First Appearance: Red Raven Comics #1 (August 1940).
Golden Age Appearance:
Red Raven Comics #1.
Modern Appearances: None.
Years Active: ?-? (see below).
"Magar the Mystic, Re-creator of Souls," is introduced thusly:
From the ancient tombs of the Pharoahs in the mysterious, unexcavated deserts of Egypt emerges Magar the Mystic...this man has supernatural powers which enable him to communicate with the dead, and re-create the great men and women in history, for a definite length of time."Dormant for half a century, Magar concentrates on orienting himself in this chaotic world of today." He uses a sort of clairvoyance to do this, and sees "misery blanketing the world! Nothing but wars, WARS!" So Magar summons "Solomon, the wisest of wise men," who "appears in a terrific flash of a thunderbolt" and counsels Magar to "concentrate thy efforts upon saving the world from destruction." Magar tours Asia and Europe but doesn't know the cause fo the war, so he works a spell: "O, Mata Hari, sharpest of war spies...divulge the secret of all this bloodshed!"
Mata Hari, dressed in an outfit surprisingly similar to Red Sonja's (only with a headband and a red cape), tells him that a blitzkrieg is planned on the morrow. "Like a streak of lightning, Magar dashes through no-man's land...dodging the deadly missiles." Magar accidentally jumps into a German machine gun nest and is beaten up and shackled to a railway tie. A French bomber bombs the trench, killing the Germans. Magar is unharmed, however, and summons up "Houdine" (sic) to help him escape. "Houdine" breaks the chains around Magar "with a snap of the wrist" (I guess Houdini had superstrength?), allowing Magar to make his way to the Maginot Line. He is brought by the sentries to the French Commandant, who says, "MON DIEU! Magar?..I-it could not be...you don't mean---but-but the great Magar disappeared MANY YEARS AGO IN AFRICA!" (Interestingly, this, along with the "dormant for half a century" comment, means that Magar was active in Africa in the 1890s, which is not a time and place that most heroes have been shown to be active in.)
Magar responds, "True, true...and while there I learned to communicate with and recreate the dead...unfortunately I cannot aid you magically...my re-creating efforts have stripped me of that power!" This proves critical as the Germans attack and the French defenses are no match for them. So Magar summons up Napoleon, "son of Corsica, victor of Marengo, Austria and Luneville." Napoleon appears from what appears to be a portrait of him, saying "I have waited for 125 years to help my people...once I returned from Elba, and now from Valhalla to do battle for my country." Napoleon examines the field and says, "I need a leader like Wellington to harass the enemy's left flank." So Magar brings Wellington back, and together they storm the Germans.
Unfortunately the Luftwaffe is too much for the Allied aerial fleet, and the Allies are forced back. So Magar summons up "Edisan, conqueror of electrical mysteries." Edisan, who surprisingly resembles Thomas Edison, says, "I have come from the great beyond to assist your worthy cause!" Edisan uncovers a bug in Allied hq and then reverses the current: "explosions occur in all enemy headquarters, bursting the ear drums of the listeners." He then provides the allies with a machine "to destroy all bullets and explosives in mid air." This machine turns the tide; the Germans are thrown back and Magar forces them to "return all the land you grabbed from small, defenseless countries and relinquish your government and armies to those who would preserve democracy on Earth." Magar then sends the ghosts back with a "Farewell, good people. I shall not disturb you again, unless the world falls into chaos once more!"
Magar wears a green turban, a long-sleeved red tunic, a yellow sash, and a short red skirt which ends at mid-thigh.
Note: The bad guys are specifically identified as being German, which may be the earliest Timely story in which the Germans are used as the villains, rather than a stand-in/analogue, such as the troops from "Prussland," in Red Raven's story in Red Raven Comics #1, the comic in which Magar appeared.