Herald
26 years ago - Mal Duncan is born.
14 years ago - 12-year-old Mal takes up the trumpet.
9 years ago - 17-year-old Mal wins a mysterious horn that manipulates magic and opens dimensional portals. He is pursued by the extra-dimensional beings that forged it, and is helped by the Teen Titans.
7 years ago - 19-year-old Mal goes with the Teen Titans West to Tartarus to rescue Lilith Clay from the Elder Titans of Myth.
6 years ago - 20-year-old Mal and the Teen TItans West try to stop the Ravens from stealing a nuclear weapon, but are decimated when Cheshire detonates the bomb in Qurac. Mal is killed.
The Teen Titans have a legacy in comics that stands out; the saying "Once a Titan, always a Titan" has been said more than once in the comics. Because of this, there are few characters whose connection with the team is so strong that it's the main reason they exist at all. Mal Duncan isn't actually a character that has ever appeared anywhere other than in connection with the Titans, but perhaps even stranger, he never really had any sort of comic identity other than his status as a Titan. He's gone on to go by different heroic names, but in the end the only thing that really stood out about him is that he was a new member in an era when they didn't HAVE new members.
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Mal's Comic HistoryMal Duncan first showed up in Teen TItans #26 during the bizarre 1970 three-issue run by writer Robert Kanigher, which suddenly re-imagined the group as non-costumed adventurers more in the vein of the Challengers of the Unknown than as colorful superheroes. He joined them without any superhero identity, powers, or even a code name, he was just Mal Duncan, one more normal teen in a group made up of normal teens. Then Kanigher was off the book, the costumes and codenames came back, and suddenly Mal was a normal guy on a team with characters named Speedy and Wonder Girl.
There's obviously something going on here in terms of black representation, but I don't know if I'm informed enough on the subject to really understand what. On one hand, Mal was a black character, and by itself that's a step forward. But the fact that he was included with no superpowers or story of his own, and that was considered enough … is just weird. He started using the equipment and name of Golden Age hero the Guardian, and then later came to carry a magical teleporting horn and go by the name Hornblower. Post-crisis he became Herald, and was a pretty regularly referenced deep-cut in the Titans roster. Canonically, he was a retired hero, although he did briefly adopt the name "Vox" in the pages of the Doom Patrol. He's actually depicted in his Guardian identity in the Young Justice cartoon. He's made some appearances lately in the 2016 Titans series, but even there, he seems to operate without any real story of his own to speak of, and it's just as weird as always. |
Our Mal StoryMal has a deep connection to the Titans historically, and if we're going to have an expanded roster that becomes the Titans West, then he really is one of the characters that needs to be included. If we're going to do that, though, he absolutely needs a story of his own. He can't just be a guy that was a Titan first and then has his powers and costume thrown in almost as an afterthought. We need to find a way to make him his own hero.
The horn IS a cool concept. Because his Hornblower/Herald identity was largely created in the 80's it all looks like it wants to have a sci-fi style, but it actually feels more fitting if it's more magical and almost Lovecraftian in design. The 2015 miniseries Titans Hunt that was meant to reestablish the original Titans team alluded to this with Mal, suggesting that his powers are tied to extra-dimensional forces. The idea of a jazz musician coming into possession of a magical instrument and then having to contend with entities that want to take it from him is basically built into American folklore, and if we start THERE, then suddenly Mal feels like a unique character that we just haven't seen before. So we can use that as a starting point, making him a character the Titans meet and help, who is learning to control his newfound abilities, and who decides to do so alongside the Teen Titans West. |
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Mal's CostumeThis is actually a big question, because Mal was introduced without a superhero identity, gimmick, or costume, so for his entire history in comics, the costumes he's been outfitted with have struggled to find something that works, because there was no theme to follow. Even once they settled into the concept of him carrying a magic horn, his first costume was actually a fan submission, and looked like this. He lost the costume by the end of the same issue.
The core theme we want to use with Mal is the idea that he's a jazz performer. Zatanna has already established that a stage costume can be reimagined into a superhero outfit. So start with something like a tux with the coat and cummerbund removed, the tie unfastened, sleeves rolled up... then just refine that look into something more like a costume. The horn itself should look like a trumpet, but forged from some ancient eldritch metal... I think you see what I'm going for. The point is, Mal can absolutely work if you let his look and style grow from the right story. I've played D&D for way too long to not respect a good Bard. |