Dare Devlin: Supreme Adventurer, who is Dafydd Neal Dyar‘s kind of new Doc Savage pastiche is back for his second appearance, again from PULPlications. At this point, Dare Devlin #2: Stormbirds is only a limited edition hardback, which includes an extra story.
I say he is “kind of” new, as he’s based on Dyar’s prior pastiche work. Many years back he wrote a Doc Savage pastiche whom he named Doc Wildman (1978), using the “real” name of Doc as per Philip José Farmer.
When Dyar later did stories of this character, both in print and online, he decided to rename him Doc Hazzard (1988), based on the name of the obscure Doc pastiche Captain Hazzard. Now he has revamped his pastiche (and I believe reusing some of the original stories) as Dare Devlin. Not having read these earlier stories, I am not sure how the characters compare to each other.
In the first work, Dare is clearly a match-up with Doc, with certain various elements being changed, but the basic framework being the same. Dare, or Darius Dungannon “Dare” Devlin, is the result of an extensive training program by his father.
Devlin is over 6-feet tall, well-developed physically, with copper (not red) hair, green eyes, and well-tanned skin. He is an expert in all fields, including medicine (yes, he’s a doctor and surgeon, but is not “Doc Devlin”). Unlike Doc, he has a different personality, being more outgoing and engaging. And he has a Van Dyke beard. There are other differences between Doc and Devlin, but I’ll let you find them out. You’ll learn when he grew his beard and about hints of some secrets that even his associates don’t know in this one.
He is aided by five associates, all of whom match up with Doc’s aides, though some differ in physical form and in ethnicity. Ham is now Egg, a rotund lawyer and financier who is still a natty dresser. Monk is now Pug, a top chemist and still a scrapper. Both have pets, but they are now a bird and a dog.
Rounding out the rest are Tiny, instead of Renny, a giant Sikh electrical engineer. Big Tom, instead of Long Tom, who is an aeronautical and structural engineer and Siamese. And Whitey replaces Johnny and is an albino as well as a professor of history and the natural sciences. They all met during WWI, but in different circumstances.
Dare has a cousin, Cat Devlin, who has similar coloration of hair and skin, and who runs her own high-end salon. And, yes, she carries a six-shooter and wants to get in on the action.
Dare’s headquarters is different, and there are loose equivalents to the Hidalgo Trading Co. and the Fortress of Solitude.
This second volume gives us two stories.
In Stormbirds, strange things are happening in Australia. Some pyramids have appeared in the Outback. A joint Anglo-American expedition is mounted, with some of Dare’s aides, Cat Devlin, and some unusual British representatives, including a Lady X who seems to have a past history with Cat. Also included is a strange fellow named Nicholas St. Christopher, or Old Nick, who has a sinister past history with Cat, but is somehow now the head of a U.S. intelligence agency that seems similar to UNCLE. And some other group seems to be spying on both him and the expedition. There is a group of Nazis who seem to be tied to the bad guys and are working with some separatist effort in Australia. A British agent, O-37, also shows up as they figure out who is behind the pyramids and put a stop to it. But Dare is off on a separate mission and is missing from most of the story. Or is he?
For those who got the limited edition hardcover, the bonus story is “Sub-Conscience!” This one is set immediately after the lead story and focuses on what happened to Jan Immergut and Old Nick. Among other things, we learn more about the “origin”, if you will, of Dare and his connection to Old Nick.
While overall I enjoyed both stories, too much seemed a little too over-the-top for my tastes at times. The multiple identities of multiple characters seemed a bit much. As this is a Doc pastiche, you try to figure out who is based on other real or fictional characters, either within Doc canon or outside. And several times came up with nothing. Other times, it puzzled me that if Old Nick is (or was) a villain, how was he allowed to do some of the things he had? Same with Lady X, as you learn more about her. Will they return in future works? Time will tell.
For more information about Devlin, check out DND’s article in Bronze Gazette #76, which gives a lot more background information on the character, as well as information that sets up possible future works.
Hopefully, we’ll see more. Even if he converts his older stories, there is enough for several more volumes.
