary here, nor hellish doom! Who cares if larval beasts abound? Just scoop their bodies off the ground...they're only tasty tidbits to consume!
Blue Devil: No, thanks...I'm just learning to like sushi!
Phantom Stranger: In all my travels--through worlds undreamed of by mankind...as I have witnessed glory turned to folly by unreasoning fate, I--
Etrigan: (scuffling with Blue Devil) Grrr!
Phantom Stranger: Hey! Cut it out, you two...! The Phantom Stranger is talking!
Blue Devil: Oh. Sorry.
Blue Devil: What the--? I've got my tunic on now! I'll bet none of you magic guys even owns a suitcase!
Phantom Stranger: I thought you might feel more at home in battle garb, Daniel!
Blue Devil: If you want the truth, I could probably feel more at home in a cemetary at midnight--but nobody ever seems to ask before they drop me in the middle of a fight! So let's just get it over with!
Felix Faust: Halt! Why must you super-beings always meddle so? I only seek world domination! Is that really so much?
Phantom Stranger: Leaving the lab, Paula stumbled and pricked her fingers on the thorns of those selfsame stems! Soon the girl was exhibiting remarkable powers induced by the radiation and she vowed to use them only for good, battling evil as BLACK ORCHID.
Creeper: Waitaminnit! Madame Xanadu, I thought you said...
Madame Xanadu: Think, Jack Ryder! Orchids have no thorns!
Phantom Stranger: These orchids did! They were special!
Madame Xanadu: Of course, Stranger! Everything is special in your stories!
Creeper: No, wait! Let me say something! We all got together on this caper by accident...but I think we made one terrific team! This could be the start of something big--a regular group! A spooky Justice League of America, maybe! We'd call ourselves--I dunno--the Creeper and his Spirit Squad! Whaddya think?
Black Orchid: The seven of us...a team?
Madame Xanadu: All for one and one for all?
Phatom Stranger: Monthly meetings?
Blue Devil: Why, that's--
All: --the stupidest idea I've ever heard!!
I'm going to go so far as to say that this is not only a classic issue of BLUE DEVIL, but a classic comic book...period. Anybody who has ever had an affection for DC's more mystical, or just plain weird, characters, owes it to himself to read this annual...which doesn't take any of them seriously for a minute. My two personal favorite moments involve the Phantom Stranger. The first when he is addressing the audience towards the beginning ("Men call me the Phantom Stranger, and some say that I stand aloof from worldly matters...") only to be interrupted in his monologue by Madame Xanadu and Jack Ryder, both smirking from inside Xanadu's curio shop as Xanadu raps on the window to get PS's attention. The second later on when another monologue is interrupted by Dan and Etrigan ("The Phantom Stranger is talking!").
Another clever plot element of this Annual is Cohn and Mishkin's handling of the Black Orchid's origin. See, Black Orchid just sort of turned up in the late 70's in an issue of Adventure Comics and never got any kind of origin story until the late 80's when Neil Gaiman took a stab at her over at Vertigo. Here we see the Phantom Stranger and Madame Xanadu attempting to explain how she acquired her super-human abilities in hilarious parodies of Daredevil (slapped in the face by radioactive orchids) and Spider-man's (pricked on the hand by thorns from irradiated orchids) origin stories.
And, you know, Creeper was right about one thing--these characters did make a good team. Etrigan is great here. This may be my favorite interpretation of the character. Cohn & Mishkin definitely have a Suess-like talent for the whole twisted poetry thing. I'd love to see an Etrigan one-shot by these two writers, but I don't think you're allowed to have fun with dark characters like this anymore. But then again, if Giffen and DeMatteis could get away with FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE JUSTICE LEAGUE in this day and age, I'll continue to believe it's still possible.
This issue contains a Blue Devil board game--sort of like the game Life, if your life were as weird as Dan Cassidy's. You can play as Marla, Norm, Sharon, Gopher, or Wayne as you move about a board with such squares as "Someone sez, "Errol Flynn!" Time to duke it out with Vanquisher! Lose One Turn!" Occasionally you might land on a "weirdness card" space and have to pick a card with such events as "Zatanna has eyes for Danny! Sharon, Lose One Turn fuming! Norm and Wayne, Lose One Turn gawking! Marla and Gopher, Roll Again!" and "Superman's here to lend you a Hand of Tomorrow! No, WAIT! It am Bizarro! Ahead to Finish--er--Back To Start!"
Hmmm...other notes? This was a return to the title for Paris Cullins who--though he's often associated with BLUE DEVIL--only actually pencilled the first six issues. In the letters column Alan Gold attempts to preemptively halt the "Bring back Paris" campaign he feared would inevitably ensue after his quality job with this annual. "Paris sagaciously decided not to commit himself to a regularly scheduled project in the near future." I really like Paris's work. It's densely panelled yet easy to follow, and he draws the definitive Blue Devil in my opinion, but I think I'd like to see more backgrounds. A minor complaint in light of how well he does humor, and to a lesser extent, action. I'd have liked to have seen more of his work as well.
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