DC Relaunch: Demon Knights

Jack Kirby, often referred to as "The King of Comics," who assisted or single-handledly created most of Marvel's staple characters, came in and left the DC universe with a wonderful smattering of characters during a time that many consider to be him at his peak. One of these odd little characters was the Demon, Etrigan. An odd little turn around on a Jekyl and Hyde scenario, the Demon was actually a cruel meddling of the wizard Merlin in a last ditch effort at Camelot. And the he leaped into the present day. The DC Universe has had many other characters running around the Medieval times, and so its appropriate that someone would want to put a band together...

Enter the Demon Knights. Cause who best to save the world in dark times such as those? Along with Madame Xanadu (who has managed to sneak her way into two books, kudos m'lady), the Shining Knight, and whoever else might be around (no doubt we'll be surprised), the curiosity may lay less with its members and more with its missions. Because what exactly would you be doing if you're being led by a demon (and one that rhymes at that).

An aspect of the character that I've always liked is the other side to the coin. I mentioned Jekyl and Hyde earlier, and while Etrigan may represent the Hyde side, the Jekyl, Jason Blood, is no slouch. A childhood friend of Merlin's, he is an immortal mage, forever tied to his destiny of chains with the demon. He is often ruthless, which may be the influence on his back. But the modern Blood is less active, he is reclusive, resigned to his position (most often, anyway). So I am interested to see how this plays with the demon being a more recent inhabitant.

Paul Cornell is a British writer of both comics, TV, and novel. He has written for television, most notably for Doctor Who (adapting a story he wrote previously in prose), but also for Robin Hood and Primeval. He worked for Marvel a bit writing Wisdom, Captain Britain & the MI-13 (which was nominated for a Hugo Award), and at DC writing Action Comics. Art will be handled by Diogenes Neves, who most recently has worked with Zeb Wells on New Mutants and Green Arrow with JT Krul.

As far as the Demon is concerned, collected, there's not exactly a wealth of material, despite having the Jack Kirby series, as well as a long-running series by Garth Ennis. However, there is always this:

Jack Kirby's The Demon Ombinus by Jack Kirby

Tomorrow, Frankenstein LIVES AGAIN