CHARLES HARRINGTON

Real Name: Charles Harrington

Identity/Class: Human technology user

Occupation: Director of the McSpay Foundation

Group Membership: McSpay Foundation

Affiliations: Derek Molloy, unidentified secretary

Enemies: Ant-Man (Hank Pym), Doctor Spencer, Sgt. O'Malley

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: McSpay Foundation, somewhere near NYC

First Appearance: Incredible Hulk Weekly#48/5 (Marvel UK, January 30th 1980)

Powers/Abilities: Harrington was capable to keeping accounts, if extremely crooked ones. He briefly wore a watch-sized teleportation device, controlled via two dials; one set distance and direction, and the other activated the teleport function. It's unrevealed whether there was a maximum range or load, but it could transport at least one full sized human a few miles (see comments).

Height: 5'10" (by guesstimation)
Weight: 190 lbs. (by guesstimation)
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Unrevealed

History:
(Incredible Hulk Weekly#48/5 (fb) - BTS) - After being appointed director of the McSpay Foundation, a scientific research organization with funding in the millions, Charles Harrington covertly siphoned large amounts into his personal accounts, aided by his crooked assistant Derek Molloy. He did this for several years, while also running the foundation like a tyrant. However, eventually his crooked dealings looked like they would come home to roost, as an audit of the books was scheduled which was bound to expose his malfeasance.

(Incredible Hulk Weekly#48/5) - With less than a month before the audit Harrington wondered to himself whether he should flee to South America before his crimes were discovered. Before he could decide he was informed by Molloy that one of the foundation's scientists, Doctor Spencer, was claiming to have made a major breakthrough. Visiting Spencer's lab in the basement Harrington witnessed the scientist's new invention, a teleportation device, in action. Realizing that Spencer had made the controls remarkably easy to use, Harrington had a flash of inspiration that he could use the teleporter to cover up his embezzlement and steal more money to boot. He immediately took Spencer prisoner (calling it a vacation), and had Molloy to take the scientist to Harrington's own house, ignoring the doctor's protests. Harrington then teleported directly into the McSpay Foundation's own vault, knowing that though his presence would trigger alarms the vault was on timelock and could not be opened from the outside. Once there he snatched up the account books and a few thousand dollars in cash that was there, believing this would make the theft seem more authentic. He then teleported back out so he could react to guards reporting the alarms in his capacity as director. To his surprise the hero Ant-Man showed up only moments later, having been alerted to the alarms by some ants. Harrington told the hero that someone was seemingly inside the vault, but that there was no way to enter or leave it due to the timelock. Ant-Man however pointed out that he could enter via the ventilation shafts and offered to check the situation. Harrington agreed, but once Ant-Man was inside Harrington told the guards to get some anesthetic gas from their storerooms and pump it into the vault, insisting that Ant-Man must be the criminal, given that only he could have broken in and that he had shown up suspiciously fast. Despite protesting that Ant-Man had always been a good guy, the guards complied.

(Incredible Hulk Weekly#49/5) - On Harrington's orders the guards pumped the gas into the vault, and Harrington confidently predicted it would incapacitate the hero for hours, allowing him to be arrested in the morning when the timelock opened. Unfortunately for the real crook, the gas was lighter than air and so left about an inch of breathable air in the vault, more than enough for the tiny hero. Now suspecting Harrington, Ant-Man exited the vault in time to witness Harrington again berating the doubting security guard when the man questioned the idea that Ant-Man was the robber. Unaware Ant-Man had leapt onto his shoulder so he could figure out whether Harrington was just hot-headed or actually sinister, the corrupt director returned to his office, and was still on Harrington's shoulder when the man used the teleport device to transport both of them to Harrington's home. There he brazenly admitted to using the teleporter to destroy the evidence of his embezzlement right in front of the captive Spencer, but though the scientist was enraged by this Harrington's accomplice Molloy made it clear that they'd kill Spencer if he became troublesome. Molloy then pointed out that it might look suspicious if no one saw Harrington leaving work to come home via a conventional method, so Harrington decided to teleport back to his office and drive home. Ant-Man seized this opportunity to covertly activate the teleport just as Harrington was about to; Molloy was left none the wiser that it wasn't Harrington who had done so, and Harrington was caught off guard as he found he had suddenly teleported into a jail cell in the local police station. Before Harrington could correct the situation Ant-Man snapped the dial off the device, making it impossible to activate again. At this juncture Harrington finally noticed the tiny hero, just in time to witness him exiting through the cell bars. Ant-Man then explained to an officer who knew him, Sgt. O'Malley, how Harrington had come to be there, and where to find and rescue Spencer so that the scientist could confirm Harrington's crimes.

