KING OF DARKNESS: CENTAUR COMICS SUPERHERO

Everywhere you turn these days you see superhero movies and/or series. Balladeer’s Blog examines another neglected superhero from Centaur Comics.

KING OF DARKNESS

Secret Identity: Bruce King, radio engineer.

Origin: Bruce King’s experiments with ultra-short radio waves led him to some incredible discoveries. Utilizing his finds he built what he called a Black-Zero Transmitter, donned a costume and took to the skies to fight crime with his new inventions.

First Appearance: Amazing-Man Comics #24 (October 1941). His final Golden Age appearance came in 1942. 

Powers: The King of Darkness’ Black-Zero Transmitter enveloped him in a field of darkness – which he called “a queer pillar of darkness.” This field/ pillar which surrounded the King of Darkness enabled him to fly by negating gravity and to shoot black rays from his hands.

Those rays could neutralize light, thus creating total darkness or could neutralize heat, thus creating temperatures near absolute zero. Such cold made even steel brittle enough to be easily broken. Alternately, the King of Darkness could extend his Black-Zero field at will to encompass the villains he was fighting.

This hero’s costume protected him from the cold within his Black-Zero Field and special lenses in his mask enabled him to see in total darkness.  

Comment: Since the nom de guerre “King of Darkness” is a bit unwieldy and sounds more like a supervillain a modern revival of this figure could instead call him Black Zero, which has a pretty cool ring to it.  

To help preserve the tie to the Golden Age stories his full billing could be “Black Zero, the King of Darkness.”

Also, instead of the awkward approach of having this superhero CARRY the Black-Zero Transmitter like a briefcase I would change it to a small black pack that he wears strapped to his back, like Deathlok’s charger.

Police Sgt Burke learned that the King of Darkness was really Bruce King but kept the hero’s identity a secret and covertly helped him in his adventures.  

The romantic interest for this superhero was actress Gloria Glamour, who was saved from the Red Gang by the King of Darkness. The Red Gang had invented special goggles and special suits that enabled them to see even when surrounded by the King’s Black-Zero field and made them immune to the intense cold of that field.  

FOR THE MAIN LIST OF CENTAUR COMICS SUPERHEROES CLICK HERE

FOR MY ARTICLE ON THE MEMBERS OF INFINITE HORIZON CLICK HERE

FOR THE AUSTRALIAN SUPERHERO PANTHEON CLICK  HERE

FOR MORE SUPERHEROES CLICK HERE:  Superheroes

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