The original Digimon anime had plenty of villains for the DigiDestined to fend off. From Etemon to Myotismon, there was no shortage of enemies for Tai and company to overcome. The new Digimon Adventure series is looking to do no different. In fact, the series is even teasing the return of the original's first major villain.
While there were some minor enemies in the early episodes of the series, the first major threat to the DigiDestined was Devimon. And though he may not have been the most powerful villain the series had to offer, but he paved the way for villains like the aforementioned Myotismon. Devimon played a big part in the story and proved to be a challenging hurdle for the DigiDestined to clear.
Before the DigiDestined arrived, Devimon took over File Island by controlling the resident Digimon with black gears. These gears have the ability to make Digimon go berserk or further their evil powers. He enslaved many Digimon with these gears and used them as his puppets. He also used them to watch over the DigiDestined and even to move File Island to or from Infinity Mountain. Devimon also hid the crests and tags because he feared the prophecy of the smallest DigiDestined using them to defeat him.
After they arrived on File Island, Devimon wasted no time sending his minions after the DigiDestined. From lower-level Digimon he corrupted with the black gears to more powerful Digimon like Leomon and Ogremon, Devimon threw many obstacles at the children. He even went as far as to lure them into a false sense of security by treating them as guests at a fake mansion. He split the island apart trying to divide the DigiDestined and take out Tai. That is, until Tai was able to release Leomon from Devimon's control with his Digivice and they restored File Island to its previous state.
After observing the children more, he noticed that T.K. was the one he really had to worry about. He had an incredible will to fight and the prophecy stated that the smallest member of the team would be the one to defeat him, which just so happened to be T.K. He knew he needed to defeat T.K. and Patamon before he could digivolve into his Champion form. He sent Leomon and Ogremon after the DigiDestined, who led the children right to Devimon. Devimon absorbed Ogremon and a large number of black gears to increase his size and strength. He incapacitated the rest of the DigiDestined and their Digimon before he turned his attention toward T.K, and was about to crush him when Patamon digivolved into Angemon. Angemon then vanquished Devimon with one blow and a little help from the Digivices.
There were plenty of Digimon more powerful and more evil than Devimon to appear later on the series. However, Devimon paved the way for future enemies like Myotismon, Lucemon and BlackWarGreymon. He played an important role in the journey of the DigiDestined by serving as their first big trial to overcome.
Devimon has made subsequent appearances as well, but he never played the same big role he did in the early part of the series. It will be interesting to see how the new series will utilize Devimon. With any luck, his role will be just as crucial as it was in the original series, if not more so.