TOM FAGAN

Real Name: Thomas Fagan

Identity/Class: Human (real life character) (World War II to modern era)

Occupation: Journalist, organizer of the annual Rutland, Vermont Halloween parade

Group Membership: 

Affiliations: The Avengers (Black Panther/T'Challa, Captain America/Steve Rogers, Iron Man/Tony Stark, Mantis/Brandt, Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff, Swordsman/Jacques Duquesne, Thor/Thor Odinson, Vision/"Victor Shade"), Bunker, Gerry Conway, Diablo (dog), Steve Englehart, Dr. T.W. Erwin, Goliath (Clint Barton), Nick Marro, Hank McCoy, Quicksilver (Pietro Maximoff), Satan (dog), Jeanie Thomas, Roy Thomas, Glynis Wein, Len Wein

Enemies: Absorbing Man (Carl Creel), the Collector (Taneleer Tivan), Juggernaut (Cain Marko), Loki (Loki Laufeyson), the Masters of Evil (Klaw/Ulysses Klaw, Melter/Bruno Horgan, Radioactive Man/Chen Lu, Whirlwind/David Cannon)

Known Relatives: Deana Fagan (daughter)

Aliases: "Good Stranger," "Kindly Sir" (called by Loki), "Mr. Halloween"

Base of Operations: The Clement House, Rutland, Vermont,  USA

First Appearance: (in a Marvel Comic) Avengers I#83 (December, 1970)

Powers/Abilities: Tom Fagan had no superhuman powers, though he was an extremely skilled parade and party organizer. He had a penchant for fun, be it from jokes, his own Halloween parade and party or the fun of comic books.

    He was also an experienced newspaper reporter, especially in local politics and crime stories.

Height: Unrevealed (see comments)
Weight: Unrevealed (see comments)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Gray (formerly brown or blonde)

History:
(Avengers, Thor & Captain America: Official Index to the Marvel Universe#4 - Thor#207 entry - BTS) - Tom Fagan was born in 1932.

(real life) - At one point as a young man, the fun-loving Tom Fagan hung 25 feet off the Pine Street overpass to spray paint "Welcome to Happy Valley" on the entrance to Rutland, Vermont's southwest neighborhood while his friend Nick Marro watched for police.

(Avengers, Thor & Captain America: Official Index to the Marvel Universe#4 - Thor#207 entry - BTS) - As an adult, Tom became a journalist in Rutland, Vermont. He eventually helped to start Rutland's annual Halloween parade in 1959.

(Avengers I#83 (fb) - BTS) - Tom Fagan was a coordinator for the Rutland, Vermont annual Halloween parade. He lived in an old mansion [The Clement House, a former governor's mansion] for several years and hosted an annual Halloween party there.

(real life) - At some point, Tom fathered a daughter, Deana, who was named after James Dean, an idol of Tom Fagan's.

(Avengers, Thor & Captain America: Official Index to the Marvel Universe#4 - Thor#207 entry - BTS) - As the principal force behind the Halloween parade, Tom Fagan was also responsible for the parade's penchant for superhero costume, himself often wearing a Batman costume. Over the years, a number of comic book creators visited Tom's Halloween parade.

(Avengers I#83 (fb) - BTS) - Tom invited the Avengers to the 11th Annual Rutland Parade. He also invited a number of comic creators, including Roy and Jeanie Thomas.

(Avengers I#83) - When the Avengers arrived at Tom Fagan's mansion, where his Halloween party had already begun, the Vision phased through the door to unlock it, tipping Tom off to the Avengers' arrival. After announcing the Avengers, Tom quickly put on his glasses and introduced himself to the Avengers and when the Vision questioned why Tom was dressed as the supervillain Nighthawk, Tom remarked that Nighthawk was a creature of the night, which seemed to fit the spooky Halloween theme. Tom then introduced the Avengers to the visiting Roy and Jeanie Thomas, who were dressed as Spider-Man and the Invisible Girl, respectively. The Black Panther then admitted that they had not arrived for social reasons but rather, to investigate a kidnapping plot, at which point Tom suggested they get moving for the Halloween parade so the Avengers could ride on the parade float to keep their eyes peeled for clues regarding the potential kidnapping. As they exited Tom's mansion, Tom asked if the giant Goliath would mind walking in the parade due to his size. A short time later, Tom joined in the parade alongside the Avengers and special guest Dr. T.W. Erwin but not long into the parade, the Masters of Evil boarded Tom's parade float despite Tom's polite objections. When the villains surrounded Tom, he nervously commented that he could get off the float. The Avengers soon noticed the Masters of Evil boarding Tom's float and they, the arriving Lady Liberators group and the Masters of Evil fought in the streets of Rutland.

