Needing minions for his revenge on Hank Pym and pursuit of personal power, Egghead recruited a team of super-criminals to become the next Masters of Evil at his service.
Membership: Egghead, Moonstone, Tiger Shark, Scorpion, Whirlwind, Beetle, Shocker, Radioactive Man
First appearance: Avengers (1st series) #222
Before
- Whirlwind retained a secret identity as "Charles the chauffeur" of Janet van Dyne for quite some time. Eventually, however, Hank Pym noticed when Whirlwind demonstrated awareness of Yellowjacket's new molecular disruptor gun in a fight, when the prototype had only been shown to Jan and Charles before that moment. Whirlwind was ultimately unmasked and sent to prison, his double identity exposed for all to see. [Avengers (1st series) #139-140]
- As Yellowjacket, Hank Pym fell on hard times. A nervous breakdown and inferiority complex led to him making mistake after mistake, getting dishonorably discharged from the Avengers and divorced by the Wasp after he struck her in rage. His old enemy, Egghead, preyed on Hank's weakness and arranged for him to be framed for criminal charges and sent to prison awaiting trial. [Avengers (1st series) #211-213,217]
Chronology
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Avengers (1st series) #222: |
Hoping to secure personal power for his glory years by inventing a means of eternal youth, Egghead realized he would need minions for the endeavor. He arranged for Tiger Shark to be freed from an Atlantean prison, and Tiger Shark in turn to free Moonstone, Scorpion and Whirlwind from Riker's Island. Although the quartet agreed to become his new Masters of Evil, the recalcitrant Whirlwind had become obsessed with Janet van Dyne. He overpowered her new chauffeur and attempted to force himself on her outside of Avengers Mansion. Their struggle brought the rest of the Avengers and the Masters of Evil together in a brawl earlier than Egghead intended, and his lackeys were all captured by the heroes. |
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Avengers (1st series) #228: |
After another wave of break-outs, Egghead reimagined his Masters of Evil with Moonstone and Tiger Shark joined by new recruits Beetle, Shocker and Radioactive Man. Shocker and Tiger Shark came to blows over harsh words during one of their industrial thefts, but Egghead got his lackeys back in line for their next mission. As the trial of Hank Pym began, the Masters of Evil broke through the wall of the courthouse and whisked Pym away into an airship. The Avengers were present at the trial, but only succeeded in capturing Shocker. Egghead had planned for this, and previously had mentally conditioned Shocker to claim Hank Pym arranged for the Masters to free him, further tarnishing Hank's reputation. Back at his laboratory, Egghead showed the news to Pym and, convincing him that he was a fugitive with nowhere else to go, got his nemesis to agree to assist in his eternal youth experiments. |
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Avengers (1st series) #229: |
Not nearly as defeated as he appeared, Hank Pym secretly modified Egghead's equipment right under his nose to create a series of defenses and counter-measures against the Masters of Evil. Using nothing but the equipment on hand, Hank engineered the defeat of Moonstone, Beetle, Tiger Shark and Radioactive Man single-handedly. Although the Avengers finally recognized Egghead's hand in Hank's downfall, and unlocked Shocker's real memories of his mission, they arrived at Egghead's lair just as Hank finished mopping up the Masters. Hawkeye saw Pym personally deck Egghead and walk away satisfied with his victory. When Egghead pulled a gun on the departing Hank Pym, Hawkeye leapt into action and fired an arrow, blocking the barrel of the gun and causing a backfire, which inadvertently killed Egghead. |
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Avengers (1st series) #230: |
In the aftermath, a defeated Moonstone offered to give testimony on Egghead's plans to clear Hank Pym's name in exchange for leniency from the prosecutor. Hank Pym scattered the ashes of his arch-nemesis, and then spoke out at the Avengers inquiry into Hawkeye's actions, clearing him of any wrongdoing in the death of Egghead. Declaring his life as a super-hero behind him, Hank left his Yellowjacket gear at Avengers Mansion and walked out with his head held high. |
Afterwards
