Tasmanian Devil (comics)

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caption=
character_name=Tasmanian Devil
real_name=Hugh Dawkins
publisher=DC Comics
debut= "Super Friends" #7 (October 1977)
creators=
alliances=Global Guardians
Ultramarine Corps
Justice League
aliases=
powers=Transforms into a Were-beast|

Tasmanian Devil is a fictional superhero in the DC Comics universe. He is unrelated to the Looney Tunes character (though both characters are owned by Time Warner). He first appeared in "Super Friends" #7. His first canon appearance is "Infinity, Inc." #32 (November 1986).

Fictional character biography

Hugh Dawkins is a born metahuman with the ability to turn into a supernaturally large and intelligent Tasmanian Devil, in a fashion similar to a werewolf. An alternate origin has jokingly been offered, claiming that Hugh's mother was a were Tasmanian Devil who raised him in a Tasmanian Devil cult, which gave him a Tasmanian Devil amulet after selling his soul to a Tasmanian Devil and injecting him with a radioactive Tasmanian Devil musk from a race of alien Tasmanian Devils which gave him his powers. While Hugh is a pacifist, his alter ego of the Tasmanian Devil is aggressive and bestial. His parents had a hard time with him until he saved his father's life.

He works as a superhero in Tasmania until he is contacted by a man named Doctor Mist to join the Global Guardians. He fights alongside the team until their base is destroyed and the team disbands.

League and Guardians

Dawkins helps to rebuild the Justice League Embassy which had been destroyed during an alien invasion. He then joins the joins the Justice League International. His affiliation with the Justice League causes his rejection by the Queen Bee, ruler of Bialya, who is reforming the Guardians. Her efforts seem beneficial but are for her own selfish gain, as she is using brainwashing techniques to put the Guardians under her control. This affects the Devil again, as his close friend Tuatara falls into a coma after destroying a neo-Nazi compound and attacking the League. Tuatara is taken care of by an Australian medical facillity.

Dawkins, along with his friend Joshua Barbazon, were preparing the Justice League Australian embassy. Their plans include transferring Tuatara to the medical lab, as soon as it was set up. The Queen Bee recalls Tuatara before this could happen. Dawkins is infuriated by these circumstances, which he doesn't fully understand.

Dawkins would be there when Tuatara recovers his true mind. Called up in a League effort to stop an international incident, Dawkins and many other League members travel to Bialya. It turns out that Captain Atom, Enlongated Man, Ice and Blue Beetle had been fired by Ambassador Heimlich, a mole placed into U.N. power by the Queen Bee. They had illegally invaded Bialya to find out what was going on.

The backup team enters, with the permission of Queen Bee, just in time to be caught in a devastating explosion, which destroys an entire city block. The League and many innocent people are saved by Ice creating a shield but so many others are not so lucky. Dawkin's former friends regain their minds and the Bee's massive brainwashing efforts are literally uncovered. He also learns that Doctor Mist was a robot, Jack O'Lantern, dead, is an impostor and Owl-Woman is missing. It is said that Little Mermaid is also missing, though both sides in the conflict had seen her die from a misfired shot by Lantern. Queen Bee, the one that has caused so much problems is deposed and slain by Sumaan Harjavti, the brother of the man the Queen had slain and deposed herself.

Dawkins and the League help with relief and recovery efforts. He would then rejoin a team of Guardians to rescue those still endangered by the secret machinations of Harjavti. The entire group is endangered as those left behind had been implanted with subliminal orders to kill. Fortunately, nobody is actually harmed and the Guardians are reformed again.

Bloodlines

Later, Dawkins works with the Justice League during the Bloodlines event. He teams up, mainly with Elongated Man and Metamorpho to stop a group of murderous aliens terrorizing London. The other adult female team members, Power Girl and Doctor Light, are unavailable to assist due to previous commitments. The men don't so so well, as dozens of citizens vanish or are killed. The toll, which includes a missing school bus, deeply affects all three. During one investigation, they attacked by the rookie, armored hero Lionheart, who mistakes Taz's unusual form (and the changing forms of his friends) for the eyewitness reports of the aliens.

The aliens attack the League's headquarters, a (seemingly haunted) castle. Summoned by the energy flares of their youngest member, Maya, the group returns and fights the creatures. Lionheart, though his secondary mission is to discredit the League, sees the nobility in Taz and the others and helps them chase off the aliens. No pursuit is possible, as all are injured; Taz himself has been impaled through the shoulder. Lionheart, before fainting from his injuries, summons medical help through an emergency Justice League communications channel.

Funerals and Risk

Around this time, Dawkins goes on a JLA goodwill tour to New Zealand. They resist him at first. Soon, he and his contact, Raylene Mackenzie, stumble upon the villain Phobia and Tas literally sniffs out one of her recent murders. The two get into a back-and-forth fight with the fear-casting killer. Raylene confronts a fear of drowning, while Tas' hallucination concerns the abusive treatment his mother heaped upon his father. Working together, the two defeat Phobia. Tas' efforts to save a New Zealander endears him to the entire country.

Dawkins later assists the Justice League in battling Overmaster. There, the team loses Ice. The group falls apart and Dawkins soon leaves too, not wanting to stay in a group so small and unestablished. He does not see the point.

Tas is one of the mourners at the funeral for Maxwell Lord.

It is revealed that Hugh is openly gay in "Justice League Quarterly" #8.cite web |url=http://www.gayleague.com/gay/characters/display.php?id=40 |title=Tasmanian Devil |work=Gay League |accessdate=2007-03-17] After some time missing, he is shown attending the funeral of Sue Dibny, wife of the Elongated Man, in 2005.

Crises

Tas joins the Ultramarine Corps and lives for a time on their floating city of Superbia. The entire city is conquered by Gorilla Grodd and his forces and Tas, along with the other surviving heroes, are sent out to cause destruction. His mind and the Corps are rescued by the Justice League.

He is also shown at another memorial service/headcount soon after the events of Infinite Crisis.

Dawkins helps out in the Omac Crisis. In "Omac Project" #6 he is one of many superheros who go to Libya to be 'bait' for the legions of meta-human killing machines. This scheme works and many Omacs are destroyed without harming the hosts within.

In week 50 of the "52" maxi-series, Dawkins and other powered beings. including Gloss and Manticore, face a rage-maddened Black Adam in Sydney, Australia. They are seen unconscious and buried in debris.

In 2006, as of "Green Lantern" #10, Dawkins is shown once again as a Global Guardian.

External links

* [http://www.gayleague.com/gay/characters/display.php?id=40 Gay League Profile]

References