BEYOND MANDRAKE: It's a kind of magic...
By Andrew Wheeler.

As a visual entertainment medium, comics are often about spectacle, and spectacle is often about fantasy. There are only really two ways to break out of the humdrum normal world into the realms of fantasy. You can take the known and bend and break it, as with the weird science of superheroes, or you can take the unknown and shine a speculative light upon it, as with the strange and wonderous world of magic. This month in Beyond, we look at comicdom's premier practitioners of the craft.

MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN - Created by Lee Falk and Phil Davis in 1935, MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN is one of the longest running newspaper adventure strips in history. However, while other heroes of the era where square-jawed men in outer space, or square-jawed men on pirate ships, or square-jawed men in the jungle, wearing loin-cloths or purple jumpsuits, Mandrake was a more cerebral figure. He dressed in the top hat and tails of the music-hall magician, and always carried himself with a certain class and dignity. Though he may appear to have come direct from a stageshow, Mandrake's powers of hypnotism and illusion were quite real, having been learned (in typical comic strip style) from ancient mystic masters in Tibet. In his initial appearances, Mandrake's supernatural abilities were even more extraordinary and varied, but Falk and Davis evidently decided it would be more interesting to see Mandrake succeed against his opponents with wit and ingenuity (helped occasionally by the brute strength of his comrade Lothar, the African king). Mandrake is the quintessential comic book magician.

DOCTOR STRANGE - Maybe the most famous mystic of all, among comic-book fans at least. Some creators have called him Marvel's answer to the Batman, in terms of his originality and versatility. Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, the pompous and callous surgeon Stephen Strange became a disconsolate and self-pitying wreck after his hands were crippled in a car crash. In his search for a cure, he came upon a master mage named the Ancient One, who trained him in the use of his powers. After the Ancient One's death, Strange became his successor as Sorcerer Supreme. Like Batman, he had an original origin story, a distinctive and inventive visual design, and a host of excellent villains (including the Dread Dormammu, Nightmare, and Baron Mordo). Unlike Batman, he has never been one of the big sellers, remaining more popular with creators (including Denny O'Neil, Roy Thomas, Gene Colan, Steve Englehart and Frank Miller) than with readers.

DOCTOR FATE - Like Mandrake, DC's Doctor Fate started out a lot more mysterious and supernatural than he later became. Created by Gardner Fox and Howard Sherman in the pages MORE FUN COMICS, he was originally wholly mysterious, near omnipotent, and known by no name other than Fate. Later, however, he was turned into a more conventional superhero. He finally removed his trademark golden helm and revealed himself as Kent Nelson, a mortal man possessing the powers of one of the ancient Lords of Order, channelled through the helm itself. His enemies changed from occult fiends at the edge of reality to the usual bank robbers and jewel thieves. In time, Kent even chose to limit his powers by wearing a half-helm, to prevent his mind from being possessed by Nabu the Wise, the Lord of Order. He even became a regular serving member of the Justice Society of America.

THE SCARLET WITCH - Fathered by the most powerful mutant on earth, and born atop a mountain where the Dark God Chthon lay buried, in the shadow of the High Evolutionary's citadel, the mutant Wanda Maximoff was given an extraordinary gift; a strange synergy of magic and science. She was given a mutant power that allowed her to alter probability; a power so akin to magic as for her to be rechristened 'the Scarlet Witch'. She was raised by Romani gypsies, and in time came to be trained in real witchcraft. She also married the synthezoid Vision - perhaps the ultimate marriage of magic and science - and had two children, who in time were revealed to be phantoms created by her powers. The Scarlet Witch remains one of the longest serving Avengers, having even led the team at times, and belongs firmly in the ranks of Marvel's mightiest heroines. Since even her powers have a genetic basis, Wanda Maximoff is arguably the closest any comic-book sorcerer ever came to being a conventional superhero.

JOHN CONSTANTINE - It doesn't have to be top hats or ancient artefacts, of course. Doves and playing cards and women in fish net stockings are not a prerequisite of magic; nor is a pair of glowing eyes and an echoing, booming voice a necessity. Sometimes all you need is a sly, cocky bastard in a trenchcoat. In John Constantine, the successive talents of Alan Moore, Jamie Delano and Garth Ennis succeeded in redefining what the word 'magician' could mean - so much so that some HELLBLAZER fans deny John is a magician at all. He's just a guy who knows a few tricks. True enough. He's very good at them, though. John Constantine takes the hocus-pocus out of magic, and injects a healthy dose of cynicism and horror into the genre.

