Leader (Marvel)
Leader is a male comic supervillain who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Samuel Stern
He had a brother by the name of Philip Stern. (Incredible Hulk v1 #367)
He was an ordinary labourer where he was working to load waste material in the sub-cellar of a chemical research plant. It was then that an experimental gamma ray cylinder exploded causing an accident with him being caught in the explosive effect and being bombarded by Gamma Rays. Typically, people were killed with even a fraction of the dosage experienced but he managed to survive. He was taken to the hospital where he was seemingly not affected but began to develop his intelligence and a craving for knowledge. This was until one day he collapsed and when he awoke his cranium had elongated and his skin turned green. (Tales to Astonish v1 #63)
With his great intellect, he organized a vast spy ring as the Leader sought to take over the reins of government. (Tales to Astonish v1 #63)
Impressed by the Hulk's strength, the Leader later convinces him to steal the Watcher's Ultimate Machine, a device containing all the knowledge in the universe. (Tales to Astonish v1 #73)
Eventually, the Leader's mutation destabilizes and he reverts to the form of Samuel Sterns. He convinces the Gray Hulk to transfer the gamma radiation from the recently Hulk-like Rick Jones into himself, and the Leader is restored with a new appearance and a psychic link to Rick. (Incredible Hulk v1 #342) Two former Hulkbusters were convinced to join his ranks and outfitted as Rock and Redeemer. (Incredible Hulk v1 #343) The Leader subsequently detonates a gamma bomb in a small town, Middletown, Arizona, killing over 5,000 people. The few, now enhanced, survivors provide him with valuable research subjects and a group of superhuman enforcers called the Riot Squad. (Incredible Hulk v1 #344) He sent the two to steal a gamma bomb from a US government facility, then had them plant it in Middletown, Arizona. Taunting Hulk with the fact there was a bomb that would go off in mere hours, Leader waited for him to find it before setting Rock and Redeemer on him. In the resulting battle, Hulk was weakened but triumphant, reaching the bomb with minutes remaining. Leader, being a sore loser, had teleported himself, Rock and Redeemer away before manually exploding the bomb. The Leader had shield generators installed around the town, keeping the blast contained, and decimating what would become known as Gammatown. (Incredible Hulk v1 #345) There were only five survivors, who were rounded up by the military. Leader hijacked the vehicle containing them and took them to his under-ice town of Freehold. (Incredible Hulk v1 #346)
The Freehold came under attack when Hydra raided the facility seeking to take control of it. Hulk was sent by Agamemnon, both keeping his promise of aid and allowing Hulk to think he was breaking it by simply handing over the position of Freehold for Hulk to take revenge on Leader for the 5,000 killed in Gammatown. The experiment to bring Marlo back to life had been begun and Leader dispatched Jones to stop Hulk from destroying the process before it was completed. Leader had instruments logging everything Soul Man (Father McCall) did, believing that the man's powers could be duplicated to give himself immortality. However, Hulk burst in and destroyed the machine by throwing Leader into Soul Man and it. The Leader did not come out of the resultant explosion. (Incredible Hulk v1 #400)
Intelligencia
As part of the Intelligencia, he alongside M.O.D.O.K. approached General Ross where they pair offered him power to save his country along with the means of resurrecting his daughter. They warned of the return of the Hulk which came to pass when as the Worldbreaker he arrived during the events of World War Hulk. The Leader worked to control the satellite weapon used against the Hulk that siphoned his gamma energy allowing for the arrest of Bruce Banner where L.M.D.'s disguised as S.H.I.E.L.D. took him into custody to Gamma Base that was under the Intelligencia's control. Whilst there, General Ross agreed to the terms where the gamma energy was used to transform him into the Red Hulk who was to serve as their operative. (Hulk v2 #23)
The comatose Stern was then recovered by Ross who had need of his intellect. Thus, he used the unique radiation that turned him into the Red Hulk on the Leader. This led to his own transformation that saw his skin turning red and he became known as the Red Leader. Ross purged his short-term memory leaving Sterns amnesiac but allowing the Red Hulk to use his intelligence for his operations as the head of a new Thunderbolts team. (Thunderbolts v2 #3)
Around this time, he began to operate in seclusion when he was contacted by an artificial intelligence called Project Omega. The A.I. had been the creation of Doc Green that was a new intelligent incarnation of the Hulk created from his use of Extremis. However, the serum was wearing off and the A.I. went rogue to continue his creators mission even though they had become at odds with one another. Project Omega informed Sterns that Doc Green was on a crusade to remove gamma mutations from the planet and had intended to target the Red Leader. To aid him, he developed countermeasures for a serum Doc Green was using to depower gamma mutates. At this point, the Red Leader created a new gamma mutation that he sent to battle Doc Green when the Hulk arrived at his lab. The mutate was killed and Doc Green used a serum on the Red Leader before departing the scene. The countermeasures then came into effect where they restored his gamma mutation though he was no longer the Red Leader now but rather his original green incarnation. Project Omega then resumed contact with Sterns and intended to form a partnership with him as the A.I. had now taken a new name which was Gammon. (Hulk v3 #13)
