El Diablo
1845 - Lazarus Lane is born in north Texas.
1861 - 16-year-old Lazarus Lane joins a Confederate infantry unit during the Civil War
1865 - 20-year-old Lazarus Lane returns to Texas after the war.
1869 - 24-year-old Lazarus Lane becomes a bank teller.
1876 - 31-year-old Lazarus Lane is shot during a bank robbery. He’s attended to by a Tonkawa Shaman, Wise Owl, and appears healthy. He soon abandons his life, becoming the vigilante El Diablo.
1878 - 33-year-old Lazarus Lane and the Justice Riders stop Vandal Savage from ruling vast stretches of Colorado like a king and track him back to his gold mine in Mexico, where he is gunned down by Jonah Hex.
1886 - 41-year-old Lazarus Lane tracks down the gunfighter and bank robber Tobias Manning, who is pulled into the sky in a beam of light during their gunfight.
1892 - 47-year-old Lazarus Lane in confronted by Wise Owl, who claims that he has become host of a demonic vengeance entity. Wise Owl is killed in their battle, but is able to complete his ritual. Lane collapses after their battle, and dies.
The name El Diablo has actually been used several times in the pages of DC. While we're focused on the original character, there was also Rafael Sandoval, a modern character with his own 16-issue series from 1989 that had a decidedly of-his-time look, but who is probably one of the better examples of a non-white character done respectfully, and Chato Santana, the modern El Diablo who has magical pyrokinetic powers and is a former ruthless Mexican American gang leader. Santana is the more popular character, even appearing in the Suicide Squad movie... but I don't know if the best way to represent a group of people is to depict a criminal stereotype?
All that aside, the original El Diablo, Lazarus Lane, was a very prolific character in the seventies resurgence of Western stories, and manages to bring a fertile blend of themes to play, making him a vital part of DC's Wild West.
All that aside, the original El Diablo, Lazarus Lane, was a very prolific character in the seventies resurgence of Western stories, and manages to bring a fertile blend of themes to play, making him a vital part of DC's Wild West.
El Diablo's Comic HistoryEl Diablo was a creation of classic DC editor/writer Robert Kanigher, his contribution to the new All-Star Western in 1970, with some very stylish art by Gray Morrow. El Diablo was not introduced with any sort of backstory, they just leaned hard into the mystery of this seemingly demonic rider who used the Spanish word for devil as his name. The visual influences were pretty obvious; Zorro is ubiquitous in the world of superheroes as the introduction of the idea of a costumed hero with a secret identity (technically that's probably the Scarlet Pimpernel, but let's not split hairs, Zorro is way cooler). El Diablo borrowed heavily from the LOOK of Zorro, replacing the iconic sword with a pistol, whip and bolo, and giving him some red color accents in the mask and inside his cape. It looked fantastic in Morrow's art, and even without a specific backstory he was clearly the star of the comic in the few years before the introduction of Jonah Hex, and the comic's change to Weird Western Tales.
We did eventually learn El Diablo's story; that he was a banker, Lazarus Lane, who was struck by lightning and left catatonic, and then tended to by Wise Owl, an Apache Shaman. Lane is still catatonic, sitting unmoving in his chair before the fireplace, but when called, the vengeance demon he is bonded to takes over his body and sets out to fight injustice as El Diablo. The character continued to appear in Weird Western Tales and in backup stories in Jonah Hex's solo title. The relationship with Wise Owl was cast in a different light in the pages of Swamp Thing, when we see that Owl is actually using a trapped and time-lost Swamp Thing to empower himself. When Owl loses control of the elemental Lazarus Lane finally awakens, suggesting that Wise Owl was responsible for Lane's catatonia the whole time. In later appearances during the Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti Jonah Hex series, Lane had a slightly different mechanism to his possession; he was not catatonic and could serve as an ally to other heroes, but when he slept, the demonic El Diablo would rise as a separate entity. |
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Our El Diablo StorySo the utility of El Diablo should be obvious to anyone. This is DC's Zorro allegory, in a world where Batman himself is, in-world, a Zorro fan. While the larger story of Lazarus Lane being possessed by a vengeance demon that is controlling him is very cool and comic-booky, it is nowhere near as iconic and important as just the overall look and style of this character. Going back and reading the letters pages of those original All-Star Western comics there was even a real interest from readers in making sure Lazarus was depicted as visibly, recognizably Mexican American, and that by itself should be something we celebrate the character for.
So how did we change our version of El Diablo? We actually wanted to find a better way to use his possession, and to maintain the original mystery of the character even once we know his story. Lane is saved from death by his mysterious Apache benefactor, Wise Owl, but rather than staying catatonic only for the demon to take control of his body, he simply continues on with his life, but suddenly the whole nature of his life changes. He dons his costume, and goes out into the world to fight injustice, punish the guilty, and protect the innocent as the Haunted Horseman, El Diablo. Is he possessed? We don't really KNOW, and that should be the intrigue of the character. We do know that, at the end of his story, when Wise Owl finally confronts him again and completes the ritual that supposedly withdraws the demon from Lane... he finally succumbs and falls dead... finally at rest. |