BRAZIL’S SUPERHEROES

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at Brazil’s home-made characters.

CAPITAO SETE (Captain Seven) 

Secret Identity: Carlos (last name unknown)

Debut Year: Early 1950s

Origin: Teenage science nerd Carlos was abducted by aliens and taken to their homeworld, the 7th planet from their sun. The extraterrestrials granted the young man superpowers, a costume and a ray-gun which Carlos used to battle the forces of evil.

Powers: Capitao Sete possessed massive strength, the power of flight and near invulnerability. He also wielded a powerful ray-gun and his intelligence had been increased past genius levels.

Comment: This character is possibly Brazil’s very first superhero. 

HOMEM-LUA (Moon Man)

Secret Identity: This was always kept a mystery.

Debut Year: 1965 

Origin: This was never revealed. 

Powers: Moon Man was in peak human condition and was more agile than an acrobat. He was a master of unarmed combat and wielded conventional pistols and a knife. In addition, this hero had a Moon Jet which could circle the Earth in 7 hours and enabled Moon Man to take action around the world.

Comment: Whenever the Moon Man was depicted without his helmet on, his face was never fully shown. His headquarters and hangar for his Moon Jet was in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

APIA (The Bee)

Secret Identity: None. Apia was her real name. 

Debut Year: 1976

Origin: Apia was an alien from the planet Vulcano. She served as a protector of the universe and her “precinct” was Earth and vicinity.

The Intergalactic Federation was her organization’s greatest enemy.

Powers: A degree of super-strength, flight, plus the ability to shoot energy blasts from her antennae. Apia also possessed limited psychic/ telepathic ability.

Comment: Apia’s husband and fellow protector of the universe was Fantastic Man, who was originally called “Zink – Ant-Man” but the name was changed due to legal threats from Marvel Comics.

RAIO NEGRO (The Black Ray)

Secret Identity: Roberto Salles

Debut Year: 1965

Origin: Lt. Roberto Salles of the Forca Aerea Brasileira (Brazilian Air Force) was sent into orbit in an experimental vessel. He was contacted by Lid, an alien from Saturn, who was seriously injured. Lid convinced Roberto to enter the Saturnian space craft and save him because he was too injured to do so himself.

Sales did so and was rewarded with a Saturnian ring that harnessed dark energy in several ways. Once back on Earth, Roberto donned a costume and fought crime, supervillains and space menaces as Raio Negro.

Powers: This superhero’s black ring enabled him to fly, protect himself with force fields and shoot powerful rays of dark energy. The ring’s energy could also be used to amp up Raio Negro’s strength. 

Comment: At first, Raio Negro was presented as a backup feature in Homem-Lua’s comic book but his popularity soon “eclipsed” Homem-Lua’s. (See what I did there?) Captain Op-Ort was his archenemy.

BOLA DE FOGO (Fireball)

Secret Identity: Gha-Nom

Debut Year: 1967

Origin: Gha-Nom was born to a race of heat beings who live inside the sun. He was trained from childhood on for a special mission to protect the people of Earth from the warlike, empire-building alien race from the planet Zargom. Once he reached young manhood he was sent to our world to carry out his mission.

Powers: Bola de Fogo could fly at near light speed, could shoot solar fire from his hands and throw fireballs. The solar flame that he could surround his body with could melt almost anything. Because Gha-Nom was a sun being, his flames would burn even in space.

Comment: The Zargomians were very scientifically advanced, and Earth would have stood no chance against them if not for this hero.

CABAL (Cabala)

Secret Identity: Vanda Emanuelle

Debut Year: 1998

Origin: This superheroine was the illegitimate daughter of Lancelot and Guinevere. Down through the centuries she has lived in many nations under many names. She uses her mystic abilities to fight the forces of evil.

Powers: Cabal wields Cabalistic magic which keeps her young-looking and enables her to levitate, project energy, cast spells and teleport. She is in top physical condition and has mastered armed and unarmed combat during her long lifetime.

Comment: Cabal was originally said to have been born in 1648 A.D. but a retcon changed that to make her the offspring of Lancelot and Guinevere. As an infant she was sent to the Middle East.

O CRANIO (The Skull)

Secret Identity: Haran

Debut Year: 1988

Origin: On the far-off planet Stron, Haran was a prince. His evil twin brother Krok wanted to eliminate Haran as a contender for the throne, so he murdered their father and framed Haran for the deed. Our hero was exiled to Earth and landed in Brazil. As O Cranio he protects the Earth and takes on villains of all kinds. 

