| Neon the Unknown | |
|---|---|
 Neon the Unknown | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Quality Comics (1940–1956) DC Comics |
| First appearance | Hit Comics #1 (July 1940) |
| Created by | Jerry Iger |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Thomas "Tom" Corbett Langford "Happy" Terrill Colin Nomi |
| Species | Metahuman |
| Team affiliations | Tom Corbet:All-Star Squadron;Freedom Fighters Colin Nomi:The Unexpected |
| Abilities | Corbet: Flight on a spiral of light, fires "neonic" energy blasts from hands, enhanced strength Nomi: Create or manipulate matter, occultism, regeneration, teleportation |
Neon the Unknown is asuperhero from theGolden Age of Comic Books created byJerry Iger forQuality Comics. Neon first appeared in a story penciled and inked byAlex Blum inHit Comics #1 and was featured on the cover of issue two drawn byLou Fine.[1] His stories ran in issues 1–17.[2]
Like many characters owned by that company, he was later bought byDC Comics after Quality ceased operations.
Tom Corbet is a member of the Foreign Legion. While pursuing an enemy across the desert, his entire unit dies of dehydration. Surely he would have suffered the same fate if he hadn't found a magical oasis at the last second. Corbet drinks the glowing water and is transformed into Neon the Unknown, with the ability to fly and shoot energy from his hands.[3]
According toJess Nevins' Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes, "he uses his power to kill an attacking tiger, stop a would-be world conqueror, and go on to fight crime and evil and the Germans, as well as Darmus the Wizard, the Tibetan Four Lamas, a "Batzi" scientist who drops "insanity spores" on the United States, and the scientist Fritz Cardiff and his invisibility ray".[4]
On December 7, 1941, Neon is recruited byUncle Sam to be a member of theFreedom Fighters, along with several other Quality Comics heroes, and defendPearl Harbor from the Japanese attack.[5] He,Uncle Sam,Miss America,Hourman,Invisible Hood,Magno, andRed Torpedo fight valiantly. All but Uncle Sam is seemingly killed.[6]
As of 2008Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters mini-series, Neon is revealed to be alive and has been living at his magical oasis (Magno is the only superhero who appears to have actually died in the defense of Pearl Harbor).
Called upon during a major crisis hitting the reformed Freedom Fighters, Tom Corbet is confronted byLangford Terrill, the former Ray.[7] Now warped into a more powerful glowing form but more detached from humanity, Corbet refuses his help but lets Terrill drink from his magical oasis. Adding his light-based powers to Neon's energies, Langford Terrill is now empowered as the new Neon the Unknown.
InDC Rebirth'sThe Unexpected, Neon the Unknown (real name Colin Nomi) is now a famous painter and a bisexual man, appearing first inSupergirl #20. Desiring more inspiration for his work, Colin performed a ritual to evoke the Fires of Creation, which resulted in him acquiring great powers to create or manipulate matter but in exchange for his vision and the lives of his friends. Colin set out on a journey of redemption as Neon the Unknown, and eventually he met up with two others on paths of redemption calling themselves Viking Judge and the Ascendant. The three of them formed The Unexpected, defenders of theMultiverse.[8] His ability to change things - although not destroy them - is seemingly limitless, as, in the end, he even transforms the terrifying hypervampire Mandrakk the Dark Monitor into a predator who no longer feeds on life, but death, forcing him into exile in the Dark Multiverse.[9]
InThe Steranko History of Comics, historianJim Steranko has harsh words for the strip: "The art for Neon... was extremely competent but the concepts and scripts were uninspired and threadbare".[10]