Blazing Skull (Marvel Comics)

Blazing Skull is a fictional superhero apart of Marvel Comics. Blazing Skull was created sometime in the late 1930's or early 1940's though its most likely he was created exactly in the year 1941. He first appeared in Mystic Comics #5, but the creator and artist(s) are both unknown. The Blazing Skull should not be confused with Marvel's unrelated supernatural motorcyclist the Ghost Rider , who is depicted with a flaming skull, much like Blazing Skull, though Blazing Skull was created about 30 years before Ghost Rider was.

Publication History
Blazing Skull debuted in the comic "The Story of Mark Todd" which was a nine page comic that was created in 1941, in the comic it also had Black Marvel, another superhero who he allied with, along with the other hero Terror. He kept appearing in the Mystic Comics from issue #9 in May 1941, with at least one story confirmed to have been penciled by Golden Age comic penciler Syd Shores. At one point in the heroes history (though for a very short time) Blazing Skull was apart of The Avengers. Along with another comic in 1995 that was set in World War II called Midnight Sons Unlimited #9 (May 1995), about ten years later he was introduced into a modern-day story acr titled "Once an Invader" in the Avengers volume 3 #82-#84 (July-Sept) 2004. The Blazing Skull had also appeared in the final issue of New Invaders, which was New Invader #9.

Character Bio
Foreign Correspodent Mark Todd,  assigned by his newspaper to cover the Second Sino-Japanese War , is forced to take refuge in a cave during an artillery bombardment  by the Japanese. There he meets the Skull Men, a strange race with burning skulls for heads. They inform him he has been chosen by the forces of destiny to be the champion of freedom, and they begin his training, which grants him abilities such as invulnerability to fire. Once his training is completed, he returns home and, motivated by the horrors of Nazism , end up doning a uniform with a flaming mask (in honor of the Skull Men), taking the name "The Blazing Skull". (As time passes and he continues to master the Skull Men's teachings, he gains the ability to turn his flesh invisible, mimicking his teachers' appearance, and stops using the mask.) Afterwards, Todd with the World War II superhero team, the Invaders, and aids the team against a team of Axis superhumans, while this happens, Blazing Skull saves the life of the superhero Namor the Sub-Mariner.

In Modern days
 The Blazing Skull later appears in modern times as a captive of Middle Eastern terrorists, having not aged in the decades since the war due to his great healing factor.  He is freed by a U.S. Agent , who recruits him into a new, present-day version of the Invaders.  He has related that between the war and the present he has fought as a superhero at different times in different places, even using different names, such as the Smoking Head  during the 1960s.

Powers/Abilities
As being trained by the Skull Men, he is completly immune to fire. Blazing Skull also has superhuman strength (much like other heroes), regeneration, and the ability to turn his flesh invisible, which would give him the the apperance of a walking skeleton.