There was a handsome and stylish superhero who fought crime and criminals with a moniker that suited his style long before Batman instilled terror in the hearts of criminals or the great Captain America waged fights against the bad guys. Mandrake the Magician was an elegant, quick-witted, and epigrammatic gentleman. He was a skilled magician and master of illusion who mastered his techniques and tactics deep within the Himalayan highlands.
To battle injustice and crime, Mandrake wore a nice sleek mustache, a black hat, and a crimson cape, as well as a magician’s wand. Contemporary and modern superheroes such as Batman, Superman, and others are known to have a tumultuous home life, but it was Mandrake who originated the pattern, to the point that his archenemy was his step-brother known as ‘The Cobra.’
Most of his foes were either members of his family or a darker, more malevolent version of himself. Many historians and academics believe he was the first superhero with actual superpowers as a result of this.
The comics, on the other hand, never addressed the dilemma he must have faced while deciding between righteousness and his family. Mandrake the Magician was created alongside The Phantom and originally appeared as a comic strip in the summer of 1934. We will look at this pulp superhero in this video, whose name comes from the hallucinogenic herb mandragora. Let us go right to the point, shall we?
Started As A Syndicated Newspaper Comic Strip
Whenever we speak about the first-ever superhero, many picture Superman in their minds, while some may go for Batman or even the Phantom. However, long before Kal-El and Bruce Wayne made their way into the comic world, there existed a master of illusion, Mandrake the Magician. Lee Falk had imagined the character while he was still in college, and a few years later, he was penning Mandrake and his interesting stories for a newspaper. He started as a syndicated newspaper comic strip and first appeared with his magic and illusions on June 11th, 1934. After a while, Phil Davis took over as the illustrator, and Falk continued writing the script.
After Davis passed away in 1964, Lee Falk hired Fred Fredericks to fill Davis’s shoes. Mandrake heavily influenced the Big Little Books and Magic Comics during the 30s and the 40s. Later, Mandrake was elevated from being a comic strip hero to being the central character of his own comics. Dell Comics published him in their Four-Color comic series. King Comics too published him between 1966 and 1967. However, most of these stories were either remakes or reprints of the original stories from the newspaper strips.
During the 70s, Mandrake had become a favorite of the Italian publisher Fratelli Spada. In 1995, Mike W. Barr wrote a Mandrake mini-series for Marvel Comics. Interestingly, Mandrake enjoyed loyal followership in the Scandinavian countries as well as countries like Germany, Brazil, and even India. King Comics had collected the best stories of Mandrake and published them in a comic book format in the late 60s. Although these have gone out of publication, one may still find quite a few copies for sale online.
In 2013, King Comics launched a mini-series in which Mandrake teams up with Flash Gordon and The Phantom. They published another mini-series in 2015. In this one, Mandrake is portrayed as an older man who has become world-weary. He attempts to rescue his wife from the clutches of The Cobra.
Mandrake the Magician Origin – Explored
Our Magician grew up in a hidden and discreet school of magic, deep in the Himalayan mountains. His father, Theron, was the head of the school, and from a tender age, Mandrake began learning the secrets of mystic art forms and the powers they held. He proved himself to be a protégé of sorts and became one of the most talented and prolific practitioners of magic amongst the students. However, Mandrake’s immediate and exponential success brought him into the bad books of his step-brother. He was the first-ever superhero to have a difficult family life.
And as is often noted, one cannot really choose their family. In his initial days, Mandrake’s powers were limited to conjuring several illusions and hypnotizing his enemies. With time and stories, he developed more powers like telekinesis, teleportation, levitation, shapeshifting, and even invisibility. He used to fight crime and safeguard Earth from several dark magicians and extra-terrestrial creatures, but when he was not doing that, he would double as a renowned magician. In one of the episodes of ‘Defenders of the Earth’, it was shown that he had won awards for being the Best Magician in the world for several consecutive years.
So, this way, he does and does not keep his identity secret. He shows the world that he’s a magician of great renown but keeps the true extent of his powers hidden from the world. Only a few close acquaintances have the luxury of knowing who or what Mandrake really is. Mandrake’s adventures have brought him close to several influential and powerful individuals. For instance, he served with The Phantom, Flash Gordon, and Lothar in ‘Defenders of The Earth’. His closest friends remain, Lothar, his cook Hojo and his lover and future wife, Narda. Lothar and Mandrake’s companionship was the first-ever team-up of a white and a black man. However, Lothar, who was an African prince, was made to settle for serving as Mandrake’s assistant and not quite his equal.
Thus, even though it was a bi-racial team, it was heavily downplayed. As far as Narda is concerned, she was a European princess too and an expert martial artist. Hojo was a secret agent of an international crime-fighting organization, much on the lines of Interpol, and he took to serving as Mandrake’s chef to use this identity as a cover. During the course of his journey, Mandrake came into confrontation with several sinister villains. From era-appropriate fedora-clad criminals to cat-burglars; Mandrake has faced them all. However, his archenemy remains his step-brother, Luciphor, who calls himself ‘The Cobra’. Interestingly, Luciphor is also the head of an ancient and evil criminal organization that’s known only by the name of ‘Eight’. Mandrake was the embodiment of all that was lawful and good, something that was typical of the early superheroes.
