Animated History: A cross between Shazam and Star Wars, Marvel created a pilot for an animated TV series based around him. However, the show was never picked up. On October 24, 1992, this pilot aired as a special on Fox Kids.
Comic History: Despite scripts by Stan Lee and art by Jim Mooney, Mike Zeck and Nestor Redondo, his comic book was published in 1989 and only lasted only two issues.Plot: Solarman is teenager Benjamin Tucker, who dreams of becoming an artist for Marvel Comics even though his Los Angeles gym-owner father wants him to become a jock. A blue-skinned alien cyborg warlord named Commander Gormagga Kraal tried to use his technology to drain the energy from Earth's sun, but his white-bearded head scientist, Sha-han, refused and fled to Earth with Kraal's Circlet of Power, which he gave to Ben along with a helpful little robot the boy, for obvious reasons, dubs Beepie. Thereafter, Ben could expose the Circlet (which is worn on his wrist like a bracelet and cannot be removed) to sunlight and transform into the golden-haired adult Solarman who possesses superhuman strength, is capable of super-sonic flight and survival in deep space and can control light, heat and other forms of energy, although his weakness is that his powers would fade without constant exposure to sunlight, causing him to revert to his powerless teenage form.
Fun Fact: Credited creator David Oliphant had actually published three digest-sized issues of a more educationally-oriented version of Solarman back in 1979 under the Pendulum Illustrated imprint. This Solarman was an alien "Solarite" named Davos from a land inside the Sun called "Coresun" who came to Earth with his stiff-legged android servant Arman and used his superior abilities to become a baseball player while preaching the virtues of solar energy. In addition to the tremendous strength granted to him by Earth's lower gravity, his Solarcell Medallion, which also allowed him to recharge his life energy via exposure to sunlight, made him able to fly through the air in a giant fireball and shoot flames from his eyes.Dork Note: Join the Solarman Collectors Club! I wonder how many kids did and if any of them still have their Solarman Collector Club Poster etc.
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