Devil Dinosaur

Devil Dinosaur is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in Devil Dinosaur #1 (April 1978).[1] Devil Dinosaur is depicted as resembling an enormous, crimson Tyrannosaurus-like dinosaur. The character and his inseparable ape-like friend, Moon-Boy, are natives of "Dinosaur World," a version of Earth in a parallel universe where dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures co-exist with tribes of primitive humanoid beings.[2] Later, Devil Dinosaur is transported to the main universe and befriends Moon Girl in the new series Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur.

Devil Dinosaur has appeared in various forms of media outside comics, primarily animated television series. Steve Blum and Fred Tatasciore voiced the character in Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. and Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur respectively.

Publication history

Devil Dinosaur and Moon-Boy are the creations of artist Jack Kirby who scripted and penciled all nine issues of the first series.[3] The comic is considered a "cult classic" by Kirby fans.[4]

Kirby created the character during his third stint at Marvel (1975–1978).[5] Having learned that DC Comics was working on an animated series featuring Kirby's Kamandi, Marvel attempted to one-up their competitor by instructing Kirby to create a series similar to Kamandi, but incorporating a dinosaur co-star, since dinosaurs were hugely popular with young audiences of the time.[6] The resulting Devil Dinosaur series was short lived, lasting only nine months (April – December 1978), and the proposed animated series never entered development.[6] The original Devil Dinosaur series chronicled Devil and Moon-Boy's adventures in their home, "Dinosaur World." After the cancellation of Devil Dinosaur, the character's appearances were relegated to one-shot comics, cameos, and supporting roles in other series.

In Devil Dinosaur #1, Kirby states in the "Dinosaur Dispatches" letters column that the original intent was for Moon-Boy and Devil to be an early human and dinosaur from Earth's past. Kirby writes: "After all, just where the Dinosaur met his end, and when Man first stood reasonably erect, is still shrouded in mystery". Writers subsequent to Kirby have approached the character's origin in various ways. Some have followed Kirby's lead and portrayed the character as being from the prehistoric past of the main Marvel continuity (sometimes referred to as "Earth-616"), while others have depicted Devil as hailing from either an alien planet or an alternate reality Earth. Marvel's most recent publications list Devil's home of origin as "Dinosaur World (Earth-78411)", a primitive version of Earth existing in one of the many alternative universes contained within the Marvel Multiverse.[7]

The first appearance of Devil Dinosaur after the cancellation of the original series was in Marvel's Godzilla, King of the Monsters of 1979.[8] The character was not to be referenced again in a Marvel comic until 1986 when the Thing of the Fantastic Four travels to a Pacific island where "Devil Dinosaur: The Movie" is being produced. During the Thing's visit, Godzilla appears. After battling and destroying a robot Devil Dinosaur used in the film, Godzilla disappears once again into the ocean.[9] Devil Dinosaur himself does not actually appear in the 1986 story, but beginning with the Fallen Angels limited series of 1987, the character has continued to make sporadic appearances in Marvel publications.

In 2016, Devil Dinosaur was again given his own ongoing series Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur.[10] The series has Devil teaming up with Lunella Lafayette, a.k.a. Moon Girl, a 9-year-old prodigy from modern times. Moon Boy, no longer Devil's primary partner, plays only a minor role in the series.

Fictional character biography

Early years on Dinosaur World

The young Devil Dinosaur was nearly burned to death by a tribe of Killer-Folk, hostile beings native to his planet, but 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 red.[11] Devil's early adventures on his home world include encounters with extraterrestrials and a brief teleportation to modern day Earth.[12]

Later, Godzilla rampages through the Marvel Universe (Earth-616). In an attempt to stop the monster, S.H.I.E.L.D. shrinks Godzilla with Pym Particles and attempts to teleport him via a time machine to the prehistoric past. However, Godzilla's radiation apparently distorts the time machine so that he is transported to the alternative universe of Dinosaur World instead. While there, he briefly unites with Moon-Boy and Devil against a common foe before being pulled back to the main Marvel continuity.[13]

Powers and abilities

Devil Dinosaur is a gigantic theropod, and thus possesses super strength and durability. He also possesses above normal intelligence, on par with a human's.[54][55]

