''The Amazing Three'' was a

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

appearing in the British comic ''

Jackpot Jackpot or Jackpot! may refer to: * A prize, such as a progressive jackpot * Gardena jackpots, a poker variant * Jackpot, Nevada, a community on the Nevada–Idaho state border Comics * Jackpot (comics), several comic book characters * ''Jack ...

'' from

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

. While most of the rest of ''Jackpot'' consisted of humour strips ''The Amazing Three'' was closer to adventure material, though artist

Trevor Metcalfe Trevor Metcalfe (born May 1939 in Brotton, Yorkshire) is a British illustrator and comic book artist. Known for his comic strips in IPC Magazines comics such as Sweet Tooth and Junior Rotter in ''Whizzer and Chips''. Influences include Leo ...

eschewed a realistic look for the artwork

Publishing history

Debuting in the 6th October 1979 issue of ''Jackpot'', the strip ran for a total of 36 episodes . Initially the strip ran across two opposite pages in full colour; a few later episodes were only a single page while the final pair were in a reduced triple colour palette of black, white and red. Unusually the first four episodes started the story

in medias res A narrative work beginning ''in medias res'' (, "into the middle of things") opens in the midst of the plot (cf. ''ab ovo'', ''ab initio''). Often, exposition is bypassed and filled in gradually, through dialogue, flashbacks or description of pa ...

, with the origin of the group's powers only appearing in the fifth episode. The strip returned for the 1982 ''Jackpot Annual''. In

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

the characters made a guest appearance in Grant Morrison's '' 2000AD'' strip ''

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'' as one of a large number of multiversal superheroes battling the

Lloigor Lloigor is the name of a fictional deity and a fictional race in the Cthulhu Mythos. The entity first appeared in August Derleth and Mark Schorer's short story "The Lair of the Star Spawn" (1932), and has been used in subsequent fictional works by o ...

. All three were redesigned by artist Steve Yeowell to fit in better with the contemporary style of the comic. The characters were not referred to as "The Amazing Three" and Blue Magician wasn't named in the script all three made frequent appearances in the story, being vital in defeating the Lloigor-possessed former heroes Mr. Lion and Mr. Unicorn. Tanya was killed near the close of the battle when the similarly possessed Captain Miracle punched her in the face hard enough to decapitate her. After the defeat of the Lloigor's plans Blue Magician blasted rocks out of the

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permafrost Permafrost is ground that continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. Most common in the Northern Hemisphere, around 15% of the Northern Hemisphere or 11% of the global surface ...

to make a monument to those killed in the war.

Fictional biography

Aware that the renegade Vogler was planning to invade

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

, the people of Zorr send magic rings to a trio of humans from the fictional Newton City, near the site the criminal landed - Craig Travers, his twin sister Sue and their friend Sam Pacey. Any one of them calling out or even writing "We will be transformed by the rings of Zorr!" turned the trio into their superhuman forms - Blue Magician, Tanya and Oakman respectively. The trio faced off against Vogler's invasions, which utilised both alien machinery and monsters, including an army of robot duplicates of himself and a pink spray that turned anyone it touched into frog-like creatures. During their first battle with the alien the trio were forced to briefly return to their human forms in order to free Oakman from hypnosis and as a result were identified. In order to operate freely they use their powers on space debris to fashion an Orbiting HQ above Earth. The Amazing Three were occasionally aided by Inspector Burke of Newton City's police department. While they were able to foil Vogler's various schemes they were never able to imprison the villain for long until the final strip, which saw Vogler accidentally use his Time Gun to revert himself to a baby, at which point the Amazing Three returned him to Zorr's nursery.

Powers and abilities

*Blue Magician: Craig's superhuman identity has a magic cane which possesses a large number of abilities, including transmutation and energy blasts. In practice it can effectively do anything the Blue Magician thinks it can do, including act as a guidance system, to allow the trio to travel in space without need of oxygen. While unlike his team-mates he cannot fly the Blue Magician uses the cane to create a platform that allows him to levitate. *Tanya: Sue's transformation turns her into the flying, super-strong warrior Tanya, who wears a Roman-style helmet. In addition to her strength, speed and flight she can fire lasers from her fingertips. *Oakman: the superhuman form of Sam incredibly strong and durable, able to shrug off bullets, and resembles an oak tree. Despite his imposing physical form Oakman can fly. While both Sam and Oakman are lacking in intelligence they make up for it in determination.

References

British comic strips 1979 comics debuts Comics characters introduced in 1979 1980 comics endings Superhero comics British comics characters Comics characters with superhuman strength Fleetway and IPC Comics {{UK-comics-stub