Immortal Hulk
He was later imprisoned at a remote facility operated by Shadow Base where he was consulted about a means of killing the Hulk whose return had led to new abilities that made him immortal. However, Stern had no desire to work with the Base as he wanted to kill his arch-enemy himself. Thus, he killed the guards and briefed himself entirely on his quarry. It was then that he learnt of a genetically altered being with the powers of the Hulk called Weapon H and factored the renegade Weapon X experiment into his plans. He secretly monitored Weapon H and through hidden means infected him with a Gamma-virus whereupon he leaked information about him to Bruce Banner. Banner sought to confront Weapon H who he deemed a threat leading to a fight between the two Hulk-like beings. Both became infected with the virus whereupon the Hulk was debilitated and the Leader revealed himself on the scene with him demanding Weapon H kill his foe. Weapon H refused and the Leader decided to threaten his family but this resulted in Clay Cortez taking his rage out against Stern's who was forced to flee. He was nearly killed until the sudden arrival of Wolverine who had come on the scene. (Hulkverines v1 #1) Afterwards, he departed the company of Dr. Alba in order to continue his experiments regarding the Green Door. It was then that he intercepted a message from the next universe that warned of a calamity that would bring about their cosmos's destruction with this centering on the Hulk. Thus, the Leader looked to ensure this reality came to pass where gods and devils formed their own existence with him intending to fully open the Green Door. (Immortal Man v1 #34)
Ending up in the Below-Place, he encountered Brian Banner where he stated that he was a fan of his work in using the Green Door to take possession of gamma mutate bodies in a way that the Leader could not accomplish. The elder Banner though revealed that he was simply a pawn of the One Below All who was using him to interact in the mortal planes. Sterns then offered Brian to be freed from this servitude as the Leader intended to work with the One Below All as a partner in achieving the cosmic beings goal. Brian Banner agreed in the belief that this might he could return to the world of the living but the Leader simply consumed his mind into his own where he gained the One Below All's mark. Thus, the Leader had the support of the cosmic devil along with the memories as well as persona of Brian Banner to enact his scheme against the Hulk. (Immortal Hulk v1 #39) He then orchestrated a plan to take over the body of the Hulk whereby he used a Green Door to access his foe's mind when he experienced a telepathic attack from Xemnu. Once inside, he imprisoned the Devil Hulk persona deep within the innerworld of Banner's mindscape to prevent the alter from helping Bruce. Sterns then arranged to have Banner killed so that the Leader could commandeer his body by co-opting the Green Scar persona. (Immortal Hulk v1 #38) Using his powers, he then went into the mind of Delbert Frye who was a gamma mutate experiment being studied at Shadow Base Site A. Once in his mind, he saw that Frye was repeating the moment when his father had injected him with a serum that led to his transformation into a gamma mutate where he began seeing a Green Door. The Leader took over Frye's form and broke free from containment where he attacked Doc Samson who was at the base. This was in order to use a brief death experienced by Frye and Samson to experience events past the Green Door in the Below-Place. Once there, they saw the Red Door where the Leader stated that he had his sights on much a much bigger game than Doc Samson. Meanwhile, Gamma Flight were engaged in a fight against the Hulk that was all part of the Leaders manipulations where he intended them to use a weapon to kill the Green Goliath. Once deployed, the Leader then hijacked the body of the Hulk and took over it at the moment of his death. (Immortal Hulk v1 #37) He came to shackle the Hulk alters and began to torture Banner from within his mind but this act simply angered the Devil Hulk who broke his prison to fight the Leader. (Immortal Hulk v1 #38) Sterns was nearly beaten but then took on the form of Brian Banner to give pause to the Hulk alters with the Savage Hulk holding back the Devil Hulk as he could not bear the thought of their father being killed. This distraction gave the Leader an advantage where he managed to turn the tables against the Devil Hulk and decapitated the alter whereupon he took Bruce Banner deeper into his own mind to be chained up whilst his body fell to Stern's control. (Immortal Hulk v1 #39)
Overview
Personality and attributes
Following his transformation, he considered himself one of the greatest brains that had ever lived and that his former life as an unskilled labourer was meaningless with him seeing himself only as the Leader. (Tales to Astonish v1 #63)
The accident that transformed him gave him a brief glimpse of the Green Door but he could not remember his encounter with the realm beyond it. Thus, many of the events as the Leader involved encountering that realm again but he could only retain bits and pieces of his experiences from each of his deaths. Eventually, he came to encounter the entity beyond the Green Door and became horrified at its existence. (Immortal Man v1 #34) Sterns said that he found a joy in experimenting with forces that mankind were not meant to control. (Immortal Hulk v1 #37)
