Devlin O’Ryan Appearances
Legionnaires #18 p 1, 3, 7, 9, 14, 15
Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 4
#1 (text pg 23—written by mother Megan O’Ryan)
#6 p 14, 18, 21
#7 p 20
#10 p 6, (text pg 23, Daily Planet article co-written with Iris West)
#12 p 4, 5
#13 (included poster)
#17 p 23
#20 p 6
#21 p 22
#23 p 22
#24 p 22, 23
#25 p 1, 2, 7-15, 17, 20, 21, (text pg 24), cover
#29 p 13, 14, 20, (text pg 20)
#30 p 8, 16, 17
#32 p 2, 16, cover
#34 p 20
#35 p 7, 19, (text pg 25)
#36 p 23
#38 (narrator entire ish.) p 1, 21, 24
#40 p2, 17, 18, 23
#43 p 11
#44 p 17, 18, 20
#45 p 8, 9 20
#46 p 2, 5, 21
#47 p 9, 14, 15
#48 p 1-7, 17-20, cover
#50 (story 1: p 5, 6, 22, 30, 32-34, 47), (story 2: p2), pinup
#52 p 8
#53 p 4, 5, 7-9, 20-23, cover
#54 p 3, 5
#60 p 7, 14
Postcard
Who's Who (looseleaf)
Legion of Super-Heroes 2995 Sourcebook, Mayfair Games
Devlin O’Ryan of Xanthu
Biography
By 10 a copy boy for the Xanthu bureau of the Daily Planet, young Devlin
O’Ryan benefited from advice and values instilled by his bureau chief and
mother Megan—manifesting a talent for journalism which brought him to
Earth as a cub reporter for the Planet.
Planet News editor Iris West soon took the young Devlin under her wing;
together they broke the biggest story of 2995: the Dominators' control of
Earthgov. With a little bit of luck and some Irish charm, Devlin continued
to investigate. He soon joined Earthgov-hired detective Celeste McCauley
and the mysterious Bounty on a search for Roxxas, who was also hired by
the corrupt Earthgov. That search led 14-year-old Devlin to the planet
Winath, where the Legion of Super-Heroes was reforming.
Now an ally of the ragtag band of heroes, Devlin returned to Earth to keep
on the story. When civil government fell, he found himself hunted by the
Dominators. Damaged by exposure to null radiation, the injured Devlin was
then accidentally attacked by the
Batch SW6, a time-displaced group of teenage Legionnaires. Eventually
allying himself with the youths, he helped them join with the
anti-Earthgov resistance.
During this time the null radiation combined with lightning from Lightning
Lad's mistaken attack and strange powers began to manifest in Devlin.
With the help of the SW6 Brainiac 5, it was revealed Devlin had gained the
power to reflect any attack, energy or projectile that moved at a
substantial speed.
Using this power, Devlin helped the SW6 Legionnaires, the resistance and
others to repel the Dominators from Earth. During this time he developed
a friendship with the shy, quiet Shrinking Violet of the SW6 Legionnaires;
when he was asked to join the older Legion after the destruction of Earth,
Violet decided to stay with her own team and they separated.
No sooner had Devlin settled in with the new team when the threat of
Mordru returned. Devlin was ultimately the savior of the team, reflecting
a powerful mystic blast back at Mordru, weakening him enough for Mysa Nal
to incapacitate him. That fight had barely finished when the team traveled
to Baaldur to attack the temporal sorceress Glorith.
The battle with Glorith again ended with Devlin reflecting a powerful
blast from the villainess, but in the aftermath he was forced to leave the
team. With Kent Shakespeare reduced to a toddler, Querl Dox decided to
leave Kent and Devlin at the medical planet Quarantine—Devlin's powers
confused the sensors, he said.
When next Devlin was seen, he was on his way to Winath to help the other
Legion members, past and present, combat the combined forces of Mordru and
Glorith. At a crucial juncture where Devlin's powers would have reflected
a mystical spell toward the evil
duo, Devlin disappeared in a temporal wave, never to be seen again.
Notes
Throughout his appearances in the Legion books, Devlin seemed to embody
the cheerful, positive energy of the earlier Legion stories. With the
"Terra Mosaic" storyline where he helped the SW6 Legion free Earth, he
often seemed depressed at the situation.
He was the narrator of the story which chronicled the destruction of
Earth—an especially moving story (but the author of this biography
wonders about a possible conflict of interest involved by being a
participant in the evacuation, something which is never discussed in comic
book journalism; but I digress).
By the time he hooked up with the older Legion, he seemed to have
recovered from his melancholy, and was a bit of an anti-hero—his powers
naturally defensive, he never went on the attack and often seemed modest
or apologetic, even with villains. At one point a codename of "Reflex"
was suggested, but he never officially took it on.
Devlin's powers suffered from Deux ex Machina symptoms: he was the
ultimate, fix-all solution in many cases. His powers also seemed a bit
ill-defined; would they always reflect back to the attacker? One
especially funny moment (IMO) concerning his powers occurred in the
"Brainiac Adventures" story in LSH #50 where a reflected bolt of energy
bounces off Devlin and continues to bounce against the walls. With an
exaggerated Irish accent (which he had at times in normal stories), he
cries, "*SNIFF!* Y'hates me 'cos o' me pow'rrr!" to which Jo Nah
replies, "No, we 'hates' you 'cos o' yer accent!"
The target-star symbol at the top of this page was on Devlin's shirt, the
only shirt he apparently wore during the Legion's run. In fact, of all
the older Legion, Devlin seemed to be the most in uniform.
Disclaimer
Legion of Super-Heroes characters and concepts Copyright © DC Comics Inc.
Image in biography by Jason Pearson.