You know, maybe I can do a few more somewhat forgotten Teen Titans for a while now. However, unlike Jericho, the thing that made Mal Duncan somewhat neglected isn’t that he went evil. It’s more like he’s had multiple codenames and basic premises, such that I think it is safe to assume that many readers might know him better by his real name than any superhero title he’s carried.
Heck, I didn’t know about one of them until I did research for this column.
Mal Duncan first appeared in Teen Titans #26, the March-April 1970 issue. In a story by writer (and Titans creator) Robert Kanigher and artist Nick Cardy, Mal was originally just a regular guy who happened to be dating Titan Lilith “Omen” Clay, and when he kissed her goodbye, that may have been the first interracial kiss in mainstream comics. Editorial director Carmine Infantino tried to block it due to the potential controversy, but editor Dick Giordano kept it by having it colored blue to be a night scene. They still got a lot of letters about it, and not all of them were positive.
Anyway, Mal was just a regular guy when he joined the Titans. Mal was a talented boxer, and when a streetgang threatened the Titans somehow, he beat their leader in a boxing match. Now, if you’re like he and I know I am, you might remember that the Titans included characters like Kid Flash, Aqualad, and Wonder Girl, each of whom should have been able to handle an entire street gang by themselves without too much trouble, but then again…have you ever read a Teen Titans story during Khaniger’s run? The Titans walked places arm-in-arm with Children of the Corn-style smiles plastered to their faces and used teenage lingo the likes of which no actual teenager ever used (Wonder Girl was generally called “Wonder Chick” by her teammates). I can absolutely believe the guy with no powers or code name had to save the day by getting into a boxing match with a street gang’s leader.
That said, as a regular guy, Mal felt inadequate with the other Titans around until he found a strength-enhancing exo-skeleton along with the costume of the Golden Age hero the Guardian, he had a way to help out. Later, after what he thought was a dream where he battled the angel Azrael, he woke to find it was no dream as he’d been gifted with Gabriel’s Horn, a magical device that allowed him to open portals and general sonic attacks, leading him to his most embarrassing codename and costume as the Hornblower.
Over time, Mal would go back to being the Guardian and get the Hornblower name removed from his backstory Post-Crisis. When the Gargoyle, AKA Mr. Twister, escaped from confinement, Mal put him back but found plans for a new, more scientific version of Gabriel’s Horn. He used this one under the codename Herald, but the Gargoyle planned that because it would break down the barrier between the real world and Limbo. From there, Mal destroyed the horn, and he and Bumblebee retired from superheroing for a while. He may or may not have used the Hornblower name at some point, but regardless, he did eventually get a new Horn and went off on a space mission with Bumblebee and Donna Troy during the Infinite Crisis. A Zeta beam accident after the Horn exploded in his face left him severely injured, but he was eventually brought back to health with the Horn implanted in his body through a more artificial set of vocal cords. During this period, he’d take the name Vox and join the Doom Patrol.
Various reboots do keep some things in common. Both the New 52 and DC Rebirth had Mal’s connection to Mr. Twister and Bumblebee, the former as an enemy and the latter as a love interest and often wife. However, he has been seen in some DC animated shows…just not as the same character.
Khary Payton would voice him in his Herald identity for Teen Titans…
…while Kevin Michael Richards would voice him as the Guardian over on Young Justice.
That’s not too bad. All I know for certain is he never seems to have appeared outside of comics as the Hornblower.
That’s probably a good thing.
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