A superhero of the Cincinnati food industry is hanging up his cape and tights, retiring after feeding the Queen City for nearly 50 years.

John Marx, the not-so-mild-mannered alter ego of Bagel Man and the founder of Marx Hot Bagels, sold his bakery and is retiring. The 78-year-old has been working in the baking industry since age 17 and opened Marx Hot Bagels out of a foreclosed Roselawn bagel store in September 1969.

Marx said baking and bagels weren't necessarily in his blood. It was more opportunistic than that.

"I started working at Kroger's bakery line at 17 – I lied about my age to get the job," Marx told me. "It was making a living. I had a ninth-grade education and I just took jobs I could get." Read more >