Fox Universe

Wonderman (February 1939)

First appearance - Wonder Comics 1, May 1939

Alter ego - Fred Carson

Group affiliation - Mystery Men of America (All three iterations - 1941-1946, 1959-1986)

AGE OF WONDERS

Fred Carson was a radio engineer in his mid twenties who worked for IBC (International Broadcasting Corporation), but at the time his story begins he had taken a sabbatical to travel a while. Drawn to Tibet, Fred experiences strange dreams that compel him to hire a guide to take him up a mountain range, where he ends up struggling through a blizzard after his guide refused to go on.

Fearing he was about to die, Fred took a step through the ferocious snows, and one instant later was in a sunny, green and pleasant valley. He had entered the portal to the valley of the City of Flames, which should be impossible for any mortal who has no business there.

But, unbeknownst to Fred, he was actually the reincarnation of the City's great champion, Wu Deha, who had died around six or seven hundred years before. The High Lama, Jetsun, had been preparing for this moment for hundreds of years, and now approached Fred.

However in 1938 Fred wasn't ready to hear the full story (that would happen in 1943) and so the High Lama told him he had been chosen to recieve the ring of wonders, and to use the powers it bestowed upon him as a champion, who fought evil and oppression around the globe.

Fred put on the ring and was forever transformed into the man the newspapers would later call Wonderman. He was now the strongest mortal on earth, invulnerable and as he would find out later, unaging. The ring also enabled him to fly. The High Lama cautioned him that although his powers were permanent, he should never take off the ring or let it fall out of his hands. The ring only worked fully for the chosen one, but others could utilize its powers in other ways.

And so began a period of training and learning that lasted some seven months until Fred left early in 1939 to return to America. He discovered how to transform the red and yellow robes his enhanced physique had first manifested, into a sleek form fitting costume. Later he would add a mask and be able to transform from Wonderman to the slightly less muscled Fred Carson in civilian clothes in the blink of an eye.

The High Lama instructed his champion about the origin of magic and powers on earth, with both benevolent and malevolent energies originating from the vast collection of dimensions known collectively as the Realm Beyond. He spoke of a war fought over thousands of years to prepare for and battle any dimensional breaches. Jetsun also told Fred that two "stage magicians" who sometimes helped the police with "supernatural detection" were students of the City of Flames and other related mystic communities. Yarko was in Boston and Zanzibar in Fred's home town of New York. If he ever crossed paths with them, they would be allies.

Fred returned in January 1939 and a month later was assigned to accompany his boss's reporter daughter, Brenda Hastings to war torn Tatonia in Eastern Europe. Having spent the last few months inventing a long range television viewer to check out trouble spots, with peoples in need of help, Fred was happy to help and ready to debut his Wonderman persona.