Klarion the Witch Boy

Klarion the Witch-Boy
Klarion the Witch Boy and Teekl. Art by Amancay Nahuelpan.
Publication information
PublisherDC Comics
First appearanceThe Demon #7 (March 1973)
Created byJack Kirby
In-story information
Alter egoKlarion Bleak
SpeciesCroatoan
Place of originWitch-World (originally)
Limbo Town (current)
Team affiliationsLords of Chaos
Injustice League Dark
Suicide Squad Black
Seven Soldiers of Victory
PartnershipsTeekl (familiar)
Notable aliasesKlarion the Witch Boy
Abilities
  • Nearly limitless magical powers (flight, teleportation, energy projection, etc.)
  • Extensive knowledge of the supernatural
  • Psychic link to Teekl
  • Capable trickster

Klarion the Witch Boy is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, having first appeared in The Demon #7 (March 1973) and was created by Jack Kirby.[1] The character serves as a reoccurring adversary to various other mystical characters and teams alike.

Originating from a other-worldly dimension, Klarion Bleak is a mischievous and immature warlock who flees from his home to Earth, crossing paths with various heroes and becomes a known menace. He is typically assisted by his gender-fluid cat familiar, Teekl. Often airing towards villainy or being portrayed as an anti-hero, the character is often a trickster clashes with young heroes such as Young Justice and is a re-occurring foe of several mystical heroes in the DC Universe, including Etrigan the Demon. Following DC Rebirth, several revisions to the character were made influenced by his appearance in DC media, making him an adversary of Doctor Fate and also ascended into the position of a Lord of Chaos.

Klarion has been adapted in media, having made several appearance notably in animated television series. Most notably, the character appeared as a re-occurring antagonist in Young Justice, voiced by Thom Adcox-Hernandez,[2] depicted as a powerful and immortal Lord of Chaos who frequently feuds with Doctor Fate. Elements of this portrayal followed into the mainstream comics. Klarion also made appearances in The New Batman Adventures and Justice League Action, voiced by Stephen Wolfe Smith and Noel Fisher respectively.[2]

Fictional character biography

Klarion as he originally appeared in The Demon #7 (March 1973). Art by Jack Kirby.

Kirby's Klarion

Klarion is a young practitioner of the dark arts from Witch World, an otherworldly dimension whose inhabitants practice dark magic. Being a child, he is constantly under the direction of adults who dictate the usage and study of his magic. Frustrated, Klarion travels to the main universe to freely practice magic alongside his cat familiar Teekl. He attracts the attention of the demon Etrigan, who attempts to send him back to his dimension several times and becomes his rival.[3]

David's Klarion

Klarion appears in the 2000 event Young Justice: Sins of Youth, in which he is involved in a plot by the Agenda to turn the public against the metahuman community, targeting juvenile super-heroes as the weakest link in the chain. He increases distrust and confusion at a rally for young heroes by casting a spell that swaps the ages of the teenage and adult heroes in attendance.

Peter David's version of Klarion also appears in July–June 2000's Young Justice #20- "Time Out" and #21 "Young, Just Us Too". In these issues, he expresses loneliness after turning various villains into children during the "Sins of Youth" storyline and wishes for a playmate of his own age before eventually befriending Ariella Kent, the Supergirl of the 853rd century.

Morrison's Klarion

In 2005, a new version of Klarion starred in his own mini-series as one of the seven main characters in Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers. Morrison described this character as a return to the original Kirby version with some updates, including the return of Klarion's original overall look, and a move away from the Peter David version.[4] The new version of Klarion is an inhabitant of Limbo Town, an underground community beneath New York City whose citizens are descended from Puritan witches and the Sheeda-King Mr. Melmoth. Klarion attempts to leave Limbo Town and stops Melmoth from pillaging it.[5]

Countdown

In Countdown to Final Crisis, Klarion encounters Mary Marvel, who has been given Black Adam's powers and is struggling to control them. Klarion offers to help in return for a fraction of her power. This turns out to be a ruse, and Klarion attempts to absorb Mary's powers before being defeated.

