Real
Name: John Sunlight (probably)
John Sunlight
Real
Name: John Sunlight (probably)
Identity/Class: "Normal "human
Occupation: World conqueror
Affiliations: Civan, Titania, Giantia
Enemies: Doc Savage
Known Relatives: None known
Aliases: None known
Base of Operations: (The Fortress of Solitude) Doc's Fortress in the Arctic, plus a well-guarded mansion on an island outside New York;
(The Devil Genghis) A castle fortress found above a mountain near the borders of Afghanistan.
First Appearance: The Fortress of Solitude (Doc Savage novel #23, October 1938)
Powers/Abilities: Sunlight is stronger and tougher than most men, though not superhumanly so. He is a genius.
History: (The Fortress of Solitude) Having been imprisoned by the Russian authorities, the villainous John Sunlight escaped his Russian prison in the Arctic (along with several fellow convicts such as Civan) and came upon Doc Savage's Fortress of Solitude, where some of the hero's greatest and deadliest inventions were stored.
John Sunlight took the deadliest of the inventions and set out to get revenge on the lawyer who put him away in the first place. Afterwards, Sunlight began selling the weapons to warring countries, making one believe they had the advantage over the other. This naturally drew Doc Savage's attention, and he investigated. Having managed to defeat most of Sunlight's men, Savage then pursued their leader . While the henchmen loyal to John Sunlight ended up being gassed to death by Doc Savage, Sunlight fled into the wastelands. Searching for the villain, Doc and his men find evidence that a polar bear appears to have killed him.
(The Devil Genghis) In fact it was John Sunlight
who killed the polar bear! After stealing a plane, John Sunlight makes it
to France to acquire the talents of a former spy. To do so, Sunlight hypnotizes
the spy's boyfriend to fight an invisible foe. The spy joins Sunlight in
his mad plot to have revenge on the man of bronze. Sunlight also planned
on retrieving some inventions of Savage's that the hero had not managed
to recover from where Sunlight had hidden them, intending to achieve the
greatest conquest of all: the famous "world conquering" scheme. Doc Savage
again got wind of his plot, and managed to stop John Sunlight, cause all
of the followers to turn on Sunlight, and help all of Sunlight's victim's.
John Sunlight suffered a most bloody death while trying to escape Doc Savage,
when all of the fighters who had joined against Sunlight stabbed him with
their swords and scattered his remains across the airfield. Monk Mayfair,
one of Doc's associates, even says "The polar bear would have been kinder."
Comments: Thanks to Mac Murdock for providing me with both background details on Sunlight, and the image used at the top of this page. As well as the plot synopsis above (slightly modified by me), he also mentions that "In my opinion, the greatest Doc Savage villain, John Sunlight was the only enemy of Doc Savage to have a second chance at destroying the man of bronze."
Sunlight returned again in the DC Doc Savage comic.
CLARIFICATIONS: None.
Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.
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