PROFESSOR ZAXTON

Real Name: Lawrence Zaxton (see comments)

Identity/Class: Human technology user

Occupation: Scientist/inventor

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Thor duplicate

Enemies: Thor (Odinson)

Known Relatives: His duplicate ("brother")

Aliases: "You madman" (as called by Thor); the duplicates were known as "Demon Duplicates"

Base of Operations: Manhattan, New York City

First Appearance: Journey into Mystery I#95/1 (August, 1963)

Powers/Abilities: Professor Zaxton was "one of the world's foremost theoretical physicists," and a genius inventor who created a duplicating machine (...I guess he was a master of whatever branch of physics you would need to build a duplicating machine). Initially, his duplicating machine could only replicate inanimate objects.

The duplicating machine was later modified to replicate living beings, and Zaxton could telepathically control these living duplicates.

Height: 5'7"
Weight: 137 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black, with white temples

History:
(Journey into Mystery I#95/1 (fb) - BTS) - The past of Professor Zaxton is largely unrevealed, but at some point, he became acquainted with Dr. Don Blake.

   Zaxton secretly built a duplicating machine which worked perfectly at replicating inanimate objects, but he planned to have Blake modify the limitations of the device so he could also use it to duplicate living beings -- with his machine thus altered, Zaxton figured he could achieve total, absolute power.

(Journey into Mystery I#95/1) - [I tells it like I sees it] So Don Blake created this super-intelligent, virtually indestructible android (see comments). Because Blake wanted to use the strength of Thor to demonstrate how durable the android was at a scientific convention, he got his colleague Zaxton to operate the automaton. Unfortunately, Zaxton deliberately overloaded the android, causing it to short-circuit. Using some pieces of scrap-metal, Thor attached the automaton to his hammer, then hurled it into the sky, where the android exploded harmlessly.

(Journey into Mystery I#95/1 - BTS) - Zaxton went to Dr. Blake's office and abducted Nurse Jane Foster, then tied her up and locked her in the cellar of his home.

(Journey into Mystery I#95/1) - When Thor transformed into Don Blake and returned to his office, he found Zaxton waiting there for him. Zaxton demonstrated his duplicating machine by creating a replica of an office chair, followed by a dozen copies of a typewriter. Then Zaxton revealed to Blake that he was holding Jane as his prisoner, and thereby coerced Blake into using his medical expertise to help him perfect the machine so he could duplicate human beings as well. Realizing he had no alternative, Blake reluctantly cooperated.

   Blake worked through the night adjusting the machine; at daybreak, Zaxton tested his modified invention on an alley cat, and created at least five duplicates of the stray feline. Convinced that his duplicating machine now worked on everything, Zaxton revealed Jane's location to Blake.

   But when Blake sneaked away and became Thor, Zaxton witnessed the transformation, and thus learned of Blake's dual identity; then he used his machine to create an evil duplicate of the thunder god, complete with a hammer. Thor attempted to smash the machine, but his duplicate defended Zaxton; to help his Thor replica, Zaxton duplicated its hammer, thus giving it two mallets. Zaxton raved that once Thor was eliminated, the combination of his machine and the Thor duplicate would make him ruler of the world.

   To avoid a confrontation with a more heavily armed foe in an enclosed building, Thor flew out the window; but Zaxton used his machine to duplicate an entire office building in his path -- the thunder god collided with the structure and dropped to the ground, momentarily stunned. Zaxton then set his Thor duplicate after the true thunder god, but the real Thor stamped his hammer and summoned a thunderbolt, which struck his evil "twin" and caused it to fall as well. Thor hurled his hammer at his fallen duplicate, but Zaxton instantly created another duplicate of Thor to shield it -- Thor's hammer struck the second duplicate, causing it to vaporize, but the first duplicate was unharmed.

   As the replica thunder god regained its two hammers, Thor took to the sky again, and the life-and-death chase resumed. But Zaxton noticed a passenger jet flying overhead, so he used his machine to duplicate dozens of airliners in Thor's path, forcing the thunder god to slow his flight, and his duplicate caught up with him. The evil "twin" hurled both its hammers at Thor, but when the real thunder god was struck by his duplicate's mallets, he felt nothing from the impact. Then Thor glanced at the inscription on his own hammer--WHOSOEVER HOLDS THIS HAMMER, IF HE BE WORTHY, SHALL POSSESS THE POWER OF THOR!--and realized why he wasn't harmed: The duplicate was an evil copy of him, therefore it was unworthy to possess his hammer's power! In retaliation, Thor hurled his own hammer at his duplicate, and when struck by the enchanted mallet, the replica faded away into the nothingness whence it came.

