History: Lane was plagued by guilt after his bank was robbed and he stood helplessly by as a fellow clerk was murdered. He confronted the bank robbers, who roughed him up and threw him in a stream. He was struck by lightning and fell into a coma. Apache shaman Wise Owl nursed him back to health with a mixture of medicine and magic. When Lane woke up he claimed that something like a devil had entered his body. From that day forth when Lane slept he took on the persona of El Diablo to right wrongs and fight those that did harm to others.

(El Diablo II #1-4) - El Diablo stalked Monkey Joe and his gang to a small town in New Mexico, and gunned them down. The sheriff Moses Stone responded, but Diablo saw the sin in his heart, he was once horsethief Elmer Huskey, who'd killed a bounty hunter and assumed his identity to escape his past. He tortured Moses, tying him up, and carving Halo, the name of his home town, into his back. The next day Diablo sent a flaming horse into town with one of his own wanted posters to incite Moses. Moses assembled his posse, and headed off to Halo, while his men debated if El Diablo was an outlaw, a demon, or both. Diablo stalked them the whole way, appearing and disappearing so they shot one of their own, and stringing up posse member Manny with his own guts. In Halo Moses sought out and killed anyone who recognized him as Elmer, and El Diablo drew him to a graveyard before disappearing. The gravedigger thought he was the real Moses Stone, and confessed to sheriff Chaney that he witnessed Moses shooting his own daughter, so Elmer was hanged for Moses' crimes.

(El Diablo III #1, 2) - Lazarus Lane survived for another century, and was placed in an L.A. hospital, pretending to be comatose. His roommate was crimelord Chato Santana, who'd been shot by his own man Jorge. They came to finish him off, and as he lost consciousness he entered the spirit world. Lane revealed himself on the plane as El Diablo, and Chato was like him, too tough to die; offering to pass on the mantle of El Diablo to him. Chato accepted, becoming Hell's hitman, and killing the gang members that tried to kill him before riding off on his demonic horse with Lane. El Diablo woke up back in human form in New Mexico, and Lazarus, appearing as a spirit, told him the curse would direct his mission. Lane told him they were in Sky City, New Mexico, where Vicente de Zaldívar, a conquistador, oppressed the people before becoming a demon and stealing their souls. Lazarus had once clashed with him and lost, and told diablo it was his turn, but the curse clearly wanted him to drag his crippled body there by himself . Once Diablo arrived he regained his powers, and battled Zaldivar, torturing him, and promising to let him go free if he released the souls in his possession. Zaldivar complied, and Diablo blasted him with his hellish guns. Lazarus told him the cruel way he was going about things was not the way of El Diablo, and Diablo asked him why Zaldivar claimed the Diablo's served someone named Chutriel. Diablo said he wanted revenge on Agent Aaron, the man who arrested him, and Lazarus objected that the curse would not allow him vengeance. Diablo ignored him, and located Aaron in the office of federal prosecutor, who'd been murdered by the demonic entity Vorpal. Vorpal told him the curse of El Diablo was his by right before fleeing. Diablo tried to kill Aaron, but the curse would not let him. Aaron believed Diablo when he said he was Hell's hitman, and revealed that Jorge was an undercover officer gone rogue, and was operating out of Mexico City.

(El Diablo III #3, 4) - Diablo got a call from Lane, and told him the curse was leading him to Jorge. He demanded to know more about Chutriel. Lane said a rabbi once called him a son of Chutriel, an angel who sided with Lucifer in his rebellion against god, and who later refused to be redeemed so he could torture the souls of Hell. Lane noted that White Owl, the man who gave him the curse, was a Native American, and not of the Judeo-Christian faith, so he suspected it could be nonsense. Vorpal confronted Lane, who told him he was far too unstable to ever have the curse. They clashed, and Lane had to steal El Diablo's power to battle him. Vorpal won, beheading him, and .bringing his head to his master Ninhursag. She told him El Diablo had slain his enemy Jorge Ramos, and Vorpal was to use him to raise an army in Hell to oppose El Diablo. Vorpal was determined to destroy everything El Diablo held dear, and broke into the cloning facility of Cerberus, using their machines to create an Invunche. Diablo destroyed it, but while he was busy Vorpal brutally slew his ex-girlfriend Julie. El Diablo gave up on life, confronting Vorpal and telling him to kill him.

(El Diablo III #6) - A powerless Chato was sent to the electric chair, but when he was jolted the headless spirit of Lazarus appeared to him, telling him the curse wouldn't let him off so easy, and he once again became El Diablo.

Comments: Created by Robert Kanigher and Gray Morrow.

El Diablo received a profile in Who’s Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #7.