Horizon Labs

Horizon Labs is an organization that features in Marvel Comics.

History

Horizon Labs was a research laboratory, teaching school and company that operated in New York by the modern age where it was owned by Max Modell.

Months ago, Modell encountered his old college friend Michael Morbius with him looking to help him with his desire for blood. He assigned Morbius Lab Number 6 where he kept his existence a secret from the rest of Horizon Labs. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #679.1) Marla Jameson introduced Peter Parker to Max Modell who gave him a tour of Horizon Labs. Parker was instrumental in halting an accident with the artificial Vibranium known as Reverbium. He was then quizzed on numerous scientific solutions to problems with Modell inviting him to join Horizon Labs with Peter agreeing to it. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #648) Parker was later provided his own when it came under attack from the new Hobgoblin. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #649)

Detective Yuri Wannatabe came to Horizon Labs to use their S.I.S. system to identify the gunman known as Massacre. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #656)

When New York citizens suddenly developed Spider-Man-like powers, the city was placed under a quarantine as this was deemed an epidemic with Horizon Labs being designated as lead in finding a cure. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #668) At the Labs, Tyler Stone and Uatu Jackson managed to create a device that jammed Spider-Senses with this being used as a means to keeping the infected within the city thus preventing them from infecting others. Initially, Stone attempted to use licensing as a means of securing millions of dollars paid by the city but Max Modell waived this due to the crisis. Reed Richards in a study of the spider-flu determined that it was being spread by genetically engineered bed bugs that spread a virus which rewrote the DNA of the infected to become a divergent species known as Homo Arachnus. It was thus concluded that this was a biological attack made against the city and that though the bed bugs had died due to their shortened lifespans that the virus had mutated to become airborne potentially spreading it to around the world. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #669) Through Project Rebirth, they learnt that a cure for the epidemic lay in the alien anti-bodies within Eddie Brock who was Anti-Venom. He was brought to Horizon where they harvested the cells from him which removed him of his powers but generated enough of the cure to fix everyone in the city. At the same time, Max Modell learnt that the spider-jammers they used to contain the spider hybrid monsters was based on technology that had deprived Spider-Man of his Spider-Sense. Thus, he called on all Horizon staff to work on a project to help restore that ability through the jammers. They were ultimately able to succeed where this process amplified Spider-Man's Spider-Sense to a higher level allowing him to defeat Tarantula who had been sent by the Jackal to poison the cure. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #671)

Black Cat was framed for breaking into Horizon Labs to steal their prototype H-Phone with her being arrested as a result. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #677)

On Apogee-1, Horizon Labs was conducting experiments on deep space travel and suspended animation for a potential mission to Mars. John Jameson was involved on the mission when the station was infiltrated by Octobots that took over the crew. John managed to evade capture by the time Spider-Man and the Human Torch had arrived to rescue them. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #680) The heroes managed to save the crew when the station was sent on a crash course for the surface with Apogee-1 being destroyed but its occupants all being rescued. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #681) Afterwards, Mayor Jameson used his position to attempt to forcibly shutdown Horizon Labs on the grounds that it was a menace to the city. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #682) This led to Jameson shutting down power to their New York facility with Modell taking his research team on-board their floating laboratory known as Zenith where they patched into Spider-Man's communications to help him against Doctor Octopus and the Sinister Six. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #684) Michael Morbius later dug up the body of Billy Connors in secret and brought it to his laboratory in order to produce a serum to restore Curt Connors back to normal. Initially, this was met with anger by Spider-Man until he learnt of the serum whereupon he teamed up with Morbius to capture the Lizard who was returned to his human form. However, Morbius succumbed to his hunger causing him to flee from the lab with the Wall-Crawler in pursuit. Connors began work on a cure for Morbius with Max Modell assisted them but it was revealed that Curt still retained the mind of the Lizard who wanted to return to his original form. This resulted in him using Modell as a test subject in his experiment to return to being the Lizard. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #689) He similarly did this on under staff members in their respective laboratories where they were locked in until a security system reboot caused them to be released and they began to attack their comrades. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #690) The crisis was averted by Spider-Man with all the transformed staff members returned to normal but Modell had discovered that someone had ransacked his office to steal the schematics for the Spider-Sense Jammers with this being done by Tiberius Stone who had done so on behalf of the Kingpin. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #691)

