The Midnight Monster

Real Name: Victor Avery

Identity/Class: Human mutate

Occupation: Former scientist

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Unnamed former lover; unnamed cat (mutated by Avery)

Enemies: Bill Cooper, the penniless engineer (former lover’s husband).

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Mobile

First Appearance: Journey Into Mystery I#79/1 (April, 1962)

 

 

Powers: The Midnight Monster’s primary powers are immortality and invulnerability. His thick, elephant-like hide can repel policeman’s bullets and bazooka shells. He also has super-human strength probably class ten, as he ripped up a tree and smashed tanks with no trouble at all.

 

History: (Journey into Mystery I#79) - Victor Avery was a wealthy, handsome, but arrogant scientist who had created a serum that would mutate life-forms to become immortal. After testing it on a rose, he found it was a success, but the rose grew huge and ugly as a side effect. Ignoring the protests of his friends, Victor then tested it on a cat, and it was successful again. But the cat mutated like the rose did, transforming into a snarling monster.

 

Weeks later, Victor attended a classy party and caught sight of a beautiful woman and immediately wanted her for his own. He wooed her, but a few weeks later she told him that she was in love with Bill Cooper, a graduate of engineering school, and they were going to get married. Enraged that she has chosen a penniless engineer over him, Victor vowed revenge.

For days, he stewed in his anger, until in a moment of rash action he seized his serum and downed the entire tube. Almost immediately afterwards, Victor became immortal but mutated into a lumpy, gray-skinned monster. He set out to gain revenge on his former lover and Bill. He lumbered his way across the city and climbed up a building to break into Bill’s apartment. But he found that another man was occupying the apartment and Bill had moved out after getting married. Victor decided to hunt them down and kill them both.

He stormed into the office of one of Bill’s professors to find out where they had gone. Although the professor shot him several times, the bullets bounced away harmlessly. Under interrogation, the professor revealed that Bill had gone west seeking an engineering job. Victor shambled across the countryside by night, earning the name of The Midnight Monster from the terrified townspeople he encountered.

Meanwhile in a tension filled conference room in Washington, the military made a plan to stop the menace of the Midnight Monster. A couple of nights later, the Midnight Monster overheard on a television set inside a person’s house that the government had challenged the Monster to pit his strength against their new ‘ray-machine’ at the outskirts of Los Alamos. Angered, the Midnight Monster stole a jeep and took off. The next day he arrived and found a small squad of soldiers and a futuristic ‘ray machine’. The Midnight Monster lumbered towards them, only to fall into a concealed near-bottomless pit. Being immortal, the Midnight Monster obviously survived the fall but was trapped forever. Meanwhile the military thanked Bill, who with his fine engineering skills built the worlds deepest hole in record time.

Bill Cooper

 

The penniless engineer who married the woman Avery loved, prompting him to become the Midnight Monster. It was he who dug the hole, in which the Midnight Monster was trapped.

--JiM#79

 

 

 

 

cat

 

The first animal test subject of Avery.

--JiM#79

 

 

 

 

Created by: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

Comments: I like the Midnight Monster a lot, and think he deserves a comeback. How about having him finally climbing out of that pit after all these years and continue his quest for revenge. He would make a decent Hulk opponent. Or perhaps he could fight It, The Living Colossus?

Another thing is, somewhere there must be an immortal, giant mutant cat lurking around.
Yeah, where's that cat at anyway???? And how 'bout them roses???? I see a mini-series here!!--Snood.

This story was reprinted in Fear#6/1, February 1972

Thanks to Prime Eternal for identifying the original issue in which this story appeared.

Profile by Ben Peberdy, Spaceknight.

Clarifications:
The Midnight Monster has no known connection to:

Bill, the penniless engineer has no relation to:

 

 

 

 

images: (without ads)

Last updated: 10/08/02

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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