Comments: Created by Steve Moore and Steve Dillon.

   For a device with only a single dial controlling where it sent the user, Harrington's teleporter was remarkably accurate, and apparently intuitively so. After only having had the device in his possession for at most a couple of hours not only did Harrington manage to safely transport himself from his his office high up in a multistory building all the way to his home, presumably several miles away and at ground level, materializing in the exact room where Molloy was holding Spencer prisoner without accidentally appearing inside walls, the floor, furniture or indeed either of the people present, but then Ant-Man, who'd literally only seen Harrington twist the dial one time, managed to send Harrington to a police station and successfully land in a narrow jail cell, avoiding the other inmates. Ant-Man didn't even know where Harrington's house was, so how the heck could he have calculated the distance and direction to get the station? With the sliding timescale moving this story into the modern era, I guess we can handwave it and pretend the device had some sort of Google Maps-like function, and also a built-in "no materializing inside any solid objects" safety setting.

   Harrington appeared in a two part story in Incredible Hulk Weekly, with each segment being only three pages. Incredible Hulk Weekly (previously known as Hulk Comic) had included other new tales, but this was the first and only Ant-Man tale published. The ending did hint at more to come, as the first part of the tale included the reveal that two African army ants had accidentally been carried into the city, stowaways in some botanical cargo that the McSpay Foundation had flown in, and Ant-Man ended the story with a mini-mystery to solve, as his ants had deserted him mid-story; these two unresolved sub-plots, presumably linked, were not tied to Harrington's tale. There definitely was at least one more story produced, as my friend and comics historian James Bacon discovered that an exhibition put on by Steve Dillon's family to commemorate the late artist included some Ant-Man pages drawn by Dillon that were not part of the Harrington two-parter.

   This profile was completed on 08/08/2026, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25th anniversary's celebratory event to represent 20th century Ant-Man (Pym) stories and Marvel UK's Hulk Comic.

Profile by Loki.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Charles Harrington has no known connections to:

Derek Molloy

Derek Molloy was Charles Harrington's crooked assistant. When Harrington decided to use Doctor Spencer's device to commit robberies, he had Molloy hold Spencer prisoner at Harrington's home. Molloy was there holding the scientist at gunpoint when Harrington teleported in to confirm he had destroyed the evidence of his embezzlement. Hearing this, Spencer denounced the two crooks, but Molloy made it clear he'd kill Spencer if he caused trouble. He advised Harrington to return to the office via the teleporter so that witnesses could see him leave by more conventional means, unaware Ant-Man used this opportunity to trap Harrington in jail, and to inform the police so they could free Spencer and arrest Molloy too.

--Incredible Hulk Weekly#48/5, 49/5

Doctor Spencer

Doctor Spencer was a scientist working for the McSpay Foundation. Though director Charles Harrington considered him "a fuzzy brained fool" he was actually an exceptional man, and invented a teleportation device. His lab was in the basement of the McSpay Foundation headquarters. After witnessing Spencer's device in action and deciding to use it to steal, Harrington had his assistant Derek Molloy hold Spencer prisoner at Harrington's own home. There he learned of Harrington's villainy when the director casually admitted his using the invention for criminal ends, but was unable to do anything about it as Molloy held him prisoner at gunpoint. When Ant-Man tricked Harrington into teleporting into jail, the hero informed the police of Spencer's plight so they could rescue the scientist.

--Incredible Hulk Weekly#48/5, 49/5

images: (without ads)
Incredible Hulk Weekly#49/5, p3, pan5 (main image)
Incredible Hulk Weekly#48/5, p2, pan1 3 (face)
 Incredible Hulk Weekly#49/5, p3, pan3 (Molloy, body)
Incredible Hulk Weekly#49/5, p3, pan2 (Molloy, head)
Incredible Hulk Weekly#48/5, p1, pan8 (Spencer, body)
Incredible Hulk Weekly#49/5, p3, pan2 (Spencer, head)

Appearances:
Incredible Hulk Weekly#48/5 (January 30th 1980) - Steve Moore (writer), Steve Dillon (art), unknown editor
Incredible Hulk Weekly#49/5 (Febreuary 6th 1980) - Steve Moore (writer), Steve Dillon (art), unknown editor

First Posted: 09/29/2026
Last updated: 08/08/2026

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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