Malcolm Duncan Pro/Con Workshop

[CRaymond]

I’m wracking my brain trying to create inside the world build that K Jones started. It’s not easy, I’m not musical or even auditory.

Where I’m at right now is the beginning of Malcolm’s friendship with the Titans. While Garth and Donna vanished to thier magical realms, I’ve been thinking that it’d be cool if the remaining boys started a jam band to build teamwork aside from combat training exercise. What if they recruited Malcolm to make a quartet, hit it off, and THAT’s the beginning of his friendship with the guys? Dick plays piano, Roy plays the bass, and Wally on drums. Mal could bring his trumpet skills, and he ends up in combat training alongside them, for fun!

He starts his relationship with superheroes as Mal Duncan, but that friendship informs future character choices. Specifically, feelings of inadequacy, even when his superhero girlfriend “retires” from vigilantism to intern for Palmertech.

[Jim Kelly]

You do know that after hearing Mal play the horn, Roy recruited him for his rock band which was called Great Frog--as per issues 45 and 46 of the '70s TEEN TITANS.

[CRaymond]

I did not. Though, THIS makes a lot more sense now.

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[Sandy Hausler]

I remember reading stories with him in the 1970s Teen Titans, but I have no recollection of how he came to be with that group. Does anybody know? (Yeah, I know I can check Wiki, but where's the fun in that?)

Sandy Hausler

[scary harpy]

I am impressed with this thread.

As far as I remember, Malcolm was a good fighter and musician. That's it. All his other abilities were derived from gadgets.

Like too many other characters, he was ignored by DC way toooo long. I fear it is now too late maybe.

[warzon]

DC needs to concentrate more on MAL DUNCAN since he was their 1st BLACK HERO.

[scary harpy]

DC needs to concentrate more on MAL DUNCAN since he was their 1st BLACK HERO.

Agreed.

But how?

[Restingvoice]

Wherein DCU/CBR folks can post creative, constructive solutions and thoughtful analysis of the seemingly difficult character of Malcolm Duncan, at various times called The Guardian, Hornblower, Vox, and The Herald.

First appearing in a 1970 issue of Teen Titans, Mal is a human superhero character introduced before the first appearance of Black Lightning(1977), Vixen(1981), and Green Lantern Jon Stewart(1971). His longtime girlfriend, Karen Beecher “Bumblebee”, followed him in a 1976 issue of Teen Titans, and has since achieved relative notoriety from portrayals in animated Young Justice, DC Super Hero Girls, and now Titans.

Despite being the first black superhero in the DCU, Mal has never had a superhero identity “stick”, much less prominence in a main superhero team. His relationship with Bumblebee eventually became marriage, and they retired from heroic adventures. While Karen pursued a career with STAR Labs, Duncan’s professional career is largely unexplored.

As a human, Mal’s powers come from external sources. At various times, he’s employed an exoskeleton super suit, a trumpet of divine origins, an alien interdimensional horn, and eventually cybernetic enhancements that combined the alien horn with his human physiology.

Given druthers and a blank check, what would YOU do with Malcolm Duncan?

Well, first of all, his source of power sounds like they're all over the place. Though I assume they're different versions and not all from the same run. Either way that's already a detriment in defining him. So the first step is choosing something unique that only he and not other heroes have.

[Rac7d*]

DC needs to concentrate more on MAL DUNCAN since he was their 1st BLACK HERO.

is he or is he not the herald like we saw in titans, or is he the guardian like we saw inn YJ

[warzon]

HE is in deed.1st let me say I love BLACK LIGHTNING but.MAL DUNCAN was their 1st BLACK male hero.me personaly love the GUARDIAN identity for him and this is the what DC need's to push.they cant do it 1 or 2 ways either simply as MAL DUNCAN THE GUARDIAN or THE GUARDIAN and BUMBLEBEE ongoing.i'd buy either of these title's.just as WONDER WOMAN was the 1st FEMALE and BATMAN and SUPERMAN were their main 2 WHITE male's SUPER HEROE'S.let's give the man a little respect and justice he deserve as being the 1st hero of color.

[scary harpy]

When introduced, Mal was a good fighter without powers or costume.

Later, he was revealed to be a good musician.

His powers and costumes came and went. Let them go.

He's consistently a good fighter and musician. Let's develop these.

With his connections to the Titans, Malcom could master several martial arts.

Using his fame as a musician, he could work as a plain clothes operative for the Titans...doing what those with secret identities could not.

He could maybe own/run a club: Gabriel's Horn? This could be a secret meeting place for 'Titans West'...which is really just a social/support group for Titans not on a team (or in a book currently). He could use this work as a businessman as cover for this plain-clothes operations.

[CRaymond]

At this point I’m considering merging Mal Duncan with Victor Stone.

Controversial but Mal’s strength is his civilian identity with an unsubstantial superhero identity. Cyborg is the exact opposite.

[bretmaverick2]

In Mal’s first appearance, I would swear he had a younger sister, yes? Maybe she should be reintro’d as a teen. Maybe she becomes the new, first female Guardian? Maybe she and Karen as Bumblebee become a team and Mal is a strong supporting character?

It would allow him to remain the Everyman point of view character for a team of strong women.

Just a thought.

[Sutekh]

I'll give them this - sonic/sound-based powers combined with his recent focus on being a musician certainly works perfectly with my holistic approach to him, using his Herald moniker and Gabriel's Horn stuff to connect him to Morrison's Pax Dei and heavens and Silver City and such. [SNIP]

Some neat ideas here! Going in a mystical direction, and having Mal somehow containing within himself 'the word of God' or some sort of musical resonance leftover from the word of creation, could justify a song/speech based kind of magic, which starts out wrecking his singing career, as it's not completely under control, and sometimes manifests destructively, or 'creatively' in enhancing his own voice to the point where it deafens and destroys everything around him. He might start out afraid of it, and want it to 'go away,' but only over time learn to understand and modulate it, so that his voice, initially only good for super-loud and destructive shouts, starts being useful in more creative applications, like adjusting the resonance of broken items to cause them to fly back together (or wounded people, to heal), progressing to being able to cause plants to grow, or do other unusual feats that add 'the power of creation' to things he's 'shouting at,' such as causing stones to erupt from the ground around someone and form a barricade, or cause waters to rise, winds to increase, or fires to flare up as he feeds them more energy and causes them to grow.

Various other mystical themed heroes, including younger magic heroes like Traci 13 or Raven or Tim Hunter, could be involved in his journey to understand and control the 'song of creation' locked inside of him. Various mystical threats, like Felix Faust or sketchier sorts like Klarion the Witch-Boy, could be just as interested in yanking it out of him, or manipulating him to use it to advance their own agendas.

Eventually his journey could culminate in the 'Song of Creation' being manifested on Earth for a specific event, to counter some great destructive evil, and him unleashing it's full power to save the world, leaving him changed by the experience (and so, still able to hang out with his super-buddies, since his own body has been enhanced somehow by holding the energies of creation within it for a time, making him long-lived, hard to kill, fast healing, stronger, faster, keener of senses, etc.), but no longer capable of the Word-assisted super-songs.

Somewhere else in the world, a little baby will cry and the window next to her crack, suggesting that the 'Word' has moved on to a new host...

[scary harpy]

At this point I’m considering merging Mal Duncan with Victor Stone.

Controversial but Mal’s strength is his civilian identity with an unsubstantial superhero identity. Cyborg is the exact opposite.

I almost agree with you.

Malcom's thread seems to keep hitting a wall. I don't know if there exists a good direction for this character.