Solarman

Solarman was a superhero that ran briefly in his own 1989 title from Marvel Comics.

Publication history

Marvel had high hopes for the character, and even created a pilot for an animated TV series based around him. On October 24, 1992, this pilot aired as a special on Fox Kids. However, the show was never picked up.

Despite scripts by Stan Lee and art by Jim Mooney and Mike Zeck, the Solarman comic book lasted only two issues.

Fictional character biography

Solarman is teenager Benjamin Tucker, who dreams of becoming an artist for Marvel Comics even though his Los Angeles gym-owner father wants him to become a jock. A blue-skinned alien cyborg warlord named Commander Gormagga Kraal tries to use his technology to drain the energy from Earth's sun, but his white-bearded head scientist, Sha-han, refuses and flees to Earth with Kraal's Circlet of Power, which he gives to Ben along with a helpful little robot the boy dubs Beepie.

Thereafter, Ben can expose the Circlet (which is worn on his wrist like a bracelet and cannot be removed) to sunlight and transform into the golden-haired adult Solarman who possesses superhuman strength, is capable of supersonic flight and survival in deep space and can control light, heat, and other forms of energy, although his weakness is that his powers would fade without constant exposure to sunlight, causing him to revert to his powerless teenage form.

Other versions

Credited creator David Oliphant had actually published three digest-sized issues of a more educationally-oriented version of Solarman back in 1979â€"1980 under the Pendulum Illustrated imprint. This Solarman was an alien "Solarite" named Davos from a land inside the Sun called "Coresun" who came to Earth with his stiff-legged android servant Arman and used his superior abilities to become a baseball player while preaching the virtues of solar energy. In addition to the tremendous strength granted to him by Earth's lower gravity, his Solarcell Medallion, which also allowed him to recharge his life energy via exposure to sunlight, made him able to fly through the air in a giant fireball and shoot flames from his eyes. Art in these comics was provided by, among others, Dick Giordano.

Image Comics currently features its own character called "Solar Man", a psychotic vigilante version of Superman who appears as a villain in Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon.

References

External links

• Solarman at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe