Dr. LOUIS KORT

Real Name: Dr. Louis Kort

Identity/Class: Human civilian;
    apparent English citizen (or, at least, a resident), and he presumably has a PhD or two

Occupation: Cyberneticist, bio-geneticist, presumptive researcher

Group Membership: None revealed

Affiliations: Deathlok the Demolisher (Luther Manning) of Earth-7484, Nick Fury, Alicia Masters, Nighthawk (Kyle Richmond of Earth-616), Shambler, Shang-Chi, SHIELD (Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-enforcement Division), Thing (Ben Grimm);
    briefly met, but minimally interacted with Dr. Reginald Johnson St. Martin Casey and Dr. Marcus Welby (not the TV character)

Enemies: Hydra, Shambler

Known Relatives: Angelica ?Kort? (daughter)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: London, England, United Kingdom;
    he lived off Kensington Park

First Appearance: Marvel Two-In-One#28 (June, 1977)

Powers/Abilities: Dr. Kort has no superhuman abilities, but he is extremely intelligent and is considered London's foremost specialist in both cybernetics and bio-genetics. He was strong-willed but very respectful of others and appreciative of anyone who helped him or his family. He did not fear death and was willing to die to avoid giving information to corrupt people, but he was unwilling to sacrifice the life of his daughter. He wore (apparently) corrective lenses.

Height: Unrevealed. Most of the time, there's no frame of reference. When standing straight next to the 6' tall Thing, he looks perhaps 2-3 inches shorter. So, perhaps 5'9"
Weight: Unrevealed. Based on the above height guesstimate, I'd place his weight around 150 lbs.
Eyes: I don't think his eyes were seen in color, as they always looked pretty clear behind his glasses.
Hair: White (presumably some darker shade in his younger years)

History:
(Marvel Two-In-One I#29 (fb) - BTS) - Professor Kort earned a reputation as London's foremost specialist in both cybernetics and bio-genetics.

(Marvel Two-In-One I#29 (fb) - BTS) - Hydra demanded Kort work for them, but, not fearing death, Kort refused to work for them.

(Marvel Two-In-One I#28 - BTS) - Seeking to revive the time-lost Deathlok the Demolisher of Earth-7484 by freeing him from the Fixer (Norbert Ebersol)'s servo-pods, Reed Richards (aka Mr. Fantastic) recalled Professor Louis Kort as London's foremost specialist in both cybernetics and bio-genetics. The Thing (Ben Grimm) decided to head to London on a trip with his girlfriend, Alicia Masters, to bring Deathlok to Kort for aid.

(Marvel Two-In-One I#29 (fb) - BTS) - Taking hostage Angelica Kort and her unidentified boyfriend in their home, Hydra also captured Professor Kort from his home (off Kensington Park) and brought him to an unspecified base.

(Marvel Two-In-One I#29) - While the Thing and Alicia arrived at Dr. Kort's home and found it empty and ransacked, a Hydra leader threatened Kort to serve them. Noting that they wanted what only he knew and since he did not fear death they could not frighten him; he would welcome dying before serving an evil such as they. However, the Hydra leader then revealed they held Angelica hostage, at which point Kort agreed to help them with a serum they wanted to create from Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew).
    Alicia screamed upon finding a bloody slab (being blind, she identified the liquid as blood by tasting it...eww...the story was written in 1977, when that action would have only been yucky), which led to a battle of mistaken intentions between the Thing and Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu, who sought to come to her rescue. After making peace, the Thing convinced Shang-Chi to contact his former employer, Sir Denis Nayland Smith, for information on anyone potentially interested in Kort. This brought them to an Italian restaurant, through which they discussed a hidden passageway to the Hydra base and fought the Hydra soldiers therein.
    When the Hydra leader demanded the serum from Kort, Kort tried to explain that it couldn't rushed, that the molecular breakdown was too complicated, but the Hydra leader threatened him at gunpoint, and Kort turned it over, noting he couldn't vouch for its results until it had been tested. The Thing and Shang-Chi then arrived, and the Thing rescued Kort while Chi held off the Hydra warriors. Kort then guided the Thing to Angelica's home, where the Thing took out the Hydra agents and rescued Angelia and her boyfriend. Kort thanked his rescuers and agreed to help revive Deathlok, noting life was too important, too vital, to be wasted.
    Back at Hydra headquarters, however, agents recovered Kort's serum, which would apparently allow to create hundreds of warriors with Spider-Woman's power.

