Tom Mayflower always believed that he was the nephew of Max Mayflower, a vaudeville performer known as “Mr. Misterioso.”  He never knew his parents, instead living with his uncle and his uncle’s assistants, Big Al, Omar and Miss Plum Blossom. Tom learned to help his uncle build devices for his show, and as time grew, he began to learn the art of the escape, despite the fact that his lame right leg would prevent him from ever performing himself. Misterioso’s show was unique in that he never left the stage during the course of the show, from illusion to illusion he would remain in the view of the audience. Much like the tight-fitting costume he wore—which was designed to ensure to the audience that he had no concealed tools--his presence on stage was designed to guarantee the purity and integrity of the act to the public.

    It was therefore of great concern to Tom, Al, and Omar when, during one performance, Max Mayflower staggered into the wings following his escape from the Oriental Water Torture tank. When the tank was wheeled backstage by the stage-hands, Omar noticed the trickle of water escaping from the tank, and followed it to the small hole in the glass of the front panel, along with the ribbon of pink liquid in the tank.

    Mysterioso shrugged off the hands of his aides and his nephew, instead telling Omar and Big Al to, “Find him,” pushing them towards the theatre. To Tom he said, “Follow me.” He brought Tom into his dressing room, and handed him another costume. “Put it on. You just have to do the coffin. And then you’re done.”

     “My leg,” Tom said, gesturing to his lame right leg. “How am I supposed to?”

    His uncle handed him a small key, gold, old-fashioned and ornate. It looked like the key to a lady’s diary or an old man’s desk. “Just keep it about you,” his uncle said. “You’ll be all right. The show must go on.”

    And so Tom went, slipping the gold key into one of the thirty-nine pockets that Miss Blossom had artfully concealed in the costume. It was not until he was on the stage that he noticed that not only had he left his crutch in his uncle’s dressing room, but that for the first time in his life, he was walking without a limp.

     Tom made it through the escape and left the stage, almost in a mental daze. When he left the stage, he found Omar there, ready to lead him to his uncle’s chamber. When they were not on the road, the company lived in apartments beneath the Palace Theatre. While there, and before he died, Max Mayflower told his ward the story of the golden key.
 
     Max had been a young, spoiled playboy before he came into the possession of the key, when he had been kidnapped. While being held, a man in white came into his cell, gave him the key, and led him to freedom. However, he reminded him that freedom was a debt that could only be repaid by purchasing the freedom of others. The man in white was shot during the escape, and he told Max, “Stop wasting your life. You have the key.”

     Max spent the next ten years looking for the lock that fit the key. He consulted with locksmiths, and ironmongers. He learned the lore of jailbreaks and fakirs, of sailor’s knots and bondage rituals. He learned from Bramah, the greatest locksmith that ever lived, and even briefly learned from Houdini himself. In the process, Max Mayflower became a master of self-liberation, but the process cost him his fortune. Pressed for money, he entered show-business, and so Mysterioso was born.

     While traveling, Max found a two-bit sideshow featuring “The Ogre,” Professor Alois Berg. Upon seeing him, Max realized that men needed to be free, and picked the locks on the cage, and “The Ogre’s” leg irons. At that time, another man in white appeared, where he explained the significance of the Key. He, and the man who freed Max from the kidnappers, belonged to an ancient society known as the League of the Golden Key. Such men roamed the world acting to procure the freedom of others, in any sense possible. They were opposed, always, by agents of the Iron Chain, whose goals were opposite and sinister. It was they who had fired the fatal shot at Max Mayflower that evening.

     Tom looked around, at the faces of his companions, and realized that each of them was there because they had been liberated by Misterioso the Great. Omar had been the slave of an African prince, while Miss Plum Blossom had toiled for years in teeming dark sweatshops. “What about me?” Tom had to ask.

     His uncle told him that he was found in an orphanage in Central Europe. “I only regret that I could save so few of you. I meant to tell you all of this, on your twenty-first birthday. But now, I charge you as I was charged. Don’t waste your life. Repay your debt of freedom. You have the key.”

     Those were the Master’s final words. Tom called the others to him, and swore to follow Mysterioso’s charge, and to oppose the Iron Chain, and any others who sought to oppress others, as The Escapist.

     Tom continued to perform for a time, with the others aiding him, while he sought out those he could assist. After a few years, he realized that the rigors of performance often kept him from places where he was most needed. He used the remnants of his uncle’s savings, along with some of his own earnings to purchase part ownership in “The Crystal Ball,” a nightclub in Metropolis along with Nicholas Slye. He continues to perform, although for the most part he is retired, eschewing performing for a crowd to being able to help those in need.