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    Blaze

    Character » Blaze appears in 11 issues.

    Deputy Chief of C.O.W.L. and head of the tactical division, equipped with a German-made gauntlet that gives him energy powers.

    Short summary describing this character.

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    Origin

    Blaze grew up in Chicago. His brother, Elliot, was one of the first people to get superpowers, naturally gaining super speed, and became a hero known as the Dart, the second superhero after the Grey Raven.

    Blaze had no powers, and joined the Marines in World War II, where he now got to fight alongside the Grey Raven. While in Germany, he found a special gauntlet of unknown origin that allowed him to control energy.

    He used the gauntlet to become Blaze, and when he returned to Chicago, he fought crime with Sparrow and the Grey Raven for three years, after which they created C.O.W.L., a superhero union. His brother did not join them, and eventually became a villain and member of the Chicago Six, C.O.W.L.’s archenemies. The Dart ended up badly hurting Sparrow under unknown circumstances, leading Sparrow to leave the union and go into hiding, and causing a rift between Sparrow and the Grey Raven.

    Blaze ends up moving in with and taking care of the Dart’s wife, Anita, and his son, Henry. Henry has super speed, like his father, and wants to join C.O.W.L. when he’s old enough.

    Major Story Arcs

    Over time, Blaze becomes the Deputy Chief of C.O.W.L., under Gregory Warner, and is also the head of the Tactical Division. The union defeats most of its enemies, including the Dart. The last member of the Chicago Six to remain free is Skylancer. The union hears that he is going after Alderman Lowe, and intercept him at Lowe’s apartment. Skylancer sets off a grenade, and Blaze shields the alderman from the blast, then joins in the chase after the villain.

    Blaze saves Radia when she is blinded and falls from the sky, but then Arclight accidentally shoots Blaze’s gauntlet, shorting it out, and he and Radia both fall the rest of the way, knocking him out. Radia eventually kills Skylancer.

    With no supervillains left, the city isn’t sure why it needs C.O.W.L. any longer, and wants to renegotiate its contract. Blaze and Warner work to counter this narrative and get the best contract they can as they negotiate with Mayor Daley’s team. However, they can’t reach a deal, and the union goes on strike.

    While Blaze is very successful in his position, especially for an African-American in 1962 Chicago, he still has a reputation as Warner’s puppet—being too much of a yes-man and doing Warner’s dirty work work without getting enough recognition for it—and it’s starting to grate on him. In one instance, Warner sends him to deal with a drunken Arclight, who got a hooker and then started beating on her and her pimp. After an argument in which Arclight calls him Warner’s lapdog, Blaze blasts Arclight and them pummels him into unconsciousness.

    Blaze tells Warner that he’s going to fire Arclight, but Warner asks him to hold off until after the strike, essentially ignoring Blaze’s opinion. It also becomes apparent that Blaze is knowledgeable about all of C.O.W.L.’s dirty business, and is conspiring with Warner about it: for instance they both know that Alderman Lowe was actually selling C.O.W.L. technology plans to Skylancer, not being kidnapped. In the end they decide not to tell the press about any of their recent problems until after the strike. Warner then goes off to his wife and asks Blaze to stand in the rain at the strike, and Blaze becomes more and more aware of how little Warner cares about him and his opinion.

    Unfortunately, their decision about Arclight works against him. With some prompting from Warner, Arclight ends up killing another C.O.W.L. member, John Pierce, who had been investigating Lowe’s illicit dealings with Skylancer. Blaze makes a point of making sure that the investigation into Pierce’s death is under C.O.W.L. jurisdiction so that they can control the publicity and blame. However, Pierce’s friend, and cop, Evelyn Hewitt starts investigating on her own anyway.

    Warner further gets his hands dirty by making a deal with Camden Stone, a mobster. Stone will hire super-powered criminals to wear costumes and wreak havoc in the city, making it look like C.O.W.L. is once again necessary, and thus forcing the city to approve their contract. Blaze is once again aware and in support of this decision that goes against all they stand for as heroes.

    Blaze also runs the union investigation into an incident on the strike line, where an unknown hero shot a fire blast at City Hall, causing a huge scare. He starts narrowing it down to a few people, and thinks he knows who it is, but needs extra proof to make it public. He pressures Eclipse to say he saw the guy do it, trying to blackmail him for some illegal actions that Eclipse and Radia have been taking against the mob, but Eclipse says no anyway. Blaze intimates that he’ll make Eclipse pay for not toeing the line, but Eclipse calls him a lapdog. Blaze, angry, lights up his gauntlet, but Eclipse uses his own energy powers to turn off the gauntlet. Blaze gets back at him, however by firing his partner for use of unnecessary force in a previous altercation with a thug. Eclipse quits, as does Radia, leaving the union without some of its more well-known members.

    The city finally agrees to give the union the contract they want, however, and Blaze and Warner look back over their various unethical acts and decide that they were worth it in the end.

    Comics References

    Like many other C.O.W.L. members, Blaze is based on a classic superhero, in his case Green Lantern. (In the movie, Blaze has a power ring instead of a gauntlet). His costume is also reminiscent of Nightwing’s, which Higgins wrote previously.

    Powers & Abilities

    Blaze has no powers of his own. He has a “zero-point energy gauntlet” which he found in Germany during the war. It allows him to control energy and gives him limited telekinesis. He is able to create forcefields, fly, and shoot energy blasts.

    His gauntlet has some weaknesses. When Arclight accidentally shoots it during the fight with Skylancer, it shorts out. Eclipse is also able to short it out using his own anti-energy field. On the other hand, Blaze was able to overpower Arclight when Arclight was drunkenly beating a hooker.

    In the movie The League, Blaze has an energy ring instead of a gauntlet. It seems to have mostly the same powers, although he is also able to manifest super speed, which he has not shown in the comic (he may have super speed in the comic world too, he just hasn’t shown it).

    In Other Media

    In the movie The League, which the creators of the comic made before they made the comic, Blaze has a similar story. He joined the League, then after a number of years of working honorably, he and Geoffrey Warner conspired to make it seem like the supervillains were back, with Blaze impersonating the Dart and killing other supervillains. However, in this continuity Blaze and the Dart are not brothers, or at least are not said to be brothers.

    Sparrow, previously hurt by the Dart as in the comics, comes back and tries to stop the Dart, not knowing it is Blaze. At one point, Blaze, clearly still sympathetic to Sparrow, saves his life with a forcefield when another character’s powers go wild and threaten to kill Sparrow. When Sparrow finds out Blaze is pretending to be the Dart, they battle, but the much more powerful Blaze can’t bring himself to kill Sparrow, giving Sparrow a window to knock out Blaze. He ties him up and throws him through Warner’s window, and tells the media of their misdeeds. Presumably both Blaze and Warner are arrested.

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