Titanium Man
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The Titanium Man is the name of several fictional supervillains in the Marvel Comics universe. The original Titanium Man first appeared in Tales of Suspense #69 (September 1965). He was created by Stan Lee and Don Heck.
[edit] Character biography
The original Titanium Man, Boris Bullski, was the champion of the Soviet Union who fought Iron Man, the champion of the United States, in a famous battle during the Cold War. This first Titanium Man was killed in battle with Beta Ray Bill by his own allies: they were capitalist Russian expatriates who transformed him into inorganic matter when they learned that he was a Soviet agent. However, he was revived some years later by Valentin Shatalov, the sixth man to wear the Crimson Dynamo armor. Not too long after that, however, Boris was killed by Stark, who was wearing the Crimson Dynamo armor - which was remotely controlled by Colonel-General Valentin Shatalov, who was wounded in an earlier confrontation with Bullski.
The second Titanium Man was the mutant formerly known as the Gremlin, and served with the Soviet-era superhero group, the Soviet Super-Soldiers. The Gremlin was killed while in combat with Iron Man when the titanium in the suit exceeded its combustible tempurature. This occurred during Armor War I.
A new Titanium Man (this time the suit was donned by a renegade Russian agent) returned shortly after Tony Stark was appointed as the Secretary of Defense. After stowing away on Stark's rocket during a mission to intercept a comet headed towards Earth, he attempted to disrupt the mission, which would result in the comet's landing in North America. However, he was thrown off the ship during his attempts.
Another Titanium Man appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #530, while trying to assassinate Tony Stark in Washington DC, which was thwarted by Spider-Man. It was later revealed he had actually been hired by Tony Stark, to demonstrate the continuing need for superheroes to Washington legislators in favor of a superhuman registration bill.
[edit] Powers and abilities
The Titanium Men used green or grey armor similar to that used by Iron Man and to that used by their sometime compatriot, the Crimson Dynamo. Neither suit of armor was as sophisticated as that used by Anthony Stark as Iron Man. In fact, the armor was rather unstable, directly resulting in the death of the second Titanium Man.
The suit of armor enabled the wearer to fly at subsonic speeds, shoot concussive force blasts from hands, increased physical strength to superhuman levels, and the armor was resistant to conventional artillery.
Boris Bullsky, the original Titanium Man, had enhanced strength due to treatments given to him by the Soviet government to augment his physiology. He was also a giant. The Gremlin, being a dwarf who seldom exercised, was weaker than most teenagers. He possessed super-human intelligence, was capable of creating advanced devices and weapons, and was an accomplished genetic engineer.
[edit] Other media
Titanium Man, along with fellow Marvel villain Magneto, is the subject of the song "Magneto and Titanium Man" by Wings on their Venus and Mars album. The Crimson Dynamo is also mentioned by name. In the song, the three supervillains try to convince the singer/narrator that a woman police officer trying to halt a bank robbery (which he is apparently in love with) is in fact the bank robber herself.
Titanium Man also appears in the Iron Man animated series, played by Gerard Maguire. In the series' first episode, he's shown as a powerful minion of the Mandarin. Titanium Man doesn't make more appearances during the first season. In one chapter of the second season, Titanium Man makes an alliance with Dark Aegis, but at the end he helps Iron Man and War Machine, sacrificing himself in order to stop Dark Aegis.
