Grey Gargoyle

Paul Pierre Duval, a young chemist working for a pharmaceutical company in Paris, accidentally spilled a potion contaminated by some unknown organic substance on his right hand. To his dismay, his hand began to turn to stone-like material still capable of movement. Accidentally touching his other hand, he found that he could transform his entire body into the stone-like material. He also discovered that any matter he touched also turned to stone. Mercenary by nature, Duval decided to exploit his bizarre power for personal profit and turned to theft, quickly becoming one of France’s most accomplished criminals as the Grey Gargoyle.

The Grey Gargoyle, bored with lack of challenge to his crimes, decided to travel to America and wrest the secret of immortality from Thor. He was twice bested in combat by him before returning to what had proved more successful in the past-- pure mercenary endeavors. His first attempt was to steal a new cobalt-powered weapon from Stark Industries, and he was actually successful after transforming Iron Man’s battle armor to stone. Iron Man returned when the Gargoyle’s power wore off, stopping the villain by destroying the machinery he hoped to abscond with. Later, an attempted to acquire the deadly compound dubbed "Element X" went horribly wrong. He was confronted by Captain America, the Falcon, and Nick Fury, cornered, and accidentally shot into space.

The Gargoyle found himself trapped aboard a satellite in Earth’s orbit, where the subversive scientific organization Advanced Idea Mechanics rescued him. On their behalf, he joined their efforts to launch a satellite with heavy weaponry, fighting Captain America and Spider-Man, but was accidentally rocketed into space once more. In deep space, he was retrieved by the Bird of Prey, a pirate starship whose crew members were of various alien races. Ever out for himself, the Grey Gargoyle forced himself into command of the ship.

The Bird of Prey encountered the starship StarJammer, used by Thor, Sif, and the Warriors Three in their adventure to the Doomsday Star. The Gargoyle had the heroes captured and conscripted to join the crew for slave labor. The heroes’ ally, the Recorder, not only helped his friends escape but started a mutiny among the crew against the Grey Gargoyle. When the rebellion grew out of control, the Grey Gargoyle professed to want to join Thor in order to return to Earth. However, at the height of the battle, the Gargoyle tried to flee and seemed to have died in a violent explosion.

\In fact, Duval survived by created a stone-like cocoon around himself. Using the cocoon to travel through space, he managed to return to Earth, where he immediately battled the Avengers. In the process, his cocoon was destroyed, and he was taken into police custody. Duval was soon freed by villains of the fourth Masters of Evil organization, whose goal was to destroy the Avengers, but following a defeat at the hands of the Wasp and Black Knight, he was again returned to jail.

Kree

The Kree is an extraterrestrial humanoid race who have created a vast empire in the Greater Magellanic Cloud and have, on certain occasions, trafficked with the beings of Earth. The Kree race began on the planet Hala in the Pama system long before the first mammals appeared on Earth. The original Kree had blue-colored skin (later generations interbred with genetically-compatible aliens to produce the pink-skinned second race). Outwardly humanoid to a large degree, Kree bodies are adapted to environmental characteristics on Hala that are un-Earth-like: notably, higher gravity and higher nitrogen content in the atmosphere. Although the Kree cannot breathe Earth’s atmosphere without special apparatus, their denser bodies afford them about twice the average human being’s strength and endurance. Despite their physical superiority and relatively advanced technology, the Kree race has reached the pinnacle of their evolutionary development.

The Kree Empire extends across thousand worlds in the northwestern lobe (Earth reference) of the Greater Magellanic Cloud. The Kree began their empire over a million years ago, within 100 years of acquisition of interstellar technology from then-benevolent race of Skrulls. The Skrulls at the time were attempting to foster a galactic empire based on free trade, and they landed on Hala to help the barbaric natives advance to the point where they could join. Finding that Hala boasted two equally intelligent life forms, the humanoid Kree and plant-like Cotati, the Skrulls proposed a test to determine the worthier race. Enraged that the Skrulls chose the Cotati as superior, the Kree slew the Skrull ambassador and seized the starship and its attendant technology. Mastering it within two generations, the Kree began to attack the Skrulls, thus beginning their now eons-old Kree-Skrull War.