Afterwards, Peter Parker made a new discovery in the form of Parker Particles which he intended to use as a clean limitless form of energy. A public demonstration was shown with students from Midtown High School attending the event which was partly a public relations exercise to improve the company's outlook following the Morbius incident. An accident erupted during the demonstration causing energy to lash out from the experiment with a burst striking Midtown student Andrew Maguire thus giving him superhuman powers. Testing revealed that the boys powers were not a danger to him and Horizon afforded a package to monitor him in exchange for him signing a contract to being the Labs new corporate spokesperson and public superhero face. Thus, Maguire became known as Alpha with Parker assigned to the project where he designed Andy's superhero equipment. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #692)

Afterwards, Peter Parker came to mend his relationship with Max Modell with the two resuming their friendship. During this time, he secretly began to work to help restore Horizon Labs as a gift to Modell. However, he was unable to reacquire the company’s assets from Alchemax. However, he was able to get back the name from Liz Allan where he branded a science school on the West Coast as Horizon University. This was then given to Max Modell as a wedding gift after the man married his long-time partner. (Amazing Spider-Man V4 #1)

Horizon later assisted Spider-Man in preparing for the return of Scorpio after he had been shunted into the Zodiac Vault a year ago. After containing the threat, Max Modell offered Anna-Maria Marconi a position at Horizon University which she accepted. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #794)

Overview

The first area within the Labs was the Atrium that was a social hub for designers and engineers where people on different projects could meet to see if their ideas could cross-pollinate. The research division was known as the Think Tank that consisted of seven inter-dependent labs each allowing the individual to branch out into wild and unpredictable ways to allow their creativity to be purposely left unchecked. Horizon Labs only had a single rule which was to think big which served as a distinguishing feature from the likes of Stark, Bains or Tri-Corp. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #648) Each researcher were provided their own special lab that contained a black box which was a secure storage area keyed to the lab scientist allowing only them to access it. This provided a level of creativity and privacy for the researcher stationed in their respective laboratory allowing them to share their special projects when they were ready. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #649) A key requirement from researchers was them to produce a new piece of technology at the end of each quarter. Another aspect was the 'double check duty' system where each researcher partnered with a colleague to check their math to prevent any incidents during testing. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #678)

It had a number of employees who worked nine-to-five with the Labs open twenty four hours a day. However, the top team known as the Lucky Seven were allowed to come and go as they pleased. Security logs were present that helped protect the building and also checked which staff members were present. Scientists were provided numerous learning aids that included the Horizon E-Reader, a new super-compressed flash drive that had 800 gigs of memory containing five years of science journals and papers from the Horizon study. Researchers were paid for their study time and given a paycheck for their income needs. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #648) They later established a new protocol to lockdown the facility in case of a infection outbreak thus sealing the laboratory from the outside world. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #690)

Security staff were stationed at the Labs that were armed with the most cutting edge technology. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #649) This included a number of surveillance cameras that were used to catch video evidence of intruders. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #677)

Among the creations in the Labs included:

• Reverbium : being developed by Sajani Jaffrey, this was an artificial version of the alien metal known as Vibranium after supplies of it were made inert around the world by Prince T'Challa. It could absorb any impact and every vibrational frequency but an accident could it to reflect as well as amplify it instead. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #648)
• Suspect Identification Software (S.I.S.) : a robust facial recognition software that accessed data across the internet at high speeds. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #656)
• Cryo Cube 2000 : a small box that could freeze any object once the power was on with organic matter preserved until the power was switched off. It was expected that the technology could revolutionise the field of emergence medical transplants. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #666) A further iteration was the Cryo Cube 3000 which came to be used in the transport of organs for medical emergencies. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #682)
• Spider-Sense Jammers : built from designs given by Spider-Man with these machines able to disrupt his Spider-Sense. Max Modell refused to sell the designs or show the schematics as he feared that they could be used against Spider-Man. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #674)
• H-Phone : being developed by Wasserschmidt, this was a revolutionary smartphone that could project perfect holograms over Wi-Fi and 4G networks. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #677)
• Break Room of Tomorrow : being built by Dr. Grady Scraps, this was a doorway that had a carefully modulated field of chroniton particles that created a portal into the same spot 24 hours in the future. Those that went through disappeared from the current day and emerged in the tomorrow until they returned back through the doorway. Individuals could pass into the break room emerging into the same room the next day with them capable of bringing back objects through the doorway. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #678)
• Artificial Plasma : an attempt at making synthetic blood that used the Spider-flu cure as a possible means of curing Morbius of his condition. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #679.1)
• Parker Particles : a hyper-kinetic form of energy tied into the forces of universal expansion itself that was discovered by Peter Parker who intended for it to be used as a clean, affordable and limitless form of energy. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #692)
• aPhone : a new smartphone that was advertised by Alpha after he was the corporate spokesperson for the company. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #692)

