Hello, and welcome back to another enthralling, enchanted Marvelous Videos production. Today, we will discuss a DC superhero with superhuman strength and agility in addition to using magic. He actually belonged to the organization known as the Justice League Dark.
That is accurate, and the hero in question is none other than the enigmatic Ragman! In addition to discussing his history and several personas today, there will be much more! So get your popcorn ready and turn on your internet because we are about to embark on an exciting trip of Ragman’s life.
Who is Ragman, and how did he come to be?
Ragman (Silver Age)
Jewish community in Eastern Europe created the title “Ragman” in the 16th century to take the place of The Golem, their previous protector. The Golem was good, but the populace dreaded him, therefore Jerry Reagan was given the title of Ragman. The last European Ragman, Jerry Reagan, also known as Jersey Reganiewicz, was tasked with protecting his people. He could not halt the ruthless death of his people, however, due to the tremendous Nazi influence, therefore he made the decision to leave the country.
He continued to battle for the good people after relocating to Gotham City, until one day everything went wrong for his son Rory.
After discovering a substantial sum of cash hidden under a freshly pawned mattress, some crooks beat and electrocuted Jerry and his buddies as they were hanging out in his pawn shop.
By the time Rory arrived at the place, he was too late, but that pain was not enough for the criminals, they electrocuted him as well, and this caused him to get knocked out.
When he woke up, he realized that not only was he fine but that he had gained all the powers of his father and his friends. Distraught and hungry for vengeance, Rory decided to take matters into his own hand. He got a hold of his old costume, which his dad had made for him for a costume party. The costume was just a bunch of rags sewn together so he could look like the real rag-man at the party. As he wore this costume, he swore to carry out his father’s legacy and became the official Ragman.
This origin story was just one of his origin stories, my dudes. Let’s see what happened in the other one.
Post Crisis
After Crisis on Infinite Earths, Ragman was not part of the DC universe for a long time until Keith Giffen reinvented Ragman’s story in the early ’90s in a post-crisis continuity. Most fans have accepted this as Ragman’s ‘real’ origin story.
In this story, Rory still worked at his pawnshop, doing everything he could to help his community out, like buying things from the poor, etcetera, when similar events to the previous origin story occurred. His father was murdered, and this led to the shop being taken over by drug dealers.
After Rory secretly opened a mysterious box in the shop containing rags, the rags immediately bonded with his body, sending power and magic throughout his entire body. These powers allowed him to, quite literally, absorb the evilest souls into his rag, which would lend him powers when needed. He could use their strength and their abilities, and he could also use the souls to absorb the damage instead of him. Pretty amazing, isn’t it? Imagine just wearing a costume that gives you powers!
Oh, wait… Ragman is… Iron-Man…? HAHA just kidding… or am I…?
All these powers made him an excellent magic wielder and gave him super speed, increased agility, and damage absorption. But all these powers and exposing himself to these damned souls come with a price. If Rory were not careful, the evil of the souls and the rag itself would take over his mind and unsettle his sanity; hence, he always had to keep them in check.
After finding out the real identity of the drug dealers who killed his family, Rory went to give them a visit. His rag surrounded the two as it slowly absorbed them, and soon they were a part of his costume. After this, he went on a killing spree, killing everyone related to his father’s murder. Rory felt empty inside when Rabbi confronted him. He told Rory the whole past of the Ragan and the Golem.
He even told Rory about his father and how everyone believed the suit to be destroyed due to fire. This caused the community to make another Golem which became more and more human-like. The Golem was a good one, but now that Rory had the suit, there was just not enough magic for Rory and the Golem to coexist, and hence he warned Rory that the Golem might come looking for him.
Then Rabbi trained Rory to use the suit properly and told him that the souls trapped in the rag were not really trapped. They WERE the rag. This revelation gave him a new sense of fear as the suit constantly tried to take over him.
Even though this origin story was slightly changed in the Rebirth continuity, Ragman remains the same hero fighting for the greater good.
Ragman might have been a small player for the Justice League Dark compared to Wonder Woman and John Constantine, but he was still quite resourceful as he almost always came to help them in need and disappeared just as quickly.
He has had some major storylines, so let’s look into them!
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Without further ado, let’s jump right back into the video!
Major Storylines
Ragman: Cry of the Dead
In this story, Rory left Gotham so that he could get away from his past. He tried forgetting about Vietnam and his father so that it hurts him less, but he soon reached New Orleans, where he drew the attention of numerous voodoo mystics like Zipporah and had to engage in a battle with a deity of pure vengeance which was taking over the bodies of human and committing horrendous crimes. During this battle, Rory fell for Zipporah, but in the middle of the battle, she too was taken into control by the being.
He quickly made up a plan and took help from other voodoo mystics like Legba to fight the deity. This helped him use the power of other deities and magical forces to combat a power that his suit could not have absorbed. After a long, bloody battle, Rory was successful in defeating the deity, but it cost him the life of his newfound love. Broken again, he ended up fleeing from Louisiana against his own will.
