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SUNSTROKE

Real Name: Sol Brodstroke

Identity/Class: Human, mutate

Occupation: Mercenary

Group Membership: Dr. Henry Pym's Lethal Legion (Black Ant/Eric O'Grady LMD, Blizzard/Donald Gill, Bullet/Buck Cashman, King Cobra/Piet Voorhees, Lodestone/Andrea Haggard, Mortar/Liana Feeser, Oddball/Orville Bock, Piecemeal, Speed Demon/James Sanders, Supercharger/Ronald Hilliard);
formerly Hood's army, Masters of Evil (Crimson Cowl's), Desert Dwellers

Affiliations: Dominus, Hood, Mark Twelve (Ultron Mark Twelve), Dr. Henry Pym;
AIM Weapons Expo;
formerly Ultron

Enemies: Avengers (Firebird/Bonita Juarez, Hawkeye/Clint Barton, Iron Man/Tony Stark, Mockingbird, Moon Knight, Henry Pym, Tigra, Wonder Man), Captain America (Steven Rogers), Doombots, Fantastic Four, Iron Man drones, Thunderbolts (Moonstone), Ultron, X-Men (Banshee/Sean Cassidy, Colossus/Peter Rasputin, Cyclops/Scott Summers, Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner, Phoenix, Professor X/Charles Xavier, Storm/Ororo Munroe, Wolverine/James "Logan" Howlett);
formerly Ant-Man (Scott Lang), Avengers Inc. ("Victor Shade" aka. Ultron Mark Twelve, possessing Whirlwind/David Cannon, Janet Van Dyne), Luke Cage, Stinger (Cassie Lang), Valkyrie (Jane Foster), Vision, Wasp (Nadia Van Dyne)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
    formerly Mount Charteris, Colorado
    formerly Dominus' base, Arizona

First Appearance: West Coast Avengers II#17 (February, 1987)

Powers/Abilities: Sunstroke possesses the ability to fly, and to absorb, store and manipulate large amounts of energy from direct sunlight. He typically uses his powers to blind opponents, but can also intensify his light into heat to melt through substances.

Height: 6'
Weight: 173 lbs.
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Unrevealed

History:

(West Coast Avengers II#24 (fb) - BTS) - Nothing is known of the man who became Sunstroke. He claimed to have "created himself." At some point, he allied himself with Dominus, serving in the Desert Dwellers.

(Marvel Tales I#262/2) - Sunstroke used his powers to bring down several commercial aircrafts in the desert. When the X-Men passed through his ambush spot, he brought down their craft, not realizing he was dealing with superhumans. He fought the X-Men solo, but was easily outmatched. His fellow Desert Dwellers came to his rescue, and Butte enabled him to escape by concealing him beneath her rocky body, making him appear to vanish into the earth.

(West coast Avengers II#17) - Sunstroke joined the Desert Dwellers in an attack on the Avengers when they journeyed near Dominus' base, but he was defeated by Wonder Man, who withstood his heat powers. Sunstroke was retrieved by a force field sent by Dominus and returned to the base. When the Avengers followed after them, they were sent 100 years into the past by Dr. Doom's time machine.

(West Coast Avengers II#22 - BTS) - Concerned that the Avengers might be rescued by the Fantastic Four's time machine, Dominus sent the Desert Dwellers to Four Freedoms Plaza. They fought their way past the Fantastic Four, and destroyed their copy of Dr. Doom's time machine.

(West Coast Avengers II#24) - Sunstroke joined with 50 copies of the other Desert Dwellers to defend Dominus' base against the Avengers, but his allies were defeated. Ultimately, Dominus fled Earth, and Sunstroke departed, unseen.

(Captain America I#411-413) - Sunstroke attended the AIM Weapons Expo at AIM Island and observed the matches Batroc arranged for Crossbones (actually Captain America in disguise) against several costumed foes. At one point Thermo bet Sunstroke $5000 that Crossbones would win the next round. When "Crossbones" was unmasked as Captain America, he joined with the other costumed villains present in attacking him, but was beaten in combat.

(Thunderbolts I#25 (fb)) - Sunstroke was one of 25 villains who joined the Crimson Cowl's Masters of Evil, based out of Mount Charteris. He assisted Joystick and Supercharger in setting up Weather Modulators across the globe so that they could ransom every nation on Earth.

(Thunderbolts I#24-25) - When the Thunderbolts invaded Mount Charteris, the Crimson Cowl had Sunstroke and Dragonfly assist her in escaping aboard a craft where she could prepare her Weather Modulators. However, Moonstone, who had seemingly defected to the Cowl's side, knocked out Sunstroke and Dragonfly from behind, then destroyed the Cowl's machines. Sunstroke joined the other Masters in being sent to prison.

