Who the Clix? is a series of articles featuring information on comic book characters that have been made into figures for the popular tabletop game Heroclix. These articles are meant to help Heroclix players learn more about the characters behind their favorite pieces.
Today we look at the stuntman turned “weirdness magnet”: Blue Devil
Appearances in Heroclix: Justice League Trinity War, Collateral Damage
First Appearance: Fury of Firestorm #24
Team Affiliations: Shadowpact, Justice League, Sentinels of Magic
Daniel Patrick Cassidy was a special effects wizard and stuntman. He is hired to play the title character in an upcoming movie called Blue Devil. Cassidy is given free reignt o build and design a full body costume to depict the character. This suit ends up having a fully powered exoskeleton and several different special effects devices. Two of his co-stars accidentally free a demon named Nebiros and Cassidy is able to use his costume to drive the demon back but not before being drowned in mystical energy. After the fight, Cassidy finds that the costume is now permanently a part of his body.
Daniel has little time to adjust to his new life as he is repeatedly pulled into strange adventures and battles with supervillains; somehow the mystical energy has turned him into a “weirdness magnet.” It is only a matter of time until Cassidy, having failed to remove his costume, begins to grow fond of adventuring and playing the hero in real life. This leads to him gaining membership in the Justice League of America as well as gaining a sidekick in Eddie Bloomberg, the Kid Devil. Cassidy eventually sets up the House of Weirdness with Cain the Caretaker as his superintendent.
Cain goes on to accept a deal from the demon Neron that offers him fame and fortune as an actor, requiring only a simple act of destruction as payment. Cassidy complies, believing that the unmanned electrical substation’s destruction will be of little consequence. However, this event leads to the death of Kid Devil’s Aunt Marlene, a close friend of Daniel. Enraged at this deceipt, Cassidy goes on to foil Neron’s other plans but dies in the process. This death does not last long as Cassidy is restored to life as an actual devil.
Blue Devil returns to the Justice League and adventures with them. His second life is cut short when the Mist showers Cassidy with holy water. After this second death, Sebastian Faust recovers the Blue Devil’s bones and resurrects him in hopes that Cassidy will help restart the fires of Hell. Blue Devil confronts the demon Nebiros in Hell and strips him of a powerful trident, weakening the demon enough that Firestorm is able to defeat him while the Sentinels of Magic save the world. Cassidy returns to earth with the powerful trident, believed to be Lucifer’s own, and joins the Sentinels of Magic. He gives his life in battle against Hermes Trismegistus, only to be resurrected again thanks to the trident. He then begins to walk the earth, using his trident to banish escaped demons back to Hell.
After this, Blue Devil takes on the role of bouncer at the Oblivion Bar, an inter-dimensional watering hole for magical creatures. Ragman, Enchantress and Detective Chimp travel there to recruit him to Shadowpact as they need his help in fighting the Spectre. All of Shadowpact is trapped in Riverrock, Wyoming behind a blood shield created by a group of evil magical beings calling themselves the Pentacle. To break this barrier, the Enchantress is forced to steal a year of life from everyone in the town. As a result, the rest of the world has moved on and believed the town, as well as Shadowpact, long lost.
As Blue Devil struggles to rebuild his life after his time away, he confronts Kid Devil. In the lost year, Kid Devil had made a deal with Neron for powers like Blue Devil and in exchange, Kid Devil would become Neron’s servant on his 20th birthday – only if he lost his faith in Blue Devil. When Blue Devil confessed to his involvement in Marlene’s death, Kid Devil recognized his own damnation and fled. At this time, Blue Devil is also demoted to a “rhyming demon” (much like Etrigan).
The angel Zauriel confronts Blue Devil and explains that because Cassidy is both a hero and a demon, he is causing many humans to sell their souls to become like him. Zauriel takes Blue Devil’s place in the Shadowpact to grant him time to find a way out of his deal.
Blue Devil enlists a lawyer eager to be in a court of law with agents of Hell and undertakes twelve great labors for the Catholic Church. At the final hearing in Hell, Blue Devil discovers that his brother, now known as Jack of Fire, had actually sold Daniel and their parents’ souls. His lawyer argues that because of this, it is only Jack that can return Daniel’s soul and, using his rhymes, Daniel tricks his brother into doing just that. However, Daniel then loses Lucifer’s trident and is restored to a mortal man.
Jack, having aligned himself with a powerful sun god, plans to rebel against the sun god and lead an army of demons in an invasion of earth. Unable to stand by while this happens, Daniel builds a new and better suit of armor and confronts his brother. Jack refuses to fight Daniel, realizing that his rebellion is doomed, and commits suicide in front of Blue Devil. As he dies, Jack names his brother as the inheritor of all his power, thus transforming Daniel back into the mystical Blue Devil without the cost of his soul. Re-powered, Blue Devil rejoins Shadowpact and together they defeat the sun god.
Blue Devil recruits Zatanna and Sargon the Sorcerer to accompany him to Hell and help him make a deal with Satanus in hopes of hurting Neron. Once they arrive, Cassidy pleads to join Satanus’ forces against Neron in exchange for his humanity being restored. Cassidy brags that he is powerful enough to defeat Etrigan, who serves Neron, and is instantly transported to do battle with the demon. Etrigan defeats Blue Devil and steals the remainder of Cassidy’s humanity. Later, Satanus releases a magical drug throughout Hell and, as a side effect, Daniel is transformed back into a human but without his soul. Etrigan, now trapped in a body resembling Jason Blood, offers Daniel his soul back but warns him that because of the drug, if he regains his soul he will be trapped in a demon’s body forever. Cassidy accepts and goes through great trials, later being the only one that rejoins the Shadowpact as reformed by Detective Chimp.
During the Blackest Night, Blue Devil, Zatanna and the Phantom Stranger arrive at the desecrated grave of Batman. Black Lantern rings take control of Crispus Allen and Blue Devil and the Stranger attempt to fight the Black Lantern Spectre only to fail miserably.
Blue Devil is later captured by Felix Faust and Nick Necro to be used as part of a magically powered weapon that would defeat the creature that destroyed the Crime Syndicate’s Earth.