PHANTOM STRANGER - The Phantom Stranger is not a conventional magician. He may not be a magician at all, but he is certainly of that ilk. One legend has it that he is an angel who rejected both sides in the war between heaven and hell. Another possibility is that he is the Wandering Jew, or the chosen survivor of a destroyed city of sin. Whatever his origin, his role now is as a magical troubleshooter; a man who travels to all corners of the DC universe offering advice and aid to those in need. His powers appear varied and great indeed, but due to some undefined obligation, he is traditionally unable to intervene directly in the affairs he needs to set right. He remains one of the few magical men of mystery to remain mysterious across all 50 years of his comicbook existence, and with any luck, that's how he will remain; both a phantom and a stranger.

TIM HUNTER - As the Phantom Stranger shows us, magicians tend to be mysterious and enigmatic figures, drifting in and out of the shadows, existing half in this world and half in another realm. We don't always get to see who they really are, or where they came from. That's the idea, at least. Tim Hunter, on the other hand, is a master mage growing up in public. At 13, four of the DC universe's greatest magical practitioners - Mister E, Dr Occult, John Constantine and the aforementioned Phantom Stranger - came to him to teach him the basic truths about magic and prepare him for his destiny. Tim Hunter may become the greatest mage of all time, but in the meantime he's a young Londoner going through his rites of passage. An average teenager living a teenage existence. With added demons and faeries.

AGATHA HARKNESS - When men do it, they get to be wizards or warlocks or magicians or conjurors or sorcerers. When women do it, they're witches. Agatha Harkness does it old-school style. A spindly, white haired woman with a nice line in chants and spells and her very own black cat familiar, Agatha is as typically 'witch' as they come. She even acted as mentor to the Scarlet Witch (and, rather more bizarrely, as nanny to the Fantastic Four's Franklin Richards). Her most avant-garde moment, though, came when she was subjected to a witch trial by the residents of New Salem. Doesn't sound very original, does it? The twist? The residents of New Salem were all witches. Agatha's own kith and kin put her on trial because she was a good witch, acting for the benefit of mankind.

SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH - Recently made famous by the children's television series starring Melissa Joan Hart, the SABRINA stories originated as part of the ARCHIE family of comics. A young witch living with her aunts, Hilda and Zelda, and her black cat Salem, Sabrina's adventures don't tend to involve much in the way of horrific possessions or otherworldly demons. More likely they will centre on high school rivalry and love at the ice-cream parlour. In fact, she's not unlike Tim Hunter, at least in the original conception. While Dr Strange struggles to find readers, and Mandrake is today best known for his own foray into kids TV (DEFENDERS OF THE EARTH, where he starred alongside his pulpish contemporaries Flash Gordon and the Phantom), Sabrina has become far and away the most popular comicbook magical practitioners outside of the medium.

DOCTOR DRUID - Dr Anthony Druid, also called Anthony Ludgate, is a kind of reversal of the Mandrake model. Created in 1961, some sources call him the first superhero of Marvel's Silver Age. As his name suggests, Druid was a Celtic mystic. Although he was trained by the Ancient One, he was never especially powerful. His talents tended to be limited to the Mandrake standbys of illusion and hypnotism. He even ran with the Avengers for a while, where he proved to be something of a flop. In fact, he very nearly ended the team once and for all, when he betrayed them to the beautiful and villainous Terminatrix. Later, after a period leading the Secret Defenders, he became totally corrupt. His powers grew, and his involvement with forbidden knowledge and the supernatural actually increased. So much so that it drove him mad, and the Lord of Hell joined forces with the Queen of the Dead to destroy him. At the end, his power levels were perhaps on a par with those of Mandrake when he first appeared.

Next month: Beyond Nightcrawler.

Andrew Wheeler is a Staff Writer for PopImage.

Back

Attitude | ProFile | Industrial
Interviews | Reviews | Pi Comics
Talkback | Archives | Gallery