Red Boy was once one of the Gods of China and a force for good. However, his desire to avenge his parents led him down a dark path to become the demon lord King Fire Bull.
History
When Red Boy was a child in the 16th Century, he lived with his parents King Bull Demon and Princess Iron Fan in a cave on Flaming Mountain in China. One day his father kidnapped the monk Tripitaka as he and his companions, including the Monkey King, travelled through the mountains. Monkey King and Nezha rescued Tripitaka and handed King Bull Demon over to the Warrior Guardians for judgement. After Monkey King and Tripitaka left, Princess Iron Fan confronted Nezha for leaving her and Red Boy without a provider. Nezha told them that he was sure King Bull Demon would find redemption and gave Red Boy half of his two-headed Fire Tipped Spear; promising Red Boy that if he ever needed him, Nezha would come.
As Nezha predicted, King Bull Demon did redeem himself and centuries later, Red Boy's family fought on the side of the Heavenly Realm against Apokolips. The invasion was repelled but Red Boy's parents were both killed by Darkseid as he retreated. Nezha adopted Red Boy and raised him as his son.[2]
Red Boy lived with Nezha for years, training and growing in power. While studying in Nezha's library he discovered a Father Box which could take him to Apokolips. He fought his way through an army of Parademons and Kalibak to reach Darkseid's fortress. When he reached the throne room Nezha, who had followed him through the Boom Tube, caught up to him. They attacked Darkseid together but he easily stopped them. Darkseid revealed that he had found the way to the Heavenly Realm when Nezha, then a vicious warlord, had come to Apokolips looking for power. Red Boy attacked Nezha in a rage, blaming him for his parent's deaths.
Nezha initially tried to simply fend Red Boy off, but when he would not stop; Nezha cast aside the Red Armillary Sash that repressed his evil impulses, blasted him with powerful magic and departed, leaving Red Boy for dead. Darkseid had Red Boy incinerated but he survived, although he was left horribly scarred. Red Boy swore revenge on Nezha and returned to Earth, where he drained the power from his parent's graves and renamed himself King Fire Bull, believing that he was now a devil like Nezha and unworthy of his old name.[3]
Eventually on Earth the Monkey King's old enemies Golden Horn King and Silver Horn King were released from the gourds they had been imprisoned in. The demon brothers were both foiled by the Monkey Prince, the Monkey King's successor and presumed son; but beforehand they each managed to consume the qi of a mortal hero, gaining corporeal form and the Immortal Powers of Fear and Voice respectively. King Fire Bull recruited them as his generals.[4]
King Fire Bull and his generals attacked a LexCorp facility, where he devoured multiple clones of Bizarro to increase his strength for a fight with Superman; hoping to absorb his qi and gain the Immortal Power of Invulnerability. During the attack he mortally wounded and almost killed Laura Shugel-Shen, the Monkey Prince's adoptive mother.[5]
King Fire Bull learned that Nezha was hiding on Lazarus Island and assaulted his lair. He and Nezha fought briefly, but the Lazarus Pits had been destabilised and the island erupted, spewing Lazarus Resin around the world. Nezha fled through a portal and King Fire Bull flew from the island in a rage.[6] The Lazarus caused global extreme weather events and destabilised multiple superheroes' powers. King Fire Bull sent Silver Horn King to the Tower of Fate to retrieve Nezha's hoard of magical artifacts and Golden Horn King to Nezha's stronghold in the Himalayas to capture him.[2]
At the Hall of Justice an ad-hoc team of heroes, including Monkey Prince, gathered at the Hall. Robin dispatched most of the heroes on missions around the world, leaving the Hall defended by only him, Monkey Prince and the magic-draining Black Alice.[2] King Fire Bull attacked the Hall, seeking to capture Black Alice and force her to channel the wild magic of the Lazarus Storms into him. A team of heroes responded to his attack, and while he was distracted fighting them, Alice used her powers to return the magic to all the sorcerers who Nezha had kidnapped and drained, however, King Fire Bull was still able to draw power from the storm.[3]
Nezha, who had possessed the body of Batman, sensed what he was doing and teleported all the captured magical heroes and villains to his location, where they attacked him en-masse. He was overpowered and The Spectre imprisoned him in a small globe.[3]
Baigujing and her army of skeleton demons found King Fire Bull's prison on a small island in the Atlantic Ocean. She released him from the globe and told him that they had a common enemy in the Monkey Prince. She also revealed that the Monkey Prince was not the son of the Monkey King as he had assumed, but was in fact a clone, created from one of the Monkey King's hairs.
As King Fire Bull was severely weakened Baigujing dispatched her soldiers to kidnap Supergirl so King Fire Bull could devour her qi and gain her "Immortal Power of Strength". However, when Supergirl was brought to King Fire Bull and he began to drain her qi, Baigujing siphoned off a portion for herself without his knowledge. Monkey Prince, his mentor Pigsy and their new ally Shellestriah tracked Supergirl to the island and attacked him. King Fire Bull tried to mock Monkey Prince about his true origins, but Marcus had already learned and accepted the truth and was not shaken by his words. Monkey Prince unleashed an army of clones on King Fire Bull and the skeleton demons, with him and several of his clones overpowering King Fire Bull and bringing him down. Marcus was about to beat King Fire Bull to death in revenge for what he had done to his mother, but Pigsy convinced Marcus to spare him and they imprisoned him back in the gem.[7]
Powers and Abilities
Powers
- Godly Physiology
- Qi Absorption[5]
- Claws[5]
- Elemental Transmutation: King Fire Bull was able to transmute his teeth into Blue Kryptonite.[5]
- Energy Transference: King Fire Bull was able to mimic Black Alice's ability to absorb and re-channel magic.[3]
- Electro-Blast: Red Boy could channel the wild magic of the Lazarus storms as bolts of lightning from his hands.[3]
- Fangs[5]
- Flight[1]
- Immortality[2]
- Invulnerability[3]
- Pyrokinesis[5]
- Superhuman Strength[1][2]
Abilities
- Intimidation[5]
- Leadership[5]
- Martial Arts[3]
- Meditation[3]
- Multilingualism: King Fire Bull speaks both Mandarin and English.[5][7]
- Weaponry[8]
Paraphernalia
Equipment
Weapons
- Fire Tipped Spear: (Formerly) Red Boy wielded one half of Nezha's double-tipped spear.[2]
Notes
- This character or object is an adaptation of Red Boy, a character or object in traditional stories. These include, but may not be limited to religious texts, myth, and/or folk lore. More information on the original can be found at Wikipedia.org.
Related
- 10 Appearances of Red Boy (Prime Earth)
- 5 Images featuring Red Boy (Prime Earth)
- Quotations by or about Red Boy (Prime Earth)
- Character Gallery: Red Boy (Prime Earth)
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Batman vs. Robin #4
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Lazarus Planet: Alpha #1
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 Lazarus Planet: Omega #1
- ↑ Monkey Prince #1–Monkey Prince #8
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 Monkey Prince #9
- ↑ Batman vs. Robin #4
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Monkey Prince #12
- ↑ Monkey Prince #0
- ↑ Monkey Prince #4