Let’s see, for October I’ve covered
the Lizard (Jekyll and Hyde), Hobgoblin (kind of Goblin), the Ghost, and the
Wendigo. I think for this last one I should cover a true-blue wizard. But, I
want to try something a little different. Rather than covering a wizard
from Marvel or DC, I’ll instead cover my favorite wizard in fiction. No, I’m not
talking about Harry Potter, but you’re close. No, this time we’re going to do
the hero profile for Chicago’s only practicing wizard, Harry Dresden. Let’s get
to it.
I should point out that Harry
Dresden’s history is told throughout the Dresden Files novels, with
tidbits being sprinkled in across multiple books from Harry’s perspective. So,
obviously, some things he thinks about his history in the early books is
eventually revealed to be incorrect or distorted by time or emotion. I’ll keep this
profile as spoiler free as I can, as I want to inform you about the character
and get you to read the books.
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| Just an average midnight stroll for Chicago's favorite wizard. |
Harry Dresden was born to stage
magician Malcolm Dresden and his wife, an actual wizard, Margaret LeFay. Within
the Dresden Files, wizard is a gender-neutral term, just a FYI. Harry’s mother died within a few hours of
giving birth to him, under mysterious circumstances. Tragic, but I’m sure that
point won’t come up again. Malcolm named Harry after his three magician heroes,
Harry Houdini, Harry Blackstone Jr., and David Copperfield, for a ridiculously long full name of Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Somehow, I think
that Margaret might have objected to this, just saying. Dresden traveled with
his father for most of his early childhood. Malcom was pretty much always
working to make ends meet, but he loved what he did and did his best to look
after his son as well. Dresden has described this tragically brief time with
his father as some of the happiest he’s had in life. This came to an end when he
was six, as his father died of an aneurism in his sleep.
Dresden spent the next few years in
the foster care system. The next eventful moment in Harry’s life was when he
was ten. He was up to do the running long jump during his elementary school’s “Olympics.”
For reasons that even Dresden can’t remember, he really wanted to win the blue
ribbon for it. He wanted it so bad that his magic first manifested, causing him
to jump nearly a dozen feet. He landed badly and sprained his wrist, but he got
that damned ribbon and kept it to this day. Right after that first bit of
magic, he was adopted by a man called Justin DuMorne.
DuMorne was a wizard and he spent
the next several years training Dresden. DuMorne is described to be a tough but
fair mentor, the sort to throw baseballs at Dresden to practice making magic
shields but rewarding young Harry when he’s able to block successfully. In that
time, DuMonre also adopted another magically gifted child, Elaine Mallory. While
the two young wizards in training had friction at first, they ultimately became
each other’s best friend and “first” everything. Wink wink, nudge nudge. Things
were good with DuMorne and Elaine for Harry until he was sixteen.
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| Paul Blackthorne was the best part of the sucky 2007 TV adaptation. |
At that time, he found out that DuMorne
was evil and had intended to make him and Elaine his magical enforcers. When Dresden
refused to follow along willingly, DuMorne tried to enthrall him with Magic. Dresden
ran off, but was chased down by a demon that DuMorne summoned to kill him. Dresden
was able to kill the monster by exploding a gas station (not the last time
Harry will do that). Dresden sought out and made a deal with a powerful Fae noble,
the Lenansidhe (pronounced Len-on-she) to give him a power boost. He then faced
off against Justin, killing him.
It’s only after that that Harry
learned that there was a governing body to wizards, called the White Council.
Justin DeMorne had actually been a member of the group, he was a Warden (wizard
cop), but he’d kept that info from Dresden and Elaine in order to better control
them. Dresden was pretty much instantly arrested and put on trial. See, wizards
have several laws, the most important of which is that one should never use
magic to kill. The punishment being execution. Thankfully, a wizard on the council,
Ebenezer McCoy, asked for clemency. This meant that McCoy would take over
training Dresden, and Dresden would be put under the Doom Of Damocles. It’s a fancy
name for Wizard Probation, if Dresden broke another wizard law he’d be
executed. He trained under Ebenezer in Hogs Hallow, Missouri for a handful of
years, and “cooled off” a bit under the old man’s tutelage. Dresden then
quickly became a full member of the White Council, something that was all but
unheard of for a wizard his age at the time. Harry spent a few years traveling around
the US, before settling in Chicago, Illinois.
He had a couple of jobs in the city
before working for Private Investigator Nicholas Christian at Ragged Angel
Investigations. Christian’s agency specialized in finding missing kids. Dresden
worked for Nick for three years as he worked towards getting his own PI license.
His time with Nick was largely uneventful, except for one case. They were hired
by the Astor family to find their daughter, Faith. Dresden is able to track the
girl down, having used magic to hone in on her, but is then informed that the
Astors decided to distort the situation. They claimed that their daughter had
been kidnapped by Nick and Dresden, rather than let it get out that their
daughter had run away from an emotionally abusive household. Dresden refused to
leave the girl to save his hide. He and Nick agree to meet at a bridge and
figure things out. Faith distracted Harry for a second getting him to talk
about Magic, bit his hand and ran for it. She was almost instantly grabbed by a
Troll. Harry is able to get her away from it. The troll, Gogoth, demands that Dresden
give her the girl. Dresden distracted it with a bright flash of light from one
of his rings and sprinted away.
