The Magnet is a

fictional character In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life perso ...

from the

Golden Age of Comics The Golden Age of Comic Books describes an era of American comic books from 1938 to 1956. During this time, modern comic books were first published and rapidly increased in popularity. The superhero archetype was created and many well-known chara ...

. He first appeared in the ''Complete Book of Comics and Funnies'' #1 (1944), published by

Nedor Comics Standard Comics was a comic book imprint of American publisher Ned Pines, who also published pulp magazines (under a variety of company names that he also used for the comics) and paperback books (under the Popular Library name). Standard in t ...

. The character was later revived by writer

Alan Moore Alan Moore (born 18 November 1953) is an English author known primarily for his work in comic books including '' Watchmen'', ''V for Vendetta'', '' The Ballad of Halo Jones'', ''Swamp Thing'', ''Batman:'' ''The Killing Joke'', and '' From He ...

for

America's Best Comics America's Best Comics (ABC) is a comic book publishing brand. It was set up by Alan Moore in 1999 as an imprint of WildStorm, an idea proposed to Moore by WildStorm founder Jim Lee when it was still under Image Comics. History ''America's Best ...

Nedor Comics

The Magnet is the secret identity of Grant Halford, inventor of the Geo-Locator. The Geo-Locator allows him to track down villains and

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

s. His foes include the Crimson Conqueror, Aztec mummies and treasure-hunters. After his debut in ''Complete Book of Comics and Funnies'', the Magnet appeared in all four issues of ''Mystery Comics'' (1944). Both titles were discontinued due to the wartime paper shortage. No creator for the character was credited, but most of the art was supplied by Ed Good.

America's Best Comics

Alan Moore revived the Magnet, along with many other Nedor Comics characters, for his ''

Tom Strong ''Tom Strong'' is a comic book created by writer Alan Moore and artist Chris Sprouse, initially published bi-monthly by America's Best Comics, an imprint of DC Comics' Wildstorm division. Tom Strong, the title character, is a "science hero", wi ...

'' series. For the revival, the Magnet was given a new backstory: sometime during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the Magnet met and became friends with the time travelling

Lance Lewis, Space Detective Lance Lewis, Space Detective is a fictional superhero from the Golden Age of Comics. He first appeared in ''Mystery Comics'' #3 (1944), published by Nedor Comics. The character was revived by writer Alan Moore for America's Best Comics. Nedor Com ...

. Shortly after this the Magnet gained magnetic powers after the Geo-Locator exploded in his face. Grant Halford was one of the members of SMASH that had been placed in suspended animation after an alien invasion from the moon in 1969. Awakened 30 years later, Halford joined his former comrades in the fight against the alien. After SMASH disbanded, Halford and Lance opened "The Magnet Detective Agency". Three years later, Halford (his magnetic powers now unreliable) discovered that his partner had been killed by the supervillain Mystico (''Terra Obscura'' vol. 1 #2, September 2003). Halford and the other members of SMASH defeated Mystico's plan to conquer the world. Halford has since married Betty Chance, widow of the Green Ghost.

References

External links

The Magnet at SMASH fansite
Golden Age superheroes America's Best Comics superheroes Nedor Comics superheroes Comics characters introduced in 1944 {{comics-char-stub