FREDERICK FENTON
Real Name: Frederick Fenton
Identity/Class: Human technology user
Occupation: Industrialist
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: None
Enemies: His employees
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: "The heartless crumb" (as called by an employee)
Base of Operations: Fenton Electronics; Earth-63996 in the 30th Century
First Appearance: Journey into Mystery I#96/3 (September, 1963)
Powers/Abilities: Frederick Fenton displayed no paranormal physical abilities. A wealthy industrialist who owned an electronics factory, Fenton was an arrogant and overbearing employer who treated his workers badly; he was also an extremely selfish individual.
Fenton became obsessed with prolonging his own life; convinced that medical science of the future would learn how to extend life indefinitely, Fenton used a time machine to travel to Earth in the 30th Century in a quest for immortality.
Height: 5'
10" (by approximation)
Weight: 190 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Brown
History:
(Journey into Mystery I#96/3 (fb) - BTS) - The past of
Frederick Fenton is largely unrevealed, but he eventually founded his
own electronics factory and became a multimillionaire. Fenton
became determined to prolong his life, and he figured that medical
science would eventually discover a method to extend the human life-span
indefinitely.
(Journey into Mystery I#96/3) - Wanting to travel to the future to learn the secret of immortality, Fenton ordered the scientists, engineers, and mechanics of his company to build him a time machine. To ensure that he alone would understand how it functioned, Fenton had his employees work on the time machine's components and sub-systems in separate work-groups; after each team completed its assigned task, Fenton fired them and forbade them from contacting each other.
When all the components were finished, Fenton supervised the final assembly of the time machine--he changed work crews every fifteen minutes, and he promptly fired the men as they were replaced by the following shift of workers, all in an effort to keep them from learning too much about the device.
With the time machine completed, Fenton closed down his factory and fired all remaining employees; inside his locked building, he was unconcerned about the welfare of the workers he had terminated. Fenton stood before the time machine and began to charge it with electricity, then he climbed aboard and set the controls to take him one thousand years into the future; Fenton activated the machine and was transported to Earth in the 30th Century.
As he exited the time machine, Fenton found himself alone in an abandoned city that was overgrown with vegetation--he searched the empty metropolis, but could not find a single inhabitant. When Fenton spotted an old newspaper--its headline proclaiming that mankind had discovered a new planet, and that migration from Earth to the new world was soon to begin--he understood what had happened to the missing human race; considering this only a temporary setback, Fenton went back inside the time machine, with his intent being to travel back a few years before the great migration had occurred. But when he attempted to activate the controls, the machine failed to operate, and Fenton discovered that its entire electrical charge had been expended in transporting him to the 30th Century--to his horror, he realized that there was no electricity on this dead and abandoned future world!
Finding himself marooned in the desolate future, Frederick Fenton was struck by an epiphany: He realized that if he hadn't been so selfish, if he had only shared the secret of the time machine with others, then perhaps someone might be able to rescue him.
As the days of his life slowly crawled by, Fenton began to gather some components in an effort to construct a generator--the one slim hope he had left was that he might be able to create his own electricity to recharge the time machine.
Comments: Created by Stan Lee (writer) and Steve Ditko (artist).
Since it appeared in the same issue as Thor's first battle with the Mad
Merlin, perhaps this story took place in the early days of the
modern Marvel Universe.
Fenton likely went to some alternate future, so that deserted 30th Century
world was not Earth-49121 (the world
ruled by Excellency),
nor any other known Earth of that same time-period. It was not
mentioned what the population of that Earth had been in the 30th Century,
but it seems unlikely that there would have been enough spaceships
available to transport (potentially) several billion people, so my guess
is that mankind was somehow teleported en masse to the new planet.
Assuming Fenton was never able to return from the future, then maybe the
assets of Fenton Electronics were eventually acquired by Stark
Industries--at the very least, Tony Stark would have had one less
competitor to be concerned about.
Profile by Ron Fredricks.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Frederick Fenton has no known connections to:
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The large factory owned by Frederick Fenton, it employed an unspecified number of workers. When his time machine was completed and he prepared to travel to the 30th Century, Fenton closed down his factory and fired all the employees. --Journey into Mystery I#96/3 |
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The scientists, engineers, and mechanics who worked for Fenton Electronics, they were treated harshly by their boss when he ordered them to build him a time machine; after they completed their task, Fenton terminated all his employees. --Journey into Mystery I#96/3 |
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Powered by electricity, it was a cylindrically-shaped device that could transport an individual through time. Fenton used the time machine to transport himself to an abandoned Earth in the 30th Century. When he next attempted to use the machine, Fenton discovered he had used the device's entire electrical charge during his initial voyage through time, and he was unable to find a source of power to recharge it. --Journey into Mystery I#96/3 |
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The world one thousand years in Frederick Fenton's future, its cities were completely devoid of human life. Earth had been abandoned when a new planet, free of disease and germs, had been discovered, and the entire human race left in a mass-migration to the healthier world (see comments). With no inhabitants left on the abandoned planet, the empty cities became overgrown with vegetation, and the supporting infrastructure (specifically, electricity) no longer functioned. When Fenton's time machine transported him to this empty world, he learned of mankind's exodus from an old newspaper headline; he later discovered that there was no electricity available for him to recharge the time machine, so he was marooned on the desolate world. --Journey into Mystery I#96/3 |
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images: (without ads)
Journey into Mystery I#96/3, p1, pan1 (Main Image - Frederick Fenton stepping out of time machine)
Journey into Mystery I#96/3, p2, pan3 (Headshot - Frederick Fenton looking over time machine blueprints)
Journey into Mystery I#96/3, p5, pan4 (Fenton realizes there's no electricity on abandoned Earth of the 30th Century)
Journey into Mystery I#96/3, p5, pan6 (Fenton begins to build generator)
Journey into Mystery I#96/3, p2, pan1 (Fenton Electronics plant)
Journey into Mystery I#96/3, p3, pan4 (Fenton Electronics plant closes)
Journey into Mystery I#96/3, p2, pan4 (Fenton assigning his employees their task)
Journey into Mystery I#96/3, p2, pan5 (Fenton checking on employees' progress)
Journey into Mystery I#96/3, p3, pan5 (Fenton charges completed time-machine (exterior) with electricity)
Journey into Mystery I#96/3, p3, pan6 (Fenton aboard time machine (interior))
Journey into Mystery I#96/3, p4, pan5 (Fenton on deserted Earth of 30th Century)
Journey into Mystery I#96/3, p4, pan6 (Fenton on deserted Earth of 30th Century)
Journey into Mystery I#96/3, p5, pan1 (Fenton sees old newspaper announcing mankind's migration to new world)
Appearances:
Journey into Mystery I#96/3 (September, 1963) - Stan Lee (writer), Steve Ditko (pencils and inks), Stan Goldberg (colors), Artie Simek (letters). Stan Lee (editor)
First Posted: 03/28/18
Last updated: 03/28/18
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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