Powers: O Cranio’s native Stronian powers let him fly and shoot powerful energy beams from his eyes and his hands.

Comment: When this hero was first exiled to Earth, he was stricken with amnesia, but his first battle with his evil brother as O Cranio restored all his memories.

ESCORPIAO (Scorpio)

Secret Identity: Mr. Nilson (first name never provided)

Debut Year: 1966

Origin: A wealthy man known only as Mr. Nilson was ahead of his time in terms of worrying about the Brazilian rainforest. While using his civilian identity and money to provide humanitarian services to the indigenous people of the Amazon Jungle he donned a costume and became the superhero called Escorpiao.

Powers: Escorpiao was in peak physical condition, exceled at unarmed combat and was an expert at jungle lore and survival techniques. He was armed with an expensive Scorpion Sting hand weapon, which fired ray blasts. This hero also had a speedboat and other vehicles provided by his wealth.

Comment: This guardian of the rainforest started out as an obvious imitation of the Phantom, but legal threats resulted in changes to Escorpiao, including his costume’s color, the addition of a cape and a flashlight-shaped energy weapon as opposed to the Phantom’s handgun.     

MULHER-ESTUPENDA (Stupendous Woman)

Secret Identity: Carol Rosas

Debut Year: 1998

Origin: School teacher Carol Rosas was on a field trip with students when their bus collided with a landed alien spaceship. Carol helped save the life of an alien in the vessel and that alien rewarded her with a cosmic amulet that granted her superpowers and let her carry the bus to a hospital for the childrens’ sake.

Powers: Mulher-Estupenda had Wonder Woman level strength, speed and invulnerability. She could also fly fast enough for interstellar travel and possessed super-senses.

Comment: As Carol Rosas, this heroine’s romantic interest was firefighter Sergio Gentil Pessoa. Carol lived with her Aunt Marta in Novo Horizonte, in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

CRONIUM (Chronium)

Secret Identity: Tony Barreto

Debut Year: 1998

Origin: College student Tony Barreto was experimenting with the fictional metal cronium when an accident caused him to be soaked with liquid cronium. This gave him superpowers that he used to fight for justice as a costumed superhero.

Powers: Cronium’s body was so hard it was virtually indestructible. This also gave him massive super strength.

Comment: Tony’s love interest was a woman named Suzi. As Cronium he was educated in the use of his powers by scientist Rita Mendes, PhD.

BRASIL

Secret Identity: Andrade da Silva Santos

Debut Year: 1992

Origin: Andrade agreed to be used in an experiment regarding radiation and wound up gaining superpowers from it. He and his brother Henrique donned costumes to conceal their identities. Andrade at first went by the nom de guerre Vingador Brasileiro (Brazilian Avenger) while Henrique used the Brasil moniker. 

Powers: Brasil possessed a degree of super-strength and the ability to fly at high speeds.

Comment: Andrade was at first regarded as a villain because he took on entrenched corrupt political powers to avenge his father’s murder, while Henrique was a superhero for the state. After Henrique was killed by criminals, Andrade took over the “Brasil” identity as a tribute to his brother.

MIRZA A MULHER VAMPIRO (Mirza the Female Vampire)

Secret Identity: Mirela Zamanova

Debut Year: 1967

Origin: Mirela Zamanova was born centuries ago to a noble family in Krakow, Poland. She was the 7th daughter in a row in the family, which brought a curse on the family. One by one Mirela had to see her mother, five of her six sisters and her father Duke Zamanova die tragically.

          She herself was transformed into a vampire by the curse when her sole surviving sister’s lover Tristao tried to rape her. Mirela’s new vampiric powers let her kill and drink the blood of Tristao, then her own sister, who witnessed the deed. Our heroine fled and, under the name Mirza, traveled the world but established her home base in Brazil. She fights all manner of supernatural menaces.

Powers: Mirza had greater than human strength as well as the other powers and vulnerabilities of a vampire.

Comment: Mirza’s cover identity from the 1960s onward was that of a supermodel and socialite. In her stories vampires could be captured on film. She traveled with her hunchbacked servant Brooks and when satisfying her thirst for blood she endeavored to kill only deserving figures. 

COMETA (Comet)   

Secret Identity: Marcelo Vasconcelos

Debut Year: 2004

Origin: This figure was born as Simacnot on the planet Reh-Lum in another dimension. His mother Silena Rin was the queen of Reh-Lum and because that world’s matriarchal culture treated all males as slaves she transported her son to Earth to try giving him a better life.

Simacnot possessed superpowers and was taken into the Brazilian government’s custody. The child grew up being studied by scientists at a place called the Center, where he was also trained all his life to refine his powers and acquire combat skills. 