Apart from being a sarcastic, witty human and patronizing those who couldn’t perform magic, there was no flaw that Mandrake possessed. But an interesting aspect of his life was his family. As mentioned earlier, his archenemy was his step-brother Luciphor. Most of the other prime enemies that he had were related to him in some way or another. Because of the relationship he shares with his family and friends, one might expect Mandrake to have a hard time choosing between righteousness and his family. However, such complexities are never fully explored in the comic strips. A plausible reason is that newspaper comic strips didn’t necessarily need to go into such details and explore such aspects. Then again, Mandrake was essentially a utilitarian of sorts. He always prioritized the course of action that would bring the greater good.
Live-Action and Animated T.V. Series
Mandrake the Magician appeared on a radio program from 1940 to 1942 on the Mutual Broadcasting System. He gained more recognition after a 12-part serial that Columbia had produced in 1939. In 1967, there was an unauthorized Turkish movie that featured him, but it was nothing more than a lost cause. Hyde Park Entertainment and Baldwin Entertainment Group had announced in 2007, that they were in the initial phases of making a Mandrake film that Chuck Russell would direct. In 2009, there was news that Hayden Christensen would replace Rhys Meyers as the titular character, but it seems that the project has been shelved. Interestingly enough, the 2011 film ‘In Time’ starring Justin Timberlake was an adaptation of one of Mandrake’s stories. In the film, time itself was used as currency, and if someone ran out of time, they died.
In the early 80s, Michael Almereyda was hired by Embassy Pictures to develop a script for a Mandrake film. He flew to New York and came up with a script in about three weeks, but by then, the studio head had been replaced by new people, and the project was dropped. We have often seen superheroes featured in films, television, animation, etc., but how many have made it to the prestigious performing art that is called theatre. Well, Mandrake the Magician was turned into a musical that was performed at the Lenox Arts Festival in Massachusetts, in the 70s. He also appeared as a negative character in Marco Antonio de la Parra’s play ‘King Kong Palace’, in which he works as a magician who performs at birthday parties and attempts to seduce Tarzan’s girlfriend Jane to quench his thirst for power.
Mandrake the Magician (serial) 1939
The serial was largely grounded in the source material, i.e., the King Features comic strip on Mandrake the Magician. In the serial, Mandrake and Lothar meet Professor Houston, who had successfully developed a machine that worked on radium. And naturally, it was desired by many criminals and mob bosses, the most prominent one being a crime lord named ‘The Wasp’. The Wasp sends hordes of his henchmen to get hold of the machine by hook or by crook. In the end, Mandrake and Lothar manage to nab The Wasp, who turns out to be a close friend of Professor Houston.
Defenders of the Earth (1986)
The show majorly revolved around the adventures of the Defenders against their archenemy named ‘Ming the Merciless’, who wished for several things like annihilating Earth, eliminating the Defenders, and sometimes taking control of the universe itself. The story mostly centered on thwarting the plans of the evil ruler of Mongo, Ming the Merciless. On a night of thunder and rain, a spacecraft with a tail of fire crash-landed on Earth, just in front of Mandrake and Lothar’s house. When they reached the spacecraft, it turned out that the pilot was Flash Gordon himself.
Furthermore, Ming had abducted the wife and son of Flash and planned to invade Earth because his own planet had run out of resources. Flash had come to Lothar and Mandrake to warn them about the impending invasion. Lothar, Flash and Mandrake then go to find The Phantom, to seek his help in finding and defeating Ming the Merciless. The series then follows several adventures that these pulp superheroes participate in.
Interestingly, the series also features the children of Flash Gordon and The Phantom, while Mandrake himself adopts a child of Asian origin named Kenshin. After Flash’s wife, Dale Arden, dies, the Defenders make a Supercomputer called the ‘Dynac X’ that had Dale Arden’s psyche. You can think of it as an early version of Ironman’s Jarvis. The show was produced in 1986. It lived on for 65 episodes, some of which were commendable, and some, well, not so much.
Future of the ‘Mandrake The Magician’ Franchise
Despite these few efforts to bring Mandrake the Magician back into the mainstream media, most attempts have failed to bear results. Many of the projects that were intended to transform him into a popular superhero have gone in vain. He was a trailblazing character, and this fact cannot be questioned, and yet he faded into obscurity before his time. This happened because the publishers were looking for more commercial and economically viable characters. But folks, there is little need to despair because if we are to trust the latest news, ‘Mandrake the Magician’ will get an all-new 21st-century makeover and return to theatres.
Warner Bros. has recently secured the film rights of this master magician, and it seems Atlas Entertainment would be producing the film. It is unknown as to who would be playing the titular character, but it would be nice to see someone like Benedict Cumberbatch taking up the mantle. However, their recent preoccupation with DCEU seems to act as a barrier. Irrespective of when the film comes, we will all be thrilled to see this depression-era, dread-inducing and wand-wielding debonair grace the cinemas, in a fitting live-action film.