Amazing Man (Amazing Heroes Series 1.5)

So thinking of Namor via his foe Tiger Shark got me to Namor's creator (one of my favourite comic artists) Bill Everett. Everett was quite the character in real life and in the golden age of comics he came up with many other features that didn't end up as popular as the Sub-Mariner. One of those was Amazing Man. John Aman was an orphan chosen by the Tibetan "Council of Seven" to become Amazing Man and go out into the world and fight for justice against The Great Question a disciple of the council who felt slighted that this outsider would be given such a great honour. Amazing Man's origin is not the most groundbreaking, even at the time but if it rings a bell to modern comics readers that's because Roy Thomas (a huge Everett fan) took the basic details for the origin of Iron Fist. This connection was further deepened when Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction introduced the Marvel version of John Aman in Immortal Iron Fist #8 as the Prince of Orphans. Roy Thomas also used the now public domain name "Amazing Man" for a hero in All-Star Squadron back in the 1980's. Amazing Heroes goes back to the original "Green Mist" design though that particular super power is hard to replicate in a toy.

Black Terror (Amazing Heroes Series 1)

The Black Terror was mild-mannered pharmacist Bob Benton until he irresponsibly used some "formic ethers" and instead of dying he became a superhero. Despite his fairly standard origin for a golden age comic hero Black Terror gained notoriety from his striking costume. Most recently he was featured in Dynamite Comics' Project Superpowers line. Amazing Heroes started as a Kickstarter project and can be found at Fresh Monkey Fiction.