DR. NICHOLAS BENSON
Real Name: Dr. Nicholas Benson
Identity/Class: Human
Occupation: Physicist, scientist
Group Membership: Hammond Research Labs
Affiliations: Justin Baldwin, Maddie Baldwin, Claude, Dr. Sol Haven, Hinton Phipps, Al LaGuardia, Edgar Marlopolis, Niels, Shara, Speedball (Robert Baldwin), Speedball (Darrion Grobe) of Earth-9485, Trauma (Terrence Ward), unidentified inventor, unidentified scientists
Enemies: Clyde Bodtchik, Garson, Sticker (Foxworth), the local media (newspaper and TV)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Doc Benson
Base of Operations: Hammond Research Lab in Springdale, Connecticut
First Appearance: Speedball#1/2 (September, 1988)
Powers/Abilities: Dr. Nicholas Benson has a physics degree. He is a talented scientist in the field of exotic energy sources and was part of a team that created a warp generator that could tap into extradimensional energy sources.
Height: Unrevealed (5'8"; by approximation)
Weight: Unrevealed (150 lbs.; by approximation)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown
History:
(Speedball#1/2 (fb) - BTS) - Dr. Nicholas Benson and his colleagues worked for months in Lab 12 of at the Hammond Research Lab on a machine that could tap into an extradimensional energy source.
(Speedball#1/2) - Robbie Baldwin worked after school as an assistant for Dr. Benson. They packed up some things at the lab and Robbie nearly stepped on Benson's cat Niels. Benson told him that Niels liked to get underfoot and then asked Rob to let himself out after he was finished with his work. Rob knew that Benson was probably working on his experiment again and secretly followed Benson to Lab 12. As rob had expected Benson and his two colleagues activated their machine and finally succeeded to tap an extradimensional energy source. They watched the energy flow, but it became erratic and they were unable to reduce power to the warp generator and the energy flow continued to increase. They had lost control over the experiment and the stream ruptured and some of it hit, unbeknownst to the scientists, Robert Baldwin. The rest of the energy fed back into the generator and short-circuited it. Fortunately their machine was not damaged, but Benson knew that something about this energy source was radically different and they needed to start over by completely recalculating before another experiment even if it took years. Benson was glad that nobody got caught in the energy spill...or so he thought.
The police later apprehended Robert Baldwin on the roof after until Benson told them who the boy was and that he was actually working for him. Officers LaGuardia and Phipps let Robbie go because he was the son of assistant district attorney Justin Baldwin. Benson told him to wash up before leaving.
(Speedball#2 (fb) - BTS) - Benson discovered that Niels had been exposed to the energy flow during their experiment and asked Robbie to capture Niels and bring his cat to him.
(Speedball#2) - Benson told his colleagues that his cat hat been exposed to some of the energy flow during their experiment, which he realized after Niels was acting weird and he ran some experiments before his cat ran away that showed that an energy field formed around his cat. He needed his cat to examine the effects of the energy flow further and was still glad that they or any other human had not been exposed to it.
(Speedball#2 - BTS) - Benson got worried when Robbie didn't return to the lab and he couldn't reach Haven by phone. He asked the police to check on Haven, who was discovered dead. Benson then called Robbie's parents.
(Speedball#3 (fb) - BTS) - Benson asked Claude to help with capturing Niels as well while Robbie was still trying.
(Speedball#5/2) - At the lab one of Benson's colleagues informed him that he was able to isolate an unstable compound from the latest feline blood sample, which exploded after he irradiated it with the warp generator. Because Niels was still alive it became obvious to Benson that the energy manifested itself differently in every organism. The scientists were still glad that no human had been hit by the energy.
(Speedball#7 - BTS) - Benson sent Claude after Niels again.
(Speedball#10) - In the main of the lab Benson and his two colleagues were interviewed by a newspaper reporter and a news reporter and they were asked if they performed experiments on animals. They tried their best to reflect the question, but an argument between the reporters ensued and they never followed up on their last question. Benson was glad, but was sure that nobody could blame them for an accident that nobody would ever find out about. At that moment Niels jumped by the window and obviously used his enhanced bouncing ability.
After a giant chicken was discovered by students, Benson became concerned that the police could look into their experiments and talked to his colleagues about it.
(Marvel Super-Heroes III#4/5) - Dr. Benson and Robbie watched Kwarrai native Shara undergo painful treatments at Hammond Labs. Benson admitted to Robbie that he didn't know enough about the radioactive Vibranium she had been exposed to at her father's lab and that he unfortunately had to send her home so she could be with her family when she died if he couldn't cure her.
Weeks later Shara blew up her room at the lab with new powers she had gained from the Vibranium after learning that her family had been killed by an earthquake. Benson got trapped under the rubble, but he was okay and told Robbie what had happened and asked him to try to calm her down because Robbie had become friends with Shara.
(Marvel Super-Heroes III#6/5 - BTS) - The inventor of an inflatable suit asked Benson to look over his designs before applying for a patent.
(Marvel Comics Presents I#85) - Benson introduced Robbie to Edgar Marlopolis, an exchange student from the island of Trepica, that was doing his college internship at the lab. Benson didn't like it that Robbie pointed out that Edgar's English was bad.
(New Warriors I#66 - BTS) - Upon "returning" to Springdale Speedball (actually Darrion Grobe from Earth-9485) thought about going to Hammond Labs to have a chat with Benson because his powers were acting up, which would involve telling Benson his secret identity. He wasn't so sure yet if Benson could be trusted with the latter. When Speedball finally made it to Hammond Labs everything seemed closed. He assumed that Benson wasn't working through the weekends like he did in the past because he had gotten older.
(New Warriors I#66) - "Robbie" finally caught up with Benson after he and Niels had been captured by Clyde and an assortment of villains from Springdale. After the villains were defeated and the police arrived to arrest them, "Robbie" claimed to Benson and Justin Baldwin that Niels had taken down the villains all by himself. Apparently the adventure had changed Niels' antisocial disposition. Benson still hoped to study Niels and his kinetic field.
(Avengers: The Initiative#30 (fb) - BTS) - The Baldwins returned Niels to his original owner Benson after Robbie got incarcerated. The cat was a handful and when Trauma (Terrence Ward) of the Intiatiave asked for it, Benson was happy to hand it over to him.
Comments: Created by Steve Ditko, Roger Stern & Jackson Guice.
He seems like the kind of guy Project: PEGASUS could be interest in hiring, but at the same time he and his colleagues are screw-ups that can't be trusted.
I could also see him getting hired by criminals like the Kingpin, considering scientists like Dr. Jonathan Ohnn, Dr. Edward Lansky, Farley Stillwell or Harlan Stillwell pretty much did what he did...just with bad guys and not cats and teenagers.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Dr. Nicholas Benson has no known connections to:
Claude has no known connection to:
(Speedball#3 (fb) - BTS) - Benson asked Claude to help with capturing Niels.
(Speedball#3) - Claude quickly lost his cool and threw a hammer at Niels, who ran for the hills. Robbie reminded Claude that they were supposed to capture Niels and not hurt him. Claude promised that he wasn't trying to hurt the cat.
(Speedball#4) - Claude was running after Niels with a piece of wood, but Niels got away.
(Speedball#5/2) - Robbie suspected Claude to be the cat-killer active in Springdale because he obviously hated Niels.
(Speedball#7) - Claude was again on the hunt for Niels at the lab and vowed to kill the little pest even though Benson wanted the cat alive. He was unaware that Robbie was hiding on one of the cabinets with his Speedball powers activated after failing to capture Niels as well.
(Speedball#10) - Claude showed his old friend Clyde around in case he was looking for a job after his old boss Dr. Rarque lost his mind and landed in the hospital after an accident. Clyde was actually scouting for items he could steal to continue Rarque's experiments by himself, but claimed to Claude that he wasn't sure yet if he would apply for a job at Benson's lab.
Claude confronted Robbie about missing chemicals at the lab, but Robbie swore that he was innocent.
Claude followed Speedball, who fought several giant animals on his way, to the barn where Clyde continued the experiments of his former boss. Claude pushed Speedball into the room and then threatened Clyde with a gun and confronted about stealing chemicals from Benson's lab. Clyde distracted Claude by sharing the fame with him. Clyde disarmed Claude after pouring a liquid into his eyes and then turn the gun on Speedball. A giant rat attacked the barn and Clyde seemingly died. Claude took Dr. Rarque's files and burned them because they caused Clyde's death and were obviously too dangerous. He then called the police about Clyde after returning the stolen chemicals to Benson's lab because he didn't want Benson to come under suspicion just because he trusted Clyde.
(Marvel Super-Heroes III#6/5) - Claude was annoyed that Robbie wasn't even trying to catch Niels and asked Robbie to at change Niels' litter box before he left.
