Blue Devil Annual #1 is an issue of the series Blue Devil (Volume 1) with a cover date of November, 1985.
Synopsis for "The Day All Hell Broke Loose"
Jack Ryder is running through the streets of New York at night, and is being pursued by the Man-Bat. Jack sees Madame Xanadu's shop up ahead, and runs into it, with Man-Bat narrowly missing him. Man-Bat angrily flies around the shop outside, and Jack fears he may break the shop window and come after him. Madame Xanadu appears, and assures Jack that creatures of the night cannot enter her shop. She tells Jack that she knows him as Jack Ruder, and as the Creeper. Outside, the Phantom Stranger decides that he won't sit by and ignore pleas for help any longer, but Madame Xanadu opens the door and tells him that she can handle this herself. With that, she slams the door in his face. Jack and Xanadu turn and see the Stranger standing, without his cape, inside her shop. As Jack notices the Stranger's cape was caught in the door, Xanadu flips a deck of cards at the Stranger, who ducks and avoids them. As the two begin to fight, however, before either can act, they're both seized by a mystical force, and they both hear a voice, chastising them for fighting. Everyone is greeted by the voice, who is none other than Etrigan the Demon.
In Los Angeles, Dan Cassidy is practicing a staged fight with some low-grade robots he built for $2,000,000 apiece to use in their new movie, Blue Devil II. Marla Bloom tells everyone that they can break for lunch, and she and Dan walk off discussing the robots. Dan leaves to go inside his workshop, but Felix Faust is also sneaking around near Dan's workshop, and he has other plans. Needing something to distract Dan with, Faust uses his magic on the nearby robots, and they come to life, almost trampling several security guards. Dan rushes to the rescue, confronting the robots, but trying not to break them. While Dan is busy with the robots, Faust enters Dan's workshop and claims his prize, a medium-sized, blue sphere. Suddenly, the Phantom Stranger appears behind Faust, and commands him to surrender the pearl to him. Outside, Dan is taking a heavy beating from the robots, when suddenly, Etrigan jumps into the fray, slicing the robots to pieces with his claws. As Etrigan brutally destroys the robots, Dan tries to explain why they're so Important and tries to stop Etrigan from completely pulverizing them. But soon, Etrigan quickly finishes the robots, reducing them to a small pile of damaged parts. Marla hugs Dan, and Etrigan tells them that he's ready to except their thanks. Dan explodes at Etrigan, calling him an idiot and telling him that he just cost them $6,000,000 by destroying the robots. Etrigan turns on Dan, and prepares to attack, when Dan's workshop suddenly explodes. The three of them see Phantom Stranger and Faust fighting each other with magic, and Etrigan enters the fray. Etrigan blasts hellfire at Faust, and swipes the sphere, Faust returns the magical blasts, and Etrigan drops the sphere while dodging them,. Dan decides to help, but before he can do anything, Faust disappears in a puff of smoke. As the three of them wonder what happened, Etrigan examines the sphere, and proudly informs Dan and the Stranger that the sphere is, in fact, an egg.
Back in New York, Xanadu and Jack are taking a cab through the city, and Jack explains how he go to her shop in the first place.
- Jack Ryder felt a strange fog in his mind, and was being subliminally commanded to climb the Golden Gate bridge. He was afraid that if he didn't the fog would never lift, so he became the Creeper and climbed to the top. When he got to the top, the Man-Bat swooped down and snatched him up of of the bridge, and began flying away. The shock of what had occurred cleared Crepper's mind for an instant, and he twisted out of Man-Bat's grip and changed to Jack Ryder, where he landed on a rooftop. Man-Bat pursued Ryder all the way to the shop.
Ryder explains that he's afraid that if he becomes the Creeper again, the fog will return. Meanwhile, inside his lair, Faust is controlling the Man-Bat. He commands Man-Bat to fly to the Museum of Natural History, and steal a large, purple egg in a glass display. As Man-Bat breaks the glass, the Creeper shows up, as does Madame Xanadu. Creeper tells Xanadu that the potion she made to help clear his mind is working, and Xanadu blinds Man-Bat with a spell. Creeper takes the opportunity, and jumps at Man-Bat, landing on him, and clings to Man-Bat as he frantically flies around the room. As the Creeper struggles to subdue Man-Bat, Xanadu collects the egg that Man-Bat was after, and the Creeper is able to pour Xanadu's potion into Man-Bat's mouth. The Man-Bat collapses, but reawakens momentarily, angry at whoever did this to him.
