Leader (comics)

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The Leader
Image:Leaderhulk.PNG
The Leader.
Art by Leonard Kirk.
Publication information
Publisher Marvel Comics
First appearance Tales to Astonish v1 #62 (Dec 1964)
Created by Stan Lee
Steve Ditko
In story information
Alter ego Samuel Sterns
Team affiliations Humanoids
Freehold Riot Squad
Halflife II
Partnerships The Chameleon
Rock and Redeemer
U-Foes
Abilities Superhuman intelligence
Psionic powers (telepathy, psychokinesis)
Possible resurrection ability

The Leader is a fictional character, a Marvel Comics supervillain created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. The character is the archenemy of the Hulk and first appeared in Tales to Astonish #62.[1]

Contents

[edit] Fictional character biography

Samuel Sterns was born in Boise, Idaho. He was once an ordinary human being with average intelligence. A high school dropout, Sterns worked for a chemical research plant in a menial capacity. While moving radioactive materials into an underground storage area, some of the radioactive materials exploded, bombarding Sterns with gamma radiation. Sterns recovered, but found that the radiation had changed him from an ordinary human into a green-skinned, super-intelligent criminal with an oversized brain housed in a towering cranium. He embarked on various ambitious schemes, with the Hulk as his primary nemesis, consistently backed by a self-constructed army of super-strong, virtually invulnerable, plastic Humanoids. This included an attempt to rewrite the Earth's history by infecting the primordial ooze with gamma-radiation, recreating society in his image, with himself as a ruler.

The Leader began his career as a would-be conqueror by setting a spy ring to overthrow the U.S. government in place. He dispatched his ally the Chameleon to capture the Hulk for study.[2] His face was then revealed, and he constructed and sent his android Humanoids to capture the Hulk.[3] He dispatched a horde of Humanoids to capture the Hulk and steal Bruce Banner's Absorbatron weapon.[4] The Leader soon encountered the Hulk face-to-face for the first time.[5] He dispatched a 500-foot Humanoid to subdue the Hulk.[6] However, he then rescued the Hulk from the Army.[7] He operated on the Hulk to save his life. He sent the Hulk to the Homeworld of the Watchers to raid the Watcher's technology.[8] The Leader was ultimately defeated by the device the Hulk brought back.[9]

Later, the Leader reappeared and offered General Ross aid in neutralizing the Hulk.[10] The Leader dispatched the Super-Humanoid to assist the General in seizing control of America's nuclear arsenal.[11] The Leader then hijacked the U.S. Army's Murder Module vehicle, and used it against the Hulk.[12] He freed the Rhino from captivity and sent him against the Hulk.[13] He also dispatched the Glob against the Hulk.[14] The Leader later sent mental projections of the Rhino, Xeron, Namor, the Missing Link, and others against the Hulk, but then suffered a mental breakdown.[15] The Leader then created android duplicates of the President, Vice President, and military personnel in an attempt to kidnap the real President and Vice President.[16] He then superimposed his consciousness upon the Rhino in order to battle the Hulk.[17] He later used the Hulk and the Thing as pawns in a contest with Kurrgo.[18]

Some time later, the Leader briefly took over Gamma Base.[19] Some time after that, he gamma-irradiated Manhattan's water supply in an attempt to mutate humanity like himself.[20] He later activated Arsenal, and then dispatched the Avengers through time.[21]

After a period of time the gamma radiation in his body began to wear off. At first the Leader attributed his lapses in concentration to overworking his mind finding ways to defeat his greatest enemy (the Hulk). By the time the Leader realized what was happening, much of the intelligence that could have solved his plight was gone and texts that were once child's play to him were now hopelessly beyond him (he even forgot the access code of his secret base). In this period, he made cash however he could by means fair or foul, until he managed to convince the Gray Hulk to help him regain his intelligence by promising that he would help the latter to remain the Hulk full time (instead of only at night).

Rick Jones had been afflicted with a Hulk-like condition and the Hulk (using Bruce Banner's memories of gamma transfer) devised a machine to transfer all of the gamma radiation from Rick Jones to the Leader. However, this time the mutagenic process was slightly different resulting in a cranium that resembled an over-sized brain, rather than a towering forehead. He was also a lighter shade of green. As a side note this transfer also created a psychic link between the two.

Soon after this, the Leader would steal the seemingly lifeless body of General Thunderbolt Ross from the back of an ambulance, simply because it was there, and later managed to revive it as a mindless vegetable, which he used as an armored enforcer.

