DR. ITO
Real Name: Dr. Ito
Identity/Class: Human;
citizen of Japan
Occupation: Scientist
Group Membership: None; formerly Sunrise Society
Affiliations: Mas Kimura, Mace (Shigeru Ezaki clone), unidentified guards
Enemies: Sunrise Society (High Tech Ninjas, High Tech Soldiers, Overlord Council)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: A Sunrise Society facility in Northern Japan
First Appearance: (Mentioned) Venom: The Mace#1 (May, 1994); (seen) Marvel Comics Presents I#160 (early August, 1994)
Powers/Abilities: Ito was a gifted scientist with a vast knowledge in cloning humans and enhancing them in various ways genetically and with cybernetic implants.
Height: Unrevealed (5'7", by approximation)
Weight: Unrevealed (155 lbs.; by approximation)
Eyes: Unrevealed (possibly brown)
Hair: Black
History:
(Marvel Comics Presents I#160) - Dr. Ito ran the cloning program of the
Sunrise Society in a facility in the wilds of Northern Japan. Troubled
by his conscience Ito wasn't sure if the Sunrise Society's creation of a
clone army should stay a secret. One of the clones, he had created from
the genetic material of Shigeru Ezaki, received martial arts training
from Ito's personal bodyguard Mas Kimura. Ito had decided to give this
clone, known as Mace, further enhancements he had kept secret from the
Sunrise Society's leadership. Ito told Mace that the future of his
training was not in his hands because the Sunrise Society wanted to see
results in his program to create an army of perfect cloned soldiers. He
took Mace to the lab with the machines he was going to use to enhance
Mace further the next day and told him that these machines would all be
used for Mace. Ito was unaware that the Overlord was aware of his
upcoming betrayal and had already set things in motion to replace him.
Mas Kimura had been sent away on a false mission, a replacement had been
recruited and a squad of High Tech Ninjas had been instructed to invade
the complex where Ito was working and secure all of Ito's data on the
cloning process including everything he had withheld from the Sunrise
Society.
(Marvel Comics Presents I#106-161 (fb) - BTS) - Dr. Ito and his assistant put Mace in the machine and gave him enhanced healing, eye spectrum sensitivity with infra red and ultra violet visuals and installed a bio-circuit between his gun hand and aiming eye, giving him a built-in "heads up" display.
(Marvel Comics Presents I#161) - The enhancement procedure was finished and Mace was already shaking of the anesthetic due to his new healing ability. Ito knew it would take some time until he would find out if the spectrum vision and "heads up" aiming circuitry also worked. Mace was given pain killers to keep him drowsy while Dr. Ito and his assistant took him out of the machines. Ito assured Mace that everything went fine, but asked him to stay relaxed and keep his eyes closed because his new vision modes would be disorienting. He bandaged Mace's eyes and asked him not to tell anyone else of this experiment. Ito then ordered Mace to be taken to the recovery area. Ito was going to make some notes about the operation before he forget them, but he was interrupted by the intruder alarm. He was afraid that the government had found them, but was surprised when the intruders were actually High Tech Ninjas of the Sunrise Society. Ito ordered the guards to save them, but the HTN's slaughtered them with ease and couldn't be stopped by Ito's automated defense systems either. Ito was hit in the back with an arrow and crawled crawled to his computer in the lab to successfully wipe clean the only hard drive that had data on his latest research on Mace. He had just finished destroying the files when he was finally killed by one of the ninjas with kama knives.
(Marvel Comics Presents I#162 - BTS) - While the complex was under attack by the Shadowmasters, the High Tech Ninjas took the captured Mace a vessel where High Tech Soldiers were already waiting for them. The High Tech Ninjas knew that Mace was a breathing example of Ito's latest research, but the soldiers already knew that the ninjas had screwed up data retrieval and that Mace was now the only part left of Ito's research.
Mace was taken to a Sunrise Society base in Northern California where they ran tests on him to find out what Ito had done to the clone so they could upgrade their other clone warriors the same way. Unfortunately they couldn't ask the Mace about his enhancements because Ito had never confided in him. They kept Mace in cryogenic sleep.
(Venom: The Mace#1 - BTS) - Mace fled the facility and one of the soldiers commented that he had always considered it a mistake to thaw him out because they still didn't know what Ito had done to Mace.
Mace made it to San Francisco and used information he had learned from Ito's hard drive and videos to look for a soup kitchen to get some food.
(Venom: The Mace#3 - BTS) - While fighting High Tech Ninjas in San Francisco Mace contemplated that it wasn't just Ito's enhancements that set him apart from the other Sunrise Society soldiers, but also the reason why he fought.
Comments: Created by Carl Potts & Barry Crain.
This profile was completed on 06/25/2026, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25th anniversary event.
Profile by Markus Raymond.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Dr. Ito has no known connections to:
images: (without ads)
Marvel Comics Presents I#161/4, p2, pan5 (main)
Marvel Comics Presents I#161/4, p7, pan3 (head shot)
Marvel Comics Presents I#161/4, p7, pan4 (death)
Appearances:
Venom: The Mace#1 (May, 1994) - Carl Potts (writer), Liam Sharp
(pencils), Bill Reinhold (inks), Danny Fingeroth (editor)
Venom: The Mace#3 (July, 1994) - Carl Potts (writer), Liam Sharp
(pencils), Bill Reinhold (inks), Danny Fingeroth (editor)
Marvel Comics Presents I#160-161 (August, 1994) - Carl Potts (writer),
Barry Crain (pencils), Hilary Barta (inks), Richard Ashford (editor)
Marvel Comics Presents I#162 (September, 1994) - Carl Potts (writer),
Barry Crain (pencils), Hilary Barta & Philip Moy (inks), Richard
Ashford (editor)
First Posted: 09/30/2026
Last updated: 06/25/2026
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
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