Villains published by
Marvel Comics.
Red Ghost and his Super-Apes were
created by
Stan Lee and
Jack Kirby and first appeared in
Fantastic Four #13.
Ivan Kragoff was a brilliant Soviet scientist who was obsessed with
the Fantastic Four and particularly their leader Reed Richards.
Kragoff spent a good deal of his time studying the accident that lead
the four adventurers to gain their amazing powers. Believing that he
could repeat the circumstances of the experiment, he approached the
Soviet government and requested that they allow Kragoff and his
three pet apes to be shot into space, in an attempt to gain super-powers.
The Soviet government, awash in cash, deemed that this was a wise use
of funds and authorized the trip.
It turns out that Kragoff was a much better evil scientist than anyone
knew, because he had a number of contingencies built into his plan that
his superiors were unaware of. First, Kragoff was able to plan that
he and his apes would be shot into space at the same time that the
Fantastic Four were travelling to the Moon. And even more amazing,
Kragoff was able to arrange circumstances so that a rocket set to do a simple orbit of the
earth was instead capable of travelling to the Moon and returning.
Kragoff and his apes lifted off in the rocket and travelled through
a belt of cosmic rays endowing each of them with amazing powers. The
quartet landed on the Moon and attacked the Fantastic Four using their
new powers. Kragoff had gained the power to become intangible and
dubbed himself Red Ghost. Each of his apes gained a unique ability,
as well as heightened intelligence, allowing them to understand complex
instructions. The apes, who Kragoff now referred to as his "Super-Apes" were:
- Mikhlo, a gorilla, who gained super strength. His strength matches that
of the Thing
- Peotor, an orangutan, who gained the ability to create magnetic fields and
therefore became the simian version of Magneto
- Igor, a baboon, who gained the ability to transform into any object.
The four battled the Fantastic Four, but were eventually defeated. They escaped and have
clashed with Reed Richards and his team on a number of ocassions since then.