In Brightest Day, Klarion is possessed by Alan Scott's Starheart power and driven insane. After wreaking havoc throughout an urban area, he is tracked down and defeated by Jade and Donna Troy.[6]

Superman/Batman Sorcerer Kings

Klarion plays a major role in the events of the Sorcerer Kings three-issue storyline in Superman/Batman. He appears on the final page of issue #82, and in issue #83 he leads the current-timeline Batman, Doctor Occult and Detective Chimp to the "witches' road". In addition, Klarion's future self appears as a member of the Justice League on a magic-controlled Earth.[7]

Batgirl (vol. 3)

Klarion's last appearance before The New 52 was in Chalk (heart) Outline, a Valentine's Day themed story in Batgirl volume 3, #18. Klarion and Stephanie Brown as Batgirl must stop Teekl's rampage, which involves a trip to Limbotown.

New 52 onwards

Following the New 52 reboot towards DC's mainstream continuity, a new version of Klarion first appeared in his self-titled solo series in 2014. Now high-schooled aged (between 14 to 16 years old), the teen warlock escaped his home dimension, Limbo Town, and finds his way to New York City. He is taken in by Piper, a sorceress who looks after him alongside several other youths in a museum and mentors him in magic while he battles a tech-wizard.[8]

In DC Rebirth, Klarion would also later join the Night Force alongside other teen heroes (Raven, Traci Thirteen, Zach Zatara) under Baron Winters to battle supernatural threats, helping the team battle magic hunters known as Shadow-Riders.[9] Eventually, the character would switch alignment and join Circe's Injustice League Dark, battling the Justice League Dark as Circe's attempts to hunt the remaining pieces of Hecate's magic and using her use her newfound magical power to shift the hierarchy of the mystical cosmology in her favor. Partnered with Solomon Grundy, Klarion bewitches Man-Bat as part of a covert strike against the JLD and briefly battled Khalid Nassour. When Circe's plan begins to fall apart from Wonder Woman's intervention and Eclipso's presence.[10] Klarion is later captured by Amanda Waller and A.R.G.U.S. and is drafted into Waller's Suicide Squad Black using Teekl's captivity to coerce him. Alongside the members, he is pitted against Sebastian Faust, warlock and former A.R.G.U.S. director of its mystic counterpart who embraced extremism and seeks to destroy magic to cure his dryad wife of a magical disease.[11]

Klarion later appears during the events of Dark Crisis, having allied with Deathstroke's Dark Army and become a member of the Lords of Chaos.[12]

Characterization

A supernatural character, Klarion is considered one of the most dangerous magic users in creation and eventually ascended to being a Lord of Chaos.[1][12]

Personality and appearance

Throughout Klarion's publication history, he is officially characterized as having a dark sense of humor and childish.[1] He is also described as being whimsical, spiteful, malevolent, petulant, and a unpredictable individual who delights in causing pain and discomfort.[13] However, the character has also been portrayed with more heroic traits.[9]

Klarion's appearance has also changed over time; his appearances in stories such as The Demon and Young Justice comic resembles a young, light-skinned human child . Over time, this appearance later changes, giving him a otherworldly dark-blue skin tone. After the New 52 reboot, the character showcased the power to shift between appearance, the latter being his true form and the other to blend in with humanity. Klarion is also stated to be high-school aged as opposed to a child in older appearances, being between fourteen to sixteen years old in age.[8]

Significant relations

While an adversary for superheroes in the DC Universe, Klarion is chiefly an antagonist of Etrigan, whom having once protected the child following his escape to Earth until his true nature and formidable powers was revealed. The characters have clashed several times since.[13] Following DC Rebirth and influenced by his media portrayals, he is also an adversary of Doctor Fate.[14][15][16] The character also has several love interests; Zell, a witch whose powers revolved around her hair (in reference to Rapunzel), serves as his love interest in his miniseries.[8] The character is also a love interest to Raven, whom she met previously in the Night Force.[9]

Powers and abilities

Klarion possess nearly limitless magical abilities such as being able to transform himself, travel into other dimensions, energy projection, shapeshifting, telekinesis, etc. He also has a plethora of knowledge of various magic and spells.[17][13] His powers are tied to his cat familiar Teekl, who possesses a psychic link with him, links him to the physical plane, and can transform into an anthropomorphic form.[18] Klarion's chief weakness also tied to his cat familiar, being tied to his power and among the only beings he cares for, allowing others to either de-power or coerce him by targeting Teekl. He has also been defeated by experienced magic users (i.e. Sebastian Faust).[11]

Other versions

  • Klarieene, a heroic gender-swapped variant of Klarion from Earth-11, appears in The Multiversity.
  • An alternate universe variant of Klarion appears in Flashpoint. He is a member of the Secret Seven before seemingly killing himself, though it is suspected that Shade, the Changing Man killed him while under the M-Vest's control.
  • Klarion appears in Batman: Lil Gotham.

