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Leader (character)

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The Leader
File:Leaderhulk.PNG
The Leader.
Art by Leonard Kirk.
Publication information
PublisherMarvel Comics
First appearanceTales to Astonish v1 #62 (Dec 1964)
Created byStan Lee
Steve Ditko
In-story information
Alter egoSamuel Sterns
Team affiliationsHumanoids
Freehold
Riot Squad
PartnershipsAbomination
The Chameleon
Rock and Redeemer
U-Foes
AbilitiesSuperhuman intelligence
Psionic powers
Genius-level genetic engineering
Superhuman planning
Genius-level mastermind

The Leader (Samuel Sterns) is a fictional character, a supervillain that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Tales to Astonish #62, [1] and was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. In 2009, The Leader was ranked as IGN's 63rd Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.[2]

Actor Tim Blake Nelson portrays Dr. Samuel Sterns in the 2008 superhero film, The Incredible Hulk.

Fictional character biography

Born Samuel Sterns in Boise, Idaho, he later worked for a chemical plant in a menial capacity. While moving radioactive materials into an underground storage area, some of the radioactive materials exploded, bombarding Sterns with gamma radiation. Sterns recovered, but found that the radiation had changed him from an ordinary human into a green-skinned, super-intelligent entity with an oversized brain housed in a towering cranium. Like most of the early individuals mutated by Gamma radiation, his particular set of abilities was explained as resulting from a subconscious desire, in his case a desire to be as smart as his brother Philip, who was a physicist in the employ of the same facility. He embarked on various ambitious criminal schemes, with the Hulk as his primary nemesis, consistently backed by a self-constructed army of super-strong, virtually invulnerable, plastic Humanoids. This included an attempt to rewrite the Earth's history by infecting the primordial ooze with gamma radiation, recreating society in his image, with himself as a ruler.

The Leader began his career as a would-be conqueror by setting a spy ring to overthrow the U.S. government in place. He dispatched his ally the Chameleon to capture the Hulk for study.[3] His face was then revealed and he constructed and sent his android Humanoids to capture the Hulk.[4] He next dispatched a horde of Humanoids to capture the Hulk and steal Bruce Banner's Absorbatron, a device that could absorb the energy of a nuclear explosion making any nation that possessed it immune to nuclear attack.[5] The Leader succeeded in capturing the Hulk and taking him back to his lab, where the two met face-to-face for the first time. The Hulk eventually broke loose and destroyed most of the Leader's lab, including the Absorbatron, but the Leader managed to escape.[6] Eager to sell his Humanoids to hostile nations, the Leader gave a demonstration of his power by activating a 500-foot-tall Humanoid and ordering it to attack a nearby missile base. The Hulk eventually encountered the Humanoid and managed to thwart the Leader's plans.[7] Curious to learn more about the power of the Hulk, the Leader then rescued the Hulk from the Army, who had cornered the monster in a cave.[8] After operating on the Hulk to save his life, the Leader reminded the Hulk that he was in his debt. Using this leverage, the Leader sent the Hulk to the homeworld of the Watcher to raid the Watcher's "Ultimate Machine", a device containing all the knowledge in the universe.[9] However, this huge amount of knowledge proved too much for the Leader. He collapsed to the ground, unmoving, and the Hulk assumed that he died of shock.[10] General Ross soon discovered the Leader's abandoned base and accidentally activated the "Hulk Killer" a large Humanoid designed to defeat the Hulk.

Later, the Leader reappeared and offered General Ross aid in neutralizing the Hulk.[11] The Leader dispatched the Super-Humanoid to assist the General in seizing control of America's nuclear arsenal.[12] The Leader then hijacked the U.S. Army's Murder Module vehicle, and used it against the Hulk.[13] He freed the Rhino from captivity and sent him against the Hulk.[14] He also dispatched the Glob against the Hulk.[15] The Leader later sent mental projections of the Rhino, Xeron, Namor, the Missing Link, and others against the Hulk, but then suffered a mental breakdown.[16] The Leader then created android duplicates of the President, Vice President, and military personnel in an attempt to kidnap the real President and Vice President.[17] He then superimposed his consciousness upon the Rhino in order to battle the Hulk.[18] He later used the Hulk and the Thing as pawns in a contest with Kurrgo.[19]