As an adult, our costumed hero was given the alias Cometa and was set free only for limited periods to carry out missions for the government. Eventually, a Brazilian hacker named Jonas Almeida learned about Cometa’s plight and helped him escape.

Cometa began a double life, residing in Porto Alegre under the name Marcelo Vasconcelos while still donning his costume to protect the public from crime and greater menaces. He and the government reached an agreement – his freedom in exchange for his availability for certain missions.   

Powers: Cometa possesses superhuman strength, speed and invulnerability. He also has certain control of gravity and uses that power to enhance his strength and ability to fly.

Comment: One of Cometa’s adventures saw his mother Queen Silena contact him on Earth to temporarily return to Reh-Lum to help her put down a coup being enacted by the supervillainess Igneous-Meg, her evil sister. This hero’s female love interest is Silvana Sandiego, and I’m assuming he always knows where in the world she is.       

HOMEM DE PRETO (Man in Black)

Secret Identity: Never revealed.

Debut Year: 1976

Origin: Never revealed.

Powers: Homem de Preto was in peak physical condition and excelled at unarmed combat. A deadly marksman with his handguns, he was also more agile than an acrobat and stealthier than a cat burglar. This perpetual man of mystery was an expert investigator.

Comment: This hero was an enigma even to other superheroes. That includes his teammates when he served in the superteam called Libertas.

VELTA

Secret Identity: Katia Maria Lins

Debut Year: 1973

Origin: An alien named Snirko abducted Katia and subjected her to genetic experiments.

Those experiments granted her superpowers which she used to escape from Snirko and then to serve as the costumed superheroine called Velta.

Powers: At will, Katia could transform into her blonde, 7-ft tall Velta form. In that form she had a degree of super-strength, was flameproof and disease proof. Velta could also shoot powerful bioelectrical energy rays from her hands or other body parts.

Comment: Velta performed her superheroics for pay or publicity or for the sheer adventure of it all. She has an impressive Rogues Gallery of villains, including Lacrau, Doroti, Anti-Velta, Professor Macieira, Menina Camaleao, Mulher Roxa and Karate Menina.

TRISTAO (Tristan)

Secret Identity: Ronald Barcelos

Debut Year: 2000

Origin: In Vitoria, Brazil, Ronald Barcelos’ wife Elisa was murdered by the sinister Uzi. Adopting a mask, costume, and the nom de guerre Tristao, Ronald set out for revenge.

He then continued his activities as a vigilante in Rio de Janeiro and vicinity.  

Powers: Tristao aka Mascara Branca (White Mask) combined his greater than human skill at sword-wielding with capoeira, Brazil’s distinctive martial arts discipline. He was incredibly agile and through concentration could fight longer than should be humanly possible without growing fatigued. 

Comment: A poignant aspect of this hero’s gritty stories is the way he is still so deeply scarred by his wife’s murder that she visits him in dreams and converses with him about his vigilante activities. Ronald is torn between believing that these visitations from Elisa are real and fearing that they are signs he is losing touch with reality. 

NITRON

Secret Identity: Unknown.

Debut Year: 2002 

Origin: A Brazilian astronaut on a space mission came across a strange alien rock which he could use to wield superpowers. Back on Earth he secretly became the costumed hero called Nitron and took on the forces of evil.

Powers: Nitron’s Power Stone let him fly, shoot cosmic energy beams from his hands, protect himself with force fields and granted him a degree of superhuman strength. It also gave him super-senses and let him travel in the vacuum of space or under the sea with no need to breathe. 

Comment: There is tantalizingly little information available about this hero. Any help would be appreciated. 

THE GYMNOID

Secret Identity: Nova Bruno Soares

Debut Year: 1976

Origin: Law student Nova Soares was dying of lung cancer, so she volunteered for experimental scientific treatment.

Her brain, heart and assorted other organs and tissues were transplanted into a cyborg body. She became Nova the Gymnoid and undertook various missions for the Brazilian government.

Powers: The Gymnoid’s new body possessed much greater than human strength, speed, agility, hearing and eyesight.

Comment: Nova Soares’ father was a federal deputy and set her up with the cyborg experiment run by scientist Zeiss Zenkiev. When it succeeded, he helped get her assigned to missions.   

LAGARTO NEGRO (Black Lizard)

Secret Identity: Classified

Debut Year: 1998

Origin: A former member and instructor for Brazil’s Special Forces Units, this hero became aware of a criminal conspiracy that reached into the highest levels of the Brazilian government. He faked his own death and began wearing the Lagarto Negro armor and wielding its weaponry to foil the conspiracy, then battle terrorists, organized crime, supervillains, aliens and other menaces.

