King Man

Magic Man (also known as Mysterious Man) is a recurring character in the series Adventure Time. He is a Martian who was banished to Earth 200 years before the series. Magic Man is the main antagonist of the episodes "Freak City," "Sons of Mars," and "Time Sandwich."

Background
He was banished to Earth by Grob Gob Glob Grod for his crimes against the inhabitants of Mars. Instead of turning his life around as they planned, he acted like a jerk for 200 years. According to Abraham Lincoln, Magic Man could have returned to Mars any time he wanted via the Martian transporter if he had just learned to value other people again, but he instead chose to be a jerk to the people of Ooo. He lives in a filthy house that Finn theorizes represents his chaotic, tormented psyche, where he previously kept a Tiny Manticore in a bottle. In the episode Magic Man holds up a picture with him and Margles together.

Abraham Lincoln mentions that Magic Man used to be "really cool" until the night that he and Margles spent on, the largest mountain/volcano on Mars and in the solar system. This event was depicted in Jesse Moynihan's promotional artwork for the episode "Sons of Mars." That tragedy may have caused Magic Man's behavior to change dramatically. At one point, Magic Man claims that his transporter (which works by thinking of a loved one) has been broken for 200 years, but seeing as Finn was able to use the Martian transporter by thinking about Jake, it seems Magic Man has neglected to form any emotional attachments since Margles' death.

Major Appearances

 * "Freak City"
 * "Sons of Mars"
 * "Time Sandwich"
 * "Food Chain"

Minor Appearances

 * "All the Little People"
 * "The Prince Who Wanted Everything" (his gender-swapped version)

Episode roles
In "Freak City," he poses as a homeless man to travelers, begging for food. If someone gives anything to him, he will do them "a mystical magical favor" in return by turning them into mutated freaks resembling body parts. He is a gaudy and jolly soul out to teach a "magical life lesson": that he is a jerk. Magic Man winds up turning Finn into a giant foot, which makes him depressed. Despite Jake's urges for him to remain a foot, Finn overcomes his depression in the end and helps the other freaks beat him up. Magic Man taunts the freaks to make them riddle out the lesson he wishes to teach them as he does battle with them. Finn thought it was a message on teamwork, confidence, or charity. In reality, Magic Man has committed this condition upon them solely to make them appreciate the extent of his apathy. He returns the freaks to their normal selves after Finn states that he should have never helped Magic Man. Magic Man teleports away in the end to find more "sissy do-gooders" to transform into freaks.

He returns in the episode "Sons of Mars." He is followed by Grob Gob Glob Grod to arrest him for his past crimes on Mars; however, he morphs Jake's body into his own and morphs his own body into Jake's to avoid Grob Gob Glob Grod and let them arrest Jake in his stead. After Finn demands that he take them to Mars, Magic Man takes him to his house, where he shows Finn his machine. After Jake dies, the rest of Magic Man's magic returns to him, and he proclaims that he has won. However, then Abraham Lincoln trades his immortality for Jake's life. After Finn and Jake return to Earth, Finn punches Magic Man in the face and frees his pet Tiny Manticore for revenge.

He appears briefly in "All the Little People" first on the title card, where he appears to be creating the miniature toys. He appears again while Finn and Jake sit on a cliff, peering out at them from a hole. He then sneaks the bag of toys in the back of Finn's pants before leaving, stating, "I'm not coming back," the same thing Finn says later in the episode while talking to the tiny people in the bag of toys. He promptly retreats back into the hole.

In "Time Sandwich," he traumatizes Jake by stealing his delicious sandwich and tells Jake the only way to get the sandwich back is to decipher his riddle:

When your face shows 7:20,

When green leaves turn brown,

The only way forward is down.

Then, you'll see, the wetter, the better. Which Jake complains is more like word play than a riddle. After this he puts himself in a time bubble to slow down the experience of eating it. After many false starts, Jake and friends finally smash the bubble, resulting in Magic Man being walloped by Jake, blown up by Princess Bubblegum, falling into the ground at normal speed, being pounded by Marceline (in demon form), and run over by BMO on its skateboard.