Some time later, the Leader briefly took over Gamma Base.[20] Some time after that, he gamma-irradiated Manhattan's water supply in an attempt to mutate humanity like himself.[21] He later activated Arsenal, and then dispatched the Avengers through time.[22]

After a period of time, the gamma radiation in his body began to wear off. At first, the Leader attributed his lapses in concentration to overworking his mind finding ways to defeat his greatest enemy (the Hulk). By the time the Leader realized what was happening, much of the intelligence that could have solved his plight was gone and texts that were once child's play to him were now hopelessly beyond him (he even forgot the access code of his secret base). In this period, he made cash however he could by means fair or foul, until he managed to convince the Gray Hulk to help him regain his intelligence by promising that he would help the latter to remain the Hulk full time (instead of only at night).

Rick Jones had been afflicted with a Hulk-like condition and the Hulk (using Bruce Banner's memories of gamma transfer) devised a machine to transfer all of the gamma radiation from Rick Jones to the Leader. However, this time the mutagenic process was slightly different resulting in a cranium that resembled an over-sized brain, rather than a towering forehead. He was also a lighter shade of green. As a side note, this transfer also created a psychic link between the two.

Soon after this, the Leader would steal the seemingly lifeless body of General Thunderbolt Ross from the back of an ambulance, simply because it was there, and later managed to revive it as a mindless vegetable, which he used as an armored enforcer.

Before long, the Leader's new form was revealed, and he dispatched Half-Life to battle the Hulk.[23] The Leader dispatched an army of four-armed robots against the Hulk, and created Rock and Redeemer.[24]

The Leader dispatched Rock and Redeemer against the Hulk. Following this the Leader engaged in a scheme to detonate a gamma-bomb in a small-town city, Middletown, Arizona, killing over 5,000 people, and the few, now enhanced, survivors provided him with valuable research subjects and superhuman enforcers.[25] With their help, he built a self-sufficient society called Freehold in the Arctic, populated with civilians dying from radiation poisoning. Some time afterward he gave the Hulk information how to find his brother, Philip Sterns, the Madman, since he thought it would be best to put the latter out of his suffering, due to his original personality being slowly and painfully eaten away by the Madman persona.[26]

After Jones' suffered a great mental trauma due to the death of his girlfriend Marlo Chandler, his pain was enough to cause the Leader considerable discomfort, motivating him to work towards the revival of Marlo. At this time Freehold was targeted by a rogue branch of HYDRA terrorists, employing the U-Foes and his followers to invade the covert Pantheon organization, of which Hulk was a member, to coerce them to help him in defending it. He employed something he ironically called the Deus Ex Machina in conjunction with his follower, the gamma-enhanced reverend nicknamed Soul Man, who falsely believed himself to have been blessed by God with spiritual power, rather than given nearly godlike abilities by the Leader, in an effort to revive Marlo and siphon off Soul Man's power for himself. Rick Jones became convinced to accept the help after seeing the mindless, but mobile, body of Thunderbolt Ross.

The Hulk, manipulated by the leader of the Pantheon, Agamemnon, attacked the facility. At the same time, HYDRA decided to storm the base, leading to a multi-sided battle. The Hulk eventually personally attacked the Leader, who, along with Soul Man, seemingly perished in the crossfire. The machine was likewise demolished, causing Marlo to enter a state similar to Ross, but both eventually fully recovered.[27]

The death of the Leader left his follower Omnibus in control of Freehold. Omnibus used mind-control to manipulate several U.S. chiefs of staff, and engineered many high-profile terrorist strikes to incite global warfare, as he reasoned that it was inevitable, and hurrying it along offered him opportunity to enable his personal society to survive and inherit the Earth. Omnibus was eventually exposed by his fellow Freehold citizens, judged to die in the cold, and was eaten by a polar bear. It was hinted that the Leader was influencing Omnibus somehow but it was never made clear how; given the nature of Omnibus' abilities, it is possible that his mere imagining he was somehow possessed made it a practical reality.

