Villains and Allies of Zatanna 2025 — Dan / Blue Devil 🧵💙
(I haven’t read any of his other appearances but I love him so far~ so just a warning, I only know what Zatanna 25 tells me. Which is… Etrigan defeated the demon Nebiros and sent his skin down the river Acheron, where it ended up in the mortal realm and in the hands of Daniel Cassidy.)
Dan is introduced in Zatanna (2025) when Zatanna is stranded in the astral plane and uses the “Rule of the Lost” to escape by transporting to up the Oblivion Bar, where Dan is working as a bartender. She tells Dan and the others that one of their former workers (and recently hired staff for Zatanna’s show), Adam, stabbed her and abandoned her to follow Lady White.
Of course, Zatanna spends no time healing and instantly runs off to figure things out, refusing help. Luckily, Dan doesn’t listen and follows after her to help — after all, Adam was a friend. But more importantly — Zatanna saved Dan when he first put on the Blue Devil suit, saving him from succumbing to the demon skin and let him come out the other side with his humanity in tact.
He fought with her through some gross, fleshy room to reach Adam, and then comforted Zee when they discovered Adam’s long dead body. However, he wasn’t exactly successful on that last point — distraught from Adam’s death, she magically ties Dan up to keep him from following her after Adam’s killer.
However, this is a huge mistake on her part, as Brother Night, one of the people responsible for Adam’s death shows up where he’s chained up. He was there for Adam’s body, but was pleased to find the Neibros demon skin there, wanting to add the pelt to his collection. He tries to rip it off him, effectively torturing Dan the entire time, but is unsuccessful. Thus, Brother Night calls in the vampiric spirit Lady White to try her hand at getting Dan’s demon skin off.
When Zatanna shows up to save him and Adam, Lady White uses magic to awaken Nebiros, who quickly takes over control of Dan’s body. It of course starts to rampage, attacking Zatanna. This, on top of Adam attacking her and the magical sword (the Laevateinn) lodged in her chest repeating every mistake she’s ever made, is her last straw — she breaks free of Allura’s magical sword.
Once Zatanna has fully recovered from the Laevateinn, she’s able to focus on recovering Dan — with the help of some of her Justice League friends, of course. She jumps into Dan’s mind and finds him under the curse of the Laevateinn, just as she had been. Dan expresses how much he regrets first putting on the demon skin, saying it’s brought him nothing but pain and suffering — he can’t even look at a cross or enter a church without burning — but Zatanna reminds him of all the good he’s done. He’s not Nebiros the Demon, he’s Blue Devil the Hero.
And then, to really nail in the point — Zee uses her magic to conjure up this beautiful, angelic image of him.
His time in Zatanna (2025) ends after the battle with Allura is over, and Zee is back to performing on stage — this time, at the Oblivion Bar, where Dan works. He’s there to support her, even if his coworkers aren’t happy at him for ditching them on their busiest night~
