The Magician is the name of three fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

Publication history

The first version (Lee Guardineer) first appeared in ''

Tales to Astonish ''Tales to Astonish'' is the name of two American comic book series and a one-shot comic published by Marvel Comics. The primary title bearing that name was published from January 1959 to March 1968. It began as a science-fiction anthology tha ...

'' #56 (June 1964), and was created by Stan Lee and

Dick Ayers Richard Bache Ayers (; April 28, 1924 – May 4, 2014) was an American comic book artist and cartoonist best known for his work as one of Jack Kirby's inkers during the late-1950s and 1960s period known as the Silver Age of Comics, including on s ...

. The last name Guardineer is a reference to the Golden Age comics creator

Fred Guardineer Frederick B. Guardineer (October 3, 1913 – September 13, 2002)Frederick B. Guardineer

who created

Zatara Giovanni "John" Zatara is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He debuted as a superhero, starring in his own stories in '' Action Comics'' during the Golden Age of Comics. He first appeared in the fi ...

, Tor, and Merlin the Magnificent who were all magician crimefighters.

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. The Magician then robbed a yacht party run by the rich socialite Sterling Stuyvesant and kidnapped the

Wasp A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. ...

to make Giant-Man jealous. In response, Giant-Man set up a phony

yacht A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...

party which lured the Magician to a trap. Once that trap was sprung, Giant-Man captured the Magician and saved the Wasp. The Magician was fished out of the water by the police and later taken to prison. While

Hank Pym Dr. Henry Jonathan "Hank" Pym () is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by penciller Jack Kirby, editor-plotter Stan Lee and writer Larry Lieber, the character first appeared in '' Tales ...

was out of town, the Magician escaped from prison and set up a clothing store with Wasp-inspired clothing. When the Wasp arrived, the Magician attacks in order to capture the Wasp. However, the Wasp soon makes short work of the Magician using quick thinking and the store's many toys to take down the Magician who is promptly arrested by the police. Sometime later, Lee was released from prison and moved to Tampa with a dancer named Chasity to start a new family where he had a son.''The Astonishing Ant-Man'' #2. Marvel Comics.

Son of Lee Guardineer

Lee Guardineer had an unnamed son who took up the Magician mantle as part of the "

All-New, All-Different Marvel All-New, All-Different Marvel (ANADM) is a 2015–2019 branding for Marvel Comics' entire main line of comics. Taking place after the crossover storyline " Secret Wars", it details the new Marvel Universe, with nearly 60–65 titles relaunched w ...

" event. Upon taking his father's mantle, Magician joined the Power Broker's Hench App (a mobile app that enabled people to solicit the service of supervillains). His first job has him hired by publicist Marlena Howard to pretend to have a grudge against Darla Deering for not hiring him for the opening act of the woman's show. The Magician interrupted Deering in the middle of her break-up fight against

Ant-Man Ant-Man is the name of several superheroes appearing in books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby, Ant-Man's first appearance was in ''Tales to Astonish'' #27 (January 1962) but first appeared in cost ...

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.

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, he is an expert animal trainer and can hypnotize anyone at will. The 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

The

Ultimate Marvel Ultimate Marvel, later known as Ultimate Comics, was an imprint of comic books published by Marvel Comics, featuring re-imagined and modernized versions of the company's superhero characters from the Ultimate Marvel Universe. Those characters ...

version of Magician is Elliot Boggs. His powers first emerged uncontrollably, apparently killing both of his parents. After being subdued by

S.H.I.E.L.D. S.H.I.E.L.D. is a fictional espionage, special law enforcement, and counter-terrorism agency appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in ''Strange Tales'' #135 (August 1965), it often dea ...

, custody of him is given over to Professor Charles Xavier in the hopes Elliot can control his powers. When Elliot awakes, he quickly urges Cyclops to let him join the

X-Men The X-Men are a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, first appearing in ''The X-Men'' #1 by artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby and writer/editor Stan Lee in 1963. Although initially cancelled in 1970 due to lo ...

. Shorthanded, Cyclops allows Elliot to help the X-Men take on the Brotherhood of Mutant Supremacy attacking the 'Academy of Tomorrow. During the battle, Elliot manages to easily defeat the

Blob Blob may refer to: Science Computing * Binary blob, in open source software, a non-free object file loaded into the kernel * Binary large object (BLOB), in computer database systems * A storage mechanism in the cloud computing platform M ...

. Afterwards, he adopts the Magician code name, which is suggested 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 A magneto is an electrical generator that uses permanent magnets to produce periodic pulses of alternating current. Unlike a dynamo, a magneto does not contain a commutator to produce direct current. It is categorized as a form of alternator, ...

returned after an presumed death. Later during an attack by the

Friends of Humanity The comic book stories published by Marvel Comics since the 1940s have featured several noteworthy concepts besides its fictional characters, such as unique places and artifacts. There follows a list of those features. Places Certain places fe ...

on a hospital that gave treatments to mutants (despite there being no mutant patients at the time and in broad daylight), Elliot once again fights alongside the X-Men. It turns out the group's leader is actually a mutant incapacitating the rest of the X-Men leaving only Elliot standing. The young mutant single-handedly defeats the mutant leader. Before the X-Men returned to the mansion, Nick Fury paid Xavier a visit, requesting that Elliot join the

Ultimates The Ultimates is a superhero comic book series published by Marvel Comics and created by writer Mark Millar and artist Bryan Hitch, which first started publication from ''The Ultimates'' #1 (March 2002), as part of the company's Ultimate Marvel ...

. However, Xavier refuses to which Fury says Elliot's parents have agreed to their son joining the Ultimates. Xavier is shocked to hear about the boy's parents, as Xavier was told that Elliot had killed his parents. When Fury is unable to recall saying or doing this and only heard of Elliot when he started appearing with the X-Men, Charles realizes something is very wrong. 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 Elliot had made everyone forget, there would still be a record on file at S.H.I.E.L.D. The two await Elliott's arrival to confront him. When the jet lands, Charles asks Elliot to "come clean". Xavier confronts him with the truth that his parents are not dead and that Fury never took him to the mansion. When everyone begins attacking him, Elliot tries to make everyone all stop and forget why they are attacking him but this tactic fails to work completely thanks to Charles' interference. Elliot decides he's through playing games and that he could have made the X-Men popular but now he has to kill everyone. However, Elliot is unaware of

Jean Grey Jean Elaine Grey is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character has been known under the aliases Marvel Girl, Phoenix and Dark Phoenix. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack K ...

's presence much to Elliot's surprise. 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 fights the entire Brotherhood alone. Jean speaks psychically to

Wolverine The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscul ...

and obtains 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 claws through him, apparently making Magician (and all traces of his work) disappear. A conversation between Magician and

Kitty Pryde Katherine Anne "Kitty" Pryde is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the X-Men. The character first appeared in ''The Uncanny X-Men'' #129 (January 1980) and was co-created by wri ...

later revealed 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 Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

or something."''Ultimate X-Men'' #74. Marvel Comics.