A while later, the Hulk, who in his Bruce Banner persona was suffering from a degenerative nervous condition (which would ultimately kill him) was confronted by the Leader once again. Apparently he really had perished when the Deus Ex Machina was destroyed, but his disembodied consciousness had evolved beyond the need for a body. Although he was in the process of building a new body out of random organic materials, in a secluded cave near Gamma Base, he was preparing to leave this level of reality behind altogether, transcending both beyond the physical and his old goals. Yet before he did so, he intended to cure Bruce Banner for reasons all his own. After he had done so, he abandoned his body. However, later still his consciousness once again contacted Banner, apparently shocked by what he had discovered "beyond the veil"; he was unable to return, however, and was not heard from again until much later.

During a time of great personal duress for the Hulk and Bruce Banner, who had begun to merge their personas, it became clear that Home Base, a secret organization who had relentlessly pursued the Hulk in order to obtain his genetic material, was secretly led by the Leader. In the end, after all his other agendas had failed, the Leader finally managed to mind-control the Hulk and guided him towards his secret base, with the intention of taking his indestructible body for himself. Because of intervention by Nadia Blonsky, Betty Ross, Doc Samson, and Iron Man, the plan failed and the Leader died again.

These events, bizarre and nebulous as they seem, may or may not have taken place in this form...they may be partly true, or entirely a construct by the extra-dimensional demon Nightmare in a bid to avenge himself on the Hulk.

At present, the Leader has a body incorporating traits from both his previous incarnations; it is unknown exactly how he acquired it, but it may have been relatively easy, given his history.

The Leader is captured by S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Hulkbusters, and brought to trial for his crimes. He was represented by Attorney Mallory Book from She-Hulk's firm Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway. During the trial, Ms. Book argued that the Leader was not responsible for his actions since the Gamma exposure forcibly changed his personality. To prove her point, Book compared She-Hulk to Jennifer Walters, revealing that Jennifer was much more promiscuous in her She-Hulk form. In the second day of the trial, Leader's humanoid droids arrived to rescue him. Instead of escaping, the Leader called off the attack, opting to see the trial to its conclusion, as he correctly predicted that his defense was going to win. He was found not guilty.[28] It is as yet unclear whether this person is indeed the original leader, or the Samuel Sterns of "Earth-Alpha", the inhabitants of which had been swapping places with their 616 counterparts for a while prior to this trial.

Now a free man (whichever one he may be), the Leader teleported the Hulk's allies, the Warbound, to Nevada. There, he used Hiroim of the Warbound, harnessing his tectonic power to activate a gamma powered shield over a portion of the desert. It is revealed that the Leader is dying, and that he constructed the dome to cure him. Due to a miscalculation, the energy of the dome actually kills him faster.[29] In battle with the Warbound, the Leader is stabbed through the chest with an iron pipe. The Leader then absorbed the power of the dome, turning himself into a gray-skinned giant. Hiroim also absorbed the power, and battled the Leader, draining both of their powers. In death, Hiroim channels his old power into Kate Waynseboro, who attacks the Leader, and forces him to teleport away.

Powers and abilities

The Leader has superhuman mental acumen, as a result of his exposure to an explosion of gamma-irradiated waste. He possesses enhanced intuition, pattern solving, information storage and retrieval, and logical and philosophical structuring. His ability to predict probable outcomes of tactical and strategic scenarios is so advanced that it borders on clairvoyance. The Leader has a perfect memory with the ability to recall every moment since the accident that gave him his powers. In addition to his superhuman intelligence, the Leader has limited but potent telekinetic and telepathic powers. He is able to mentally control non-gamma-mutated individuals upon touching them, and is capable of battling the Hulk with his telekinetic powers.

The Leader possesses knowledge of genetics, physics, and robotics, and has designed a large number of sophisticated weapons, vehicles, computers, androids, and synthetic humanoids. He is particularly adept at genetic engineering and manipulating radiation for various nefarious purposes.

