Boo! The month of Halloween is upon us (yes, a month) and so we must dig into the ghastly side of DC’s characters. This time we fall under the spell of Klarion the Witch Boy! Who is Klarion? What’s a witch boy exactly? How does he get that hair? Let’s find out!
Whether he comes from the other dimensional Witch-World or the lost population of Roanoke living in Limbo Town, Klarion Bleak is from a community of practitioners of the arts of magic. Klarion was always being stifled by the adults around him trying to stop him from using certain kinds of magic, the kinds he had the most fun with. So he’d venture out into the world so he could have his own fun.
Running away from home with his cat familiar Teekl, the two would cross paths with many of DC’s superhero and magical community in their pursuit of fun. Mind you, Klarion’s idea of fun usually came at the expense of others, possibly endangering many lives, so it wasn’t necessarily team-ups Klarion was getting into. Etrigan the Demon would form a rivalry with him in hopes of getting rid of the kid. When a demon wants you to stop pestering mortals, you’ve got one hell of a thing going on.
One of Klarion’s biggest tricks was turning the teen superheroes into adults, the adult superheroes into teens, and the elder superheroes into children. This led to roles switching and chaos erupting among the superhero community. Reveling in watching the immaturity of the newly de-aged dealing with kid levels of energy and teen levels of hormones, Klarion was displeased at the heroics of the teen heroes and their ability to end the spell. His mood turned around when the reversing of the spell didn’t affect Lobo, who was still in teen form and ready to kill Klarion for doing this to him. The resulting battle with himself, Lobo, and the members of Young Justice was short-lived as he just wasn’t feeling complete. He would be able to befriend a time-traveling Supergirl of the future and this seemed to soothe his mind for a time.
During the Sheeda invasion, Klarion would become one of the new members of the Seven Soldiers of Victory. He would gain access to two dice of great power which would allow him to betray the team, taking control of teammate Frankenstein and jettisoning forward into the future. His betrayal would actually be the victory for Earth by stopping the crowning of the Sheeda princess, thus ceasing the cycle of war and conquest. It is believed that this time travel could lead to Klarion having a new beginning, and thus this story takes place in his past and not his present or future.
When magic was in flux, Klarion tried to take Black Adam’s powers from Mary Marvel, but she was able to beat him. During the events of Brightest Day, when Alan Scott’s Starheart power source was going out of control and possessing wildly, Klarion was caught in its grasp and had to be taken down by Donna Troy and Jade, Scott’s daughter. An adult Klarion was a part of a future Justice League on an Earth where magic ruled supreme. When Teekl goes on a rampage, Klarion must work with Stephanie Brown, the then current Batgirl, to stop her.
The New 52 Klarion has only just appeared and will soon be getting his own series, so we’ll have to learn about who he is now after this article is over.
So there you have it, the weird pointy haired kid who is sometimes blue but always dressed to put the fun in funeral. Just a magical kid in a material world searching for power and the chaos around him. My kind of character. See you next time!
Suggested Reading
The Demon Vol. 1 #7
Young Justice: Sins of Youth
Seven Soldiers of Victory: Klarion the Witch Boy
Seven Soldiers of Victory Vol. 4
Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net
I liked the twist on the story that was done in the Young Justice animated series. I didn’t know he’d have his own title soon so I just might check it out to at least know what this version is up to.
Thanks for the heads up!