Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt
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Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt is a fictional character originally owned by Charlton Comics and later acquired by DC Comics. Still later, ownership of the character reverted back to its creator, writer-artist Pete Morisi. Since his death, the character has been owned by his estate.
[edit] Charlton Comics
The character debuted in Peter Cannon ... Thunderbolt #1 (Jan. 1966), part of Charlton editor Dick Giordano's "Action Heroes" superhero line. The series then took over the numbering of the defunct title Son of Vulcan, and ran from issue #50-60 (March-April 1966 - Nov. 1967).
Peter Cannon, orphaned son of an American medical team, was raised in a Himalayan lamasery, where his parents had sacrificed their lives combating the dreaded Black Plague. After attaining the highest degree of mental and physical perfection, he was entrusted with the knowledge of ancient scrolls that bore the secret writings of past generations of wise men. From these he learned concentration, mind over matter, the art of activating and the harnessing the unused portions of the brain. Returning to America with his faithful friend, Tabu, he sought out a new life as the hero Thunderbolt. This origin was reminiscent of the Golden Age hero, Amazing Man.[1]
His costume was his training outfit from the lamasary, with an added mask. Symmetrically divided red-and-blue, it was reminiscent of that of the Golden Age hero Daredevil.
A recurring villain was the "Hooded One", another monk from the lamasary who resented the fact an outsider like Peter was given access to the sacred scrolls.
Creator Morisi, a New York City Police Department officer, signed his work with his initials, PAM, in order to keep his moonlighting hidden.
There were several backup series in Thunderbolt. "The Sentinels", by Gary Friedrich (writing his first superhero stories) and penciler-inker Sam Grainger, appeared in #54-59, and #60 had the Prankster, written by Denny O'Neil with art by Jim Aparo.
Pete Morisi, who'd done work for Lev Gleason Publications in the 1940s, reported in Comic Book Artist #9 (Aug. 2000) that he'd attempted to buy the rights to the original Daredevil in the early 1960s. Gleason gave him his okay but the characters' primary writer-artist, Charles Biro balked, requesting a percentage of future profits. Morisi declined and went on to create Thunderbolt in a scaled-down version of that Daredevil's symmetrically diviced, red-and-blue costume.
[edit] DC Comics
DC published a 12-issue, slightly retitled miniseries Peter Cannon — Thunderbolt (Sept. 1992 - Aug. 1993), by writer-penciler Mike Collins and inker José Marzan Jr. The character also appeared briefly with the Justice League before the rights reverted to Morisi.
During the series' short his recurring foils were the criminal terrorists-for-hire known as Scorpio. Later discovers that his girlfriend Cairo DeFrey was actually in charge of the organization.
He was briefly shown in flashbacks in Alex Ross and Mark Waid's comic Kingdom Come as a member of Magog's Justice Battalion, along with the rest of the Charlton 'Action Heroes'. In them, he is wearing an outfit more reminiscent of the Golden Age Daredevil, wearing a full head mask. He was apparently killed with the other members when Captain Atom was killed.
The character of Ozymandias in Watchmen was based upon him.
