The High Evolutionary is a supervillain who first appeared in Marvel Comics The Mighty Thor #134.

Young Herbert Edgar Wyndham was a geneticist with a god complex. Like most supervillains, his mania is his focus on a single goal: find the key to evolution. In true comic book style, this Doctor Frankenstein would come to create a new race of creatures, and even a new planet for them. His goal of remaking all life in his vision of perfection would lead him into trouble with superheroes and villains time and time again. Thor, the Hulk, the Avengers and the X-Men have all fought against the High Evolutionary, and he is the ultimate cause behind the Jackal, a menace that nearly drive Spider-Man insane with his hideous clones.

The High Evolutionary is a character that plays upon the fear of genetic manipulation. From cloning to mutation to splicing of genes, the monsters that result from his experiments are all too possible. Much like the classic stories of Dr. Frankenstein or Dr. Moreau, the High Evolutionary meddles with nature in order to control it.

Anything you can do, I can do better...

The High Evolutionary is a geneticist of the highest order. He has mastered the art of changing the structure of living things to his suit his whims. Like most supervillain geniuses, he has also mastered engineering, which he uses to create his tools of mutation. His fortresses, laboratories and unique silver and purple head-to-toe armor are all products of his mind. He also used the secret of evolution on himself, giving him the power to create Counter-Earth, an alternate earth on the opposite side of the Sun. His armor allows him to withstand incredible damage, provides complete life support, and can even create a whole new body for Wyndham, should the need arise. It also allows him to communicate in any language, as well as alerting him of threats to any of his creations, which he can protect with a variety of weapons, energy blasts or by creating new life on demand. In addition to these fantastic powers, Wyndham can project his mind from his body, levitate, mask his presence from the minds of those around him and read thoughts. These powers are all a result of his work, both mechanical and biological.


History of the High Evolutionary's quest for perfection

Herbert Edgar Wyndham was a student at Oxford University in the 1930's who built a machine capable of accelerating genetic evolution. His experiments provoked fear and anger among his classmates, forcing Wyndham to leave the university to continue his research in secret. Joined by his friend Jonathan Drew, Wyndham found the site for his facility on Wundagore Mountain in Transia. After building a massive citadel, the two partners discovered a huge uranium deposit, which they mined to fund their research. In a matter of years, they built a center of advanced scientific research. Wyndham began to use his discoveries on himself, increasing his intelligence, speeding the rate of his research and the degree of his madness.

Wyndham's partnership with Drew soon came to an end. Drew's daughter, after having lived on top of uranium mine for so long, was dying from radiation poisoning. Both men struggled to find a treatment to save her. Wyndham developed a system that would take years to save Jessica, during which she would be frozen cryogenically. Tragedy again struck when Drew's wife Merriam was killed by a wolf-like beast. Drew became consumed by grief, and he left Wundagore, leaving his daughter to Wyndham for treatment. Jessica Drew would one day become Spider-Woman, mutated in a similar way to Spider-Man.

Frightened by the death of Drew's wife, Wyndham created the High Evolutionary Armor. He then used his vast knowledge of genetics to create a new race of man. Inspired by the werewolf like creature that killed Drew's wife, Wyndham's "New Men" where animals with humanoid posture and intelligence. To protect his Wundagore mountain stronghold, Wyndham trained his New Men in the chivalrous arts of a sixth century knights, founding the Order of the Knights of Wundagore. It was at this time that Wyndham dubbed himself Lord High Evolutionary.

For many years, the High Evolutionary worked on his creations in peace and obscurity. He slowly transformed his citadel into a massive starship, which he used to take his knights to a new planet (called Wundagore II) that they could rule as their own. Wyndham knew that his New Men would never be free to roam the earth because of their strange appearances and powers. Leaving his New Men on Wundagore II and releasing them from his service, the High Evolutionary began his greatest work.

After building a moonlike satellite, Wyndham began creating a detailed copy of Earth. Hiding the planet from the prying eyes of the world by placing it on the opposite side of the sun, the Evolutionary ruled Counter-Earth as a god. Soon after its completion, Galactus tried to consume Counter-Earth, but he was driven away. Peaceful and satisfied, the High Evolutionary was startled to find his planet being towed off into space by aliens. The Planet Movers of Pegasus, an extraterrestrial company of contractors, had been hired to acquire Counter-Earth for a race known as the Beyonders (not the Beyonder, another powerful being). His entire planet was placed in a museum of curiosities, and the evolutionary perfection of the Beyonder race drove Wyndham insane. Attempting suicide, Wyndham discovered that his armor protected him from all bodily harm, even self-inflicted. Returning to Earth, he searched for a being strong enough to kill him and end his misery.

The Incredible Hulk would serve as Wyndham's executioner. After enraging the gamma-powered monster, the High Evolutionary let the Hulk beat him to near death. The High Evolutionary Armor, seeking to save its master, devolved the Evolutionary into a mass of one-celled organisms. After escaping the attentions of the Hulk, the armor restored Wyndham to his previous state.

Returning to sanity, and seeing his work again unfulfilled, the High Evolutionary began amassing resources and building forces. The evolution of all life on Earth into the perfection he created on Counter-Earth would again be his goal! Around the world, the High Evolutionary dabbled and experimented, reviving the once-dead paradise of the Savage Land in Antarctica, which had been destroyed by Terminus, experimenting on the Subterraneans, and causing strange mutations worldwide. The conflict that became known as the Evolutionary War began! Naturally, this brought him and his forces into conflict with a number of Earth's superhero teams. The Avengers ultimately foiled the Evolutionary's plans when the god Hercules triggered one of the "genetic bombs" Wyndham was going to use to evolve the Earth. The device instead evolved Hercules and the Evolutionary's physiology to a state beyond godhood, which caused them to fade from reality, to parts unknown.

The super-evolution of Hercules and the High Evolutionary had drawn the attention of the godlike Celestials, beings who had meddled in the development of man in the pre-history of Earth. They captured the pair and imprisoned them in the Black Galaxy. The Avenger Thor discovered the High Evolutionary's fortress on Wundagore mountain, within which he discovered what happened. Thor rescued the pair from their imprisonment. Fascinated by the Celestials, the High Evolutionary again turned Wundagore into a starship and returned to the Black Galaxy. After witnessing the birth of a Celestial, his mind was overwhelmed and he fell into a state of catatonia. Returning to Earth, Wyndham has remained in the shadows.

Imperfect life always gets in his way!

During the Spider-Man Clone Saga, an important connection between Professor Miles Warren, aka the Jackal, and the High Evolutionary was revealed. Warren was an assistant to the Evolutionary who was banished for his unauthorized experiments with cloning. Clones of Spider-Man and important members of his life that had plagued Spider-Man for years had been made possible by the knowledge Warren gained from the High Evolutionary. The High Evolutionary also admitted to planting information and misleading Spider-Man in order to hide his connection to the Jackal.

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