Forbush Man

Forbush Man originated as an editorial in-joke devised by Marvel editor Stan Lee in 1955 to refer to an imaginary low-grade colleague who was often the butt of jokes. The character first appeared as the mascot of Marvel's parody title Not Brand Echh; his first cover appearance is cited in Not Brand Echh #1 (Aug. 1967) and his first major story appearance in Not Brand Echh #5 (Dec. 1967) — "The Origin of Forbush-Man." Within parody material he is presented as the alter-ego Irving Forbush, an office employee of the fictional 'Marble Comics' (a send-up of Marvel).

Forbush Man's standard costume is a deliberately ridiculous gag outfit: red long johns emblazoned with the letter 'F' on the chest, oversized black galoshes, and a cooking pot with eye-holes worn as a helmet. Early appearances hyphenated the name as 'Forbush-Man.' Parodic origin stories credit Auntie Mayhem slamming a cooking pot onto Irving's head, which becomes the character's trademark helmet; alternate-universe variants generally retain the cooking-pot helmet as a recognizable emblem.

Originally portrayed as having no superpowers, Forbush Man is characterized as inept and accident-prone, with victories attributed to luck rather than skill or supernatural ability. In later, clearly distinct portrayals (notably the Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. series), an incarnation of Forbush Man is depicted as able to project deadly hallucinations into others' minds; that depiction is continuity-specific and the helmet in that story is presented as a plot-device that normally blocks that power. The character's functional role across sources is comedic parody rather than a consistent supernatural power set.