Mighty Man

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For the fictional character in the CrossGen Sigilverse, see Mighty Man (CrossGen).

Mighty Man is a fictional hero created by Erik Larsen some years before he began drawing professional comics, possibly in his adolescence, he has been a major character in Larsen's self-created title Savage Dragon and its spin-off Freak Force as well as in Gary Carlson's Big Bang Comics series, his first appearance was Megaton 2, an anthology by Carlson, which was also the first appearance of the Savage Dragon.

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[edit] Character History

Mighty Man is actually an ancient entity created by a mysterious wizard named Fon-Ti to fight evil, the entity is passed from host to host at the point of death, the entity allows the host, regardless of their sex, to transform into a tall, handsome blonde man with god like powers, including flight and incredible strength by tapping their wrists together. However the Mighty Man entity cannot sustain itself, and in order to survive the host must return to human form to sleep and to eat.

Robert Berman was the Mighty Man entity's host from the 1940s until 1992, he used the entity and the powers of it to be a super-hero, for the first few years of his career Berman was a teenager, working as a radio broadcaster. This is the Mighty Man who appeared in Big Bang Comics. During World War II Mighty Man first fought alongside Superpatriot who would remain his life-long friend and ally, during the fifties they formed another team The Liberty League, with three other super-heroes Mr. Big, Hornet and Battle Tank.

Over his years of heroism Berman's Mighty Man built up a rogues gallery like most others in his profession, most notably The Wicked Worm and Dr. Nirvana, however Berman was killed in 1992 by a gang or ordinary thugs after a newspaper journalist learnt and published his secret identity, while delirious and dying Berman mistook his nurse Anne Stevens for his grandson Billy and passed on the Mighty Man entity to her, this is the Mighty Man that appears in Savage Dragon.

Anne Stevens was unaware that Berman had given her the Mighty Man entity until she slipped on a spillage in her home and accidentally tapped her wrists together, after realising that the entity could not sustain itself she repeated the accident to change back, subsequently learning to change at will. While unaware of her powers Stevens nursed an amnesic 'superfreak' who had been found in a burning field, and gave him the nick-name 'the dragon' because of his green skin and the prominent fin on his head, The Dragon liked her nick-name and took it as his legal name, they two remained close friends and eventually became lovers for a brief spell after Dragon was made a Widow.

Stevens first public appearance as Mighty Man, was during a jailbreak at a prison in Chicago filled with dozens of Super-Powered criminals when he/she saved two other superheroes, Dart and Star, the Dragon was at the time in New York, this happened in the third issue of the Savage Dragon ongoing series in 1993, however, Mighty Man had appeared previous in the Savage Dragon mini-series, and the non-canonical Dragon stories in the Megaton anthology, this is however the first appearance of Anne Stevens as Mighty Man (technically Mighty Man II).

At first most people were sceptical of Mighty Man's return, including the Dragon, who did not believe Dart's story until he himself was saved him/her, coincidentally during the rampage of Mighty Man's old friend Superpatriot (now a Cyborg) who was possessed by Horde, a being made up of the wizard Fon-Ti who first created the Mighty Man entity, and hundreds Wicked Worms, re-spawned from the original Wicked Worm, Mighty Man's old foe. Though Mighty Man joined the super-powered bounty hunter team Freak Force made up Dart, Superpatriot and a number of other super-freaks Stevens did not reveal her identiy to them, or the Dragon for many months, and the mystery of who the new Mighty Man was became a talking point among fans, with letters about it often appearing in the Savage Dragon's letter column, Larsen built up the suspense before having Stevens explain her origin story in Freak Force issue 6.

The daughter of Dr. Nirvana, Chelsea, became a reoccurring villain in the Savage Dragon stories, and was the main villain of both Freak Force series, where she tricked her way into becoming Freak Force's secretary then stole the powers of another villain Johnny Redbeard, giving her the power to give others powers, before she and her lover/partner Inhabitor killed Redbeard, the villain had given super-powers to a young criminal turning him into an incredibly powerful being called Bludgeon, during Bludgeon's rampage Mighty Man was beaten into a coma where he/she remained until she was changed back into Stevens.

After the Dragon was badly beaten by his enemy The Fiend and left to heal improperly, Stevens combined her medical knowledge as Anne Stevens, and the super strength of her Mighty Man entity to break Dragon's bones so they could heal properly, though he/she continued to be a major support character Stevens declined the Dragon's offer to join his new government team Special Operations Strikeforce because she did not want to reveal her secret identity. (Behind the scenes Image Comics co-founder, and creator of the 'Image Universe's' previous government team Youngblood, Rob Liefeld was voted out for alleged talent poaching, Larsen had The Dragon form a new team to replace Youngblood, who were phased out of the over-all universe during the Mars Attacks Image and Shattered Image events.)

After Dragon's wife was seemingly murdered Anne Stevens and The Dragon became loves, this was cut short when Chelsea Nirvana, now trapped in the body of a man identical to her father at her age, discovered Anne's identity and posing as The Dragon, killed Anne and took the Mighty Man entity. Nirvana used the Mighty Man entity for criminal purposes until she was eventually killed and the entity passed onto her old Freak Force teammate Dart. Dart had been a member of Special Operations Strikeforce until she was crippled during a dangerous mission against an old foe of Superpatriot's called Dreadknight, and rejoined the team as Mighty Man.

The Savage Dragon series is now set on an alternate Earth to the one it was set on for its first 75 issues. The original Earth was destroyed in Savage Dragon issue 103 and everyone from that original Earth, with the exception of a few, were killed when it was, this included the Mighty Man of that world.

On this new Earth Anne Stevens did not slip and did not realise she was Mighty Man. The lack of Mighty Man caused large changes in the history of that Earth, for instance Mighty Man did not stop the jailbreak in Chicago and Dart was carried off to a remote tropical island by a villain named Mako and as such was never crippled or became Mighty Man herself, and most importantly, as she never found out she was Mighty Man neither did Chelsea Nirvana and Anne was not murdered and, after various troubles in the city, left to become a nurse in Kansas City. While looking for allies to help him overthrow this new Earth's leader Dragon showed Stevens what she could do, but realised she was not ready to help and left her to train, while training Anne temporarily lost the Mighty Man entity to Berman's nephew (who should have inherited it anyway) however Berman died and the entity returned to Stevens, since then Mighty Man rejoined a new Liberty League, made up of The Dragon and Berman's old allies Superpatriot and Battletank, the group eventually dissolved.

Mighty Man is currently helping to stop the Galactus-like Universo from draining the energy from the planet again.

[edit] Inspiration

Mighty Man is heavily based on Captain Marvel (sometimes called 'Shazam') Erik Larsen was a big fan of the character as a child (and remains one today) and Savage Dragon and popular series villain Powerhouse also started out based on the hero. Mighty Man's enemies are also equally obvious pastiches of Captain Marvel's enemies Mr. Mind (The Wicked Worm) and Doctor Sivana (Dr. Nirvana), Mighty Man's old team The Liberty League, however, is based on Marvel's premiere Superhero team The Avengers.

[edit] Powers

Inheriting the Mighty Man entity allows the person to transform into a tall blonde man while still retaining their own personality, As well as being super-strong and being able to fly, Mighty Man is also bullet-proof and has enhanced durability though he is not totally impervious to harm.

[edit] References

[edit] See Also

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