(Marvel Feature I#2) - Tom Fagan was working with Rutland, Vermont residents on the floats for the next night's 12th Annual Halloween Parade when Roy and Jeanie Thomas arrived from the city. When Tom suggested the Thomases grab a couple of hammers to assist, Roy and Jean mentioned being curious about scarlet colored lights on Bald Mountain just outside of Rutland. Tom then proceeded to dramatically give the backstory on Bald Mountain and its mysterious red lights before commenting that he planned to stay away from Bald Mountain. When he asked if the Thomases had any other questions, Roy and Jean Thomas replied that they did not. Later that evening, Tom spoke with the Thomases again, noting that while the Avengers had showed up to the previous year's Halloween parade, they had decided on a more peaceful procession this year with comics fans dressed as superheroes rather than actual superheroes. When he remarked that it should be fairly peaceful unless the red lights the Thomases had asked about would bring forth some sort of deviltry, Jeanie Thomas suggested the possibility that the red lights had dissipated until Halloween night. Tom joked that if that were true, the Thomases could possibly have a great story to take with them back to "civilization."

(Thor I#207 (fb) - BTS) - At one point, Tom owned two dogs, Satan and Diablo.Months later, as the next All Hallow's Eve approached, Tom Fagan invited comic creators Len and Glynis Wein, Steve Englehart and Gerry Conway to be guests at his annual Halloween party.

(Thor I#206) - Days before the party, the imperiled Asgardian god Loki stumbled up to Tom Fagan's mansion home in the hills of Rutland and when Fagan's dogs Diablo and Satan began barking madly, Fagan opened the door to see what had stirred up the dogs. Accusing the dogs of driving away the only person that had paid a visit in three months, Fagan ordered the dogs back and asked if there was anything he could do for the man. When Loki mentioned having lost his way, the friendly Tom Fagan joked that the city of Rutland wasn't exactly off the beaten path and noted that some people would be dropping into town in a few days for a party. Fagan then offered Loki some food and the trickster god thanked Fagan for his hospitality, assuring Fagan that he would be rewarded handsomely. Once regaining his senses, Loki summoned the criminal Absorbing Man to Tom Fagan's home and when the Absorbing Man arrived, Loki opened the terrified Fagan's door to greet the Absorbing Man and began plotting.

(Thor I#207 (fb) - BTS) - During the party, Loki took control of Tom.

(Thor I#207) - Steve Englehart, Gerry Conway, Len and Glynis Wein arrived in Rutland during the Halloween parade and when Len mentioned being tense, Gerry jokingly suggested Len not get violent, as Tom Fagan was still expecting them. The foursome eventually made their way to Tom's mansion in Steve Englehart's barely-running car.

(Amazing Adventures II#16 - BTS) - After encountering the Beast along the way to Tom Fagan's Halloween party, Steve, Gerry, Len and Glynis were met on the road by Hank McCoy (secretly the Beast himself) and his girlfriend Vera Cantor, whom they gave a ride to. After dropping Hank and Vera off in downtown Rutland, the four comic professionals informed Hank and Vera that they were heading over to Tom Fagan's house, noting that they would invite Hank and Vera to the Halloween party if the party wasn't invitation-only.

(Thor I#207) - When the foursome arrived at Tom's house and walked their way to the front door, a frazzled-looking Tom Fagan, again in his Nighthawk costume, greeted them. Noticing that Tom appeared to be acting strangely, Gerry Conway asked if anything was wrong. Claiming the light was bothering him, Tom invited them all inside and commented that everyone was getting ready to head over to the Halloween parade. While the comic creators discussed how strange Tom was acting, Tom reported back to Loki, who asked if his arrangements were made. The mentally-controlled Tom assured Loki that all was as he had commanded and Loki remarked that they now need only wait for Thor to follow the Absorbing Man's trail to Tom Fagan's home.

