In comic books, nuclear engineering almost always goes wrong, resulting in a character gaining superhuman strength at a terrible cost to his or her soul. In Magician, Camrick Clark's, case, it seems to have worked all right.

His dad's job as a nuclear engineer took him from his birthplace in Oregon's mid-Willamette Valley, via an indirect path, to the farmlands of Iowa and back again. While he seems to have gained superhuman strength along the way, so far the price to his soul seems minimal.

Camrick helped start a computer recycling program at the nonprofit housing company he worked for when he was 14. He launched a web design division at 17, and by 20, he'd become web master for a $26-million-a-year company. Then, he graduated to working for Apple.

Superhuman strength? Technological savvy? Insatiable ambition? On second thought, maybe he didn't turn out all right after all.