Mal Duncan

* Biography
* Threat Assessment
* Trivia and Notes
* Gallery

## Herald

### Mal Duncan: 1990 - 2003

Malcolm is the son of a leading chemist employed by Kord Industries. Due to his mother abandoning him at a young age, Mal became an angry and troubled child. As a recovering alcoholic himself, Mal's father refused to let rage lead his child into a dark path of self-destruction. Seeing that Mal was a bright kid under all that rage, and being a scientist himself, Jeremiah Duncan engaged in all sorts of fun experiments in the backyard and garage with his son every night. The two spent their weekends on science-related field trips. These activities excited Malcolm to pursue science throughout his childhood.

### Mal Duncan: 2003 - 2006

After a particularly brilliant science fair project, Mal earned a scholarship to Ivy University at the age of thirteen. It was there that he would study under Professors Pratt and Palmer, who would pair him with a lab partner that would change his life trajectory forever. Her name was Karen Beecher.

Mal and Karen bonded naturally. They had a mutual love for the Titans, the Justice League of America, and the whole caped crusader movement. The two shared their first kiss at a Halloween party with Mal dressed as Cyborg and Karen dressed as Starfire. (Fun Fact: Both of them had chosen their costumes specifically to capitalize on the other's hero crush)

Despite their love of heroics, Karen and Mal were unaware that their own professor was engaged in such nocturnal activities. Before Palmer made his official debut as Atom, Mal and Karen had been making their own plans to transform into heroes - creating powered suits for themselves in an old neglected workshop they discovered while clearing out old lab equipment.

When their mechanized suits were complete, just in time for summer vacation, the two drove out to Jump City. There they put on their suits with the intent to sneak into Titans Tower. They thought this would surely impress the Titans. As misguided as they were, upon carrying out their endeavor, Mal and Karen found the Tower empty as the Titans had disbanded in the wake of Tyra Markov's death. Deflated, the two packed up and drove back to Ivy U to begin the next semester.

Upon arriving in Ivy Town, Karen and Mal found their workshop occupied by Batman, Green Arrow, Black Canary, and the Atom waiting for them. The break-in at the Tower had been captured on a security camera and the JLA had promptly come to investigate. After hearing the reason for the kids' actions and having the Atom vouch for them, Black Canary talked Batman and Green Arrow into opening up the Tower for a new team which would include Karen and Malcolm as Titans - provided they could pass the rigorous testing exercises.

### Herald: 2009 - Present

Without Karen in his life, Mal crashed hard. He spent several weeks as a violent vigilante until Cyborg tracked him down. Mal was told to stand down and when he refused, Cyborg proceeded to beat Mal into submission as he systematically disabled and stripped Mal of his armor, piece by piece. At rock bottom, Mal even lunged at Cyborg in hopes that his friend would be forced to kill him. Fortunately, Vic found another solution that only required breaking Mal's collar bone.

While recovering from his injury and without his mechanized suit, Mal began to rebuild his life. He swore off heroics and focused his attention into his work. He became a freelance computer engineer whose work was so stellar, I recruited him to code a program to transcribe audio recordings of communication chatter and other audio logs I had stored on Kela. His work was so impressive, I had to recruit him into the Network.

Shortly after having picked himself out of rock bottom, Mal went on a world tour of sorts. He began exploring the world, studying its people and culture, and reminding himself there was still a whole beautiful world to love - even without Karen to share it with. On this journey of self-discovery, Mal spent the holidays with John Constantine, finally investigating his magical heritage.

Prior to leaving the home of John Constantine, Mal had a chance encounter with the archangel Gabriel, who had come to speak with Constantine on another matter. Due to a misunderstanding, Gabriel let it slip that Mal was a "prophet-in-waiting". When Mal pressed the angel for more details, Gabriel refused and vanished - forcing Mal to spend the next year tracking the archangel down.

Having combed deserts and climbed mountains, scoured cities and inquired with holy men from a dozen cultures, Mal finally learned to tap into enough of his 'prophetic power' to track down Gabriel and get an answer to his original inquiry. After a long conversation (a conversation that Mal has yet to disclose the contents of), Mal was gifted one of Gabriel's horns and offered a chance to be a different kind of herald. Mal accepted the offer and disappeared from the face of the Earth.