(Amazing Adventures II#16 - BTS) - While checking out Tom's house, Steve, Gerry, Len and Glynis managed to get an invitation to Tom's Halloween party for Hank McCoy and Vera Cantor and when the foursome later encountered Hank and Vera at the Halloween parade, they informed them of the invites to Tom's party but Hank and Vera declined, stating that they had to be going.

(Thor I#207) - As Loki planned, Thor indeed tracked the Absorbing Man to Tom Fagan's house and after defeating him, was attacked by Loki, who sent Fagan's dogs Satan and Diablo to kill Thor. During the battle, Loki had Thor look upon Tom Fagan and the other partygoers, noting that their souls would power Loki's victory. As Thor continued to fight Loki, Loki's control over Tom Fagan seemingly faded.

(Amazing Adventures II#16) - While escaping the attacking Juggernaut, the Beast donned his Hank McCoy outfit and arrived at Tom Fagan's Halloween party. Tom happily greeted Hank and introduced himself as he bade Hank to come inside. The pursuing Juggernaut soon crashed Tom's post-parade party and almost stole a car while subsequently fleeing.

(Avengers I#119 (fb) - BTS) - In a later year, Tom Fagan was taking a constitutional after working all day on his Halloween party and the cosmic Collector, anticipating the Avengers appearing in Rutland, hit Tom over the head and tied him up, leaving him in the woods.

(Avengers I#119) - When the Avengers indeed arrived in Rutland, the Collector impersonated Tom to lure some of the Avengers into a trap while Swordsman and Mantis discovered the real Tom in the woods. Swordsman had Mantis cut Tom free before summoning his teammates Vision and Scarlet Witch to determine how Tom could be tied up when they had seemingly just encountered him in town. A short time later, Vision had Tom recount how he had been hit over the head during a walk and Tom admitted that he should have expected that a supervillain might see Rutland as a perfect place for a trap. When Tom apologized, Vision assured Tom that he needn't be sorry for providing Halloween entertainment for adults and children alike. Vision then decided to pay back the culprit responsible for perverting the Halloween fun and he had Tom lure all of his Halloween party attendees back to his house, where they crowded the Collector, amazed at his "costume." Fleeing from Tom Fagan's Halloween partygoers, the Collector ran right into and was stopped by the Avengers.

(Thor I#232 (fb) - BTS) - A boy at Tom Fagan's Halloween party was entranced and transformed into a facsimile of the Asgardian god Loki.

(Avengers I#119) - Refusing to accept defeat, the Collector unleashed a large swarm of vampire bats in Tom's house and they flew out into Rutland. Iron Man managed to emit an ultra-sonic pulse that incapacitated the bats and after the Avengers corralled the Collector, Tom Fagan heartily thanked the Avengers for their assistance and asked if he could offer anything else besides a parade. Thor came up with a suggestion and when Tom said Thor could name it, an apparently brain-damaged Loki (secretly not the true Loki but the transformed Bunker) was placed in Fagan's care. Setting Loki in a cabin in the Vermont Mountains, Tom assured Thor that the Rutland townspeople would help look after "Loki."

(Thor I#232 (fb) - BTS) - Tom Fagan began regularly contacting Avengers Mansion to give them progress reports on "Loki." One morning, Tom arrived to bring "Loki" breakfast, only to find the boy Bunker in Loki's clothing with no memories following falling asleep at Tom's last Halloween party. Since Bunker had been missing for some time, Tom was held by the police on kidnapping charges.

(Thor I#232) - Tom used his phone call to contact the Avengers and, reaching Iron Man, Tom explained what had happened with Loki, Bunker and himself. Iron Man assured Tom that the Avengers would clear up everything with the authorities and when Tom if they would next need to find out what happened to the real Loki, Iron Man suggested Tom let the Avengers handle that part of the situation before asking Tom to sit tight.

(Avengers, Thor & Captain America: Official Index to the Marvel Universe#4 - Thor#207 entry - BTS) - Tom Fagan died in 2008.

Comments: Adapted into Marvel Comics by Roy Thomas, John Buscema and Tom Palmer.

