Black Archer
Real Name: Clem Macey
Identity/Class: Human mutate
Occupation: Television reporter
Affiliations: Chango, Katt
Enemies: Remover, Weatherman, the Axe-Man
Known Relatives: None.
Aliases: Unlucky Macey
Base of Operations: Delago, U.S.A.
First Appearance: Tiger and Hurricane (2nd July 1966); Eagle Picture Library (reprints)
Powers/Abilities: As well as being able to instantly transform into the Black Archer, bow and all, the Archer had an aero cycle which could become invisible. His aim with the bow was inhuman, and he had a variety of arrows, including smoke bolts and one which would trail a line behind it to entangle his target. He also had a dirk which would release flame with a thought from its owner. In dire emergencies he could also summon the Black Hand of Fate (what this could do however is unknown to me).
History: Clem Macey was a clumsy but lucky TV reporter, working for a TV station in the crime-ridden American city of Delago. However, "Unlucky Macey" (as his co-workers dubbed him) never managed to be around when anything newsworthy was happening. Frustrated at Macey's inability to provide a story, his boss, Mr. Belling, ordered him to go out with his cine camera and find a new angle on crime for an upcoming programme, or else lose his job. Checking out the waterfront, hoping to find a story there, Clem chanced to spot a man running across the rooftops, and followed in the hope of finding something of interest. Instead, Clem fell through a skylight, and landed in an ornately decorated room containing both furniture and high-tech lab electronic equipment. The room's centrepiece was a portrait, which depicted a cloaked individual Clem recognised as being the Black Archer, a legendary avenger of wrongs he had read about in books. A strange old man entered the room, seemingly unsurprised to find the intruder, and pointed out to Clem that he resembled the Archer. Claiming to know much about Clem, the stranger told him to enter a nearby cylinder, telling Clem the city needed a new Black Archer; bizarrely accepting of this, Clem found himself doing as instructed, and the old man threw a switch on the electronics, somehow gifting Clem with the Black Archer's powers. The portrait faded to blankness, while Clem found himself garbed in the Archer's costume, and the stranger informed Clem he had "brought them together," so that Clem could now transform into the Archer at will. Using his newfound powers, the Black Archer saved the man he had spotted earlier on the rooftops from gangsters pursuing them, the first adventure in his new crimefighting career.
Comments: Created by Eric Bradbury. The Black Archer appeared in Tiger and Hurricane for around a year.
The Archer had two reluctant assistants, Chango and Katt (image to left, l to r Chango and Katt respectively). Both were by nature crooks, but worked for the Archer, possibly out of fear.
Thanks to Stephen Montgomery for the information clearing up this character's background and powers.
The Black Archer featured prominently in Zenith Phase 3, although he wasn't named.
CLARIFICATIONS: Not to be confused with
any other Black characters
Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.
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