In the non-canon episode "Food Chain," Magic Man is seen sneaking behind Finn and Jake while they are discussing the food chain at the beginning of the episode. After Finn and Jake watch Princess Bubblegum teach the Candy Children about the food chain and head to the snack bar, Magic Man appears behind the two without them knowing and transforms them into birds, making them go through the food chain. After a big bird appears and tries to attack Finn, Magic Man turns Finn into a big bird. At the end of the episode, after Finn sings the song "Food Chain," Magic Man can be seen in the background laughing.

In the episode "The Prince Who Wanted Everything," Magic Man's gender-swapped counterpart, Magic Woman, makes a cameo appearance.

Appearance
Magic Man is a Martian who has green skin and wears tattered yellow clothes and a matching yellow wizard hat. He also wears mismatched boots, one purple and the other red. His eyes are white, like the Ice King's eyes. He wears a red backpack with orange and green straps; the backpack has a rolled up pink blanket on top of it. He also has a pouch strapped to his leg. While disguised as a beggar, he covers himself with a tattered brown blanket that hides his features. He is one of few characters with a nose. Magic Man is smiling constantly when not in his beggar outfit. When he turns a bird inside out in "Freak City," it is revealed that his skin is uneven.

Abilities
The Magic Man possesses a large amount of power. He has demonstrated the ability to teleport and transform objects and creatures with ease. In "All the Little People," he seems to reveal that he has the ability to bestow sentience upon inanimate objects. Magic Man is never seen making taking aggressive action or fighting, but he seems to be adept at defending himself in combat. He protected himself from Gork's lava blasts by conjuring portals and redirecting it behind him. He also was able to quickly recover from being punched and launched a great distance by Zap, making a perfect landing. When he changes the freaks back to normal form he appears to do nothing but lightly clap his hands, suggesting it took little effort. In light of how carefree he was about the fight, it is likely the Super Freak wasn't really a challenging opponent for him. As seen in "Sons of Mars," it is possible to use the same sound that he says before teleporting through the firework void in order to make copies of himself. Although he prefers simply to tease and taunt Finn and Jake, Magic Man could easily pose as the biggest threat the duo have faced, as he seems to leave pure chaos in his wake, not thinking twice about turning Finn into a foot or Jake into himself, along with letting Jake die for his crimes on Mars.

Songs

 * "A Mystical Magical Favor"
 * "C'mon, Let's Go To My House"
 * "Memory song"

Quotes
See Magic Man/Quotes

Grob Gob Glob Grod
Grob Gob Glob Grod are Magic Man's older siblings. They banished him to Earth 200 years before the episode "Sons of Mars" for several crimes against the Martians. Although they express enmity towards him, Grob Gob Glob Grod still respect him as a brother; this is shown when Finn and Jake offer to go after Magic Man and Grob Gob Glob Grod responds "I don't want to lose my brother."

Trivia

 * In an interview with the creators of the show it was said that Magic Man was originally planned to be the guardian of the Dead World testing people to see if they were worthy to be sent there. However, this idea was scrapped.
 * Magic Man is also the main antagonist in the Cartoon Network game Jake's Tough Break, where he casts a spell to make Jake's limbs and head fall off.
 * Magic Man was originally going to appear in the episode "Ghost Princess" according to Jesse Moynihan.
 * In "Sons of Mars," whenever there is a close up on his hands he appears to have five fingers, where other times he has only four, even when he is morphed as Jake.
 * The reason Magic Man is such a jerk might be that someone he cared a lot about, Margles, fell off the mountain, as seen in the "Sons of Mars" promo art.
 * Abraham Lincoln actually states, "I remember when you were really cool. Before that night you spent on Olympus Mons with Margles." This is an actual Martian mountain, and the tallest known mountain in our Solar System.


 * In "Sons of Mars" Magic Man sings a short song while in Jake's form, with the line "...And the little people get left behind." This line is alluded to by the title of the episode "All the Little People."
 * The hole that Magic Man emerges from in "All The Little People" bears a striking resemblance to the hole that Ice King, Neptr, Tree Trunks, Shelby, and Lemongrab exit in "Mystery Dungeon."
 * The quote "Do what thoust will be the whole piece of law." that Magic Man utters in "All The Little People" is based on Aleister Crowley's Law of Thelema, which is "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law."
 * Magic Man appears and is the main antagonist in Issue 15 of the Adventure Time comics.
 * Magic Man is Jesse Moynihan's favorite character in the series.
 * Magic Man's gender swapped counterpart, Magic Woman makes a cameo appearance in "The Prince Who Wanted Everything."