Though Hala is the planet of the Kree’s origin, the planet Kree-Lar in the Turunal system is the capital of the Kree Empire as well as the seat of the government. The Kree Empire is ruled as a militaristic dictatorship. The permanent ruler is the organic computer-construct called the Supreme Intelligence, an immense computer system to which the preserved brains of the greatest intellects of the Kree race have been linked. Aiding the Supreme Intelligence is a number if imperial administrators on Kree-Lar, appointed governors of each of the member-worlds, and a vast standing space militia. The Empire also employs powerful automatons called Sentries to keep member-worlds under surveillance, such as Sentry 459, which guarded an outpost on Earth before the Fantastic Four stumbled upon it and inadvertently destroyed the island and its guardian.

Although Earth is in a different galaxy from the Kree Empire, the Kree have become aware of the small planet and have frequented it and its solar system over eons. The Kree first learned of Earth from the Skrulls who deposited them and the Cotati on Earth’s moon for the test of worthiness (the Kree built a city in the Blue Area of the Moon). Once the Kree-Skrull War began, the Kree deposited a Sentry and a weapon depot on the planet Uranus, hoping to maintain a strategic site near one of the Skrulls’ known intergalactic space-wrap routing access-points. When the human race began the Kree learned of the vast genetic potential in the Earth’s dominant life form, and created an evolutionary-accelerated tribe of humanity called the Inhumans. Despite frequent surveillance, the official policy of the Kree government is that Earth is minor, limited-potential planet of little importance. The upper echelons are aware of the truth, however: not only is Earth is a strategic military position, but its denizens possesses the genetic potential to be a serious threat to the already-decaying Kree Empire and race.

Celestials

The Celestials are a star-faring race of humanoid aliens who possess untold cosmic power. Standing two thousand feet tall, the Celestials are clad in full body armor. No Earth being has ever seen what they look like beneath their armor or knows their origin.

What is known is that they have visited the Earth at four different periods in the Earth's past, each time altering the course of history. The first Celestial Host came to Earth approximately one million years ago to perform genetic tests and experimentation on Earth's highest lifeform, the nascent human being. Testing the versatility of human genes, the First Host created two sub-species of humanity, the Eternals and the Deviants. Their sole legacy to the mainstream human race was the implantation of a dormant DNA complex which would one day permit benevolent mutations.

The Second Celestial Host came to Earth approximately twenty-five thousand years ago to inspect the results of their first visit. Finding the direction of Deviants technology counter-productive, the Celestials destroyed the Deviants' major stronghold, Lemuria. Repercussions of that destruction caused tectonic plate shifting that eventually contributed to the sinking of the continent of Atlantis.

The Third Celestial Host arrived on Earth one thousand years ago to inspect the progress of the human race. Their landing site was arranged by the Eternals working in conjunction with the Incas of Peru. The Third Host was met by a contingent of Earth's mythological gods, including Odin of the Asgardians and Zeus of the Olympians, who challenged the Celestials' right to interfere in Earth's affairs. The outcome of that encounter was that all of the major races of gods swore to forego their active involvement in the destiny of mankind.

The Fourth Celestial Host arrived in recent years in order to judge mankind's worthiness now that the dormant DNA complex for benevolent mutations had become activated by the worldwide increase in radiation levels. The Celestials deemed humanity fit to survive. A group of twelve human beings representing the great accomplishments of mankind accompanied the Celestials when they left Earth.

It is not known how many Celestials there are in existence. Even the number of Celestials on Earth in the Fourth Host is a mystery. Nine were known by name and function, others were glimpsed but not identified. The Fourth Host was led by the Celestial known only as The One Above All, who remained aboard the orbiting mother ship during the entire stay on Earth. The head of the landing party was Arishem.

However, it is known that the Celestials have visited many other worlds in order to perform genetic experimentation. For example, the Skrulls are known to be a result of Celestial experimentation. The Celestials have returned to judge many of these worlds, and Earth is apparently the only one of these that they judged favorably and hence did not destroy for posing a potential menace to the universe.