Other versions

Ultimate Leader

The Ultimate version of The Leader made his first appearance in Ultimate Human #1, a miniseries starring Ultimate Iron Man and Ultimate Hulk.[30] This Leader is also the Ultimate version of MI6 agent Pete Wisdom. In the Ultimate universe, Wisdom is an ex-British Intelligence agent thrown out of the organization after testing his "British Enhancile Program" on himself, transforming him into The Leader.[31] Wisdom has psychic and mental abilities similar to the original Leader, but is wheelchair-bound and requires a halo brace to support the weight of his enlarged cranium. The Leader attempts to steal Tony Stark's nanotechnology as Banner and Stark work together to try and incorporate it into Banner's physiology in the hopes that it will grant him control over his transformations into the Hulk. When Stark commands a decoy Iron-Tech robot into the base of the Leader, Banner transforms into the Hulk. The Hulk resists the Leader's influence, and pounds him into the ground. The Leader, almost dead, commands an F-22 down onto the Hulk, ultimately killing Wisdom/Leader.

Marvel Zombies

The Leader makes an appearance as a zombie in Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness in the horde that overtakes and devours The Punisher, and again in Marvel Zombies 3 where he is looking over food and medical supplies that other zombies have found as an offering to a zombie Kingpin and he determines how long each of them can be in a room with human clones to eat.[volume & issue needed]

Other media

Television

Film

Dr. Samuel Sterns appears in the 2008 film, The Incredible Hulk, where he is portrayed by Tim Blake Nelson. In this film, he is a university professor. He is shown trying to help Bruce Banner find a cure for his transformations through encrypted e-mails and online chat under the alias of "Mr. Blue", but has been gamma testing animals, and possibly people, believing he could make humans immune to all diseases using a sample of Banner's gamma-enhanced blood. Emil Blonsky coerces Sterns to give him an injection of Banner's blood. The blood and super soldier serum already in his system transform Blonsky into the Abomination. During the transformation, Sterns is knocked across the room and some of the blood drips into a cut on his head. Sterns' head begins to pulsate and grow slightly, as a grin appears on his face. Nelson is signed on to reprise the role in a future film, where he would become the Leader.[32][33]

Video games

  • The Leader appears in the Hulk video game. He is working to create New Freehold, a place for Gamma-irradiated mutants. He has teleportation powers along with his usual powers. He is voiced by Michael Dobson.[34]
  • Dr. Sterns appears in The Incredible Hulk video game voiced by Tim Blake Nelson.

References

  1. ^ Sanderson, Peter (2007). The Marvel Comics Guide to New York City. New York City: Pocket Books. p. 9. ISBN 1-14653-141-6. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  2. ^ Leader is number 63 , IGN.
  3. ^ Tales to Astonish #62
  4. ^ Tales to Astonish #63
  5. ^ Tales to Astonish #64-65
  6. ^ Tales to Astonish #69
  7. ^ Tales to Astonish #70
  8. ^ Tales to Astonish #72
  9. ^ Tales to Astonish #73
  10. ^ Tales to Astonish #74
  11. ^ Incredible Hulk #115
  12. ^ Incredible Hulk #116-117
  13. ^ Incredible Hulk #123
  14. ^ Incredible Hulk #124
  15. ^ Incredible Hulk #129
  16. ^ Incredible Hulk #139
  17. ^ Incredible Hulk #146-147
  18. ^ Incredible Hulk #157
  19. ^ Marvel Feature #11
  20. ^ Incredible Hulk #223-225
  21. ^ Incredible Hulk Annual #11
  22. ^ Incredible Hulk #280-284
  23. ^ Incredible Hulk #342
  24. ^ Incredible Hulk #343
  25. ^ Incredible Hulk #344-345
  26. ^ Incredible Hulk #366
  27. ^ Incredible Hulk #400
  28. ^ She-Hulk vol.4, #20
  29. ^ World War Hulk: Aftersmash! Warbound #3
  30. ^ Comics Continuum: Tuesday, December 18 2007: Marvel Comics for March
  31. ^ Ultimate Human #1 (January 2008)
  32. ^ Nick de Semlyen (June 2008). "Fight Club". Empire. pp. 66–72.
  33. ^ Shawn Adler (2008-06-12). "'Incredible Hulk' Stars, Director Already Have Wish List For 'Hulk 2': Iron Man, Samson, The Leader And More". MTV.com. Retrieved 2008-06-13.
  34. ^ [1]
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