MILES BLACKGAR

Identity/Class: Human

Occupation: Scientist

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Garth, Strug

Enemies: Buck Cowan, Lissa Russell, Werewolf (Jack Russell), numerous unidentified test subjects

Known Relatives: Marlene (daughter), unidentified wife (apparently deceased)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Blackgar Island (off the Monterey Coast, California, U.S.A.)

First Appearance: Marvel Spotlight I#4 (June, 1972)

Powers/Abilities: Miles Blackgar was apparently a normal human with no superhuman powers (but see comments). Despite this, he was exceptionally strong, especially for his age. He was also a capable scientist.

Height: 6' (by comparison)
Weight: 175 lbs. (by estimation)
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: White

History:
(Marvel Spotlight I#4 (fb) - BTS) - Doctor Miles Blackgar's wife gave birth to a mutant daughter, Marlene, whose gaze immediately turned her to stone.
  
    Over the next 20 or so years, on his island off the Monterey Coast, Blackgar conducted numerous monstrous human experiments, trying to find a way to rid Marlene of her powers.

    Eventually Miles Blackgar somehow learned of the existence of the Darkhold; he then bought Baron Russoff's castle from Jack Russell's step-father and had it shipped stone by stone from Transia and reassembled on Blackgar's Island.

(Marvel Spotlight I#4) - When Jack Russell came to the island looking for the Darkhold (which he believed might be hidden within the castle), he was taken prisoner by Blackgar's hireling Garth. From atop a balcony in his house Miles witnessed the newcomer's arrival, and he and Marlene went down to the docks to greet him.

(Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme#9/2) - Miles welcomed Russell to the island and introduced himself and Marlene. 

(Marvel Spotlight I#4) - The introductions were interrupted as a disheveled man suddenly emerged from nearby foliage, desperately begging for Jack's assistance and insisting he wouldn't let Miles "change" him as he had "the others." Miles swiftly instructed Garth to subdue the escaped prisoner, and lied to Russell, claiming that he ran an institution for the mentally disturbed, hence requiring Garth to handle some of the more violent patients. Explaining that he needed to see to those patients, he entrusted the visitor to Marlene's care. Taking advantage of the opportunity to speak to Marlene alone, Russell questioned her about her father's work, which she refused to discuss while nevertheless admitting she was unhappy with him. Russell informed her that their castle home had been sold to them by his step-father, but when he asked about the Darkhold Marlene hastily warned him not to mention that to her father, stating that Miles would kill him if he did. As Russell pressed the issue, Marlene wavered and began to tell him where the Darkhold was kept, but was interrupted by her father arriving to request her help with his latest "operation"; they departed, with Miles locking Jack in the room "for his own safety." Assisted by Marlene and Garth, Miles carried out yet another unsuccessful experiment on an unwilling victim, unaware Jack had escaped the room and had covertly observed everything; Marlene however, was well aware of the intruder's presence.

   Moving on, Jack located the Darkhold in the library as Marlene had said, but the moon rose and he turned into his Werewolf form. After stumbling across and freeing Miles' horribly mutated test subjects and overpowering Garth, then leaving the henchmen for the angry mutates to kill, the Werewolf came across Miles. Realizing the lupine intruder was Russell, a fascinated Miles mused that the Werewolf might be an ideal test subject, and when the beast attacked him the aged scientist proved himself to be both surprisingly strong and capable, briefly stunning his assailant with a punch and then smashing the monster with a heavy chair. Despite this valiant effort, the lycanthrope inevitably gained the upper hand and threw Miles out of a window.

(Werewolf by Night I#1 (fb) - BTS) - Though initially happy that her father might be dead, Marlene used her power to turn first the Werewolf and then all of her father's creatures to stone, sparing only Strug to replace Garth as their henchman. Finding that her father had survived the fall but was now paralyzed from the waist down, Marlene reconciled with him and agreed to use the Darkhold to restore him.

(Werewolf by Night I#1 - BTS) - When the sun rose, Russell's lycanthropic curse kicked in to turn him back to a man, with the magic also reversing Marlene's petrification power. Revived, Russell snatched the Darkhold and fled the island.  

(Werewolf by Night I#1) - Discovering the absence of both the book and her new statue, and with Strug's keen sense of smell confirming that Russell was no longer made of stone, Marlene, her now wheelchair-bound father and Strug headed to Los Angeles. There they approached Philip Russell and got Jack's address off him by claiming Jack had stolen some of their property. Confronting Jack in his apartment, Marlene took Jack's sister Lissa and Jack's friend Buck Cowan as hostages, then had Strug knock Jack out. While he was unconscious they searched the apartment for the Darkhold to no avail. Waking unnoticed to see the sun setting, Jack caught the Blackgar's off-guard and pushed past Marlene to escape the apartment before he transformed, but returned after becoming the Werewolf. The creature grappled with Strug, but fearing their servant was losing Marlene opened fire with her revolver, only to fatally wound Strug even as he was gaining the upper hand. With the winded Werewolf getting to his feet, a desperate Marlene removed her glasses, intending to again petrify the monster, but it shielded its vision and ducked down. Too late the Blackgar's realized there was a mirror behind the beast, and both were turned to stone.

    The next day Buck Cowan made some hasty arrangements and had the two statues put on exhibit at the Santa Monica Art Museum, where they still presumably reside.

Comments: Created by Gerry Conway and Mike Ploog.

   As a newborn infant Marlene turned her mother to stone. Her father, and Marlene once she was old enough to understand, both ASSumed her to be dead, but based on Werewolf by Night still being alive and conscious when Marlene similarly turned him to stone, it's entirely possible that she was still alive. - Loki

Profile by Jean-Marc Lofficier.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Miles Blackgar has no known connections to

• any other characters named Miles or Black-something  
  

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Garth

Garth was a normal human who served as Miles Blackgar's henchman. After chasing Jack Russell (in his werewolf form) deep inside Blackgar Castle, he found himself trapped with the monstrous products of Blackgar's experiments and was killed by Strug and the others.

 

 

 

--Marvel Spotlight I#4

 

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Strug

Strug was the product of one of Miles Blackgar's monstrous experiments. He was superhumanly strong and had unusually keen senses; after he killed Garth, Marlene Blackgar turned the other creatures to stone but saved Strug who then became the Blackgars' henchman in their quest to recover the Darkhold stolen by Jack Russell. Strug was very loyal to both Blackgar and his daughter Martlene. He was mistakenly shot by Marlene and died.

 

 

 

--(BTS or unidentified) Marvel Spotlight I#4; (identified) Werewolf by Night I#1

 

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Appearances:
Marvel Spotlight I#4 (June, 1972) - Gerry Conway (writer), Mike Ploog (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
Werewolf by Night I#1 (September, 1972) - Gerry Conway (writer), Mike Ploog (pencils), Frank Chiaramonte (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme#9/2 - Roy Thomas and R.J.M. Lofficier (writers), David and Dan Day (art), Ralph Macchio (editor)

First Posted: 05/11/2007
Last updated: 09/29/2022

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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