He said that the worst thing that his father had ever done to him was forget his birthday. (Immortal Hulk v1 #37)
Powers and abilities
It was said that his physiology was permanently altered as a result of his original gamma radiation exposure. (Thunderbolts v2 #3) His superhuman intellect contained was based slowly on raw brain power making him easily the smartest man on the planet. (Thunderbolts v2 #6) Unlike other minds, the Leaders was said to not be burdened with limitations with it being unique as it was able to comprehend things others could not do so. (Thunderbolts v2 #5)
Though given vast mental potential, he quickly reached the limit of what his brain was capable of accomplishing despite the fact that his intellectual capacity was boundless. This was because his physical body was incapable of containing that knowledge. Thus, he devised a means of storing large scale data through remote data storage which he achieved by uploading his brain onto the internet. Billions of tiny encoded data packets contained his vast knowledge that was hidden throughout cyberspace with it only being accessible by him or those that knew the code to unlock it. (Thunderbolts v2 #6) The vast amount of encrypted data was parsed among billions of networks on the internet with the decrypted and combined data essentially being the sum total of his intellect. It was able to search for the Leader and sought to establish a connection with him where it could communicate through electronic devices such as texts or phone call. (Thunderbolts v2 #11) This data was so vast that it could overwhelm normal minds and lead to their death. (Thunderbolts v2 #6)
Among his creations included:
- Kinetron Mitts : gloves connected to a backpack that reflected kinetic energy back at the attacker. (Incredible Hulk v2 #225)
- Sternbots : a type of nanobots able to alter a bodies cells allowing them to contain and use Gamma Energy. (Incredible Hulk v1 #717)
He often made use of creations known as Humanoids who he considered all-powerful and the only thing worthy of serving him. (Tales to Astonish v1 #63) The Leader was able to deploy large number of Humanoids at a moments notice by dropping capsules to the ground that grew into Humanoids. (Incredible Hulk v1 #610)
By researching the Green Door, he came to learn the means of travelling to and from the Below-Place at will. (Immortal Hulk v1 #34)
A result of him being a gamma mutation meant that he often resurrected with his body reforming sometime after a death. (Immortal Man v1 #34)
Notes
- The Leader was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko where he made his first appearance in Tales to Astonish v1 #62 (December, 1964).
- In an interview on CBR, writer Al Ewing commented on the character, "He's uniquely placed as the Hulk's arch-enemy - not an equal type of force against the Hulk, like the Abomination, but an opposite one. Which means he shares the Hulk's status as an archetypal figure - as I've said in previous interviews, if Hulk really is the strongest one there is, then "will this villain prove stronger" is a non-question. Enemies have to challenge him on different ground or either the story is dull or it doesn't feel real. Similarly, the Leader has to be the smartest one there is, or he doesn't work. So everything becomes part of the plan, every defeat is just a cog in a larger machine. Given time and resources, the Leader will out-think any foe. You can't beat him in a rational contest of minds, which is why the Hulk is a great foe for him, since the Hulk represents the irrational unconscious."
Alternate Versions
In other media
Television
- In The Marvel Super Heroes, the Leader appeared as an antagonist in "The Incredible Hulk" segments of the 1966 animated television series where he was voiced by actor Gillie Fenwick.
- In Hulk, the Leader appeared as an antagonist in the 1990s animated television series where actor Matt Frewer reprised the role.
- In The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the Leader made a number of appearances in the animated television series where he was voiced by actor Jeffrey Combs.
- In Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., the Leader appeared as an antagonist in the animated television series where he was voiced by actor James Arnold Taylor.
- In Avengers Assemble, the Leader appeared in the animated television series starting in Avengers: Ultron Revolution where he was once again voiced by actor James Arnold Taylor.
- In Marvel Future Avengers, the Leader appeared in the setting of the anime series where he was voiced by Japanese actor Yoshihito Sasaki and English actor Benjamin Diskin in the dub.
Films
- In The Incredible Hulk, Samuel Sterns appeared in the live-action film where he was portrayed by actor Tim Blake Nelson.
Video games
- In Incredible Hulk, the Leader appeared as the main antagonist in the 1994 video game.
- In Hulk, the Leader appeared as an antagonist in the video game that followed the live-action film where he was voiced by actor Michael Dobson.
- In Marvel: Avengers Alliance, the Leader appeared as a villain in the setting of the Facebook video game where he appeared in Spec Ops 32. He was shown as being responsible for kidnapping Betty Ross and turning her into the Red She-Hulk.
- In Marvel Avengers Academy, the Leader appeared as a playable character in the setting of the mobile video game.
Appearances
- Tales to Astonish v1: (1964)
- Incredible Hulk v1:
- Hulk v2:
- Thunderbolts v2:
- Hulk v3:
- Hulkverines v1:
- Immortal Hulk v1:
External Links
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