Reception

Accolades

In 2019, Comic Book Resources (CBR) ranked Devil Dinosaur 14th in their "15 Coolest Pets In Comic Books" list.[56]
In 2020, CBR ranked Devil Dinosaur 2nd in their "10 Most Iconic Pets In Marvel Comics" list.[57]
In 2022, Screen Rant included Devil Dinosaur in their "10 Most Powerful Dragons & Dinosaurs In Marvel Comics" list.[58]
In 2022, CBR ranked Devil Dinosaur 3rd in their "10 Scariest Pets In Marvel Comics" list.[59]

Other versions

Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine

A cybernetic, alternate universe variant of Devil Dinosaur appears in Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine #1.[60]

Deadpool Kills Deadpool

Deadpool Dinosaur, an alternate universe variant of Devil Dinosaur amalgamated with Deadpool, appears in Deadpool Kills Deadpool #3.[61]

Earth-X

Devil Dinosaur's skeletal remains appear in Earth X #0.[62][63]

In other media

Television

Devil Dinosaur appears in The Super Hero Squad Show episode "The Devil Dinosaur You Say! (Six Against Infinity, Part 4)", with vocal effects provided by Dee Bradley Baker.[72]
Devil Dinosaur appears in Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., with vocal effects provided by Steve Blum.[73][72] This version initially lives in the Savage Land until he is brainwashed by Sauron and forced to serve him before the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. free Devil and adopt him.
Additionally, two alternate universe variants of Devil Dinosaur, El Diablo and an unnamed vampiric variant, appear in the "Days of Future Smash" arc, with the former voiced by Blum while the latter has no dialogue.

Collected editions

With Moon Boy

With Moon Girl

External links

Devil Dinosaur at Marvel.com

References

Don Markstein. Devil Dinosaur Don Markstein's Toonopedia, retrieved 2 April 2020^
Tom DeFalco, Peter Sanderson, Tom Brevoort, Michael Teitelbaum, Daniel Wallace, Andrew Darling, Matt Forbeck, Alan Cowsill. The Marvel Encyclopedia DK Publishing, 2019^
Jason Cohen. The Mad King: 15 Jack Kirby Creations That Are Absolutely BANANAS CBR, May 29, 2017, retrieved October 3, 2024

Stranded on Earth 616 in modern times

New York City

Some time later, the sorceress Jennifer Kale, in an attempt to return Howard the Duck to his homeworld, inadvertently teleports Devil Dinosaur and Moon-Boy into her New York apartment. The disoriented dinosaur rampages through the city before being subdued by Ghost Rider.[21] Stranded in modern-day Earth-616 after their teleportation there by Kale, the pair is hypnotized into joining the Circus of Crime. After being rescued by Spider-Man, Devil and Moon-Boy are relocated to the Savage Land.[22]

The Savage Land

The Heroes for Hire mercenaries go on a mission to retrieve Moon-Boy from the Savage Land and encounter Devil Dinosaur, who is guarding a clutch of eggs and abandons Moon-Boy to ensure their safety. The mercenaries note the discrepancy between this development and his previously presumed male sex, and can only speculate as to the cause of the change.[23] After returning to the U.S. the Heroes for Hire disband and group member Paladin leaves alone with Moon-Boy to collect the reward from the S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists who hired the mercenaries.[24]

Devil and Moon-Boy Separated

Moon-Boy would remain under the custody of S.H.I.E.L.D. for some time, which drove Devil Dinosaur into a sort of saurian depression. Refusing to eat, or defend himself, he was in danger of dying. However, Stegron, the dinosaur man, became worried about the survival of the Devil-Beast due to it being the last known of its species. Leaving the Savage Land without the permission of Ka-Zar and building an army of reanimated dinosaurs, Stegron marched across the U.S. attacking S.H.I.E.L.D. base after base, until he was eventually stopped by the Fifty State Initiative. The group discovered the motive behind Stegron's plan and, though he was arrested all the same, Reptil smuggled Moon-Boy back to the Savage Land, where he was reunited with his companion.[25]

Reunited in the Savage Land

Reunited in the Savage Land, the companions' adventures continued:

