Many moons ago I ran a very short piece about the history of the Magellanverse which introduced a number of Golden Age heroes… Victory Man, Lady Lariat, Chinese Lantern, Knuckle Duster, Black Hood, Gizmo Girl and [drumroll] The Streaker – you can read it here.
Here’s a slightly revised version of something I wrote about him back in 2004-05:
The Streaker, aka Jake Spanner, was a biochemist with the dream of turning himself into the world’s first invisible man. Numerous attempts in 1936 proved unsuccessful, but he didn’t realise that the various chemical cocktails he had intravenously pumped into his body had created a special bio-molecular that had an unexpected side-effect. Instead of becoming invisible he found he was the world’s fastest human – a title he still holds.
Able to run at speeds in excess of 50,000 kph, Jake Spanner found a new career fighting crime as The Streaker. Claiming that clothing only slowed him down and/or burst into flames due to air friction, Spanner chose to do his running nude and so never had an official costume. A pair of goggles were all he used to conceal his identity.
During the 1940s, criminals weren’t the only ones to despair of The Streaker’s crime fighting career, many religious leaders and politicians declared him obscene. Countless warrants across several continents were issued to arrest The Streaker for indecent exposure – except no one was ever able to catch him to issue them. Uproar at any appearance of The Streaker was enough for most local newspaper to declare “Streaker Run Out of Town”.
Despite the controversial nature of his crime fighting suit (or lack thereof), The Streaker still contributed significantly to preventing many murders, robberies and man-made disasters. He preferred to work solo as most other super-heroes – especially the women – found his nudity discomforting. However, he still played a significant role as a member of The Victorious.
The Streaker vanished in 1951 – aged 39 – various theories abound as to his ultimate fate but none are proven.
I admit the character was originally designed as part joke, and part call-out to other comics about naturism/social nudity I was doing at the time. Despite those scant origin details a story about The Streaker, or at least his legacy for all other Magellan speedsters, suggested itself almost immediately… a story that has taken over ten years to come to fruition.
To know more you’ll need to read Legacy, a new voting incentive, via Top Webcomics – once you vote for Magellan you’ll get the cover for the story, page 1 follows next week. This will be an in-canon story…
As you might suspect, this story will include depictions of nudity from time to time – nothing gratuitous, but if that sort of thing isn’t your thing then I’ll understand if you don’t want to vote!
Gosh! The end of another year… I really had hoped to have Lock(e)down finished by now… but the end is indeed near. Page 6.345 should be the very last page after we wrap up a few loose threads.