Favorite Fictional Character --- Mandrake the Magician

I'm not sure if some of you will think I'm cheating this month or not, but here it goes anyway.  As you all know, when I love a character, I really do love them.  Every single character I've featured over the last few years is someone that I have grown to care about and hold dear for one reason or another.  Some have taught me important lessons, others have simply entertained me.  So this month is dedicated to those characters that I've featured before, but never really got a lot of love from my readers.  It will be my second chance to spread the word about some very special characters, and hopefully it will give those characters one more chance to win over some fans.  

Now I may be shooting myself in the foot with this, but I'm hoping that this time around these very special characters will win some new followers of their own.  If even one more person is exposed to them, I'll consider this month to be a success.  So with no further ado, I would love to reintroduce you to a character that I first feature on June 9th, 2010.  He is one that has been around for decades and deserves all the attention he can get, Mandrake the Magician.

Growing up, I was always fascinated by stage magicians.  There was something so wondrous about a elegantly dressed man wearing a a top hat who can make things disappear or appear at will.  So when I came across a bunch of old comic books, during the 4th grade, that showcased a stage magician who not only performed real magic but fought criminals and saved innocents, I was hooked.

Mandrake the Magician started as a syndicated comic strip appearing in newspapers around the country in the 1930s.  He quickly became so popular that he started to appear in his own comic books, the ones I fell in love with plus a radio series in the 1940s and a movie serial from Columbia pictures, which is now available on DVD (I'm so buying them).

Needless to say with all the moving we did as I kid I eventually lost track of those comic books and Mandrake had slowly started to fade in my memory, so when the animated series, Defenders of the Earth, came out in the late 1980s I was hooked once again.  Defenders paired Mandrake up with his old sidekick Lothar (who was one of the earliest black heroes to appear in comic books), The Phantom, and Flash Gordon, both of which where first created by King Features, the company behind the Mandrake comic strip.  I loved this show, these heroes, along with their younger heirs, fought off Ming the Merciless from conquering our world.  It was only on for about one season, but every once in a while I find episodes of it for sale on DVD.

I have a lot of fond memories of Mandrake as he fought evil villains like The Cobra.  He stuck to his guns and never let the situations he found himself in, get the best of him.  He was strong and kind and I owe a big thank you to whoever put those comics in that box, then forgot about then.

Favorite Fictional Character --- Wonder Woman

Well here it is, another week and finally a new character to post about.  I know she's not from One Life To Live, though that would have made the show even more interesting.  I've been rather upset about the show going off the air, so I'm just not prepared to dive back into the pool of characters.  It's pathetic, but I miss them too much right now.  Instead I'm going to briefly talk about one of my favorite super heroes of all time, Wonder Woman.  Now I was never a fan of DC comic books, so I can't talk about that version of her.  Instead this will be about the TV version played by the gorgeous Lynda Carter.

As some of you may know, the television series only lasted 3 seasons, though I think it should have gone for many more.  I actually own every season on DVD and probably watch it a bit too much.  The show was cheesy and the timeline was hilarious.  Season one takes place while the U.S. is fighting Nazi Germany, and most of the action takes place along those lines.  The second season takes place decades later and the main male lead actor is now playing the son of the first character he played.  It's just lots of fun.

Like I said earlier I don't know much about the comic version of Wonder Woman, but from what I've seen form the TV show makes me fall in lover with her every time she steps onto my screen.  Besides being drop dead gorgeous with some of the sexiest eyes to ever grace a human being, she is one of those rare characters that has no ulterior motives.  She does what she does because she believes it to be the right thing to do and she wants to help the human race survive the pitfalls that are laid before it.

She is everything a super hero should be.  She has superior strength, stamina, and can leap like a gazelle.  She has a lasso that forces those caught with it to tell the truth, she can stop bullets with her bracelets, and even has an invisible plane to ride around in.  But most of all she is purely selfless.  She is an Amazonian princess who grew up (without aging) on an enchanted island that protects it's inhabitants.  It's by her own choice to get involved in the outside world and protect man from outside enemies and from itself.  It's not something she has to do because the gods tell her, it's because she knows it's the right thing to do.  I can only hope that she is an example that more people live up to in that regard.

I think this is where I will end this post because I have an burning desire to go watch season 3.