There have only been indications of the full scope of the Celestials' power. Each member of the Fourth Host withstood a full frontal attack by the collective power of the Eternals and the Asgardians. Arishem has been shown to have sufficient power to permanently seal dimensional portals to the godly realms. The Celestials are not indestructible, however. During the Third Host, the Celestials used their combined might to slay one of their brethren for breach of conduct.

Another indication of the Celestials' power is that when the Fourth Host left Earth, they eradicated all evidence of their recent and past presence from the minds and records of mortal men. Only the Eternals, Deviants, dimensional gods of Earth, and a handful of human beings are now aware of their existence and remember the nature of their visits.

Destroyer

Long ago, the alien race of beings called the Celestials conducted genetic experiments on humanity of the planet Earth. The gods that looked after the Earth knew that with the Celestials eventual return, there would be a judgment that would seal the planet’s fate. If humanity was deemed unworthy of life, by the unknown standards of this mysterious race, Earth would be destroyed. The Destroyer was created, by the command of Odin, as a weapon to use against the mighty Celestials. The task was taken on by the finest craftsmen of Asgard, and once finished Odin, Zeus, and all other leading Earth gods transferred a portion of their power into the construct which gave it superhuman strength and energy manipulating powers. Odin then had the Destroyer sealed within a temple within a plateau hoping it would be out of reach of any would use its tremendous powers for evil until the purpose it was designed for could be implemented.

For many years the Destroyer remained lifeless until a vengeful Loki destroyed the plateau to reveal the temple inside. Loki then led a hunter, Buck Franklin, to the Destroyer in order to use the hunter’s life essence to animate the weapon and send it against his hated half-brother Thor. Since the Destroyer is not a living entity, it is not affected by Odin’s magic that anyone unworthy can’t use it as with Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir, and it can absorb the life essence of anyone. 

The Destroyer is not a suit of armor that can be physically worn or disassembled. A life force must be projected into the armor in order to animate it which leaves the possessor’s body in a catatonic state. The Destroyer is linked to the body of the individual inside which is why the person does not die due to lack of life force, but if the person’s essence is put back inside its body by a powerful spell directed at the person, the Destroyer will become inanimate once again. By the same token, if the person’s body is killed, the life force will leave the Destroyer and revert it back to its lifeless state. Normally, a person has to be close to the Destroyer and a willing participant to have their life essence transferred into it, but a person’s essence can also be transferred if that person is not mentally guarded for such a transfer. Odin or Loki, however, can make the transferals over great distances due to their proficiency with magic. Also, the Destroyer was given its own intelligence but has been programmed to destroy, so when a life essence is absorbed into the armor, the Destroyer normally takes over and the person inside has no choice but to go along with its programming unless the will of the person is the same as the will of the Destroyer. In Buck Franklin’s case, Franklin and the Destroyer both wanted to destroy Thor, so Franklin’s consciousness acted as one with the Destroyer’s.

Thor and the Destroyer battled within the temple, but Thor emerged victorious when he used Franklin’s body as a shield and tricked the Destroyer into transferring the life force of Franklin back into his body. Thor then rescued Franklin, and destroyed the temple in order to bury the Destroyer under it. This result was not satisfying to the God of mischief, and sometime later, Loki transferred his own consciousness in to the Destroyer while in exile. This time Loki used the power of the Destroyer to go to Asgard and attack Odin. Odin located Loki’s body and forced his life force out of the Destroyer and back where it belonged and into a state of unconsciousness. Again Loki had a plot to use the Destroyer but this time he had Karnilla, the Norn Queen on his side and they used the life force of the goddess, Sif to animate it, and some time after that an accident allowed the essence of Professor Clement Holmes to enter the Destroyer.

Thor finally gave the Destroyer to Galactus to act as his herald, but Loki eventually stole it back to use against Thor in another sinister plot by first using Balder and then Thor, himself, to animate the armor. However, while Thor’s essence animated the Destroyer he was able to gain control of the Destroyer through tremendous will power. Odin has also projected himself into the armor and has taken control but without any struggle making him, Thor and Loki the only individuals that were able to suppress the Destroyer’s consciousness.

