Golden Age Idol--John Force, MAGIC AGENT!!

I will freely admit that I'm cheating a bit here, as 1962 is clearly not the Golden Age.

Yet I like to think that the concept of Golden Age Idol is flexible enough to include any brilliant, forgotten characters who have fallen into the public domain.

And brother, is this a brilliant concept: What if Nick Fury and Constantine had a love child, and he worked as a secret agent, using magic to thwart America's enemies?

Presenting:

Holy crap, right?

John Force's bosses know he's a badass secret agent, but they don't know that he uses magic. And when I say bosses, I mean all the way at the very top:

Meet John Force--MAGIC AGENT:

Don't worry about what AGMIML is, dear reader--it's just this story's MacGuffin. Just witness the awe and reverence that even the U.S. President has for John Force:

So what the hell is Force's deal?

Well, let's go back to D-Day, as a decidedly unmagical John Force is captured on a mission deep inside Transylvania by Nazis:

Ah, but this is a special castle:

Holy crap!!

It's like he's a one-man X-Men...but this is before the X-Men!!

And how does this medallion work? Well, whenever John Force needs to uses one of his powers, he whips out the coin, and...

I won't take too much of your time illustrating all of these powers...let's just see how John Force uses the power of illusion, when, back in 1962, a gang of spies is getting away with dangerous stolen military secrets:

HOLY SHIT!!!!!

OK, that's badass.

Oh, one more thing--how do John Force's bosses summon him?

Yes, via an invisible radioactive tattoo!! But wait...it has a variety of uses:

...and...

OK, let's summarize: The trench-coat and eye-patch wearing secret agent who has invisible radioactive tattoos and uses the magic powers of Nostradamus, Merlin, Cagliostro and Harry Houdini (!) to fight spies.

Good gravy, if that isn't the best high concept ever, I'll eat my hat. Sure, you can quibble with some of the quality of how this comic was done...but James Bond using Harry Potter powers to be a secret agent? I mean, if you had a movie based on this premise, I would see it 200 times at the theater. A TV series? I would DVR it in highest quality every week and binge the episodes every day.

And if this were a comic, it's on my pull list, and I might even buy variant covers. THAT'S how cool this concept is.

But ACG had little faith in the idea. And given that this comic appeared before almost anyone had heard of James Bond, before Doctor Strange, no one seemed to see it's potential. So the idea just lays there, unused, waiting quietly for someone to realize how awesomely brilliant it is...

Someone out there, get on the ball and revive John Force--Magic Agent, will you?!?

All panels from various stories in Magic Agent #1 (1962)