    This profile was originally a subprofile that was part of the much larger Rutland, Vermont profile written by Appendix writer SQUEAK, which had later been updated by fellow Appendix writers Markus Raymond, Ron Fredricks and Loki. I tried to include as much of the original text and images from Tom Fagan's subprofile while fleshing it out into a full profile and covering everything from the individual issues featuring Fagan. As such, I credited SQUEAK as co-writer of this profile since he wrote the original subprofile.

    This profile is only meant to cover Tom Fagan's Earth-616 appearances but he also appeared in comics from other companies! Some of those appearances are detailed in the Appendix profile on Rutland, Vermont itself!

    I couldn't find any info on the real Tom Fagan's height and weight so I left in unrevealed in this profile.

    Rutland, Vermont, is noted in comics circles for a series of annual Halloween parades held there. In the 1970s, organizer Tom Fagan (real life Tom seen to the right) began giving it a super-hero theme, and several comics creators would attend the parade and subsequent parties. This became something of a comics legend after it was written into comic books from a number of companies, notably Marvel and DC, but also Whitman, Charlton, and WaRP Graphics. Tom continued to organize the parade for decades and even after he stepped down from planning, he remained an occasional guest and even sat with the judges at the parade two years prior to the death.

    According to Alter Ego articles, Tom Fagan wrote numerous articles and letters for the Batman titles in the 1960s promoting the parade, and many of these were printed. One such text piece was in Detective Comics#327. --Per Degaton

    For the continuity-centric, you may want to consider the parade numbers to be topical (or maybe they were really semi-annual?). It may not be possible for that many Halloween parades to have happened in that spread of issues. John McDonagh points out that George Olshevsky theorizes that the Marvel Feature and Thor/Amazing Adventures stories all had to take place in the same year in his Official Marvel Index to the X-Men#4 (November, 1987).

    There's apparently an article on Fagan's 1973 party in an issue of Penthouse, though I haven't seen that.

    So, no Tom Fagan in Dr. Spektor? Not so fast -- apparently they feared some sort of legal troubles if they used Tom as they planned. Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist includes characters Fagan and Bill Sykes, and in this comic we have a Thomas Sikes instead of Tom Fagan. Sneaky...

    It should be clearly stated that Earth-616's Tom Fagan is based upon a real Tom Fagan who organized these parades in the 1970s. The real Fagan traditionally dressed as Batman, but on Earth-616 he dressed as Nighthawk. Mr. Fagan passed away on October 21st, 2008; a very nice retrospective/obituary was published in the Rutland Herald.

    This profile was completed on 09/21/2026 but its publication was delayed, as it was intended for the Appendix's 25th anniversary celebratory event (shame I couldn't have waited to post it on All Hallow's Eve)!

Profile by Proto-Man and SQUEAK.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Tom Fagan should be distinguished from:

• FAGAN'S MOB - New Orleans criminal gang that included the young Remy LeBeau, once fought a pack of vampires in Metairie Cemetery--Gambit III#1
• other "Tom" or "Fagan" characters, groups, items, races or events
  

Appearances:
Avengers I#83 (December, 1970) - Roy Thomas (writer), John Buscema (pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), Stan Lee (editor)
Marvel Feature I#2 (March, 1972) - "Nightmare on Bald Mountain!" story - Roy Thomas (writer), Ross Andru (art), Stan Lee (editor)
Thor I#206 (December, 1972) - Gerry Conway (writer), John Buscema (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Thor I#207 (January, 1973) - Gerry Conway (writer), John Buscema (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Amazing Adventures II#16 (January, 1973) - Steve Englehart (writer), Bob Brown (pencils), Frank McLaughlin (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Avengers I#119 (January, 1974) - Steve Englehart (writer), Bob Brown (pencils), Don Heck (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Thor I#232 (February, 1975) - Gerry Conway (writer), John Buscema, Dick Giordano (art), Roy Thomas (editor)
Avengers, Thor & Captain America: Official Index to the Marvel Universe#4 (September, 2010) - Daron Jensen, Al Sjoerdsma, Stuart Vandal (head writers, coordinators), Chris Buchner, Paul Bourcier, Ronald Byrd, Russ Chappell, Michael Hoskin, Chris McCarver, Sean McQuaid, Jacob Rougemont, Robert J. Sodaro, Kevin Wasser (writers), Jeff Youngquist (editor)

First posted: 09/27/2026
Last updated: 09/21/2026

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™  and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com

Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!

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