Powers: Lagarto Negro’s armor provides extensive protection against weapons and gasses. It also boosts his strength to greater than normal levels. The outfit sports multiple weapons including triple nun-chuks, grenades, tear gas and titanium implements to block heavy hostile fire.

Infra-red vision is also provided, and this hero’s additional equipment includes a blowtorch, medical kit, radio, lockpicks and more.

Comment: One of Brazil’s most popular heroes of the past 30 years, Lagarto Negro stars in his own adventures and in plenty of crossover stories. 

GUITARRA DE OURO (Golden Guitar)

Secret Identity: Renato Fortuna

Debut Year: 1967

Origin: Wealthy rock singer Renato Fortuna secretly spent a lot of money on developing a superhero identity to fight crime and other menaces.

Think Bruce Wayne if his money came from being a rock star. Renato’s eponymous weapon was indeed a Golden Guitar.

Powers: Guitarra de Ouro’s instrument was much sturdier than a normal guitar and was packed with transistorized technology that let our hero use the guitar as a machine gun, flamethrower, laser gun, sonic weapon, harpoon gun, bludgeon and much more.

This hero also rode into action in an Abarth sports car that could go up to 162 miles per hour. His vest was bullet-proof and served to carry additional ammunition. 

Comment: Renato Fortuna’s butler Oliver is the only one who knows that the Brazilian rock star is really the heroic Guitarra de Ouro. Other members of his band Os Taiobas (as in taioba leaves, a food crop in Brazil) were Bolha, Beto and Bolao. Our hero’s girlfriend is named Verinha. 

JUDOKA (Judo Fighter)

Secret Identity: Lucia (no last name used)

Debut Year: 1969

Origin: Lucia, a Brazilian who was highly skilled at judo and karate, was disgusted with the rising crime rate.

Deciding to do something about it, she donned a costume and a mask in order to fight crime as the superheroine called Judoka.

Powers: Judoka is phenomenal at judo and karate and can defeat multiple armed opponents at once.   

Comment: This heroine faced the usual martial arts superhero dangers and situations. And all of that on top of the expected supervillains and assorted other threats.   

PENITENTE (Penitent)

Secret Identity: Not revealed as yet.

Debut Year: 2006

Origin: This character had been a professional hitman for organized crime in Brazil for several years. One night he was killed in his sleep on orders of his own bosses, but Heavenly forces offered him a chance at redemption. In exchange for them allowing this figure’s soul to animate his now dead body they would grant him supernatural abilities.

To redeem himself in the eyes of Heaven, the Penitente had to save seventy times seven the number of innocent victims he had killed while alive. As part of this purgative servitude he would also be periodically pitted against dark forces which had escaped from Hell.

Powers: The Penitente pursued his activities in his own dead body, which was now unstoppable, albeit bearing many, many scars. He was immune to much physical pain, and his greater than human strength and uncanny skill with guns and other weapons were crucial to his mission.

Comment: Our hero rose from his grave and masked his decaying, scarred face behind a red cloth like those worn during Brazil’s Procession of the Penitents.

And yes, I know this character’s general origin is, uh, reminiscent of an American creation of the 1990s but at least the Penitente’s power set is more grounded, and his “look” is pretty cool.

O GRALHA (The Jackdaw)

Secret Identity: Gustavo Gomes

Debut Year: 1997

Origin: Student Gustavo Gomes is the grandson of the alien superhero Capitao Gralha. Because his grandfather had married an Earth woman, Gustavo was born with certain superpowers of his own. The young man adopted a separate costumed identity, Gralha, and became the protector of Curitiba, Brazil.

Powers: O Gralha can fly at nearly 200 miles per hour and can lift roughly 10 tons. He has super vision, a degree of invulnerability and can generate a “Jackdaw Caw” – a sonic blast. 

Comment: In truth, this hero’s grandfather Capitao Gralha never existed, even fictionally, but that Golden Age superhero was retconned into being a real figure and his own adventures were published.

RAIO RUBRA (Ruby Ray)

Secret Identity: Beatriz Mboa

Debut Year: 2017

Origin: Beatriz Mboa was a professor at the University of Sao Paulo, where she taught biology, physics and chemistry. She had lost both legs below the knees while on a humanitarian mission to Angola. One day she encountered aliens who were telepathically impressed with Beatriz’s many virtues, so they used their advanced science to restore both legs, and presented her with a red necklace that gave her superpowers. 