Before long, the Leader's new form was revealed, and he dispatched Half-Life to battle the Hulk.[22] The Leader dispatched an army of four-armed robots against the Hulk, and created Rock and Redeemer.[23]

The Leader dispatched Rock and Redeemer against the Hulk. Following this the Leader engaged in a scheme to detonate a gamma-bomb in a small-town city, Middletown, Arizona, killing over 5000 people, and the few, now enhanced, survivors provided him with valuable research subjects and superhuman enforcers.[24] With their help, he built a self-sufficient society called Freehold in the Arctic, populated with civilians dying from radiation poisoning. Some time afterward he gave the Hulk information how to find his brother, Philip Sterns, the Madman, since he thought it would be best to put the latter out of his suffering, due to his original personality being slowly and painfully eaten away by the Madman persona.[25]

After Jones' suffered a great mental trauma due to the death of his girlfriend Marlo Chandler, his pain was enough to cause the Leader considerable discomfort, motivating him to work towards the revival of Marlo. At this time Freehold was targeted by a rogue branch of HYDRA terrorists, employing the U-Foes and his followers to invade the covert Pantheon organization, of which Hulk was a member, to coerce them to help him in defending it. He employed something he ironically called the Deus Ex Machina in conjunction with his follower, the gamma-enhanced reverend nicknamed Soul Man, who falsely believed himself to have been blessed by God with spiritual power, rather than given nearly godlike abilities by the Leader, in an effort to revive Marlo and siphon off Soul Man's power for himself. Rick Jones became convinced to accept the help after seeing the mindless, but mobile, body of Thunderbolt Ross.

The Hulk, manipulated by the leader of the Pantheon, Agamemnon, attacked the facility. At the same time, HYDRA decided to storm the base, leading to a multi-sided battle. The Hulk eventually personally attacked the Leader, who, along with Soul Man, seemingly perished in the crossfire. The machine was likewise demolished, causing Marlo to enter a state similar to Ross, but both eventually fully recovered.[26]

The death of the Leader left his follower Omnibus in control of Freehold. Omnibus used mind-control to manipulate several U.S. chiefs of staff, and engineered many high-profile terrorist strikes to incite global warfare, as he reasoned that it was inevitable, and hurrying it along offered him opportunity to enable his personal society to survive and inherit the Earth. Omnibus was eventually exposed by his fellow Freehold citizens, judged to die in the cold, and was eaten by a polar bear. It was hinted that the Leader was influencing Omnibus somehow but it was never made clear how; given the nature of Omnibus' abilities, it is possible that his mere imagining he was somehow possessed made it a practical reality.

A while later, the Hulk, who in his Bruce Banner persona was suffering from a degenerative nervous condition (which would ultimately kill him) was confronted by the Leader once again. Apparently he really had perished when the Deus Ex Machina was destroyed, but his disembodied consciousness had evolved beyond the need for a body. Although he was in the process of building a new body out of random organic materials, in a secluded cave near Gamma Base, he was preparing to leave this level of reality behind altogether, transcending both beyond the physical and his old goals. But before he did so, he intended to cure Bruce Banner for reasons all his own. After he had done so, he abandoned his body. However, later still his consciousness once again contacted Banner, apparently shocked by what he had discovered "beyond the veil"; he was unable to return, however, and was not heard from again until much later.

During a time of great personal duress for the Hulk and Bruce Banner, who had begun to merge their personas, it became clear that Home Base, a secret organization who had relentlessly pursued the Hulk in order to obtain his genetic material, was secretly led by the Leader. In the end, after all his other agendas had failed, the Leader finally managed to mind-control the Hulk and guided him towards his secret base, with the intention of taking his indestructible body for himself. But because of intervention by Nadia Blonsky, Betty Ross, Doc Samson and Iron Man, the plan failed and the Leader died again. These events, bizarre and nebulous as they seem, may or may not have taken place in this form... they may be partly true, or entirely a construct by the extra-dimensional demon Nightmare in a bid to avenge himself on the Hulk.

At present, the Leader has a body incorporating traits from both his previous incarnations; it is unknown exactly how he acquired it, but it may have been relatively easy, given his history.