It had produced a range of computer models that were distributed to colleges and schools. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #648)

Horizon had its own floating laboratory in the form of a ship known as the Zenith. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #684) They once maintained an orbital space platform named as Apogee 1. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #654)

Members

• Max Modell :
• Grady Scraps : a ginger haired male who was stationed at Lab No. 3. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #648)
• Sajani Jaffrey : a dark haired female who was a xenobiologist who was an expert in alien biology, chemistry and technology. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #648)
• Bella Fishbach : blonde haired female scientist wearing glasses who specialised in green technology. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #649)
• Uatu Jackson : a young black male whose parents named him after the Watcher and who a prodigy with him assigned to Lab Number 5. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #649)
• Michael Morbius : male biochemist scientist that had been turned into an artificial vampire with him being assigned to Lab Number 6. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #679.1)
• Peter Parker : male scientist admitted after impressing Max Modell and assigned to Lab Number 7. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #649)
• Anna-Maria Marconi : short dark haired woman who was given a position at Horizon University by Max Modell. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #794)
• Jurgen Muntz :

Notes

• Horizon Labs was created by Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos where it made its first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man v1 #648 (January, 2011).

Alternate Versions

• In Vault of Spiders v1 #2 (2018), Horizon Labs was shown to exist in an alternate world in the Multiverse that was designated as Earth-11580. On this world, Max Modell operated the laboratory where they were engaged in bleeding edge experiments with one involving bombarding spiders with various kind of radioactive particles. Peter Parker and his girlfriend were touring the facility when he accidently fell into the pit containing the spiders where he was consumed by the creatures. The mass of spiders had somehow absorbed his consciousness where they came to believe they were Peter Parker who operated as that world's Spiders-Man. Gwen Stacy and Horizon Labs were attempting to find a cure but Spiders-Man refused with him instead keeping a distance whilst battling the worlds various supervillains.

In other media

Television

• In Spider-Man, Horizon High appeared in the setting of the 2017 animated television series. It was established as a science academy by Max Modell for gifted intellects that were being cultivated to be great scientists in the future. Stark Industries came to donate an ARC Reactor to help power Horizon High and its multitude of experiments. One new feature that was added to Horizon was a holographic room and another chamber could produce a zero-gravity environment. A section of the campus included the Graveyard that was a dumping ground for failed science experiments.
• In Avengers Assemble, Horizon High appeared in the setting of the animated television series in the episode "The Vibranium Curtain, Part 2". After escaping the Vault with Adrian Toomes, Klaue's partner in crime fled to Horizon High where the Vulture provided his fellow escapee with a sonic emitter to power his weapon whilst he gathered his own equipment. However, Toomes then betrayed Klaue intending to turn in the man to the authorities whilst intending to remain free himself. Spider-Man and Black Panther pursued the pair to Horizon High where together they managed to apprehend the two supervillains.

Video games

• In Spider-Man: Edge of Time, Horizon Labs was referenced in the setting of the action-adventure video game.
• In Marvel Avengers Academy, Horizon Labs appeared in the setting of the mobile video game.

Appearances

• Amazing Spider-Man v1: (2011)
• Superior Spider-Man v1:
• Superior Octopus v1:
• Superior Spider-Man v2:

External Links

• Marvel Database Entry
• Comicvine Entry

This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.