(Dark Reign: The Hood#5 (fb) - BTS) - Sunstroke joined the Hood's army.

(Dark Reign: The Hood#5) - Sunstroke was in the crowd watching the Hood beat Force at the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island, New York.

(X-Men Unlimited III#20 - BTS) - At an unrevealed point in time, the Warden of superhuman prison the Dungeon acquired a genetic sample of Sunstroke which he later used amongst other samples to become the Human Adaptoid. While invading Krakoa, the Human Adaptoid activated Sunstroke's powers along with those of Fizgig, Equinox, Zzzax and others to combat Juggernaut and Deadpool.

SECRET WARS III HAPPENED

(Invincible Iron Man I#600) - Hood and his army approached Eric Lynch on his boat and demanded he sign power of attorney over to Hood, which would give him controlling interest in Stark's company. Doombots and Iron Man drones defeated Hood and his army.

(Avengers Inc.#5 (fb) - BTS) - Dr. Henry Pym, still partially influenced by Ultron, created robotic ants with each possessing part of Ultron's code inside them. He sent these ants to a list of criminals, including Sunstroke, to temporarily place them in a state of seeming death and play a sound file that made it seem like they were victims of the Scourge of the Underworld. As a consultant coroner Pym then picked up Sunstroke and gained his cooperation after he regained consciousness 40 hours after his seeming demise. He became part of Pym's new Lethal Legion, who were assembled to destroy Ultron. He was unaware that Pym had actually been duped by Ultron into creating the team so Ultron could use their bodies as hosts.

(Avengers Inc.#4) - Avengers Inc. (Janet Van Dyne and "Victor Shade") and Moon Knight found Pym's hideout and were introduced to his new Lethal Legion, including Sunstroke. In front of the Lethal Legion "Shade" seemingly turned on Pym by sticking his arm through him because "Shade" was Ultron.

(Avengers Inc.#5) - "Shade" aka. Ultron Mark Twelve purged Pym's system from Ultron's code because he felt that Ultron was sending a signal to take him over. He couldn't prevent the takover of the assembled Lethal Legion, including Sunstroke. Vision, Valkyrie (Jane Foster), Luke Cage, Ant-Man (Scott Lang), Stinger (Cassie Lang) and Wasp (Nadia Van Dyne) joined the battle against the Lethal Legion. During the battle Ultron used Sunstroke and Blizzard in tandem against the heroes, but Sunstroke was knocked out by Moon Knight. He was soon back up, but was ultimately purged of the Ultron code by Ultron Mark Twelve and freed. Because the threat was still not over Pym took the Lethal Legion to Sub-Atomica to keep planning the destruction of Ultron.

Comments: Created by Steve Englehart, Al Milgrom and Joe Sinnott.

  The OHOTMU '89 remarked that Sunstroke's powers almost exactly resemble those of Solaar. Solaar, of course, was another Steve Engelhart creation. Sunstroke's original creator Steve Englehart provided the name, presumably as an homage.

  His real name was revealed in the Quist profile in OHotMU Update 2010#5.

Sunstroke's real name (Sol Brodstroke) bears some similarities to one of Marvel's creators (Sol Brodsky).
--Jason

Profile by Prime Eternal. Updates by Markus Raymond & Chadman.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Sunstroke has no known connections to


Images: (without ads)
X-Men Earth's Mutant Heroes: Sunstroke profile (main image)
West Coast Avengers II#24, page 10, panel 4 (vs La Espirita)
West Coast Avengers II#17, page 11, panel 3 (with Desert Dwellers)


Appearances:
West Coast Avengers II#17 (February, 1987) - Steve Englehart (writer), Al Milgrom (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks), Mark Gruenwald (editor)
West Coast Avengers II#24 (September, 1987) - Steve Englehart (writer), Al Milgrom (pencils), Mike Machlan (inks), Mark Gruenwald (editor)
Marvel Tales I#262 (June, 1992)
Captain America I#411-413 (January-March, 1993) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Rik Levins (pencils), Danny Bulanadi (inks), Mike Rockwitz (editor)
Thunderbolts I#24-25 (March-April, 1999) - Kurt Busiek (writer), Mark Bagley (pencils), Scott Hanna (#24), Bob Wiacek (#25) & Al Vey (#25) (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Dark Reign: The Hood#5 (November, 2009) - Jeff Parker (writer), Kyle Hotz (pencils), Scott Hanna (inks), Bill Rosemann (editor)
X-Men Unlimited III#20 (January, 2022) - Fabian Nicieza (writer), Matt Horak (pencils, inks), Jordan D. White (editor)
Avengers Inc.#4-5 (February-March, 2024) - Al Ewing (writer), Leonard Kirk (Artist), Tom Brevoort (editor)


First Posted: 02/07/2005
Last Updated: 03/08/2024

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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