(Marvel Two-In-One I#30 - BTS) - Kort worked his hardest to save Deathlok.

(Marvel Two-In-One I#31 - BTS) - Using Kort's serum, the Hydra agent mutated Alicia Masters into an eight-limbed spider-woman.

(Marvel Two-In-One I#31 - BTS) - Kort saved Deathlok from dying, though Deathlok had to remain in a capsule for another 60 days.

(Marvel Two-In-One I#32) - After the Thing and Spider-Woman (Drew) subdued the mutated Alicia Masters, Kort gratefully and confidently promised to help Alicia.

(Marvel Two-In-One I#32 - BTS) - Kort successfully restored Alicia to normal.

(Marvel Two-In-One I#34) - Dr. Kort noted that they were ready at long last: Deathlok would live. Kort activated his process, and Deathlok was indeed revived, and he responded to Kort's questions. After being congratulated Nick Fury of SHIELD, Kort was almost immediately called to a laboratory on the outskirts of London (along with the Thing) by Kyle Richmond to advise on the opening of an ancient stone to release an unidentified being apparently living within it. Despite the difference of opinion between Dr. Welby and Dr. Casey on whether or not (respectively) it was ethically/morally appropriate to revitalize the being, Richmond made the decision to do so without Kort having a chance to comment. Richmond put Kort in charge of handling the release/revitalization with neutron rays, but when the stone burst forth the alien Shambler, Dr. Kort, Richmond, and the Thing were rendered unconscious by the smoke used by the alien creature in an attempt to communicate with them.

Comments: Created by Marv Wolfman, Ron Wilson, and John Tartag.

    Big thanks to Sean Welch, who pointed out that Dr. Kort, who had previously had only a brief sub-profile in the Shambler profile, had previously appeared in MTIO I#28 (BTS) and 29. Further research on my part revealed he was also in #32, and BTS in 30-31.

    Professor Kort had some significant actions in his brief set of appearances. Wonder what he's up to now? He seems like someone who could have been name-dropped as some science expert in Marvel Year-In-Review or something, but I don't have those indexed thoroughly enough.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
No KNOWN connections to:

Angelica Kort and her boyfriend

 

    Hydra took them hostage to force Professor Kort's compliance in developing a serum based on Spider-Woman's powers

    --Marvel Two-In-One#29

 

 

 

 

 

 

images: (without ads)
Marvel Two-In-One I#29, pg. 5, panel 2 - seated and bound
        pg. 16, panel 2 - side view, w/ Thing
            panel 3 - Angelica & boyfriend
    #34, p3, pan5 - face only, by machinery, preparing to revive Deathlok
 

Appearances:
Marvel Two-In-One#28 (June, 1977) - Marv Wolfman (writer/editor), Ron Wilson (penciler), John Tartag (inker)
Marvel Two-In-One#29 (July, 1977) - Marv Wolfman (writer/editor), Ron Wilson (penciler), Sam Grainger (inker)
Marvel Two-In-One#30 (August, 1977) - Marv Wolfman (writer/editor), John Buscema (penciler), Pablo Marcos (inker)
Marvel Two-In-One#31 (September, 1977) - Marv Wolfman (writer/editor), Ron Wilson (penciler), Sam Grainger (inker)
Marvel Two-In-One#32 (October, 1977) - Marv Wolfman (writer/editor), Ron Wilson (pencils), Pablo Marcos (inks)
Marvel Two-In-One#34 (December, 1977) - Marv Wolfman (writer/editor), Ron Wilson (pencils), Pablo Marcos (inks)

Last updated: 01/28/13

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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