Inside his lair, Faust, enraged that his control over both the Creeper and Man-Bat has been broken, decides to change the game, and cracks an egg on his crystal ball. Back at Dan's workshop, the egg that Etrigan is holding begins to change. Etrigan realizes what's happening, and drops the egg. The egg hatches and tons of little orange creatures come out of it. Back at his lair, Faust recalls seeing the movie Blue Devil, which captured the footage filmed of Dan fighting Nebiros in his Blue Devil suit for the first time. Faust then casts a spell on a small pit of liquid, and the liquid begins to boil. Madame Xanadu contacts the Stranger, and informs him that she, the Creeper, and Man-Bat are being overwhelmed by the creatures, demon imps, that came from the purple egg that they had. Stranger tells her that they can't help, since they too are being overwhelmed by imps. Etrigan begins eating the imps, Stranger resolves to take action as Etrigan is, and hands Dan a butterfly net. Back in New York, Xanadu, Man-Bat, and Creeper are using the special butterfly nets to capture the imps. Several of the imps from together into one large imp, which charges at the Creeper. Before the Creeper could be run over, the Black Orchid flies in and picks up the imp, slamming it back down onto the concrete where it bursts apart into little imps again. Creeper asks Xanadu who she was, and Xanadu tells Creeper the origin of the Black Orchid.
Faust, realizes that the imps aren't homing in on their birthing point, but rather, they're hopping about randomly. Faust opens a doorway, and the imps begin jumping through it. Xanadu, Creeper, and Man-Bat follow the imps through the doorway. In L.A., Wayne sees Dan running through the streets with a net, and is slightly confused. He tells Dan that he brought the egg back as a souvenir from Ile Du Diable, where they first met Nebiros, as a souvenir. But when the egg started glowing, he dropped it off at Dan's workshop figuring he'd know what to do with it. Dan looks in his magic net and realizes that the imps came from Nebrios' dimension. Dan looks up, and notices Wayne is gone. Dan says he'll kill Wayne, but Etrigan tells him to wait until the imps are dealt with. Dan catches another imp, just as Etrigan stuffs more imps into his mouth. Etrigan says something but Dan tells him not to talk with his mouth full, and asks where the other imps went. Etrigan, angry, says that they've all been sent back to hell, and kicks Dan in the butt. Dan and Etrigan begin fighting, but the Stranger tells them to stop, because he's talking. Etrigan and Dan stop fighting, and Phantom Stranger teleports them to the mountains, where Faust's hideout is. Stranger also magically summons Dan's tunic and puts in on him. They see Xanadu, Creeper, Man-Bat, and Black Orchid rushing towards Faust's base at the top of the mountain. Faust's use a spell, and lightning strikes all around them. Etrigan sees another imp, and goes after it. Faust takes control of Dan, and makes Dan punch Etrigan in the stomach. Xanadu says that she has no potion left to snap Dan out of it, so they'll have to stop him anyway they can. Everyone attacks Dan, with Creeper punching him, Man-Bat kicking him, and Etrigan beating him over the head with a rock. While everyone is worrying about the mind-controlled Dan, none of them notice the last remaining imp, which makes it to the birthing pit of boiling water.
Dan snaps out of it, and everyone apologizes for attacking him, except for Etrigan, who says that he enjoyed it. Black Orchid flies up and grabs Faust and drops him off of the edge of the mountain, where he falls to his apparent death. Dan asks the Stranger who Black Orchid is, and Stranger tells her origin to Dan, which happens to be a completely different origin story from the one that Xanadu told Creeper. Creeper notices this, and Xanadu and Stranger begin arguing over whose story is right. Suddenly, the large, hulking form of Nebiros rises out of the birthing pit, except this Nebiros is a Nebiros duplicate, made out of sand, and created when the imp from Nebiros' dimension made it to the birthing pit. Nebiros begins targeting Dan, and goes after him. It grabs Dan in its hand, but Etrigan begins blasting hellfire at it, which makes it drop Dan. The monster smacks Etrigan away with its tail. Everyone attacks Nebiros at once, hitting him with everything they have. Just as Nebiros is about to unleash his full might on the band of heroes he feels a large chomp on his leg, and he looks down to see that Etrigan has taken a bite out of his leg. Nebiros begins falling apart, and with that, Everyone's magic nets are returned to them, and they begin destroying Nebiros with them. Just as they finish with Nebiros, lightning strikes all around them, and they all turn to see Felix Faust, who is very alive. Faust begins casting spell after spell at them, and they all scatter. As everyone takes cover, they all seem powerless to do anything. However, Phantom Stranger sneaks up behind Faust, and sucker punches him, knocking the villain unconscious.
With Faust out of commission, everyone prepares to leave, but Creeper stops them all, and asks them if they'd be interested in forming a team. He's even got a name for them, The Creeper and His Spirit Squad. Everyone thinks for a moment, and they all conclude that it's the stupidest idea they've ever heard, and they all let him know it before leaving.
Appearing in "The Day All Hell Broke Loose"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Creeper and his Spirit Squad (Single appearance)
- Black Orchid (Origin)
- Creeper (Jack Ryder) (Flashback and main story)
- Etrigan
- Madame Xanadu
- Man-Bat (Flashback and main story)
- Phantom Stranger
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Notes
Continuity Notes
- Blue Devil and Etrigan first met in Blue Devil #13.