In other media

Television

Klarion as he appears in The New Batman Adventures.

Video games

Miscellaneous

References

  1. ^ a b c Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Korte, Steve; Manning, Matt; Wiacek, Win; Wilson, Sven (2016). The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe. DK Publishing. p. 169. ISBN 978-1-4654-5357-0.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Klarion the Witch Boy Voices (DC Universe)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved April 13, 2024. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
  3. ^ Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Manning, Matthew K.; McAvennie, Michael; Wallace, Daniel (2019). DC Comics Year By Year: A Visual Chronicle. DK Publishing. p. 149. ISBN 978-1-4654-8578-6.
  4. ^ "Klarion - Barbelith". Archived from the original on 2008-09-07. Retrieved 2008-11-03.
  5. ^ Grant Morrison; Frazer Irving; Mick Gray (2012). Seven Soldiers of Victory. DC Comics. ISBN 978-1-4012-2964-1.
  6. ^ Justice League of America (vol. 2) #46
  7. ^ "Superman/Batman #82". DC. 15 March 2021. and "#83". 15 March 2021.
  8. ^ a b c Nocenti, Ann (2015). Klarion: The new witch in town. DC Comics. ISBN 978-1-4012-5482-7.
  9. ^ a b c Wolfman, Marv (June 4, 2019). Raven: Daughter of Darkness Vol. 2. DC Comics. ISBN 978-1-4012-8964-5.
  10. ^ Tynion IV, James (October 3, 2018). Wonder Woman and Justice League Dark: The Witching Hour (2018-) #1. DC Comics.
  11. ^ a b Nitz, Jai (w). Suicide Squad: Black Files: Fortune's Wheel (2019).
  12. ^ a b Johnston, Rich (March 10, 2024). "Wait Ages For Klarion Witch Boy, Then Two Turn Up At Once (Spoilers)". Bleeding Cool. Retrieved June 25, 2025.
  13. ^ a b c Waid, Mark. Who's Who in the DC Universe #12. DC Comics.
  14. ^ Lanzing, Jackson; Kelly, Collin (May 6, 2025). Outsiders Vol. 2: Never the End. DC Comics. ISBN 978-1-7995-1045-1.
  15. ^ Tynion IV, James (2020). Justice League Dark Vol. 3: the Witching War. DC Comics. ISBN 978-1-77950-034-2.
  16. ^ "DC Deck-Building Game: Justice League Dark". Cryptozoic Entertainment. Retrieved July 22, 2025.
  17. ^ The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe. Matthew K. Manning, Stephen Wiacek, Melanie Scott, Nick Jones, Landry Q. Walker, Alan Cowsill (New ed.). New York, New York: DK Publishing. 2021. ISBN 978-0-7440-2056-4. OCLC 1253363543.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  18. ^ Nitz, Jai (w). Suicide Squad: Black Files: Fortune's Wheel (2019).
  19. ^ "Teekl Voice - Young Justice (TV Show)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved April 13, 2024. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
  20. ^ "First Look! The Witching Hour!". dcuniverseonline.com. September 28, 2012. Archived from the original on December 13, 2012. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
  21. ^ Eisen, Andrew (October 4, 2013). "DC Characters and Objects - Scribblenauts Unmasked Guide". IGN. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  22. ^ Michael, Jon; Veness, John (February 15, 2019). "Characters - LEGO DC Super-Villains Guide". IGN. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  23. ^ "The All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold #12 - The House of Mystery! (Issue)". Comic Vine. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  24. ^ "Injustice: Gods Among Us Year Three #2 - Gathering Forces (Issue)". Comic Vine. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  25. ^ "Justice League Beyond 2.0 #11 - System Override Part 3 of 8: Malware (Issue)". Comic Vine. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
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