Eventually, the Celestials returned to Earth again ready to pass judgment, and that is when Odin thought the time had come for the Celestials to do battle with the Destroyer. Odin transferred all of the Asgardians (except Thor’s) life essences into himself and then into the armor causing it to grow to a tremendous size. Wielding the Odinsword and invading the South American base of the Celestials, the Destroyer could not do much damage to those gathered there despite its overwhelming power.

Vulture (Adrian Toomes)



Adrian Toomes is a former electronics engineer who employs a special harness of his own design that allows him to fly and endows him with enhanced strength. Toomes is quite old, though spry, and is a virtually remorseless killer. On one occasion, he restored his youth through biochemical means, though this wore off after exposure to the corpse of an elemental superhuman. At one point he had used a device to steal Spider-man's youth, leaving Vulture young and Spider-Man elderly, but this effect wore off within hours.

On more than one occasion Toomes has been in league with several other Spider-Man villains in order to destroy the wall crawler. The Vulture has been in every incarnation of the Sinister Six.

The Vulture once stumbled across a plot by the Chameleon and the Green Goblin to drive Spider-Man insane by having shapeshifting androids impersonate his late mother and father; the sham was revealed when the Vulture sought out the Chameleon to find a way to maintain his artificial youth and the androids were ultimately destroyed, leading the wall-crawler to a brief nervous breakdown. The Vulture absorbed the artificial life force from the Mary Parker android, and the effect on the Vulture was two-fold; not only did he become a young man again, but he was instantly cured of the cancer that had been slowly killing him for some time. (The Vulture has since reverted to an old man once again, however.)

Toomes' identity as the Vulture has been claimed by impostors on several occasions. The first, "Blackie" Drago, was a prison cellmate of Toomes. While he was in prison, Toomes was in an accident and, worried that his revenge against Spider-man would never be fulfilled, told all his secrets to Drago, who stole the Vulture harness and costume, and was subsequently defeated by Toomes. The second, Professor Clifton Shallot, was a vengeful university professor who mutated himself into a Vulture lookalike; his powers were lost in his first and only battle with Spider-Man. The Vulture technology was later copied by a group of thugs called "The Vulturions"; Toomes defeated these usurpers as well. Another technology thief, Bluebird was defeated by Spider-Man before Toomes learned of her existence.

Recently, It was revealed that Toomes, with the help of Sandman, manipulated several villains Bullseye, Deadpool, Juggernaut, and Sabretooth into laying siege to terrorist group A.I.M (Advanced Idea Mechanics) headquarters in order to retrieve a disc containing the identities of undercover S.H.I.E.D operatives (including his daughter's).

Under the tutelage of Al Kraven, Kraven's son, Toomes briefly attempted a stint at heroism, but before long he returned to the other side of the law. However, the Vulture was hired by the government to track down Spider-Man after he rebelled against the Superhuman Registration Act. Toomes was hospitalized, suffering a mild stroke during his battle, and felt suicidal until Spider-Man made Toomes recognize his will to live

Ultimate Electro

Dillon was a criminal who underwent illegal genitic experiments carried out by Dr. John Skrtic on behalf of industrialist Justin Hammer, who was competing with Osborn Industries to win a lucrative government contract to create a super-soldier serum. Having been successfully given electrical abilities, Electro, as he now liked to be called, was sold into the service of the Kingpin of Crime, Wilson Fisk, in return for construction contracts for another of Hammer’s projects. Electro served Fisk willingly as an enforcer, and when Spider-man broke into Fisk Tower, the Kingpin set his new acquisition the task of taking the intruder down, something Electro swiftly managed. Electro was subsequently present when Kingpin murdered Frederick Foswell, the underboss known as Mr. Big, for having supplied Spider-Man with information.

When Spider-Man returned to the Tower a few days later to steal the surveillance footage showing Fisk’s crime, Electro and the Enforcers were sent to stop him. Initially dodging Electro’s blasts, Spider-Man then tricked his foe into stunning Ox, one of the Enforcers. After taking down the other two Enforcers, Spider-Man grappled with Electro, then threw him in to a stream of water coming from a broken water pipe, causing the electrical criminal to short out violently.

