Thursday, May 22, 2008

1970's Flashback: Devil Dinosaur




Written and illustrated by Jack "King" Kirby, Devil Dinosaur #1 (Apr. 1978) ran for nine issues. Devil Dinosaur and his proto-human/ape-like friend, Moon-Boy, are natives of "Dinosaur World".


The young Devil Dinosaur was nearly burned to death by a tribe of Killer-Folk, hostile beings native to his planet, but he was rescued by Moon-Boy, a young member of a rival tribe, the Small-Folk. Exposure to the Killer-Folk's fire activated a mutation in the dinosaur which gave him powers greater than others of his species and turned his skin from olive green to flame red. Devil Dinosaur is fiercely loyal to his constant companion Moon-Boy and seems more intelligent than the average dinosaur (as they are portrayed in the comic). Devil Dinosaur also encounters extraterrestrials, and is briefly transported to Earth via magic before returning to his home world. Devil encountered Godzilla, when S.H.I.E.L.D. shrunk Godzilla using Pym Particles and attempted to teleport him via a time machine into the prehistoric past. However, Godzilla's radiation distorted the time machine so that he was transported to Dinosaur World instead. While there, he briefly united with Moon-Boy and Devil against a common foe before being pulled back to the future, and Devil also battled against the Incredible Hulk when he was hurled into the past by a group of Celestials.

Devil Dinosaur despite often being a source of ridicule in some corners of the comics community, does pop up from time to time, and he could even make a surprise appearance in the current "Secret Invasion" crossover, having previously fought a renegade Skrull who fled to Devil's planet and used his shape shifting abilities to impersonate the late leader of the Killer-Folk, Seven Scars.

Stranger things have happened!

1 comment:

Mr. Karswell said...

Another fun and off the wall series... I ignore what people had to say about this, it's a COMIC BOOK and total over the top escapism fun. The Goon guy did a new version a few years ago that was pretty cool too, be hard to screw up a Devil Dinosaur though, stuff like that writes itself.