When the Roxxon Energy Corporation attempts to extract vibranium from the Savage Land, the inhabitants of the Savage Land including Ka-Zar, Devil Dinosaur and Moon-Boy enter into battle to save their home. Roxxon's forces are soon subdued.[26]
Devil Dinosaur meets the Pet Avengers when they are accidentally transported to the Savage Land. Out of shock and anger, Devil attacks the group. Eventually, the group of animalian Avengers are able to return to their own world.[27]
An ancient entity attempts to conquer first the Savage Land, then the world. Moon Boy and Devil Dinosaur fight to defend innocent Savage Land citizens endangered by the entity. They are joined by many other heroes, some lost in time. The entity is killed by Zabu.[28]

Adventures with Moon Girl

In the Savage Land, Devil Dinosaur and his enemies, the Killer Folk, are transported to New York by a temporal vortex, which also kills Moon-Boy. Moon-Boy's dying wish was for Devil Dinosaur to reclaim the sacred Nightstone from the Killer Folk and avenge him.

Lunella Lafeyette later obtains the Nightstone, identifies it as a Kree Omni-Wave Projector, and intends to use it to stop her latent Inhuman genes from activating. She comes into conflict with Amadeus Cho / Totally Awesome Hulk and the Killer Folk, but is caught in a cloud of Terrigen Mist and enveloped in a cocoon as her body mutates.[30][31][32][33][34][35]

Devil Dinosaur takes Lunella's cocoon to her lab and watches over it for several days until she emerges. Lunella is at first relieved she had not changed physically, but is dismayed to learn her Inhuman power caused her consciousness and that of Devil Dinosaur's to switch. Devil Dinosaur proceeds to make her even more ostracized at school due to freaking out in class and attacking other students whilst Lunella rampages through the city. Eventually though they return to normal.[36]

Devil Dinosaur and Moon Girl's next opponent came in the form of Kid Kree - a misunderstood Kree boy who had failed to enter the academy twice, who sought to capture an Inhuman to impress his father and make a name for himself on Earth as Captain Marvel had - who disguised himself as a new student, Marvin Ellis, in Lunella's class. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur fought Kid Kree several times,[37] once being separated by Ms. Marvel, who recognized their fight as the childish squabble it was, but still entrusted Moon Girl with a device to contact her if things ever got out of hand.[38]

Lunella is then approached by Hulk, who gives her the Banner B.O.X. (Brain Omnicompetence Examiner), and is surprised when she solves it in seconds, proving her to be the smartest person on Earth. After consulting experts, Moon Girl, Hulk and Devil Dinosaur encounter Mole Man, who was attacking the city with a group of monsters. The next day, at her lab, Lunella ends up having a vision of herself in the future, where she is approached by Earth's smartest heroes. After school, she is approached by the Thing, who takes her for a walk when Hulk appears. When the two start fighting, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur manage to contain them while protecting the civilians, until both of them are left unconscious. Meanwhile, Doctor Doom is surprised to discover that Moon Girl is considered the smartest person on Earth and vows to prove himself superior.[39] During science class, Lunella is attacked by robot drones until she is saved by Ironheart. They follow the drones to a nearby alley, where Moon Girl encounters Doctor Doom. After Doom escapes, Moon Girl and Ironheart go to Moon Girl's secret lab, where they discover that the energy signatures of the drones are mystic in origin. While tracing Doom's location, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur arrive at the Sanctum Sanctorum and are found by Doctor Strange.[40] Waking up from a dream, Lunella is reunited with Devil, who was shrunk down by Strange. While walking back home, Moon Girl and two of her classmates are attacked by Doctor Doom and his Doombots. Moon Girl uses an enlargement potion on herself to help Doctor Strange fight Doom and his robots.

