Tasmanian Devil
30 years ago - Hugh Dawkins is born in Australia.
19 years ago - 11-year-old Hugh manifests his metahuman were-devil ability.
13 years ago - 17-year-old Hugh first saves people with his powers. He becomes Tasmanian Devil.
10 years ago - 20-year-old Hugh accidentally scares a little girl, so he starts marking his fur with a white "t".
7 years ago - 23-year-old Hugh battles Angela Hawkins. Her fear powers helping him confront his own sexuality. He comes out.
5 years ago - 25-year-old Hugh joins the Global Guardians.
There's a wonderful simplicity to Hugh: he's a were-devil. That's it. That's his whole story. He's a guy from Australia who turns into a were-creature and who gets bigger as he fights. It's a simple premise on a likable character that went from appearing in Infinity Inc to the Global Guardians, and even in the Justice League.
What makes Hugh more interesting is the fact that he was depicted as an openly gay character in a time when that was incredibly rare. Lists of gay characters from that era are loaded with insulting stereotypes, but Hugh was an anomaly, suffering little more than the fact that he was a minor, obscure character. Still, he's a former Justice League member, and that's saying something. We've included him in the original lineup of the Global Guardians, but we really like the idea that Hugh is focused on helping people and that he would be disillusioned with the team after the Warmaker One debacle and chose to return home to operate as a solo hero. |