We've seen her skulking around the corners of The Block, an apparent captive of Shay Veritas.
So who is Blaze?
Well this is the New 52 Blaze, so who knows exactly who she is. But she has existed in the DCU in the past as a Superman villain. Here is the Blaze entry from the 1990's Who's Who series, the 'loose leaf' version of Who's Who.
You can see that the 'giant horns, face in the shadows' look has been around since her inception. Nice art here by Brett Breeding.
And this is a relative early entry it seems as her sibling relationship to Lord Satanus isn't even mentioned.
Here we learn that she does indeed rule a netherworld dimension with a vast amount of tortured souls under her thumb. She also is able to give powers to some of her minions, creating the DC villain Skyhook.
I always wonder about villain's motivations. Despite her rule over an entire dimension, she comes to Earth, sets up a rock club (aptly called Blaze's) to use as her headquarters to corrupt the entire world. A nightclub?
Regardless, this was early in her career.
She has the usual array of demonic powers which makes her a nice villain for the super-family. I think she will be a great villain for Supergirl.
And the last time I saw Blaze was in the strange, inscrutable, and relatively awful Reign In Hell mini-series. There was a muddled reappearance of Linda Danvers and her flame wings (something I always try to forget). In the end of this series, Blaze has killed her brother Lord Satanus and has named herself the Queen of Hell. That's Neron's head on a pike before her! I can't believe I just commented on Reign in Hell again! Yeesh!
Let's see what Tony Bedard has in mind with the New 52 Blaze.
Reign was a great villain in the Superman books. I like the original model, demonic and frightening, a lot more than the sexy "seductress" version we saw in Reign In Hell, so I'm glad to see her returned to the original version.
ReplyDeleteI don't know where to put this -so I'll put it here.
ReplyDeleteDCUonline just did a preview that is a sneak oeek of them adding Supergirl to their 'Legends' part of the game.
The game has a number of parts. The normal part in which you create a character (I made a 'silver age ' Sg & a 'New 52' version)in which you go around doing various 'quests'. The is also the 'Legends' part in which you choose a legendary character-Batman,Wonder Woman,Luthor,etc-and engage in 'PvP' (player vs. player)on various iconic maps.These characters can be either won in tha game or bought in the item store
It seems Supergirl with various powers will soon be one of them! Here is the link:
http://www.twitch.tv/dcuniverseonline/b/510510769
Anon, it was Blaze rather than Reign in those books, Reign is Supergirl villain from the current Green/Johnson run of the book.
ReplyDeleteI think the seductress version on the Reign in Hell cover was part of her Angelica Blaze disguise.
I think my favorite depiction of Blaze was Dan Brereton's version from the Legends of the World's Finest series he did with Walt Simonson in the 90s.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the comments.
ReplyDeleteAnon, I also like the more demonic, under the Spartan helmet.
And Jay, that Simonson/Brereton mini-series is great. It also stars Silver Banshee, another of my favorites. And I think Brereton's work is phenomonal.
Thanks a ton Stephen!
ReplyDeleteWill put together a post about this!