| Miles Mando | |
|---|---|
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| Miles Mando as Purple Heart in Radioactive Man 80 pg. Colossal. | |
Character Information
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| Real Name | Miles Mando |
| Group Affiliation(s) | Superior Squad |
| Powers | Above-Average Strength
Stamina Durability Uses Unbreakable Steel Shield |
Miles Mando is a fictional character, a member of the Superior Squad who has fought for justice under numerous monikers. He resembles Captain America (especially due to his signature shield).
Fictional Biography[]
As president and CEO of Mando Industries, Miles Mando uses his vast wealth to finance the Superior Squad, possibly an extension of his enormous ego. However, to his own chagrin, he does not lead the team; Radioactive Man does.
Mando debuted as Purple Heart in Nazi Smasher Funnies #4 in April 1942. In keeping with the meaning of the real-life Purple Heart as a decoration for wounded or killed soldiers, Purple Heart almost always appears on-panel with some kind of injury and wearing some kind of medical equipment (e.g. a neck brace, an arm sling).[1] After the US military threatened Mando with several cease-and-desist letters, he changed his name to Purple Badge of Courage[2] and later Brave Heart.[3] (This may have a basis in reality. When Bongo Comics made Radioactive Man comics available online via the Simpsons Store, they retroactively replaced “Purple Heart” with “Brave Heart.”)
As Purple Badge of Courage, at one point, Miles had to face his father, whom Miles believed had died. In fact, the father remained alive and tried to kill Miles. Miles somehow survived.[4]
Bleeding Heart as he appears in Radioactive Man #216, an appearance that parodied Green Lantern #76.
As Purple Heart, Mando adhered to a staunchly conservative mindset, like his teammate Radioactive Man. He worked with the National Intelligence Agency on a number of covert operations; he may have even financed Cuba's Escambray rebellion.[5] During the Vietnam War, Mando Industries had the #1 arms manufacturing position. Mando so outstripped his competitors that they eventually colluded to drive him out of business, leaving Mando broke.
In the wake of the loss of his fortune, he retooled his costume and rechristened himself as pseudo-liberal hero Bleeding Heart, changing his outward political views but not his smugness or preachiness. This spoofed Dennis O'Neil's famous Green Lantern/Green Arrow run, with Green Lantern and Green Arrow parodied respectively by Radioactive Man and Bleeding Heart.[6]
Mando would later regain his fortune by opening a chain of disco kung fu schools.[7] In the next decade, he adopted an anti-government, conspiracy theorist stance and again remade himself as Heart of Darkness (a reference to the Joseph Conrad novella). Although he often slides into paranoid ranting, he correctly deduces that Richard Nixon and then-president Ronald Reagan want to undermine the credibility of superheroes and either kill them or disillusion them into retiring.[8]
In 1995, a fake-eyelash tycoon bought out Mando Industries and, consequently, the Superior Squad. Mando took most of the Superior Squad and reformed them as a hero-owned superhero group (a loose parody of the founding of Image Comics), renaming himself Bloody Heart.[9]
Powers[]
Aside from his vast wealth, Miles Mando has no superpowers, but he does have above-average strength.[1] As Purple Heart, he has gone into battle carrying a shield. Its effectiveness remains a mystery, especially since he usually gets injured.