Mal was rarely seen again until 2013 when he appeared on Danny the Street, strolled up to Doom Manor, let himself in, and gave a very surprised Karen Beecher a passionate kiss. When the two took a pause to breathe, Mal was on his knees and sliding a ring onto Karen's finger. The two have been engaged since.

Shortly after his surprise return and sudden engagement, Mal joined the DEO as an engineer. He helped design a new inhibitor collar technology before being assigned more or less permanently as a liaison to the Doom Patrol. Mal's official job description requires him to reverse-engineer any strange technology that the Doom Patrol comes across and assess its value for DEO operations, but he also accompanies the team on many of their wacky adventures in the field.

More recently, he has begun teaching, acting as a guardian and guide to his nephew Lucius as the boy begins his own magical instruction. Though Mal would make a poor mentor to the boy, Mal is well-versed at navigating the circles of magic to help Lucius find the right mentors he needs. Mal is also more than capable of defending his nephew against the esoteric threats that may oppose them.

## Threat Assessment

### Resources

* **Homo Magi Physiology:** Mal has discovered, since becoming a hero, that he belongs to a subspecies of humanity that descend from the original inhabitants of Atlantis. As a homo magi, Mal has a natural affinity toward magic, but as he discovered this late in life much of his magical potential has adapted to empower his exceptional talents rather than sorcery.
	+ ***Alveromancy:*** Mal is a world-class vocal artist. He is the former lead singer for Great Frog. His singing alone has been proven capable of tearing subspace rifts which allow transit through dimensional barriers. He has also used his magical voice to hypnotize enemies into a deep slumber, blast holes in the walls of buildings, and overturn cars. According to Karen, he also has the ability to seduce women with the power of song alone, but that could just be Karen praising her man's sex appeal.
	+ ***Genius:*** It is quite possible that Mal's genius is magical in nature. Kaldur'ahm claims that when Mal is deep in thought it is very reminiscent of the meditative trances that Atlantean artificers engage in regularly. Whether magical or mundane, Mal is a marvel with modern machines, electronics, and computers. Mal also is a competent chemist, physicist, and mathematician. He is currently studying parapsychology in considerable depth.
	+ ***Prophecy:*** As told to him by the archangel Gabriel, Mal has the gift of prophecy but such a gift has yet to be opened within him. More or less, Mal is a prophet-in-waiting. If humanity has need of another Prophet of the Almighty, Mal may be called upon to receive such a burden - whether he wants it or not.
	+ ***Technomancy:*** Mal is a novice technomancer. He struggles with the concept of marrying his limited magical knowledge with science, but he has made considerable technomantic creations through dedication, hard work, and trial and error - a lot of trial and error.
* **World-Class Engineer:** Mal is a leading expert in a number of fields of engineering, including robotics, computer programming, sensory technology, and miniaturization. Mal's work in the field of acoustics, music, communications, and even sonic weapon design is legendary.
* **Expert Martial Artist:** Mal has trained extensively for over a decade in martial arts, honing his body into a living weapon. He has mastered the principles of several schools of close quarters combat, including boxing, kickboxing, Judo, and Tae Kwon Do. When Mal is angry, he can become incredibly dangerous as his wrath overrides his usual measured restraint, leading to him delivering overly brutal attacks.
* **Herald Suit:** Similar to Karen's Bumblebee suit but lacking the miniaturization technology and retractable wing apparatus, Mal's suit is a reinforced armor which augments his physical abilities. When in the suit, Mal can jump further, run faster, hit harder, and survive impacts which would kill a mortal man. Unlike the Bumblebee suit, Mal has integrated metals such as aurichalcum, adamant, and silver throughout his armor and filament to enhance his occult ability in addition to his physical prowess.
	+ ***Sensory Systems:*** Mal's senses are not quite attuned to the supernatural as other homo magi are and thus he relies on his suits' sensory system to make up the difference.
* **Gatekeeper:** Mal's favorite weapon is his Gatekeeper, a custom-built arcane scepter of technomantic design. A relatively simple, but effective, design - the Gatekeeper is a tall staff made of silver joined to a scepter adorned with various glyphs which can be digitally altered at the request of Mal through his voice. A gem on the scepter also serves as a sensory system, alerting Herald to the presence of a particular type of phenomena in his vicinity. Upon striking the staff to the ground and issuing the command of "You Shall Not Pass" (Mal is such a nerd), the Gatekeeper will also blanket its surrounding area in invisible warding glyphs which match those displayed digitally on the scepter - effectively creating an occult roadblock for any beings which are warded against such glyphs.
* **Horn of Gabriel:** Much like the many Swords of Michael, there are multiple occult relics known as the Horn of Gabriel. The true Horn of Gabriel is that which is in the possession of the archangel Gabriel, whether an actual horn, a trumpet, a kazoo, or a cheap party noisemaker. However, the horn in the possession of Mal Duncan was hand-crafted by Gabriel and retains much of its supernal enchantments. Using the Horn of Gabriel, Mal's alveromantic ability is enhanced considerably - particularly in regards to the destructive aspects of his power and its ability to cross dimensional barriers.
	+ ***The Call to Arms:*** The horn can also issue a 'Call to Arms' whereupon the blower of the horn can immediately summon the six other members of any Hebdomad in which they belong. The summoned allies appear on either side of the summoner. The Call to Arms is a considerably powerful effect of spatial wonder and can only be blocked by the most powerful of sorcery or cosmic power - however if any one member of the Hebdomad is unable to answer then the effect is broken and the summoning fails.
		- *Mal's Known Hebdomads:*
			* ***Great Frog:*** (Mal, Karen Beecher, Roy Harper, Jason Todd, Victor Stone, Carter Hall, Shiera Hall)
			* ***Class of Six:*** (Mal, Karen Beecher, Grant Pratt, AJ Pratt, Forager, Beatriz da Costa, Tora Olafsdotter)