   With his evil "twin" destroyed, Thor flew back toward Zaxton, who was standing on a highway overpass. To confuse the thunder god, Zaxton activated his machine and created a duplicate of himself, so Thor wouldn't know which was the real Zaxton to punish; however, in his nervousness, the duplicating machine slipped out of Zaxton's hands and dropped over the parapet -- while attempting to grab it, Zaxton fell over the edge of the bridge. Although Thor tried to save the plummeting Zaxton, he was too late, for the evil professor was killed by the fall, while his duplicating machine was shattered on impact, and the secret of the incredible invention was gone with its sinister creator.

   Afterwards, only Zaxton's duplicate remained, and Thor thought it was for the best -- since its personality was the "opposite" of the original, without a streak of villainy, the duplicate Zaxton would become a boon to humanity and dedicate its scientific genius to the betterment of the world.

   After disposing of the dead Zaxton's body, Thor freed Jane Foster from captivity. Jane told the thunder god that Zaxton must have gone mad -- not wishing to ruin the "new" professor's reputation, Thor told her a bit of a white-lie and replied, "I know, Jane...but now he's...uh...snapped out of it and he's sorry for what he's done!"

Comments: Created by Stan Lee, Robert Bernstein and Joe Sinnott.

I'm not sure what was going on in the beginning of this story where Don Blake had created the super-intelligent, virtually indestructible android. I guess its part of the old "a genius in one field is a master of all forms of science"-theme you find in a lot of old comics. No one knows robotics like a surgeon!

He might have consulted it with Henry Pym, the biochemist who is definitely established as having cross-trained in cybernetics and myrmicology (the subdivision of entomology dealing with ants). Yours truly: Carycomix

My theory is that the android was actually built by two of Thor's teammates from the Avengers -- Giant-Man/Henry Pym and Iron Man/Tony Stark (...and maybe Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards helped out a little, too). When it came time to test the android's human reactions, Thor recommended his "friend" Dr. Don Blake, so the android was entrusted to him, and everyone just assumed that Blake built it. -- Ron Fredricks

I'll file this one under "Tales of the Goofy." But I still wonder if Zaxton's duplicate lasted long-term. And what about the group of evil cats he created while testing the machine?

Since the original Zaxton accidentally learned about Thor/Blake's dual-identity, the duplicate Zaxton probably had the same knowledge, too. But my guess is that after the duplicating machine got destroyed, everything it replicated (including "good" Zaxton) popped out of existence shortly afterwards. -- Ron Fredricks

Could Mr. Wren's matter duplicator blueprints have been discovered and used decades later by Professor Zaxton? I think it's a possibility.

...Or he might have copied the work of other inventors of similar devices (see clarifications). -- Ron Fredricks

Professor Zaxton has an entry in Marvel Legacy: The 1960s Handbook. He received a first name in his updated profile in OHotMU A-Z HC#14.

Profile by Snood. Expansion by Ron Fredricks.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Professor Zaxton has no known connections to:

Professor Zaxton's duplicating machine has no known connections to:

The Thor duplicate has no known connections to:

Professor Zaxton's "Demon Duplicates" have no known connections to:

Professor Zaxton's duplicating machine

A small handheld device invented by Zaxton, it projected a beam that somehow perfectly duplicated whatever it struck; by successively pressing its activation button, one could rapidly create multiple replicas -- initially, the machine could only duplicate inanimate objects.

Later, Zaxton forced Dr. Don Blake to use his medical expertise to modify the machine so it could also duplicate living beings; Zaxton then tested it by successfully creating multiple copies of an alley cat. But although it duplicated an object's exact physical structure, duplicates of living beings had the opposite personality of the originals.

The sinister Zaxton planned to use his duplicating machine to become ruler of the world, and he even created an "evil" copy of Thor to achieve this goal. But Zaxton's scheme ended when he accidentally dropped the duplicating machine off a bridge overpass -- Zaxton plunged to his death when he attempted to grab the falling device, and the duplicating machine itself was shattered when it hit the pavement.

(Comment: The duplicates created by the machine may have been unstable, as the "evil" duplicate of Thor vaporized when it was struck with a full-force blow from the original's hammer. And although the machine was able to create two duplicates of the original thunder god's hammer for the Thor duplicate, neither of these mallets seemed to possess the power of the original enchanted hammer.)

