High Evolutionary
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The High Evolutionary (Herbert Edgar Wyndham) is a fictional character appearing in the Marvel Comics universe. He first appeared in Thor (1st series) #134 (November 1966). He is obviously based on the title character of the novel The Island of Doctor Moreau.
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[edit] Publication history
[edit] Spider-Woman: Origin mini-series
On December 21, 2005, Marvel released the first issue of Spider-Woman: Origin, a five-part mini-series co-written by Brian Michael Bendis and Brian Reed, illustrated by the art team of the brothers Joshua and Jonathan Luna.
The mini-series is strictly involved with the first known years of Wyndham's operation in Wundagore. The mini-series attempts to streamline, condense and clean up Spider-Woman's backstory, changing drastically Jonathan Drew, Miles Warren and Wyndham background with stories that heavily contradict previously written ones. As described in this mini-series, Wyndham seems to negate and invalidate the existence of the character High Evolutionary. These new story aspects and contradictions have not been acknowledged by the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, which continues to present the story as it was originally.
[edit] Fictional character biography
[edit] Becoming the High Evolutionary
Herbert Edgar Wyndham was born in Manchester, England. While a student at Oxford in the 1930s, he took an interest in the work of heretical biologist Nathaniel Essex (in actuality, the disguised form of the X-Men villain Mister Sinister), and began experimenting with genetic manipulation, building a machine with which he attempted to "evolve" the rats in his mother's London basement.
While attending a genetics conference in Geneva, Wyndham was approached by a mysterious man (in truth, the outcast Inhuman geneticist Phaeder) who handed to him papers containing blueprints for cracking the genetic code.
With this information to bolster his experiments, Wyndham successfully developed a serum he dubbed "Isotope A."
Although expelled from the university for his single-mindedness, he finally succeeded in evolving his pet Dalmatian, Dempsey, into a humanoid life form with the intelligence of a chimpanzee.
Dempsey, unfortunately, was shot by hunters, and Wyndham realized that such creatures as he would create would have no place in the human world.
In partnership with scientist Jonathan Drew (father of Jessica Drew), Wyndham moved his experiments to the seclusion of Wundagore Mountain in the small Balkan nation of Transia.
Discovery of the uranium on the land (inherited by Drew's wife) provided vast funding, and they bought more land from local baron Gregor Russoff.
Assembling a "citadel of science" designed by German scientist Horace Grayson (father of the future Marvel Boy) and built by Moloid slaves supplied by Phaeder, the pair continued their experiment until Drew's daughter fell ill from uranium poisoning, and was placed into suspended animation to save her life.
Subsequently, Drew's wife was attacked and killed by a werewolf (Russoff himself, victim of a family curse), and Drew left Wundagore; Wyndham, on the other hand, developed a suit of protective silver armor for himself and continued his work.
Now joined in his work by research assistant Miles Warren (future supervillain the Jackal), Wyndham was able to make more and more radical breakthroughs, including the genetic acceleration of some local animals into the half-human, half-animal beings that he dubbed his "New Men".
When Jonathan Drew returned to Wundagore, possessed by the ghost of the 6th Century magician Magnus, he warned that the citadel had been constructed upon the place where the malevolent Elder God Chthon had been banished. He began to train the New Men in the ways of combat and chivalry of his time, until they eventually came to refer to themselves as the "Knights of Wundagore," and to Wyndham as the "Lord High Evolutionary".
In 1958, Magnus's fears came to pass when Baron Russoff attempted to use the ancient magical tome known as the Darkhold to cure himself of his lycanthropy, inadvertently freeing Chthon from imprisonment. The Knights held him off and Magnus was able to re-bind the demon; however, on this same night, a pregnant woman named Magda sought refuge at the citadel and gave birth to twin children there. Although she died in childbirth, the moment of Chthon's defeat coincided with the birth of the children, and the baby girl was touched with the demon's magic.
Wyndham attempted to find foster parents for the children, but when met with failure, they were placed in stasis for decades until suitable candidates were found. Raised by Gypsies Django and Marya Maximoff, the twins grew up to be the superheroes Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, the latter wielding chaos magic as a result of Chthon's influence.
[edit] Counter-Earth
Wyndham eventually saw the world as a far too confining place, so he converted his scientific research citadel into a spaceship, exploring the stars with his New Men. He later settled his New Men on a planet, Wundagore II, while he stayed on one of the planet's moons and began work on a detailed replica of Earth to be located on the opposite side of the Sun.
Although Counter-Earth was supposed to be evolved into a paradise, the Man-Beast (one of the New Men) corrupted the process, and Counter-Earth became an imperfect world. By this time the High Evolutionary had adopted Adam Warlock and bestowed him with the Soul Gem, dispatching him to redeem Counter-Earth.
Eventually, one of Galactus's Heralds discovered this Counter-Earth, but the Fantastic Four persuaded the World Devourer to seek sustenance elsewhere.
During its construction, the High Evolutionary's Counter-Earth was targeted for collection by the Beyonders (not to be confused with The Beyonder). Agents of the Beyonders manipulated Adam Warlock into murdering the High Evolutionary to allow theft of Counter-Earth, but he was revived by Moondragon and Warlock's counterpart, "Her."
The Evolutionary pursued the Beyonders to rescue his world, but he himself reported that his mind snapped when he saw their vast museum-ship, and how effectively insignificant he was compared to these alien beings.
Considering the Beyonders' aggressive pursuit of Counter-Earth from its earliest stages, and the subsequent destruction of the planet while under their care, some may speculate that the Evolutionary's sanity was subtly undermined by these cosmic beings in order to prevent him from performing future experiments.