Powers: The alien necklace permitted Raio Rubra to fly, shoot red energy beams from her hands and generate force fields. It also makes her able to withstand large doses of energy targeted at her.

Comment: Beatriz Mboa continues to teach at the University of Sao Paulo.  

HIDRO-HOMEM (Hydroman) 

Secret Identity: None  

Debut Year: 1968   

Origin: This enigmatic hero was the descendant of a survivor of ancient Atlantis, and that sunken realm served as his base. He would emerge when his abilities were needed to protect the innocent from assorted menaces both below and above the sea.

Powers: Hidro-Homem was strong and resilient enough to function easily in the pressure of the ocean’s depths and could swim at incredible speeds. He was skilled at both armed and unarmed combat and wielded an ice-gun in battle.

Comment: Technically, this hero’s original creative team used the name Hydroman rather than its Portuguese equivalent Hidro-Homem, but I’m staying with Portuguese for the character names.

METEORO (Meteor)

Secret Identity: Ricardo Marinetti 

Debut Year: 1992

Origin: Various aliens from across the universe formed a secret society called the Conclave. They hastily judged the Earth to be an irredeemably destructive threat to the universe and beamed cosmic levels of power to an unhinged Earth villain. That villain – Estrela Maldita (Evil Star) came close to destroying the world as the Conclave had planned.

Wiser minds in the Conclave prevailed and they sent a small meteor to Earth to provide powers to a person who would be able to oppose Estrela Maldita and save our planet. That person was Sao Paulo teenager Ricardo Marinetti, who became the hero called Meteoro.

Powers: This hero can fly at amazing speeds and is strong enough to lift 40 tons. Meteoro also possesses a small degree of precognitive abilities which can warn him of danger.

Comment: Meteoro is so popular he is often called Brazil’s Spider-Man. The character’s creator has introduced major retcons regarding Meteoro in 2010 and again in 2018. That 2018 retcon established that there are many Meteoros across multiple Earths in the Multireality (Brazil’s Multiverse), some named Ricardo Marinetti and some named Roger Mandari, each with different origins and foes.

PENITENCIA (Penance)   

Secret Identity: Maria do Amparo 

Debut Year: 1997

Origin: Over a hundred years earlier, a Carmelite Nun named Maria do Amparo aided the poor victims being oppressed by landowners in the Bahia hinterlands. Those wealthy figures used their power to make the church strip Maria of her ordination and excommunicate her on false charges of heresy.

The landed villains continued persecuting her and she was eventually brutally murdered. By the 1990s the forces of evil had become so dominant on Earth that the entity called Equilibrio returned Maria do Amparo to the world of the living and endowed her with superpowers.

As Penitencia she sought to restore the balance between good and evil running loose a century after her death.

Powers: Penitencia wielded a processional crucifix through which she focused her nearly all-encompassing yet vaguely explained powers (think of the Spectre). Flight was the least of this nun’s powers, so she had it all over the Flying Nun. 

Comment: The original six issues of this heroine’s series are considered by some to be among the greatest Brazilian comic books ever produced. Many other stories followed. In later years Penitencia joined Brazil’s superteam called Libertas.

I like to think of Penitencia as the comic book series which dares to ask “How big should we make the nun’s boobs?” But I’m kind of weird.

MYLAR, O HOMEM MISTERIO (Mylar, the Mystery Man)

Secret Identity: Never revealed

Debut Year: 1967

Origin: This superhero arrived on Earth in an interstellar spaceship. His mission was to observe the technologically backward Earthlings, protect them and try to guide them toward a peaceful future to avoid joining the countless inhabited planets which had destroyed themselves with warfare over millions of years. 

Mylar landed his vessel in the hills of the main island of Brazil’s Fernando de Noronha archipelago. It served as his hidden headquarters and laboratory.

Powers: This hero naturally possessed greater strength than Earth people. The rest of his powers came from his high-tech belt which enabled him to fly and could shoot powerful energy beams from its buckle. In addition, Mylar wielded a ray-gun and had a mastery of science far beyond Earth’s.

Also, it’s not a superpower, but Mylar’s mystique heavily appealed to the ladies he met and though he had relationships with some of them, readers never got to see his face.

Comment: Mylar, O Homem Misterio debuted in May of 1967 and was an enormous hit. However, conflicts between the creator and the publishers caused the series to end in July 1968. Legal issues then prevented a revival of this character until 1991.

FOR SUPERHEROES FROM SPAIN CLICK HERE.

FOR SUPERHEROES FROM INDONESIA CLICK HERE.