--Speedball#3 (Speedball#3, 4, 5/2, 7, 10, Marvel Super-Heroes III#6/5
(Speedball#1/2 (fb) - BTS) - They worked for months with Dr. Benson on a machine that could tap into extradimensional energies.
(Speedball#1/2) - They helped Benson in an experiment in Lab 12 with the generator and successfully tapped into an extradimensional energy source. The experiment got out of control and unbeknownst to them Robbie Baldwin, who was secretly watching the experiment from around the corner, was hit some of the spilled energy while the rest of the energy short-circuited the generator. Fortunately the generator didn't get damaged, but Benson decided that they had to completely recalculate before doing another experiment with the generator even if it took them years.
(Speedball#2) - Benson told his two colleagues that the cat had been exposed to the energy flow the other day and that they needed to further examine it to see how it was affected by it. One of his colleagues needed Robbie to return Dr. Haven's file on his Magno-Fluid. He called Haven's lab and got Garson, the former assistant of Haven, on the phone. He claimed to still be working for Haven and was glad that he and his criminal associate Foxworth would soon have their hands on the papers they were looking for.
(Speedball#5/2) - At the lab one of Benson's colleagues informed him that he was able to isolate an unstable compound from the latest feline blood sample, which exploded after he irradiated it with the warp generator. Because Niels was still alive it became obvious to Benson that the energy manifested itself differently in every organism. The scientists were still glad that no human had been hit by the energy.
(Speedball#10) - Benson and his colleagues were interviewed by a newspaper reporter and a TV reporter. Their last question was about animal experiment, which the scientists tried to deflect. Luckily the reporters never followed up on the question because they started arguing. While Benson told his colleagues that nobody could blame them for the accident, the cat Niels suddenly jumped by the window using his increased powers.
After a giant chicken was discovered by students, Benson became concerned that the police could look into their experiments and talked to his colleagues about it.
--Speedball#1/2 (Speedball#1/2, 2, 5/2, 10
images:
New Warriors I#66, p23, pan6 (main)
Speedball#1, p14, pan7 (head shot)
Speedball#1, p13, pan2 (from behind)
Speedball#2, p3, pan3 (doing science)
Speedball#10, p17, pan3 (Claude)
Speedball#1, p14, pan7 (other scientists)
Appearances:
Speedball#1/2 (September, 1988) - Steve Ditko (co-plot/pencils), Roger Stern (script), Jackson Guice (inks), Howard Mackie & Terry Kavanagh (editors)
Speedball#2 (October, 1988) - Steve Ditko (plot/pencils), Roger Stern (script), Jackson Guice (inks), Terry Kavanagh (editor)
Speedball#3 (November, 1988) - Steve Ditko (plot/pencils), Roger Stern (script), Bruce Patterson (inks), Terry Kavanagh (editor)
Speedball#4 (December, 1988) - Steve Ditko (plot/pencils), Roger Stern (script), Dan Adkins & Co. (inks), Terry Kavanagh (editor)
Speedball#5/2 (January, 1989) - Steve Ditko (plot/pencils), Roger Stern (script), Bruce Patterson (inks), Terry Kavanagh (editor)
Speedball#7 (March, 1989) - Steve Ditko (plot/pencils), Roger Stern (script), Bruce Patterson (inks), Terry Kavanagh (editor)
Speedball#10 (June, 1989) - Steve Ditko (plot/pencils), Jo Duffy (script), Dan Day (inks), Terry Kavanagh (editor)
Marvel Super-Heroes III#4/5 (December, 1990) - Scott Lobdell (writer), Ron Wilson (pencils), Don Perlin (inks), Mike Rockwitz (editor)
Marvel Super-Heroes III#6/5 (July, 1991) - Steve Ditko (writer/pencils), Jo Duffy (writer), Dan Adkins (inks), Mike Rockwitz (editor)
Marvel Comics Presents I#85/4 (September, 1991) - Scott Lobdell (writer), Ron Wilson (pencils), Chris Ivy (inks), Terry Kavanagh (editor)
New Warriors I#66 (December, 1995) - Evan Skolnick (writer), Patrick Zircher (pencils), Andrew Pepoy (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers: The Initiative#30 (January, 2010) - Christos N. Gage (writer), Jorge Molina (pencils), Victor Olazaba with Andrew Hennessy (inks), Bill Rosemann (editor)
First Posted: 11/02/2025
Last updated: 11/02/2025
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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