[edit] Insanity
The Evolutionary became increasingly unstable and maniacal. His attempt to end his own life was prevented by his own suit. He returned to Earth, in hope to find something strong enough to overcome his armor and end his miserable life. He goaded the Hulk into attacking him, and Hulk succeeded in smashing his armor; the malfunctioning armor then devolved the High Evolutionary into a mass of one-celled organisms. However, it was only a matter of time before the suit's circuits reorganized itself and restored the High Evolutionary to his previous state.
[edit] The Evolutionary War
His death and subsequent re-birth gave the High Evolutionary a new insight into the future of mankind. Rather than being a benevolent yet distant protector, as he had been with his New Men, he would take a direct hand in molding the future of humanity, so that they might one day be as powerful as the Beyonders he had witnessed.
The High Evolutionary later came into conflict with a number of superheroes, notably the Avengers and Adam Warlock when he tried to forcibly mutate (or "evolve") the population of the Earth with his "Evolution Bomb" (in the crossover storyline The Evolutionary War). The Avengers stopped him, though Hercules was exposed to the High Evolutionary's Genesis Chamber and became "more than a god," evolving out of existence.
After seeing what happened to Hercules at the end of the Evolutionary War, the High Evolutionary decided on a new plan. Rather than advancing humanity, he would create all-new gods and immortals. He took his Citadel of Wundagore spaceship into the Black Galaxy for raw materials, and had some success in creating new lifeforms.
He and his creations were on-hand to witness the birth of a new Celestial, but viewing this event with all his hyper-evolved senses drove the High Evolutionary back to madness.
In the Quicksilver series, it was revealed that the High Evolutionary's genetic code had become unstable, accounting for his periods of mania and aggression. With the help of the New Men Bova and Delphis, the Evolutionary was able to restore himself to an un-evolved human state and mental stability using Isotope G.
The High Evolutionary is now an occasional ally of Thor and other superheroes. He recently confronted his mentor Sinister alongside the X-Men when Sinister took over his satellite-based device (which temporarily stripped all Mutants of the x-gene that grants them their powers) and altered it to mutate large sections of the populace.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Although his powers have fluctuated over the years, The High Evolutionary has demonstrated god-like powers due both to his experimentation on his own genetic code and his cybernetic exoskeleton.
The High Evolutionary's exoskeleton provides him with an uncanny degree of protection from physical, energy, psionic, and mystical attacks.
It also provides life support (filtering/recycling his air and providing sustenance when needed), and contains a complete record of his genetic code. If he is badly damaged, the suit can heal his wounds, including, in one instance, restoring him to life after the Hulk had beaten him into goo.
Aside from these abilities, it is unclear which of the High Evolutionary's abilities are derived from his exoskeleton and which are psionic abilities gained via self-mutation.
He has shown: an ability to rearrange matter and create matter from nothing (including the creation of chemical elements and compounds, complex mechanical items, missiles, and even living beings), astral projection, a danger sense (akin to Spider-Man's quasi-clairvoyant Spider-Sense), energy blasts, enhanced senses (including ESP), force field generation, size alteration (he once grew as large as Galactus, and fought him to a standstill), and telepathy (including communication with animals), making himself understood to any being regardless of language, making himself and others invisible, and probing the minds of others to seek out information.
The High Evolutionary is a master geneticist, and is highly skilled in a number of other scientific fields.
[edit] Personality
The Evolutionary's character has varied between that of a weary, well-meaning creator to that of a 'mad scientist' who is willing to do whatever he considers necessary to further his goals of evolving a better, less-brutal world. Although menacing during his maniacal phase, the Evolutionary's history also contains more than one example of his desire to be responsible, creative, and kind. Most Marvel writers have resisted portraying him as a standard-fare villan, thereby adding levels of sympathy and complexity to the character. The High Evolutionary has been manipulated by both the Beyonders and the Celestials, cosmic races that have interfered with human evolution in the past, indicating that his work might perhaps be a threat to their own. Even at his most unstable, the Evolutionary has never killed and has always demonstrated a paternal love toward even his most flawed creations. At one point, he offered to (and did) restore the Savage Land after it was destroyed by Terminus. The Evolutionary has tried to teach his New Men the virtues of heroism, and played a key role in saving the Earth from Chthon. He has also served as a benevolent father figure to several Marvel characters, including Adam Warlock, Quicksilver, and Thor. Though made personally wealthy by uranium deposits, the Evolutionary has also provided for a generous financial trust for the people of Transia, ensuring economic stability for the nation. On several occasions he has gone to considerable lengths to protect young children, including the critically ill Jessica Drew, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, and Pietro's daughter Luna.
[edit] In other media
In the X-Men animated series, the High Evolutionary is the Master of Wundagore. He seeks to create a superior generation of his New Men by using mutant DNA, mutating humans into beast-like beings, instead of experimenting on animals. He sets up a trap to capture Magneto, Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch, revealing to the twins that they are Magneto's children. He also appeared in a flashback, in which he fights Garokk and traps his essence in the ground of the Savage Land.
The High Evolutionary appears in the Spider-Man Unlimited animated series voiced by Richard Newman. In this series, he had created Beastials, half-humans, half-animals on a planet called Counter-Earth with The Knights of Wundagore, who were Sir Ram, Lord Tiger, Lady Ursula and Lady Vermin. In the second to the last episode of the series, it was revealed to the High Evolutionary that he is the grandfather of the character Karen O'Malley. The Evolutionary was defeated at the series finale in a fight against Spider-Man and The Rebellion against him.