 He awoke three weeks later in hospital to find that the Kingpin had fled the country and F.B.I. agents waiting for him to wake so they could question him as to his reasons for being in the crime lord’s basement. Electro’s killed everyone in the room and fled, but he was swiftly recaptured by Captain America, Iron Man and the Black Widow. He was imprisoned in a secure S.H.I.E.L.D. facility alongside several other genetically modified criminals (Doctor Octopus, Green Goblin, Kraven and Sandman), his powers blocked by a high-tech control collar, to be studied and interrogated by Hank Pym (Giant Man). After several months, Dr Octopus engineered a break out, and the group slaughtered their way to freedom, killing 35 S.H.I.E.L.D. agents on their way out. Their next move was a direct assault on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Triskelion main base to capture Spider-Man, who had been moved there for his own protection. Octopus breached computer security to shut down the base’s defenses, then Electro overloaded both primary and back-up generators. The group entered and left equally swiftly with their objective.

Spider-Man was coerced into working with them on as they launched an attack on the White House itself. Conventional forces fell before them in seconds, but their progress was halted on the front lawn outside the Oval Office by the arrival of the Ultimates. Electro attacked Thor, and their battle raged into the air; but Electro’s powers proved no match for the alleged God of Lightning, who soon won the day, and along with his teammates, Electro was returned to custody. 

Bolivar Trask hired Electro to test Eddie Brock and the Venom suit by leading him on a chase through Manhattan. Spider-man showed up, but was knocked unconscious, resulting in a battle between Venom and Electro for the life of the web-slinger. Although Venom defeated Electro, S.H.I.E.L.D. intervened before anything more could happen. Electro was then placed back into their custody.

Circus of Crime

The Circus of Crime is a traveling band of circus performers, usually led by Maynard Tiboldt, better known as the Ring Master, who use their special skills to rob their audiences.

The Circus of Crime was originally Tiboldt's Circus, a small Austrian travel circus managed for generations by members of the Tiboldt family. In the 1930s Fritz Tiboldt, then managed and ringmaster of the circus, became active in Nazi party activities. After World War II began, he was asked by German intelligence to take his circus to America, supposedly just to give performances in major cities, but actually in order to use the talents of the Nazi sympathizers among his performers to murder high government officials. However, Tiboldt, who came to be known as the "Ringmaster Of Death," was captured by Captain America, and both Tiboldt and the members of his circus who had aided him in his subversive activities ported.

Fritz Tiboldt and his wife Lola continued to manage Tiboldt's Circus after the war. Eventually Fritz and Lola Tiboldt were murdered by Nazis who had escaped capture in vengeance for their cooperation with the Allies. Fritz's son, Maynard Tiboldt, thereupon succeeded him as leader and ringmaster of the circus, and decided to move it to America, far from the scene of Hitler's rise to power and his par death.

But once in America, Tiboldt's Circus proved incapable of competing successfully with larger with larger American circuses. Blaming Americans not only for ignoring his circus, but also for his father's humiliating capture in America years before, Tiboldt decided to turn to crime. If Americans would not enrich him and his performers willingly, they would be forced to do so. Tiboldt outlined his plans to the members of his troupe, a number of whom had accompanied him from Europe, and others of whom had joined the troupe after it came to America. A good percentage of the troupe quit, refusing to turn to a life of crime. However, a surprising number of the circus members eagerly agreed to join Tiboldt in his criminal endeavors, and they became the first members of what is known as the Circus of Crime.

The Circus of Crime usual modus operandi is the following. They will give a performance before a large audience. At some point the Ringmaster will use the powerful mind-control device concealed in his hat to put the audience into a trance. The Circus members then rob the audience, who remember nothing about the thefts when the Ringmaster releases them from the trance and the performance continues. The Circus of Crime performs under different names so that audience will not suspect that they are the Circus of Crime.

Over the years the membership of the Circus of Crime has varied, although there is a core group that has participated in most of its criminal ventures. The Ringmaster and his accomplices have been imprisoned by the law numerous times, but rarely for long, given the difficulties of proving the charges against them, since their victims usually have no memory of being robbed by them. Occasionally the Circus of Crime has operated without the Ringmaster, either because he is in prison, or because some have become dissatisfied with his leadership. However, he has always returned a leader.