Speed Demon (Amalgam Comics)
| Speed Demon | |
|---|---|
| File:Speeddemon.jpg | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Amalgam Comics |
| First appearance | (I) unknown (fake), Speed Demon #1 (April 1996, real) (II) Speed-Demon Showcase #1 (fake), Speed Demon #1 (April 1996, real) (III) unknown (fake), Speed Demon #1 (April 1996, real) |
| Created by | Howard Mackie James Felder Salvador Larroca Al Milgrom |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | (I) Jay Garrick (II) Blaze Allen (III) Wally West |
| Notable aliases | (III) Kid Demon |
| Abilities | Super-speed, generation and manipulation of fire, super-strength, and flight. |
Speed Demon is a comic book one-shot published in 1996. It was released as a part of the Marvel Comics and DC Comics crossover event known as Amalgam Comics.
The one-shot features three characters, all named Speed Demon. All three are combinations of Marvel's Ghost Rider and DC's Flash. However the second Speed Demon (Blaze Allen) is also in part, DC's Etrigan, with some elements of Marvel's Zarathos.
Fictional character biography
Jay Garrick
The first Speed Demon was Jay Garrick (based on the Golden Age Flash and Phantom Rider), who bonded with a demon in the Golden Age. His greatest foe was the Night Spectre, an evil demon who collects souls, as they were the source of his power. Jay Garrick eventually retires as Speed Demon, but was forced to come out of retirement as a much older man, years after the Golden Age had ended, in order for him to fight against the Night Spectre. As the Speed Demon once again, Jay Garrick plays a major part in the Secret Crisis of the Infinity Hour, a huge event that spans across the entire Amalgam Universe. He dies during the event, and the Night Spectre captures Garrick's soul upon his death. His soul was later freed by the second and third Speed Demons.
Blaze Allen
Blaze Allen (an amalgam of Johnny Blaze and Barry Allen) was an amateur mystic whom the Night Spectre discovered. When Blaze Allen refused to allow Night Spectre to take his soul, the Night Spectre left. Blaze Allen, who worked at the Quentin Carnival was eventually married to Iris Simpson by Father Hellstrom. However, just after Blaze and Iris became married, the Night Spectre appeared and drained Iris of her lifeforce. This put Blaze into a deep depression, and he began delving more and more into magic.
Eventually, he was approached by Merlin, who helped Blaze bond with the demon Etrigan, so that Blaze could make sure that Iris' soul would rest in peace, by recovering it from the Night Spectre. By chanting "Gone, gone o' form of man, arise the demon Etrigan," Blaze Allen became the second Speed Demon. In his adventures as Speed Demon, he fought foes including the alien creature Dr. Doomsday, Vengeance, Uatu the Guardian, the Green Goblin, and of course the Night Spectre.
His secret identity was later discovered by his nephew Wally West (an amalgam of DC's Wally West with Daniel Ketch), who also worked at the Quentin Carnival with him, and treated Blaze like a father. After this, Speed Demon battled against the Night Spectre alongside Wally, and they successfully freed the souls being held by Night Spectre, including the souls of Jay Garrick and Iris Simpson.
Wally West
The third Speed Demon was Wally West, the nephew of Blaze Allen, who contacted Merlin after accidentally discovering his uncle's secret identity. Wanting to help out his uncle, he had Merlin bond him with an unrevealed demon. Becoming the third Speed Demon, or the 'Kid Demon', Wally West fought alongside his uncle against the Night Spectre to free the souls held the evil demon. Wally West rides a flaming motorcycle in his first appearance as Speed Demon. When Blaze Allen realized that Wally West was not bonded with Etrigan, he feared what could be the true source of Wally's new powers. The final panel of the comic book showed an image of Night Spectre, seen in the sky, and laughing evilly.
While Etrigan's name, skull, and rhyming speech were retained for the Blaze Allen Speed Demon, though wearing a costume that resembled that of the classic outfit worn by Blaze, the Wally West Speed Demon was almost a dead ringer for the 1990s incarnation of the Marvel Comics character Ghost Rider in all save the coloration of his costume. Although the character only appeared in a few panels, those panels gave the impression that the Wally West Speed Demon partakes of the powers of the Ghost Rider of that time period, as in addition to driving a motorcycle which looked identical to that of the Danny Ketch Ghost Rider of the 1990s with the color again being the only difference between them, he also wielded the Ghost Rider's chain. The only power not seen used by this character was the Ghost Rider's Penance Stare, a power that the 1990s Ghost Rider regularly used to dispatch enemies. This Speed Demon, while on the bike, was shown as being capable of reaching, or nearly reaching, the speed of Etrigan who was capable of superhuman speeds while on foot.