Blood of the Demon (2005) DC Comics

In early 2005, the Demon got a new ongoing series, his first since the cancellation of The Demon Vol. 3 a decade before. This new series, titled Blood of the Demon, was plotted and penciled by John Byrne. Byrne had already tackled most of the properties Jack Kirby had created for DC, and his work on the Demon would be his final Kirby reinterpretation prior to the DC Universe being rebooted in 2011. Blood of the Demon, however, wasn’t well-received. Still, it lasted 17 issues — one more than Jack Kirby’s original series. DC’s Infinite Crisis occurred during Byrne’s run, although Blood of the Demon mostly avoided tie-in issues, unlike most of DC’s lines. Issues #6-7 featured the Spectre, tying into the magic-focused Day of Vengeance mini-series, which led into Infinite Crisis. In the wake of Infinite Crisis, all of its mainstream super-hero titles leaped one year forward, in terms of continuity, and Blood of the Demon was no exception; issue #13 thus occurs one year after issue #12. During this period, Grant Morrison was busy reinterpreting various DC characters in his Seven Soldiers meta-series. One of the seven Seven Soldiers mini-series was focused on Klarion the Witchboy, usually associated with the Demon. Morrison and artist Frazer Irving reinterpreted Klarion for the times as an emo character.