The Leader was recently captured by S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Hulkbusters, and brought to trial for his crimes. He was represented by Attorney Mallory Book from She-Hulk's firm Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway. During the trial, Ms. Book argued that the Leader was not responsible for his actions since the Gamma exposure forcibly changed his personality. To prove her point, Book compared She-Hulk to Jennifer Walters, revealing that Jennifer was much more promiscuous in her She-Hulk form. In the second day of the trial, Leader's humanoid droids arrived to rescue him. Instead of escaping, the Leader called off the attack, opting to see the trial to its conclusion, as he correctly predicted that his defense was going to win. He was found not guilty.[27] It is as yet unclear whether this person is indeed the original leader, or the Samuel Sterns of "Earth-Alpha", the inhabitants of which had been swapping places with their 616 counterparts for while prior to this trial.

Now a free man (whichever one he may be), the Leader teleported the Hulk's allies, the Warbound, to Nevada. There, he used Hiroim of the Warbound, harnessing his tectonic power to activate a Gamma powered shield over a portion of the desert. It is revealed that the Leader is dying, and that he constructed the dome to cure him. But, due to a miscalculation, the energy of the dome is actually killing him faster.[28] In battle with the Warbound, the Leader is stabbed through the chest with an iron pipe. The Leader then absorbed the power of the dome, turning himself into a gray-skinned giant. Hiroim also absorbed the power, and battled the Leader, draining both of their powers. In death Heroim channels his old power into Kate Waynseboro, who attacks the Leader, and forces him to teleport away.

[edit] Powers and abilities

The Leader has superhuman mental acumen, as a result of his exposure to an explosion of gamma-irradiated waste. As a result of the mutagenic process he has undergone he is (in theory) capable of knowledge and comprehension beyond the human ability to understand. He possesses enhanced intuition, pattern solving, information storage and retrieval, and logical and philosophical structuring. He is potentially capable of mastering every worldly subject and capable of adopting concepts completely foreign to his environment. His ability to predict probable outcomes of tactical and strategic scenarios is so advanced that it borders on clairvoyance. His intuition is heightened to the degree that his hunches are almost always correct. The Leader has a perfect memory with the ability to recall every moment since the accident that gave him his powers.

In addition to his extraordinary intelligence, the Leader has psionic powers and limited but very powerful telekinetic and telepathic powers. He has abilities that enable him to mentally control non-gamma-mutated individuals upon touching them. He is also capable of battling the Hulk with these psionic powers. He can also create an illusion of himself in gigantic form, or disguise his appearance during the period he spent possessing Omnibus.

The Leader possesses knowledge of genetics, physics, and robotics, and has designed a large number of sophisticated weapons, vehicles, computers, androids, and synthetic humanoids. He is particularly adept at genetic engineering and manipulating radiation for various nefarious purposes. He has designed and constructed at least one space station called Omnivac and presumably space shuttles as well. He has designed mind control technology, android "Humanoids" and a "Super-Humanoid," radiation devices, a time travel apparatus, teleportation devices, and a computer in the form of a pipe organ.

Despite the Leader's great intelligence, his effectiveness is greatly hampered by his great arrogance and immaturity, sometimes to the point of making rash and dangerous decisions that belie his great intellect. To many readers, the quintessential example of this is his continual desire to battle and/or exploit the Hulk who in turn keeps foiling his plans he otherwise would have likely ignored had he not been provoked. Also, despite his vast intellect, he seemingly does not have the desire or temperament to engage in globe-spanning plots of world domination (or at least not to the extent of other Marvel Universe geniuses such as Doctor Doom and Thanos), and rarely engages in such.

Although the Leader has on occasion transformed back into Samuel Sterns, he rarely does this due to the almost 'inverted Hulk' nature of this shift; just as Banner typically becomes less intelligent when transformed into the Hulk, when the Leader turns back into Sterns, he retains no memory of his life as the Leader because Sterns' brain is ill-equipped to cope with the evil and genius of his alter ego.

The Leader has also demonstrated an ability to return from actual physical death, even when his body is completely destroyed.

[edit] Other versions

[edit] Ultimate Leader

The Ultimate version of The Leader made his first appearance in Ultimate Human #1, a mini-series starring Ultimate Iron Man and Ultimate Hulk[29]. This Leader is also the Ultimate version of Pete Wisdom. In the Ultimate universe, Wisdom is an ex-British Intelligence agent thrown out of the organization after testing his "British Enhancile Program" on himself, transforming him into The Leader.[30]

The Leader attempts to steal Tony Stark's nanotechnology as Banner and Stark work together to try and incorporate it into Banner's physiology in the hopes that it will grant him control over his transformations into the Hulk.