### Weaknesses

* **Confidence:** Despite being quite capable on his own, Mal is less confident in his abilities as a crimefighter when he is without his armor. If caught unprepared, Mal may surrender rather than risk conflict without his equipment.
* **Karen Beecher:** Mal is extremely devoted to his fiancée. If he knows she is upset with him, it has a visible effect on his ability to focus and thus affects his combat performance drastically. If she is threatened, hurt, or captured, Mal's judgment may be severely compromised - however, I would not recommend this tactic to defeat him as Mal has demonstrated many times that he will do anything to protect Karen.
* **Pact/Geas:** Mal will not discuss the arrangement by which he received the Horn of Gabriel, other than to say he is the Herald of the Voice. It is possible that Mal is subject to a pact or geas which forbids or prevents him from discussing the details of this.
* **Vice - Wrath:** When forced into a corner or pushed to the edge, Mal can become very angry. His anger has been described as a "holy terror" to behold. This anger often reveals itself in violent outbursts. Though Mal is good about channeling his destructive rage in ways to prevent harming or frightening others most of the time now, he was known to put holes in walls when he was younger and more hot-headed. Mal hates this side of himself and will often go out of his way to avoid unnecessary stressors, which may allow him to be manipulated into situations he would otherwise avoid.

### Analytics

* **Physicality:** 3 - Trained / Exceptional (Unarmored), 5 - Master / Remarkable (Armored)
* **Occult:** 4 - Expert / Enhanced (Unarmored), 5 - Master / Remarkable (Armored)
* **Weaponry:** 4 - Expert / Enhanced (Unarmored), 5 - Master / Remarkable (Armored)
* **Expertise:** 7 - Legendary
* **Range:** 3 - Trained / Exceptional (Unarmored), 5 - Master / Remarkable (Armored), 8 - Paragon (With the Horn of Gabriel, regardless of armor)
* **Strategy:** 4 - Expert / Enhanced
	+ **TOTAL:** 90 / 120 / 205
	+ **RANKING:** Elevated Threat (Unarmored) / High Threat (Armored) / Apex Threat (With the Horn of Gabriel, regardless of armor)

## Trivia and Notes

### Trivia

* He thinks Larry Trainor's paranoia might be justified because he saw a pelican stalking him.

### Notes

* In the comics he started out as Guardian, then changed his superhero alias to Herald and Hornblower. He became Vox after destruction of the horn.
* The Gatekeeper was templated after the Lyrium-Infused Staff from the *Dragon Age: Inquisition* video game.
* The Reynolds Family are characters from *Doom Patrol, Vol. 6*.

## Gallery

Coming Soon - Male.pngHerald (Titan)Mal Duncan.jpgMal DuncanHerald.jpgHerald

## Links and References

* Appearances of Mal Duncan
* Network Files submitted by Mal Duncan

1. ↑ NFX: Mal Duncan
2. ↑ Network Files: The Pelican