--Journey into Mystery I#95/1

Professor Zaxton's duplicate

When his defeat by Thor seemed to be imminent, the evil Professor Zaxton used his duplicating machine to create an exact replica of himself, to confuse the thunder god so he wouldn't know which was the real Zaxton to punish. But seconds later, the real Zaxton accidentally fell to his death.

Thor realized that the duplicate had the opposite personality of the original Zaxton, without a streak of villainy, and he believed the replica could be a boon to humanity that would use its scientific genius for the betterment of the world.

After he secretly disposed of the dead Zaxton, Thor created a cover-story -- he explained that the professor had suffered from temporary insanity, but had snapped out of it -- and the duplicate presumably replaced the original as the "new" Professor Zaxton.

Journey into Mystery I#95/5

Don Blake's android

Supposedly created by Dr. Blake (see comments), it was a green-skinned humanoid automaton; although semi-sentient, it was operated by a handheld remote-control unit.

Having an I.Q. of 375, the android could quickly solve complicated mathematical equations. With its unbreakable synthetic skin, it could survive a direct hit from Thor's hammer without any damage.

The android was placed in a vault and presented at a scientific convention, where it was operated by Blake's collegue, Professor Zaxton; Thor was also in attendance, to test the android's durability . But after its mental and physical capabilities were demonstrated, the android reported that Zaxton's hands must have slipped and twisted the dials on the remote-control all at once, because its entire mechanism was experiencing a short-circuit -- the android further warned that its body wouldn't contain the resulting explosion, and its plastic substance would become like shrapnel.

Seeing that there was only one way to dispose of the "super-grenade" and save the convention attendees, Thor tore some metal from the vault and used it to strap the android to his hammer; the thunder god then spun his enchanted mallet and hurled it and the automaton high into the sky, where the android harmlessly exploded.

--Journey into Mystery I#95/1

Thor duplicate

Created by the evil Professor Zaxton's duplicating machine, it was a perfect physical replica of the thunder god; however, this ersatz Thor had the opposite personality of the original, and it was under Zaxton's telepathic control.

Zaxton also used his duplicating machine to arm the duplicate with two copies of the original Thor's hammer; but since it was "evil," the duplicate thunder god was unworthy to possess the original hammer's enchanted power.

The real Thor eventually hurled his hammer at his "twin," and when it was struck, the replica faded away into nothingness.

--Journey into Mystery I#95/1

images: (without ads)
Marvel Legacy: The 1960s Handbook, p62 (Main Image - Professor Zaxton; refurbed version of Journey into Mystery I#95/1, p3, pan2)
Journey into Mystery I#95/1, p8, pan2 (Headshot - Professor Zaxton)
Journey into Mystery I#95/1, p12, pan7 (Professor Zaxton drops duplicating machine and falls off bridge overpass; Zaxton's duplicate (left); Thor in sky (background))
Journey into Mystery I#95/1, p13, pan2 (Professor Zaxton falls to his death; duplicating machine shatters; Thor (off-panel))
Journey into Mystery I#95/1, p7, pan2 (Professor Zaxton's duplicating machine)
Journey into Mystery I#95/1, p8, pan6 (Professor Zaxton tests modified duplicating machine on alley cat; Don Blake (right))
Journey into Mystery I#95/1, p8, pan7 (Professor Zaxton uses modified duplicating machine to further replicate alley cat)
Journey into Mystery I#95/1, p12, pan6 (Professor Zaxton uses duplicating machine on himself; Zaxton duplicate (left), Thor in sky (background))
Journey into Mystery I#95/1, p13, pan5 (Thor with Professor Zaxton's duplicate)
Journey into Mystery I#95/1, p3, pan5 (Professor Zaxton presents android in vault; Thor (background))
Journey into Mystery I#95/1, p4, pan2 (Professor Zaxton uses remote-control unit to activate android in vault; Thor (left))
Journey into Mystery I#95/1, p6, pan1 (Thor uses scrap-metal of vault to attach android to his hammer, as android warns him that it's about to explode)
Journey into Mystery I#95/1, p9, pan2 (Thor (left); Thor duplicate created by duplicating machine)
Journey into Mystery I#95/1, cover (Thor duplicate hurls its two hammers at Thor)
Journey into Mystery I#95/1, p12, pan5 (Thor duplicate fades away after being struck by Thor's hammer)

Appearances:
Journey into Mystery I#95/1 (August, 1963) - Stan Lee (plot/editor), Robert Bernstein (script), Joe Sinnott (pencils/inks), Stan Goldberg (colors), Sam Rosen (letters)

First Posted: 09/??/2001
Last updated: 04/20/2022

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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