ALGERNON

Real Name: Algernon

Identity/Class: Extra-dimensional (Earth 238) Rodent mutate

Occupation: A true gentleman does not need an occupation

Group Membership: None

Affiliations:  Old Bert (derelict)

Enemies: The Avant Guard, Dimples, Lord Mandragon

Known Relatives:  None

Aliases: The Rat Thing

Base of Operations: A storm sewer tunnel on the edge of Saturnyne's base,
Earth 238

First Appearance:  Marvel Superheroes#379 (November, 1981)

Powers/Abilities: Is a perfect gentleman - for example he knows to pour tea with his little finger upraised and has "taste in dress and interior design". Which isn't much of a power admittedly,  but is pretty good going for a rat.

History: (Marvel Superheroes#379) - Following the trail of fluid that seems to have been the cause of the evolution of the Junkheap that Walked Like a Man, Captain Britain finds a humanoid rat enjoying a cuppa at the other end. Having true manners, the rat offers the intruding hero a cuppa too.

(Marvel Superheroes#380) - Captain Britain engages the rodent, who introduces himself as Algernon, in polite conversation. The hero identifies the brew he is offered as the same liquid that appeared to mutate the Junk monster, and finds that Algernon remembers the last six months or so, but is unsure of his own origins prior to that. Their conversation is being monitored by Dimples, assistant to Saturnyne. Rather than risk Algernon telling the Captain something that might threaten the Push, Dimples sends the Avant Guard in.

 

Meanwhile back in the tunnel the inebriated elf Jackdaw teleports in. He mistakes the bewildered Algernon for Seamus, an old crony from his campaign days. Just as the two heroes are about to depart, the Avant Guard arrive and a fight ensues. They use their umbrella weapons to send Britain and Jackdaw into another dimension, but they swiftly return, courtesy of Jackdaw's own dimension hopping abilities. Since this ploy has failed, the Guard resort to the devolvo-ray. Captain Britain dodges the initial blast, but Algernon is struck instead, and reverts to being a normal rat.

(Marvel Superheroes#388) - Algernon is one of the nightmare visions that Mad Jim Jaspers taunts Captain Britain with at his mad tea party.

(Daredevils#1) - When Merlyn is rebuilding the deceased Captain Britain's memories, we see Algernon among his recollections of the Crooked World he has just escaped from.

(Daredevils#6-BTS) - Algernon is presumably destroyed when Lord Mandragon obliterates Earth 238.

Comments: Created by David Thorpe and Alan Davis.

Captain Britain was also regressed by the devolvo-ray, and turned into a chimp. The leaking evolutionary fluid swiftly undid this damage, so it's not too much to hope that it did the same for Algernon as well. And since he was staying right next door to Saturnyne and her dimension hopping equipment, maybe he escaped his home dimension before it was destroyed by Mandragon. Okay, so I'm stretching, but I liked Algernon and feel he deserves another chance.

Algernon's name may serve as a reference to the novel Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, in which a rodent undergoes an experiment and receives heightened intelligence. Note that Keyes worked for Timely/Atlas.
--Per Degaton

CLARIFICATIONS: No known connections to:

Appearances:
Marvel Superheroes#379-380 (November-December, 1981) - Dave Thorpe (writer), Alan Davis (artist), Paul Neary (editor)
Marvel Superheroes#388 (August, 1982) - Alan Moore (writer), Alan Davis (artist), Bernie Jaye (editor)
Daredevils#1 (1982) - Alan Moore (writer), Alan Davis (artist), Bernie Jaye (editor)
Daredevils#6 (June, 1983) - Alan Moore (writer), Alan Davis (artist), Bernie Jaye (editor)

Last updated: 08/16/02

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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