Tim
Registered: May 2006
Posts: 13,258
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Sat August 20, 2011 4:11pm
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Rating: 10.00
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This is a character I didn't know a lot about till I found him in a dollar double sized Batman book from the 70's only a few months ago.
From wiki - Ragman is a mystic vigilante and superhero who first appeared in the short-lived comic-book series named after him. He is one of a limited number of Jewish superheroes, and his continuity is tied to that of DC Comics' Golem, derived from the Golem of Prague of Jewish folklore.
Ragman is sometimes compared to the other nighttime defender of Gotham City, Batman.
Pre-Crisis
A Vietnam veteran, Rory had grown up helping his father, a junk man who owned a pawn shop named Rags'n'Tatters. His father always dreamed of making a better life for Rory and constantly promised that someday he would make Rory rich. While drinking with his friends one night, his father discovered 2 million dollars stuffed inside an old mattress that had been pawned just recently. He and his friends decided to hide the money for Rory, since they were too old to truly benefit from it. The money turned out to be the loot from an armored car heist and when the hoods came to the shop one night to get it, they shot down some electrical wires and used them to torture Rory's father and his friends into revealing where the money was hidden. Rory arrived soon after and seeing his father in agony attempted to pull him free from the wires. A final shock of power ran though the old men and grounded out at Rory, knocking him unconscious. When he woke his father and friends were dead and the hoods responsible were gone. Using a costume made out of old rags (his father had made it before he died so Rory could wear it to a costume party) he became Ragman, "The Tatterdemalion of Justice".
In this pre-crisis history Rory apparently had gained the physical abilities of the men who were electrocuted as they were all touching when the final blow of electricity flew through them and into Rory. He had the agility of a world class acrobat, the strength of a circus strongman and the fighting ability of a heavy weight prize fighter. What he received from his father is unknown other than his obvious desire to take care of the neighborhood by spreading hope as his father did with the pawn shop.
In his pre-Crisis incarnation, Rory Regan was Irish, not Jewish, as explicitly stated in the letters page of Ragman #3.
Post-Crisis
Rory Regan is a ragman, doing good in his community by buying used items from people who need money. The suit of rags that he wears, as mentioned above, was originally just a costume made from materials found around the rag shop, Rags'n'Tatters, that he shared with his father. This was retconned in a 1991 limited series, and currently each of the patches in the suit is made from the soul of an evildoer that the Ragman had punished and absorbed.
The absorption of these souls caused a problem for Rory at one point, when the evil souls hungered for murder and finally freed themselves of Ragman. It was only with the support of Batman and Regan's old friend, Rabbi Luria, that he regained control, though at the cost of Luria's life. Ragman's powers have increased since then. Currently, he can absorb souls into his costume. With each new soul added, a rag is added. He can call upon the souls in his costume to lend him their attributes or power. He is also a very proficient magic user.
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