Favorite Fictional Character --- Northstar

Growing up I was a comic book junkie, not as bad as a lot of kids my age were, but serious enough.  As I grew older though, my interest died down a bit, but never went away completely.  I still knew what was going on with my favorites, even if I didn't read the books all the time.  So when Northstar came out of the closet, I was thrilled.  I had enjoyed him for a few years and found him to be my favorite of Alpha Flight, so him being gay just topped of my love for him.

Born Jean-Paul Beaubier, Northstar had a rather hard childhood.  Shortly after he was born both of his parents were killed and he was separated from his twin sister.  He was raised by distant relatives until they were both killed when he was six, and he was put into foster care.  As he got older he started to realize that he was both gay and a mutant, he has the ability of super speed and can manipulate his own kinetic energy. He acted out by petty theft until someone took him under his wing and introduced him to skiing, an activity that allowed him to train his powers as well.  He had a brief run as a trapeze artist for a circus but quickly went back to skiing, where he won an Olympic Gold Medal.  A medal he had to give back years later when the public found out he was a mutant.

He eventually joined the Canadian team, Alpha Flight, were he was reunited with his twin sister who went by the codename Aurora.  She shared his same ability and when they touched, their powers were amplified.  Throughout the years he was been killed, turned into a zombie, brainwashed to kill other heroes, and adopted a young baby girl with AIDS who dies shortly after.  Now since this is superhero land, he was done all this in different alternate realities, instead of in the same time and space.

His sexuality has been both ignored and explored, in one reality he dated Colossus.  He has had issues with his sister and the public over it and has even mentored another young hero who was gay.  He was been a role  model for thousands of gay kids who needed a hero they could look up to, and thankfully the Marvel writers (for the most part) have allowed him to do just that.

Favorite Fictional Character --- Mandrake the Magician

Growing up, I was always fascinated by stage magicians.  There was something so wondrous about a elegantly dressed man wearing a a top hat who can make things disappear or appear at will.  So when I came across a bunch of old comic books, during the 4th grade, that showcased a stage magician who not only performed real magic but fought criminals and saved innocents, I was hooked.

Mandrake the Magician started as a syndicated comic strip appearing in newspapers are the country in the 1930s.  He quickly became so popular that he started to appear in his own comic books, the ones I fell in love with plus a radio series in the 1940s and a movie serial from Columbia pictures, which is now available on DVD (I'm so buying them).

Needless to say with all the moving we did as I kid I eventually lost track of those comic books and Mandrake had slowly started to fade in my memory, so when the animated series, Defenders of the Earth, came out in the late 1980s I was hooked once again.  Defenders paired Mandrake up with his old sidekick Lothar (who was one of the earliest black heroes to appear in comic books), The Phantom, and Flash Gordon, both of which where first created by King Features, the company behind the Mandrake comic strip.  I loved this show, these heroes, along with their younger heirs, fought off Ming the Merciless from conquering our world.  It was only on for about one season, but every once in a while I find episodes of it for sale on DVD.

I have a lot of fond memories of Mandrake as he fought evil villians like The Cobra.  He stuck to his guns and never let the situations he found himself in, get the best of him.  He was strong and kind and I owe a big thank you to whoever put those comics in that box, then forgot about then.

Favorite Fictional Characters --- Doctor Strange

This is going to be the shortest Favorite Fictional Character post I do. Not because I have nothing to say but because Doctor Stephen Strange is simply the coolest super hero ever, enough said! I mean after all I use his image as my avatar on Blogger, Google Friend Connect, and on Twitter.

Whether he's kicking demonic butt in the comic books, fighting off evil sorcerers in the animated movie, or saving lives is the cheesy 1978 made for TV movie, he is simply the Sorcerer Supreme.

For those of you who don't know the Sorcerer Supreme is the one mystical powerhouse who defends our realm from demonic forces and those who want to wreak havoc with our reality.

I was a comic book junkie as a kid and always found myself fascinated by this character who is arrogant and kind at the same time. I would get lost for hours in his stories. His struggles against demons like Dormammu and The Nameless One would hold me spellbound for what seemed like an eternity. He still remains my favorite super hero of all time and I'm dying for them to make a "good" movie out of this character.

I encourage anyone who is even a little curious to visit Marvel.com biography and read about the most powerful sorcerer in the world.