Ragman: Ashes to ashes
In Gotham City, Rory became an assistant medical examiner at Gordon’s precinct, and on the first day of his job, he found a corpse being fished out of Gotham Bay. After the discovery, the leading medical examiner wrote off the body as suicide as there were no forms of abuse. Unbeknownst to Rory, Mayor Sebastian Hady was trying to reshape the Robbinsville district in Gotham in order to modernize the city, but the problem was that Robbinsville was a sanctuary for the homeless.
Hady had taken it upon himself to get rid of the “undesirables.” He offered those people money, and if they refused, he would get rid of them forever.
Rory soon wore his costume and headed out to investigate the Gotham slums. He really wanted to know the reason behind these attacks. Rory contacted a soul from his cloth that had some experience with arsonists.
Soon he saw Vincenzo Salavata, who was the original Firefly. He had died in a fire in 1953. It seemed that Firefly had become delusional and believed that he was a God who would cleanse the Earth with fire and bring new life from the ashes like a phoenix. Ragman confronted Firefly and battled him till dawn before he won. But even after all this, he still could not trace back Firefly’s actions to the destruction of Robbinsville and Mayor Hady’s involvement.
So much work just to let your enemy roam free. I know it is sad, Ragman, do not worry, you will catch him soon.
Infinite Crisis
During the Infinite Crisis storyline, Ragman was fighting crime as usual when he was suddenly teleported to a forest. He heard someone call out his name, so he followed the voice to find the enchantress stuck under some trees. He called upon the souls of his suit to lift the tree. After seeing that she was injured, he carried her for some time so that she could heal herself. She then told him about what had actually happened and asked him to teleport to Oblivion Bar, which he did.
When they were there trying to figure out what the Spectre wanted, he followed the rest of the group, following Spectre’s trail to Mist woods. When they were leaving, the enchantress pulled him aside, giving him a gun that could kill her if she ever turned evil. He told her that instead of killing her, he would absorb her into his suit, and due to her giving him a literal weapon to her demise, he took it as a hint of her liking him, and he kissed her just for her to reject the kiss and laughing, saying that she would never do that. Ouch, better wash your rags, Ragman.
When they teleported to Spectre, he tried to fight Eclipso and tried absorbing her, but her backlash burned hundreds of souls that were in his suit. This made him extremely weak, but soon enchantress turned evil, and he had no other option but to fight her. Why does he always have to fight the person he loves? Like what the.. never mind!
Later on, Shadowpact was trapped in a shield of blood that surrounded the city of Riverrock, Wyoming. While in the city, Ragman and the others found an evil group called the Pentacle. In the Pentacle, there was a villain known as Bagman. Hahahahahahahaha… Bagman!
The Bagman is the polar opposite of Ragman. And even though he too absorbs souls, he does it so by transforming into a gooey form. Shadowpact only spent a short time in the city when they realized after leaving that a whole year had passed already. While they were missing, The Phantom Stranger and Rex the Wonder Dog looked after the city.
After their final goodbyes to the city, Rory had to start his life all over again. Many people thought he was dead, and the rest of his teammates had the same problems. There was even a memorial statue after them.
Later on, Rory got trapped in his own rag. There he met a soul known as Marcus Liberius, who was a centurion. He revealed that the cloak was the Great Collector of Artifacts and had been in existence in many different forms over the years.
Soon Rory got to know that the souls could actually redeem themselves by helping Rory as Ragman when Marcus took Rory’s blindness upon himself, which helped him ascend to a higher realm.
It is then when it is said that Ragman was a member of the short-lived Sentinels of Magic who came together to decide the fate of the Spear of Destiny.
Ragman’s Powers
We all know Ragman can absorb souls in his rag and use them to attack, defend and even increase his potency. But did you know that the suit let Rory know who was evil or not and even allowed him to multiply his skills ten folds by using multiple souls together, and Rory claimed to have used 100 souls altogether once?
He can also see everything all around him due to him using his soul’s eyes. and one of the only known weaknesses of his suit is fire.
Ragman in the Arrowverse
Rory Reagan was a vigilante who initially had sought revenge for the destruction of his home, Havenrock, of which he was the sole survivor. However, the Green Arrow convinced him to cease his powers and asked him to use them for good. After this, Ragman operated under Team Arrow for a while, using the mystical rags of Devarim to fuel his magic.
After absorbing a nuclear blast, the rags seemingly stopped working, which caused Rory to leave the team and return back to becoming a normal human, who tried helping everyone until he was hunted by Chimera, leaving his fate unknown.
On Earth-Prime, Rory had returned to acting as the Ragman and attended Oliver’s funeral to honour him. He was given back his Earth-1 memories so he could remember being part of Team Arrow.
Ragman showed up in Season 5 and was consistently shown for almost half of the season, making it one of his biggest appearances ever! YOU ROCK, RAGMAN.
Conclusion
Ragman is a character with a lot of potentials. His character has depth; he has endured pain, he has even learned to suffer from his consequences, and he has seen people close to him die. His character can be portrayed stronger in the upcoming comics, and we really hope that he makes appearances in other movies because his dark personality instantly makes him a fan favorite!
Please, DC, bring Ragman back!!
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