- Moonstone was incarcerated in Project: PEGASUS after her defeat in order to study her energy manipulating abilities. She led a brief riot and breakout there after meeting her fellow prisoner, Blackout. [Avengers (1st series) #236-238]
- Egghead returned from the dead many years later thanks to the influence of a Rejuvetech serum. [Ant-Man Annual #1]
Membership
Egghead (Elihas Starr)
First appearance: Tales to Astonish #38
First Masters III appearance: Avengers (1st series) #222
Last appearance: Avengers (1st series) #229
All Masters III appearances: Avengers (1st series) #222,228-229
Powers: electronic genius, carries a laser pistol and egg-shaped explosive or snare devices, and teleportation equipment
Whirlwind (David Cannon)
First appearance: Tales to Astonish #50
First Masters III appearance: Avengers (1st series) #222
All Masters III appearances: Avengers (1st series) #222
Powers: mutant with superhuman reflexes and able to rotate himself at phenomenal speeds, allowing him to spin at high velocities to propel himself forward, deflect projectiles, direct jet streams of hurricane force wind, and create small tornados, uses wrist-mounted buzzsaws and shuriken launched from his belt
Tiger Shark (Todd Arliss)
First appearance: Sub-Mariner (1st series) #5
First Masters III appearance: Avengers (1st series) #222
All Masters III appearances: Avengers (1st series) #222, 228-230
Powers: restructured with the genetic patterns of an Atlantean and a tiger shark, giving him superhuman strength, speed, endurance, reflexes, thick resilient flesh with high resistance to physical harm, gills for breathing underwater, strength that increases while in contact with water, aquatically adapted vision, a large dorsel fin and razor tipped fangs and claws
Moonstone II (Karla Sofen)
First appearance: Captain America (1st series) #192
First Masters III appearance: Avengers (1st series) #222
All Masters III appearances: Avengers (1st series) #222, 228-230
Powers: merged with Kree lifestone that gives her superhuman strength, endurance, reflexes, and invulnerability, flight, allow her to survive in the vacuum of space, morph the cosmetic appearance of her costume, and the ability to manipulate gravity fields to send her molecules into an intangible state, and redirect photon packets to produce blinding flashes of light and fire concussive laser blasts
Scorpion (MacDonald Gargan)
First appearance: Amazing Spider-Man (1st series) #19
First Masters III appearance: Avengers (1st series) #222
All Masters III appearances: Avengers (1st series) #222
Powers: radiation treatments grafted scorpion genomes into his cells, giving him superhuman strength, agility, endurance, recuperation, highly-resilient flesh, and pincer-like fingertips, Model I tail mechanism acts as a bludgeon or spring coil and fires plasma blasts
Beetle (Abner Ronald Jenkins)
First appearance: Strange Tales (1st series) #123
First Masters III appearance: Avengers (1st series) #228
All Masters III appearances: Avengers (1st series) #228-230
Powers: battle suit uses electronic fields and exoskeleton to provide superhuman strength and reaction, armored resistance to physical damage, suction feelers in the gauntlets, harnesses electrons through antenna for "electro-bite" discharges, retractable wings enabling flight, and an on-board battle computer to analyze and counter opponents
Shocker (Herman Schultz)
First appearance: Amazing Spider-Man (1st series) #46
First Masters III appearance: Avengers (1st series) #228
All Masters III appearances: Avengers (1st series) #228
Powers: vibro-shock units generate powerful vibratory fields which can be directed as shockwave discharges to shatter or crumble nearby objects, additional force behind his fists, and a vibro-field along the surface of his padded costume that makes it impossible to touch or hold him
Radioactive Man (Chen Lu)
First appearance: Journey into Mystery #93
First Masters III appearance: Avengers (1st series) #228
All Masters III appearances: Avengers (1st series) #228-230
Powers: exposure to a massive amount of specific-particle radiation turned him into a living nuclear reactor, able to sense sources of radioactivity, augment his physical strength, release ambient radiation to cause nausea, sickness, and cellular decay in others, drain radioactivity from his environment, generate incinerating heat and blinding or hypnotic flashes of light, and channel hard radiation into focused concussive energy, protective force screens, or explosive charges