Solarman

Solarman was a superhero that ran briefly in his own 1989 title from Marvel Comics.

Publication history

Marvel had high hopes for the character, and even created a pilot for an animated TV series based around him in 1986. On October 24, 1992, this pilot aired as a special on Fox Kids. However, the show was never picked up.

Despite scripts by Stan Lee and art by Jim Mooney and Mike Zeck, the Solarman comic book lasted only two issues.

Fictional character biography

Solarman is teenager Benjamin Tucker, who dreams of becoming an artist for Marvel Comics even though his Los Angeles gym-owner father wants him to become a jock. A blue-skinned alien cyborg warlord named Commander Gormagga Kraal tries to use his technology to drain the energy from Earth's sun, but his white-bearded head scientist, Sha-han, refuses and flees to Earth with Kraal's Circlet of Power, which he gives to Ben along with a helpful little robot the boy dubs Beepie.

Thereafter, Ben can expose the Circlet (which is worn on his wrist like a bracelet and cannot be removed) to sunlight and transform into the golden-haired adult Solarman who possesses superhuman strength, is capable of supersonic flight and survival in deep space and can control light, heat, and other forms of energy, although his weakness is that his powers would fade without constant exposure to sunlight, causing him to revert to his powerless teenage form.