Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Mysterious Superheroes - Nemesis & Magicman

 
There have been a lot of comic publishers over the decades with some rather strange properties. One of those small comic publishers was the American Comics Group or ACG. The editor, a man named Richard E. Hughes, had cut his teeth on Golden Age strips like the Woman in Red and Fighting Yank, but by the 1960s he was turning out mostly horror comics - however, since this was the era of the feel-good comics code these were mostly horror-light fare. Hughes thought most of the originality had been wrung out of the superhero genre - maybe it's age because I'm mostly thinking that now - but bowing to reader demands by 1965 he included such heroes in his titles Forbidden World, where Magicman started with issue #125, and Adventures into the Unknown, where Nemesis began appearing with issue #154. Magicman, the one with the turban, uses various magical powers to fight crime, including telekinesis, the ability to induce nightmares, superstrength, shape-shifting into animals and he can even summon tornadoes - but he needs to gesture with his hands to do all this so if you bind him he's got problems. Nemesis - the guy with the hourglass on his chest - actually died but it was a little crowded getting into the Unknown (afterlife) so the Grim Reaper allows him to go back to earth and settle the score with the crime boss who killed him. Nemesis has superstrength, the ability to fly, turn invisible, telepathy, grow to giant size, appear and disappear at will and even travel through time. So basically they were both paranormal types of superheroes. Magicman got his start in Vietnam before that whole thing was better left out of the comic book pages, which is rather unique. I found these to be rather unique and interesting characters so I made action figures for them. Magicman was made using the body and arms of a Toy Biz Captain America figure, with the legs from a Robin Hood Little John and a Superman head. The turban I made from Sculpy and I included a small crystal to dress him up a little. Nemesis was made using the body of a Captain America and the head from a JLA Green Arrow - the later version.
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2 comments:

  1. These are fantastic. I have a few issues of their respective comics. Also currently reading the archive-type collections from Dark Horse. Fun stuff. This is my speed, up there with the Archie super heroes and Gold Key characters.

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  2. I think they're especially fun because they are such products of their times. More than some of the other superhero crowd.

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