Dr. Troy Magnus

Dr. Troy Magnus

An immortal alchemist and royal physician.

Seeking to devise a potion to combat the Black Death which in 1665 has invaded London, Dr. Magnus inadvertently creates a potion that makes him alternately super-strong and a ghostly phantom, with the added side-effect of infecting him with the plague. Unable to be killed, he orders himself walled-up within the Tower of London, where he lives for several centuries, perfecting his alchemical experiments. Tired of his phantom existence, the doctor lures Superman to his room and asks the Man of Steel to end his life using his super-powers. When Superman refuses to break his moral code against taking another life, Dr. Magnus convinces him to use his super-vision to seal the cracks in the Tower's wall. However, when Superman's heat vision accidentally touches Magnus, the doctor turns red and finally dies. He is ultimately re-entombed by a remorseful Superman who notes, "The poor man didn't realize that atomic scientists of our age transmuted metals long ago ...that laboratory was his tib for centuries. Let it be his tomb forever!" (Act No. 406/3, Nov 1971: "An Untold Tale of Clark Kent: The Ghost that Haunted Clark Kent!").