When Hawkman Was the Hottest of All

From: stephano

Categories: Muscle-Videos

Tags: arms, Biceps, Big, bill nuckols, chest, comedy, costume, delts, hawkman, muscle, pecs, superheroes, thick, traps, triceps, tv

Added: Today

I read comics as a kid, primarily the superhero books, alternating between Marvel & DC. I abandoned them in middle school, moving onto other interests and shifting my reading to real books. Still, I saw the Christopher Reeve ‘Superman’ movies, watched ‘Wonder Woman’ on TV, and was excited to see a special called ‘Legends of the Superheroes’ in the upcoming TV listings when I was in high school.

I should have known better, having seen how bad most adaptations were, especially the execrable Saturday morning ‘Shazam’ series. Even ‘Wonder Woman’ mostly sucked, with the exquisite Lynda Carter usually its only saving grace. Even watching ‘The Incredible Hulk’ was a chore as its ersatz ‘Fugitive’ storylines bored me. Of course, I knew I could count on getting two guaranteed boners out of each episode, when the eyes went green and muscles began swelling and bursting through clothing, leading up to Ferrigno hitting the inevitable ‘most-muscular’ pose.

‘Legends of the Superheroes’ was touted as if it was going to be a live-action ‘Superfriends’ featuring the whole Justice League of America, with heroes we’d only seen in cartoons until then like Green Lantern and the Flash. The first sign that things were amiss was that most of the cast was comprised of comedians. Then the laugh track became evident, clearly deemed necessary as the ‘jokes’ were especially lame in the vaudeville-like comedy style that was then dominant. Mercifully, I forget the ‘plot’, but it involved the Legion of Doom villains basically pranking the heroes with really dumb antics.

From the start, Hawkman stood out amid the mess. Despite a costume that looked like it was made from papier-mache, the guy playing him was FUCKING BUILT. And I don’t mean studly actor built, I mean legit bodybuilder BIG. My interest quickly veered away from the superhero aspect of the spectacle to salivating over this man’s deliciously swollen pecs, bulging arms and big, round delts. He only featured in a few scenes, with a smattering of lines, but I drank in every second of him and waited for his name in the credits. As he was masked, I fully expected to spot the name of a bodybuilder who might be familiar from my ‘studies’, but, no, it was Bill Nuckols, and the name meant nothing to me.

Not long thereafter, the network ran a follow-up program which was even more atrocious, centered on a ‘roast’ along the lines of those then hosted by Dean Martin. This explained why they’d cast so many comedians, and it was terrible then and excruciating now. Once again, the physique of the guy playing Hawkman redeems it from being thoroughly worthless.

I guess someone involved in the production looked at the Hawkman costume in the comics and figured that having that much skin exposed would require casting someone with considerable muscularity. I don’t think the DC artists of my childhood emphasized muscle as much as some did at Marvel, so I was pleasantly surprised to look at Hawkman in this new light. (If only the MCU had treated my muscle-crush Namor with as much care and given us the physique we needed).

This vid encompasses all the quality footage I could find of Mr. Nuckols from both specials. Appended afterward are a selection of stills, including two from a teen beach comedy he did around the same period and several from the specials. Best of all is a tasty shot of him that ‘Muscle Training Illustrated’ ran of him after they ran, showing him sans mask and giving us a closer look at his scrumptious upper body.