Graviton (Marvel)
Graviton is a male comic supervillain who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Franklin Hall was a scientist working at a private physics research facility called Research City in the Canadian Rockies on a practical teleportation device. In the midst of an experiment, Hall attempted to align a set of matrices and induce teleportation, but only succeeded in overloading the power handling capacity of his equipment, causing an explosion that intermingled his molecules with the sub-nuclear graviton particles that were being generated in a nearby series of companion particle accelerators. Recovering from the accident, Hall discovered that he could mentally control gravity. At first he tried to hide his vast powers, believing he would be shunned as a freak of nature, but the urge to use them was too great to resist, and soon Hall used his abilities openly. To his pleasure, people began to fear him, and he started to take whatever and whomever he desired. (Avengers v1 #158)
Eventually Hall, a man of great ambition, designed a costume, and began to call himself Graviton, taking over the research facility, and forbidding all communications with the outside world. Realizing the danger, one of Graviton's former colleagues, a young man named Joe, managed to send a distress signal to the Avengers in New York. Furious, Graviton used his power to lift the facility several thousands of feet into the sky before threatening to 'make an example' of Joe by crushing his body. Joe was only saved when his wife Judy Parks, the unwilling object of Graviton's affections, used her influence with Graviton to make him stop his torture. During Graviton's attempts to court Judy, the Avengers tried to rescue the facility. Despite their best efforts, the team quickly discovered that they were no match for the new master of gravity, who was full of confidence in his vast powers and wielded them with great skill. (Avengers v1 #158)
With the Avengers as his prisoners, Graviton brought Research City to a halt over New York itself, were he engaged in a titanic battle with Iron Man and Thor. In the fury of battle, Graviton was tricked into thinking that Judy had committed suicide, and angrily unleashed sufficient power to cause the matter of the sky-borne laboratory to collapse inwardly around him. The matter of the facility was infused with the atoms of his body for a time, giving his new 60-foot form a massive gravitational field. Eventually, however, he was able to separate his organic atoms from the atoms of the land mass he had merged with. (Avengers v1 #159)
He was later brought together with a number of other villains by the Scientist Supreme Andrew Forson where they became the new High Council of A.I.M.. Hall served as the Minister of Science in the new Barbuda-based A.I.M. government. (Secret Avengers v2 #2)
Franklin Hall came to be possessed by Gravitation who was the abstract being representing the spirit of the big crunch and was the daughter of Eternity. Alongside Explosion and Entropy, the cosmic beings looked to bring about the end of the universe with Graviton sent to attack the Starbrand and Nightmask. (Starbrand & Nightmask v1 #3)
Overview
Personality and attributes
Powers and abilities
Notes
- Graviton was created by Jim Shooter and Sal Buscema where he made his first appearance in Avengers v1 #158 (April, 1977).
In other media
Television
- In The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Graviton appeared in the animated television series in the episode "The Breakout" where he was voiced by actor Fred Tatasciore.
- In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Franklin Hall appeared in the live-action television series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the episode "The Asset" where he was portrayed by actor Ian Hart. He was a Canadian physicist who discovered the existence of a new element known as Gravitonium that had the power to manipulate gravity and worked alongside his lab partner Ian Quinn in attempting to control it.
Films
- In Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher, Graviton appeared in the animated film in a non-voiced role where he was among the supervillains that attended the Leviathan weapons auction.
Video games
Appearances
- Avengers v1: (1977)
- Secret Avengers v2:
- Starbrand and Nightmask v1:
External Links
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