Lunella then receives a call for help from an alien girl named Illa and, after building a spaceship, goes to space with Devil and crash land on a moon. While exploring, Lunella discovers that Illa is the moon.[44] She soon realizes that Illa is lonely and wants company and does not understand Lunella at all. After a brief fight between Devil and some giant bugs, Lunella leaves, despite Illa's objections. In the process, she is sent to a parallel universe where she meets another version of herself and Devil Dinosaur. Meanwhile, the Doombot head creates robotic versions of Lunella to avoid suspicions of her absence.[45] After fighting their counterparts, Devil Girl and Moon Dinosaur, Lunella and Devil get back on their spacecraft and return to Illa who tells them that they'll never leave her. Back home, the Doombot head begins to have problems with one of Lunella robots. Moon Girl and Devil manage to find Ego the Living Planet and reunite him with Illa, while the Doombot discovers that the Lunella robot is acting independently.[46] Devil Dinosaur and Moon Girl later travel back in time and save Moon-Boy from being killed.[47]

Meanwhile, the Doombot head has created multiple Moon Girl replacement robots who to his surprise are acting like real little girls. He tells them that they will be obsolete when the real Lunella returns. While up in space Lunella has united Ego and Illa as a family. On the way to Earth she uses the Omniwave projector to tearfully return Devil Dinosaur to Moon Boy in the Savage Land where she thinks he belongs and then returns to New York where she tosses it away in the trash.

Admitting she was wrong Moon Girl brought him back as she, the Thing, and Human Torch reformed the Fantastic Four and even gave Devil his own uniform.[48] Afterwards while Wilson Fisk's daughter Princess is enrolled in her school Moon Girl decides to turn Devil into a human boy and enroll him in her class to tone down his destructive accidents. Taking attention away from princess causes her to begin focusing her and her father's negative attentions on the two.

During the Monsters Unleashed storyline, Devil Dinosaur was with Moon Girl when she was studying the Leviathon attacks.[49] Later, Kid Kaiju demonstrates his abilities to the heroes present by summoning Devil Dinosaur, though Moon Girl was also brought along during Devil Dinosaur's summoning.[50] When the Leviathon Servitors attack the Baxter Building, Kid Kaiju summons Devil Dinosaur to help fight them.[51] Moon Girl, Devil Dinosaur and other heroes later encounter other monsters until the Leviathon Queen is defeated by Kid Kaiju and his creations.[52]

During the Secret Empire storyline, Devil Dinosaur and Moon Girl join up with Daisy Johnson's Secret Warriors. After rescuing Karnak from a prison camp, the Warriors encounter the Howling Commandos after falling into a trap. While driving West, the team is found by the X-Men. After escaping New Tian, the team meets Dark Beast, an evil version of Beast, who's tortured by Daisy and Karnak on information of an Inhuman who can help them. After receiving their information, the team encounters Mister Hyde along with Hydra's Avengers. After a brief fight, the team is captured until they break out when Daisy uses her powers to destroy the Helicarrier they were in. While trying to break Devil out of his cage, Moon Girl meets Leer, the Inhuman Karnak mentioned, who knocks her unconscious when the Helicarrier crash lands. Fortunately, Moon Girl and Devil have switched brains just in time, enabling Moon Girl to lead the Warriors to an Inhuman prison camp. There, the Warriors plan a jailbreak with the imprisoned Inhumans when the Underground resistance arrives to help them. It is later revealed that Leer is Karnak's son and that Karnak had sold him to Mister Sinister to help activate his powers.[53]

Publication history

Fictional character biography

Early years on Dinosaur World

Powers and abilities

Reception

Accolades

Other versions

Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine

Deadpool Kills Deadpool

Earth-X

In other media

Television

Collected editions

With Moon Boy

With Moon Girl

External links

References

Member of the Fallen Angels

Dinosaur World again

Stranded on Earth 616 in modern times

New York City

The Savage Land

Devil and Moon-Boy Separated

Reunited in the Savage Land

New York City

The Savage Land

Devil and Moon-Boy Separated

Reunited in the Savage Land

Adventures with Moon Girl

Infinity Wars

Mutant X

Nextwave

Planet Hulk

What If?

Video games

Miscellaneous

character name	Devil Dinosaur
publisher	Marvel Comics
debut	Devil Dinosaur #1 (April 1978)
creators	Jack Kirby
homeworld	Dinosaur World
alliances	Fallen Angels Circus of Crime Pet Avengers
partners	Moon-Boy Moon Girl
species	Devil-Beast