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Dev-Em
Dev-Em (Pre-Crisis) Art by Steve Lightle
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Adventure Comics #287 (June 1961)
Created by	Jerry Siegel (writer) George Papp (artist)
In-story information
Team affiliations	Interstellar Counter-Intelligence Corps Legion of Super-Heroes
Abilities	Superhuman strength, speed, stamina, invulnerability, freezing breath, super hearing, multiple extrasensory and vision powers, flight, and intelligence.

Dev-Em is a fictional character who appears in DC Comics. He first appeared in Adventure Comics #287 (June 1961).

Pre-Crisis

In the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity, Dev-Em is a Kryptonian juvenile delinquent who took Jor-El's warnings of Krypton's impending doom seriously enough to place himself in suspended animation in an orbiting space capsule. When the planet Krypton exploded, Dev-Em's ship was blasted into space, where it eventually landed on Earth. Dev-Em imprisons Superboy in the Phantom Zone and assumes his identity in an effort to destroy the Boy of Steel's reputation. Eventually he frees Superboy and departs from the twentieth century, traveling through time to finally settle on the more advanced Earth of the 30th century. Since the people of Smallville will not believe Superboy's story of the impostor, he has to use a cover story that he was acting under the influence of Red Kryptonite to restore his reputation.

Dev-Em returns in Adventure Comics #320 (May 1964), where it is revealed that the so-called "Knave of Krypton" has reformed and joined the Interstellar Counter-Intelligence Corps of the 30th century. He is reluctantly offered membership in the Legion of Super-Heroes but turns it down. Despite his occasionally abrasive nature, Dev-Em aids the Legion on several occasions, most notably in the "Great Darkness Saga" against Darkseid.

Post-Crisis, Pre-Zero Hour

In the limited series Who's Who in the Legion of Super-Heroes #1 (April 1988), his post-Crisis background was changed. Since there are no more Kryptonians in the wake of the Superman reboot, his entry in this encyclopedia-like series says that he is David Emery, a resident of Titan, home world of Saturn Girl, who uses his mental powers to give himself Kryptonian-style super powers. This aspect of his background never appears in print outside of this Who's Who entry.

Dev-Em appears in the "Time and Time Again" storyline in which the Man of Steel bounces between the 30th century (home of the Legion) and the 20th century. Superman encounters Dev-Em, now portrayed as an insane Daxamite, as a full grown adult whose powers rivaled Superman's. He tried to destroy the Earth's moon but was challenged by that alternate future's incarnation of the Legion. Dev-Em makes short work of Superman, Laurel Gand and the rest of the Legion. Dev-Em is seemingly stopped by Shrinking Violet as she shrinks to a small size and enters Dev-Em's ear, scratching his insides. However, he soon initiates the Dominators' covert Triple Strike program, destroying the moon and causing massive damage to cities across the Earth.^[1]

Post-Infinite Crisis

In the aftermath of the Infinite Crisis in which Kon-El died, a man going by the name Devem is seen as part of a cult of Kryptonian worshippers in 52 #4 (May 31, 2006). He is revealed to actually be a "psych-ward refugee named Derek Mathers who has a history of fraud."

In Action Comics #851 (August 2007), Geoff Johns, Richard Donner and Adam Kubert present a new version of Dev-Em. This Dev-Em is a renegade Kryptonian being held as a prisoner for murder and perversion within the Phantom Zone. He attacks Superman there but is eventually taken down by Mon-El.

Powers and abilities

Like all Kryptonians under a yellow sun, Dev-Em possesses vast super strength, speed & stamina; various extra sensory and vision powers (including super hearing, x-ray vision, telescopic vision, microscopic vision, and heat vision); tremendous lung capacity and super breath (wind and ice); invulnerability, and flight. Exposure to green kryptonite weakens him, and prolonged exposure would be fatal.

Notes

References

• Dev-Em at the Unofficial Who's Who of the DC Universe