The Hanged Man

The Hanged Man © Juke Box Productions AstroFacts Status: Active Earliest Appearance: 1748 Origin: While certain details of the Hanged Man's past are mentioned in Astro City #39, the full tale surrounding his dark beginning has yet to be told. Base of Operations: Shadow Hill Personal Data Aliases: The Dark One Tereth-Il Kerem the Wise InfoDump Appearances (in Publication Order): Kurt Busiek's Astro City Vol.1 #4 Wizard Presents: Kurt Busiek's Astro City #1/2 Kurt Busiek's Astro City Vol.2 #1, 6, 9 Astro City #13, 39 Event Timeline 1996     Current Hanged Man Explains a Mystery to a Man Troubled By His Dreams. 1996/09     Current During Thunderhead's Epic Tantrum, the Hanged Man guards Shadow Hill.. 2014/06     Current Raitha's Plan to Use the Orb to Fix Silver Adept's Schedule. The Hanged Man A strange and mysterious being, the Hanged Man stands a nightly vigil over the neighborhood known as Shadow Hill. He wears a burlap bag over his face and a badly frayed rope around his neck. The shadowy remnants of a ghastly execution. History K.O. Carson tells tales of olden times and the Hanged Man, some of which pre-date World War I and the arrival of Air Ace. The earliest stories originate in mystic European folklore from the Middle Ages, but his first recorded appearance was in Picardy, France, in 1748, where he seems already to have been known. Stephane Mesnier was found guilty of unspecified crimes, and sentenced to hang, but at the moment of death, he was offered a chance to serve the world, to give the Hanged Man his body that he might stop a great danger, and accepted willingly. The Hanged Man, along with the migration of large groups of Eastern Europeans, is believed to have settled into the area now known as Astro City in the later half of the 19th Century. No specific details are known, just ghostly fragments of events from an ancient past. Recent history provides more abundant information, starting with police database files detailing Hanged Man's activities protecting the residents of Astro City. One of his most revered incidents involved the mysterious murders plaguing Shadow Hill during the Great Enelsian Invasion. That case baffled authorities who originally felt that the Confessor, a rather ruthless vigilante, was somehow tied to the killings. Instead, the Hanged Man discovered the real culprit turned out to be an extremely horrendous and bestial entity. On a very dark night shortly following both the death of the Confessor and the defeat of the Enelsians, an eerie light emanated over the old buildings inhabiting Shadow Hill. It was a projection filling the skies, mingling with the starlight. A vision made large by the Hanged Man so all the restless citizens of Astro City could witness the final life moments of a horrific killer that had caused so much grieving. That was the relief needed and in the end, the Hanged Man brought closure for the victims and the city. More recently, he directed the Dancing Master to return to a place known as the Old Lands. The two beings recognized each other, and the Dancing Master remembered three of the hundreds of names that the Hanged Man had used before he "wore a sack upon his head." It is unclear how the two know each other. Powers The Hanged Man's vast powers seem to be supernatural. He is known to fly, although it is more a wispy floating, like that of an apparition. He can manipulate his size to tower above buildings. He possesses mysterious awareness of alternate time-lines. He can grant visions of other times and places with a touch. He uses the bodies of the newly-dead as vessels to operate in the realms of the physical world. Those he interacts with understand what he means without any need for speech on his part. He can allow his hosts to talk independently of him. Observations If someone does the Hanged Man a service of some kind, he will return the favor by allowing them to call on him in times of great need. As long as there's someone in the family who'll call him, he will come again and again, no matter how long it's been. He isn't omnipotent, however, and must sometimes get assistance to help with a request. So far, the Hanged Man's hosts have been volunteers. He's conveyed dark implications over what might happen if they weren't. Speculations, Theories The possibilities seem strong that the Hanged Man and his fate are somehow tied into the history, rituals, and superstitions that cling to Shadow Hill.