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| Honestly shocked Murphy hasn't shot him more often. |
They make back to the other side of
the bridge and the two bond a little. Over Harry’s past and Faith’s currently
crappy home lives. He does his best to encourage her, and gives her the “things
will get better” speech. He grabs her and attempts to cross the bridge one more
time. The troll makes another grab at Faith, but Dresden is able to get her
away. He fights the monster while Faith ran to meet Nick. He gets some back up
from a lady cop that he’d passed earlier. The two are able to distract the
troll long enough for Dresden to chop into it with its own massive cleaver. The
Troll dies, but releases thousands of mini trolls from the wound. Hydra eat
your heart out, I guess.
Afterwards, the cop, whom took that
bit of insanity rather well, attempts to figure out what the hell just happened.
Officer Murphy is kept from arresting Dresden and Nick by Faith telling her
what happened. Murphy takes Faith back home while Dresden and Nick marvel over
surviving that one.
This entire story is from the short
story “Restoration of Faith” which is available for free on Jim Butcher’s website.
In the years since saving Faith and
becoming a true blue PI, Harry Dresden has had a very active life. He’s battled
a warlock (evil wizard) that was pushing a magic drug, several varieties of
werewolves, a vengeful ghost, the local vampire queen, several powerful nobles
in the Fey courts, and Fallen Angels. And that’s just in the first five books. And he's always battling his eternal enemy, Rent.
Harry Dresden as a wizard has magic
powers. He’s unique in his universe in that he’s unusually powerful for a wizard
his age. He can throw around more magical power than many wizards twice his or
even thrice his age. He utilizes a number of tools to help focus his powers and
use them efficiently. His primary weapons are his blasting rod and wizard
staff. The rod is basically a magic wand, but is designed to focus and aim his
fire magic. His staff is more versatile, allowing him to work more spells
through it but with less power. He also keeps a set of rings on his hands that
he charges up with kinetic energy. Basically, ever time he moves his arm the
ring will store some of the kinetic energy of the movement. It takes a while to
build up, but when he unleashes the charge on his ring, he can slam a person
through a wall. As for his defenses, he’s got his beloved leather duster. The
old west style coat is covered in runes and spells to make it tear, cut and
bulletproof. And also, more resistant to magic attacks. He also wears a charm
bracelet on his left wrist. It has several small kite shield-like charms on it.
By channeling his power through it, he can create a barrier around himself to
protect himself from projectiles. He later upgrades it to include protecting
him from heat and other forms of energy, after one of his enemies got clever.
Dresden is also assisted on most of
his adventures by a spirit of intellect he dubbed Bob. Bob is kind of the
wizard equivalent of a computer, as the spirit has centuries of knowledge on
the art of magic stored within him. Bob is housed in a rune covered skull. His “real”
body is as a cloud of orange energy. Dresden pays him in trashy romance novels,
as the skull is the horniest disembodied spirit you’ll ever meet. He’s also
often backed up by Lieutenant Karrin Murphy. The two have a very rocky
relationship at first, due to Dresden trying to keep Murphy in the dark about
the monsters and dark wizards that stalk the streets and Murphy’s refusal to
just let Dresden handle things. She’s a skilled police officer, a crack shot,
and a master of Judo. She’s at one point described as Tiny but Fierce by a
Paladin. She’s only about five foot nothing.
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| The Story that started it all. |
The Dresden Files, at the time of
writing this, consists of fifteen novels with novel sixteen nearly complete,
and two books of short stories. When the story begins, Dresden is a fairly
generic PI character, just with the added quirk of being a practicing wizard.
As the novels continue, he grows into more of a traditional hero, using his
magical abilities to protect Chicagoans from the magical forces that traditionally
prey upon them. And a few more mundane monsters, like the local crime boss,
Gentleman Johnny Marcone.
I love Harry Dresden as a character.
He’s a lot like Spider-Man, in that he’s been kicked around by life a lot and
yet still does his damnedest to help everyone he can. He’s also snarky and sarcastic,
which are two character-traits that I love. I also love how he describes the
use of Magic. For Harry, it’s like a religious experience to use magic. At
least once a book he has a very eloquent speech as to how Magic, this cosmic
force of nature, is the most wonderful thing in the world and how he’s humbled
about using this power. He’s not a perfect character, either. As he’s often
gets himself into trouble by trying to do everything himself, and that he’s got
a sense of chivalry so strong that for a while the best way to hurt him is to either
threaten a woman in his vicinity, or be a woman that threatens him. Which is particularly
bad for Harry as at least three of his most dangerous enemies are women. That
all said, he always tries his damnedest to protect people, to use magic wisely,
and to make the world a safer place. That why I thought he deserved a Hero
Profile on his birthday. Have a good night everybody.
Just curious folks, did you enjoy
this non-superhero hero profile? Should I do more on my favorite characters
from books and other media? Let me know in the comments.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/31208893
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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