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| Vox | |
| Aliases: | Malcolm Duncan Guardian Herald Hornblower Vox |
| Continuity: | DC Universe |
| Notability: | Supporting character |
| Type: | Superhero |
| Occupation: | Business owner |
| Gender: | Male |
| Race: | Cyborg |
| Associations: | Teen Titans Doom Patrol |
| Relatives: | Cindy Duncan [1] Karen Beecher [2] |
| Status: | Alive |
| First: | Teen Titan's #26 |
Malcolm "Mal" Duncan is a fictional superhero and a supporting character featured in comic books published by DC Comics. He is associated with the Teen Titans line of titles and first appeared in Teen Titans, Volume 1 #26 in April, 1970.
Biography[]
Malcolm Arnold Duncan grew up in San Francisco, California. From an early age, Mal was trained in the physical sport of boxing. This came as a great benefit to him years later, when he came to the aid of the young superhero team known as the Teen Titans by challenging the leader of a street gang called the Hell Hawks to a boxing match.
Following this, Mal Duncan was recruited by the Teen Titans as a member, despite the fact that he had no powers, costume, or even a code name.
While the rest of the team was on a mission in Italy, Mal stayed on monitor duty at one of Loren Jupiter's bases. A dimensional monitoring experiment went awry, and an old foe of the Titans known as the Gargoyle was released from his banishment in Limbo. The Gargoyle disguised himself as a scientific colleague of Mister Jupiter's, but Mal managed to deduce the villain's true identity. He then corrected the computer malfucnction, undoing its previous error, and sent the Gargoyle back into exile in Limbo. [3]
After a few missions with the Titans, Mal discovered an exoskeleton, which increased his strength levels and he took on the code name Guardian. [4]
During his stint as Guardian, Mal encountered the Angel of Death known as Azrael. He fought and defeated Azrael, only to discover later that this was actually just an hallucination. For his efforts, he was rewarded with the Horn of Gabriel - one of the Archangels. The horn provided Mal with additional benefits, but with the codicil that he could never lost a fight. Armed with the Horn of Gabriel, Mal eschewed his Guardian identity and took on the code name of Hornblower. [5]
A short time later, the Teen Titans disbanded. Mal had grown close to another teammate, Karen Beecher, who was the heroine known as Bumblebee. They eventually married each other and then opened up a night club together, which they called Gabriel's Horn. Mal would occasionally perform jazz music at his own club.
Mal and Karen briefly came out of retirement to join a new group called Titans L.A., but this faction did not remain operative for very long. They came out of retirement again to fight up against Doctor Light, who had captured Green Arrow, and was using him as instrument to avenge himself over past grievances.
Mal Duncan was active during the "Infinite Crisis" event, where he was part of an assemblage of heroes who combated Alexander Luthor - the son of Lex Luthor from Earth-3. Luthor was defeated, but Mal was missing action for over four weeks, having disappeared into outer space. Mal was rescued from a Zeta Beam transport accident. His lungs and vocal cords were damaged after the Horn of Gabriel blew up in his face. Mal's body rejected the cybernetic grafting of parts from the Red Tornado until John Henry Irons used his Pseudocyte technology to permanently graft the parts into Mal's body. [6][7]
A year after the harrowing incident in space, Mal came out of retirement once again, now employing an electronic synthesized voice box with sonic powers. Taking on the new code name of Vox, Mal and Karen became members of the latest iteration of the Doom Patrol. [8]
Abilities[]
For most of his career, Mal Duncan did not possess any superhuman abilities. When he underwent cybernetic conversion, he gained enhanced attributes.
Powers[]
Skills[]
Equipment[]
- Horn of Gabriel
- Sonic projection: The Horn of Gabriel can project waves of vibrational sonic energy.
- Teleportation: The Horn of Gabriel has the ability to generate and open interdimensional space portals.
- Voice box: Mal speaks with a synthesized voice box which can create unusually strong hypersonic blasts and open dimensional portals, wormholes, and vortexes similar to the Gabriel Horn.
Notes & Trivia[]
- The character of Mal Duncan was created by writer Robert Kanigher and artist Nick Cardy.
- Mal Duncan's full name is Malcolm Arnold Duncan. He is often referred to in comics as just Mal.
- Mal Duncan is the first black character to join the Teen Titans. The second is Karen Beecher, aka Bumblebee, who becomes Mal's future wife.
- Mal took on his first heroic code name, the Guardian in Teen Titans #44 in November, 1976.
- Mal first met future ex-wife Karen Beecher in her first appearance in Teen Titans #45.
- Mal changed his code name from Guardian to Hornblower in Teen Titans #46.
- Went back to being called Guardian in Teen Titans #52 and Teen Titans #53.
- In the comics, Gabriel's Horn is a night club in Long Island. In the Teen Titans: The Judas Contract animated movie, Gabriel's Horn is a homeless shelter that Jaime Reyes volunteers at.
Alternate versions[]
- Mal Duncan was re-imagined for DC's company-wide continuity reboot dubbed the "New 52". The New 52 version of Mal was introduced in Titans Hunt #1 in December, 2015.
- A masked version of Mal Duncan appeared in two episodes of the Teen Titans animated series on Cartoon Network. It is the first, and to date, only time that the character has ever been shown wearing a mask. He appeared in "Calling All Titans" and Teen Titans: Titans Together". He was voiced by actor Khary Payton, who also voiced Cyborg on the series.
- A version of Mal Duncan appeared in the tenth episode of season one of the Young Justice animated television series called "Targets". Mal returns in season two where, five years later, he takes on the mantle of Guardian. He is voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson in the series.
Appearances[]
- 52 4
- 52 5
- Infinite Crisis 2
- Infinite Crisis 3
- JLA/Titans 1
- JLA/Titans 2
- JLA/Titans 3
- Teen Titans 26 (1st appearance)
- Teen Titans 27
- Teen Titans 28 (Joins the Teen Titans)
- Teen Titans 30
- Teen Titans 31
- Teen Titans 32
- Teen Titans 33
- Teen Titans 34
- Teen Titans 35 ("A Titan is Born")
- Teen Titans 37
- Teen Titans 38
- Teen Titans 39
- Teen Titans 40
- Teen Titans 42
- Teen Titans 43 ("Please Tell Me My Name")
- Teen Titans 44 (Becomes Guardian)
- Teen Titans 45
- Teen Titans 46 (Becomes Hornblower)
- Teen Titans 47
- Teen Titans 48
- Teen Titans 49
- Teen Titans 50
- Teen Titans 51
- Teen Titans 52 (Back to being Guardian)
- Teen Titans 53
- Teen Titans Vol 3 22
- Teen Titans Vol 3 29
- Teen Titans Vol 3 100