Magician (comics)

Magician is the name of three characters in Marvel Comics.

Publication history

The Lee Guardineer version of Magician first appeared in Tales to Astonish #56 and was created by Stan Lee and Dick Ayers.

Fictional character biography

Lee Guardineer

Lee Guardineer is a stage magician who used his stage acts to rob rich party guests. His activities attracted the attention of Giant-Man's ants who reported this to him. Magician then robbed a yacht party run by a rich socialite named Sterling Stuyvesant and kidnapped Wasp to make Giant-Man jealous. In response, Giant-Man set up a phony yacht party which he used to lure the Magician to a trap. Once that trap was sprung, Giant-Man captured Magician and saved Wasp. Magician was fished out of the water by the police and was later taken to prison.^[1]

While Hank Pym was out of town, Magician escaped from prison and set up a clothing store with Wasp-inspired clothing. When Wasp arrived, Magician attacks in order to capture Wasp. Wasp soon makes short work of Magician using quick thinking and the store's many toys to take down the Magician who is promptly arrested by the police.^[2]

Son of Guardineer

Lee Guardineer had a son who took up the mantle of Magician as part of the All-New, All-Different Marvel event. Upon taking his father's mantle, Magician joined the Power Broker II's Hench App (a mobile app that enabled people to solicit the service of supervillains). His first job has him hired by a publicist named Marlena Howard to pretend to have a grudge against Darla Deering for not hiring him for the opening act of her show. The Magician interrupted Deering in the middle of her break-up fight against Ant-Man and confronted the two heroes with genetically-modified rabbits and pigeons. After explaining his origin to Ant-Man, the Magician intentionally lost to Miss Thing. The fight between the Magician and Ant-Man and Darla was staged and filmed because it would make a successful pilot episode for Darla's newest reality show.^[3]

Powers and abilities

The Lee Guardineer version of Magician is a skilled stage magician, trickster, and illusionist where his tricks rely on his technology. Besides being a master pickpocket, Magician is an expert animal trainer and can hypnotize anyone at will. Magician has a motorized cane with a hatch on top that can act as a vacuum and be used as a divining rod to seek out his enemies.

Other versions

Ultimate Marvel

Elliot Boggs' powers first emerged uncontrollably, apparently killing both of his parents. After being subdued by S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury gives custody of him over to Charles Xavier in hopes he can help Elliot control his powers. When Elliot awakes, he quickly urges Cyclops to let him join the X-Men. Shorthanded, Cyclops allows Elliot to help the X-Men take on the Brotherhood of Mutant Supremacy who were attacking the Academy of Tomorrow. During the battle, Elliot manages to easily defeat the Blob. Afterwards, he adopts the code name Magician, which was suggested to him by television reporters. Several of the X-Men observe that the reporters got there amazingly fast, as well as the fact that the Brotherhood had no reason for the initial attack in the first place. After Elliot's interview. the X-Men are on good terms with the press for the first time since Magneto returned after his presumed death.^[4]

Later during an attack by the Friends of Humanity on a hospital that gave treatments to mutants (despite there being no mutant patients at the time, and in broad daylight), Elliot was once again fighting alongside the X-Men. It turns out the leader of the group was actually a mutant, and after incapacitating the rest of the X-Men leaving only Elliot standing, the young mutant single-handedly defeats him.^[5]

Before the X-Men returned to the mansion, Nick Fury paid Xavier a visit, requesting that Elliot join the Ultimates. However, Xavier refuses, and Fury says Elliot's parents have agreed to their son joining the Ultimates. Xavier is shocked to hear about the boy's parents, as when Fury handed Elliot into Xavier's custody, he told him that Elliot had actually killed his parents. When Fury claims he doesn’t recall saying or doing this, and that he only heard of Elliot when he started appearing with the X-Men, Charles realizes something is very wrong.^[6]

Charles and Nick believe that Elliot has been messing with their minds, creating the illusion of Nick bringing him to Charles. Fury states that even if he had been made to forget taking Elliot to the mansion there would still be a record of it on file at S.H.I.E.L.D. The two await the arrival of Elliot to confront him. When the jet lands, Charles asks Elliot to "come clean". He confronts him with the truth that his parents are not dead and that Fury never took him to the mansion. Everyone begins attacking him. Elliot tries to make them all stop and forget why they are attacking him but this tactic fails to work completely thanks to Charles' interference.^[7]

Elliot decides he's through playing games and that he could have made the X-Men popular but now he has to kill them all. However, Elliot is unaware of the presence of Jean Grey, who replies "I don't think so" much to Elliot's surprise.^[8]

A battle ensues, in which Magician once again summons the Brotherhood of Mutant Supremacy out of thin air. Magician binds the X-Men in metal and Jean Grey fights the entire Brotherhood alone. Jean Grey speaks psychically to Wolverine and obtains his permission to burn away the metal binding him. Wolverine acquiesces and attacks Magician with little or no skin left. As the battle progresses, Wolverine slowly heals, slicing Magician's throat and finally jamming his claws through him, apparently making Magician (and all traces of his work) disappear. It is later revealed, however, through a conversation between Magician and Kitty Pryde, that Magician simply wants to be left alone and wanted some closure to his story. It is revealed Kitty doesn't see or hear the Magician in any way. Magician states that he will now go somewhere that "there aren't any people, like Antarctica or something."^[9]

References

External links

• Magician (Lee Guardineer) at Marvel.com
• Magician of Earth-1610 at Marvel.com
• Magician (Lee Guardineer) at Marvel Wiki
• Magician of Earth-1610 at Marvel Wiki
• Magician (Lee Guardineer) at Comic Vine
• Magician of Earth-1610 at Comic Vine