Mr. Magnificent Creator

How did I create the character of Mr. Magnificent?

For starters, there was Superman. I was always more attracted to Batman, but Superman was a close second.

As Everyone probably knows, Superman was the last living son of the doomed planet Krypton. A rocket brought the baby to earth. He was adopted by the Kents, who named him "Clark." Clark Kent grew up in a small town in Iowa, later moving to the large city of Metropolis where, as Clark Kent, he worked as a reporter for the Daily Planet. But as Superman, he was the sworn enemy of crooks, crooked politicians, etc.

Beside Superman, I had a few of the new/reprints of the "Captain Marvel" series (later known as "Shazam"). In 1966, ABC premiered the television show, Batman. The US was engulfed in what was called “Bat-Mania” or “Batman Mania.” CBS and NBC both had responses ready for premiere in 1967. CBS ran a show called “Mr. Terrific.” Noted television writer, Buck Henry, had already created, or co-created, the secret agent spoof “Get Smart” for NBC, so NBC turned to Buck Henry to create a superhero spoof. He did. He created “Captain Nice.”

Mr. Terrific’s premise involved gas station attendant Stanley Beamish, a mild-mannered scrawny youth who secretly worked to fight crime for a government organization, "The Bureau of Secret Projects," in Washington. All he needed to do was to take a "power pill" which gave him the strength of a thousand men and enabled him to fly, much like Superman, albeit by furious flapping while wearing the top half of a wingsuit. To the often-lamented misfortune of the Bureau of Secret Projects, he was the only person on whom the pills worked. It was established that, although the pill would give him high strength levels, he was still vulnerable to bullets. Furthermore, each power pill had a time limit of one hour (like Underdog), although he generally had two 10-minute booster pills available per episode. Much of the show's humor revolved around the tendency of the amiable yet gullible Beamish to lose Mr. Terrific's powers at inopportune times, before he completed his given assignment.

Captain Nice’s premise, on the other hand, involved police chemist Carter Nash, a mild-mannered mama's boy who discovered a secret formula that, when he drank it, transformed him in an explosive burst of smoke into Captain Nice.

Nash called himself "Captain Nice" in his first appearance when a bystander asked him who he was: his belt buckle was monogrammed "CN," and Nash later admitted, "It was all I could think of!" On that occasion the explosion that transformed him blew off most of his clothes, leaving him in long underwear and with the remnants of his shirt suggesting a cape.

Captain Nice didn't behave much differently from Carter. His costume consisted of white pajamas adorned with gold stars, red stripes on the pants, the words "Captain Nice" in blue across the chest, a red-white-and-blue belt with a gold buckle, and an over-sized red and blue cape, all lovingly sewn by his domineering mother who had basically cajoled Nash into his crime-fighting career. In some episodes he wore his regular glasses as Captain Nice, but in others he wore a domino mask, but still wore his glasses over the mask. Despite the kitschy garb, the very sight of Captain Nice somehow struck fear into the hearts of criminals.

His superpowers included superhuman strength, invulnerability and the ability to fly, although Nash had a great fear of heights, and his natural clumsiness increased whenever he drank his super serum.

I thought about how nice it would be to do a Captain Nice film. Not really Captain Nice, but somewhat along the line.

History is a main subject of pursuit for me. I have read books on subjects from the American Civil War, the English Civil War, the Irish War of Independence and Japanese History. One of my favorite sections of history is media history. Films, TV and the “Golden Age of Radio."

Radio shows like Superman, Green Hornet, Batman, the Avenger and more were popular radio shows in the 40’s to 50’s. They served somewhat as models for what I want to do. Captain Nice and Mr. Terrific contributed some of their humor as well as the idea of a pill or chemical that could create superpowers. All of these sources, plus a good healthy dash of my seriously twisted sense of humor, finely sharpened by the Marx Bros., the Goon Show, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, National Lampoon, both magazine and radio shows.

It all came together one day, when I saw this character that was created by the artist Gerry Pye. It was a superhero.