A flashback reveals that Wisdom was an ambitious Director of Operations for the Special Intelligence Service who strongly disapproved of the European Super-Soldier programme (which eventually produced Captain Britain), believing British superhumans should be trained covert agents, rather than based on the American model. Wisdom persuades the Head of Service to give him four weeks to prove his point before the European programme starts and arranges for Dr Stragg, the scientist responsible for the Enhancile Project, to use him as a test subject. When he returned to the SIS, the Head of Service judged the project a failure, having turned Wisdom into a "circus freak", and told him to "run and hide". Wisdom now hopes that Banner's DNA and Stark's nanotechnology will increase his abilities and enable him to "save" his country.[31]

Wisdom appears to have the same psychic and mental abilities as the original Leader.

[edit] In other media

[edit] Television

  • The Leader appeared in several episodes of the Hulk's adventures in the 1966 Marvel Superheroes anthology series, based on the Hulk's adventures in Tales to Astonish comics. He was voiced by Gillie Fenwick.
  • The Leader appeared as a villain in the episode, "Hulkbuster," of the 1994 Iron Man animated series voiced by Matt Frewer. He tried to use one of Mandarin's rings to travel back in time to prevent the gamma bomb that created the Hulk from detonating so he can gain the Hulk's powers. He was also mentioned to have been Bruce Banner's lab assistant when he gained his powers. The Leader was eventually sucked into a portal and was never seen or heard from again.
  • The Leader appeared as a recurring villain in the 1990s UPN Incredible Hulk series with Matt Frewer reprising his role. A flashback in one episode showed Samuel Sterns as a worker who sabotaged Bruce Banner's Gamma Radiator test. After the explosion, he was part of the clean-up crew and an accident caused him to fall off the scaffolding and into the Gamma Waste where he became the Leader. His constant quote, "So says the Leader," became his trademark in the series.

[edit] Film

  • The Leader's alter ego, Samuel Sterns is set to appear in the upcoming The Incredible Hulk, played by Tim Blake Nelson.[1] The Leader version of the character will not appear as they only included Samuel Sterns in the movie to set The Leader up as a villain in a forthcoming sequel.

[edit] Video games

  • The Leader appears in the 2003 Hulk video game as the main antagonist. He displays telekinetic and teleportation powers.
  • The Leader appears in the The Incredible Hulk. He is a scientist who works for Ross on tracking the Hulk and is an ally instead of a foe.

[edit] Toys

  • The Leader has appeared in Toyfare magazine's Twisted Toyfare Theater, portrayed as a frustrated and socially unaware genius who feels the Hulk has been allowed too much for his lacking mental capacity.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Sanderson, Peter (2007). The Marvel Comics Guide to New York City. New York City: Pocket Books, 9. ISBN 1-14653-141-6. 
  2. ^ Tales to Astonish #62
  3. ^ Tales to Astonish #63
  4. ^ Tales to Astonish #64-65
  5. ^ Tales to Astonish #69
  6. ^ Tales to Astonish #70
  7. ^ Tales to Astonish #72
  8. ^ Tales to Astonish #73
  9. ^ Tales to Astonish #74
  10. ^ Incredible Hulk #115
  11. ^ Incredible Hulk #116-117
  12. ^ Incredible Hulk #123
  13. ^ Incredible Hulk #124
  14. ^ Incredible Hulk #129
  15. ^ Incredible Hulk #139
  16. ^ Incredible Hulk #146-147
  17. ^ Incredible Hulk #157
  18. ^ Marvel Feature #11
  19. ^ Incredible Hulk #223-225
  20. ^ Incredible Hulk Annual #11
  21. ^ Incredible Hulk #280-284
  22. ^ Incredible Hulk #342
  23. ^ Incredible Hulk #343
  24. ^ Incredible Hulk #344-345
  25. ^ Incredible Hulk #366
  26. ^ Incredible Hulk #400
  27. ^ She-Hulk vol.4, #20
  28. ^ World War Hulk: Aftersmash! Warbound #3
  29. ^ Comics Continuum: Tuesday, December 18 2007: Marvel Comics for March
  30. ^ Ultimate Human #1 (January 2008)
  31. ^ Ultimate Human #3 (May 2008)

[edit] External links

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