EARL FERROL
Real Name: Earl Ferrol
Identity/Class: Human mutate (1950s era)
Occupation: Scientist
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: None
Enemies: Police of an unidentified American city (including Officer Foley and Officer Sweeny)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: "The greatest man in the world" (as referred to by himself); "this flying maniac" (as referred to by police commissioner); "the Hawk-Burglar" (as referred to by Officer Foley)
Base of Operations: His lab in an unidentified American city
First Appearance: Strange Tales I#58/1 (May, 1957)
Powers/Abilities: A brilliant chemist, Ferrol created an elixir which gave him the ability to negate the pull of gravity on his body (...along with anything he was carrying (see comments)). With his weight reduced to nearly zero, Ferrol could glide on air currents and soar through the sky.
Ferrol used his flying power to commit a series of thefts, but his weightlessness eventually resulted in his capture (see comments).
Height: 5'10" (by
approximation)
Weight: 170 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Blond
History:
(Strange Tales I#58/1) - The past of Earl Ferrol is largely
unrevealed, but late one night in his lab, he created a chemical that
could reverse the polarity of gravity. After imbibing the fluid mixture,
Ferrol felt a sensation of weightlessness over his entire body, and he
found that just the slightest jump would take him anywhere he wanted to
go! To test his new power, Ferrol opened the window and jumped
out--instead of plunging to his death, he found himself riding the air
currents and flying through the nighttime sky over the city!
As he glided past an open apartment window, Ferrol noticed some jewelery on a bedroom dresser--realizing the valuables would make him wealthy, and no one would ever be able to trace him if he stole them, Ferrol alighted inside the darkened apartment. But his intrusion awakened the female resident, and she started to scream for help; Ferrol told the attractive negligee-clad young woman not to be frightened, because he just wanted her "baubles" (...and if this were The Benny Hill Show, I'd be making an off-color remark right here). Before the disbelieving woman's eyes, Ferrol jumped out the window with the jewelery in hand and flew away.
The next morning, Ferrol read about his crime in the newspaper, and he was confident that he'd never be caught.
(Strange Tales I#58/1 - BTS) - For an unspecified period of time, Ferrol terrorized the city at night by committing a number of aerial burglaries.
(Strange Tales I#58/1) - At the police department, public pressure stirred the forces of the law to formulate a plan to catch the mysterious flying criminal, whom they dubbed "The Hawk-Burglar"; they stationed men at all the exclusive apartment houses in town.
One night, Ferrol landed on the inviting roof of a penthouse apartment. After entering through an open window, Ferrol began to ransack the apartment; but he was alarmed when he heard a police whistle, then he found that he was trapped inside, because the police had seen him and dropped nets to cover all the windows.
Since the windows were blocked, Ferrol left the apartment by the door and flew down the corridor. With two policemen chasing after him, he glided into the building's stairwell--as he speedily flew downward, Ferrol planned to exit the building at street-level, and once he was outside, he could fly over the heads of the police and escape.
When Ferrol finally reached the exit-door, he stepped on the door's treadle to unlock it...but he couldn't get it to open, and he was trapped inside the stairwell.
Just as the pursuing policemen reached him and placed him under arrest, Earl Ferrol tearfully realized why the door wouldn't open: His own weightlessness prevented gravity from pulling him down, therefore he couldn't press the treadle to disengage the door's lock (see comments).
Comments: Created by an unidentified writer and Al Williamson.
This 4-page story--He
Floats Thru the Air--never explained exactly how Ferrol's power
worked. I'd speculate that he could generate a field of anti-gravitons
around his body that extended around his clothes and anything he was
carrying (...otherwise, the weight of
those inanimate objects might drag him down).
My guess is that Ferrol could control his weightlessness by an act of
will, to turn it "on" and "off" (...otherwise,
he'd never by able to return to the ground); but with the
police chasing after him, he probably just panicked and forgot to return
his weight to normal when he tried to unlock that door.
Profile by Ron Fredricks.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Earl Ferrol has no known connections to:
Officer Foley has no known connections to:
Officer Sweeny has no known connections to:
|
Located in a building of an unidentified American city, it
was several stories above ground-level. It was where Ferrol developed an
elixir that allowed him to defy gravity. |
|
Two policemen in an unidentified American city, they were the
arresting officers who eventually captured Earl Ferrol--the so-called
"Hawk-Burglar"--after his aerial crime spree. |
|
images: (without ads)
Strange Tales I#58/1, p4, pan1 (Main Image - Earl Ferrol, flying down stairwell, with police in pursuit)
Strange Tales I#58/1, p4, pan2 (Headshot - Earl Ferrol)
Strange Tales I#58/1, p2, pan3 (while flying outside apartment building, Earl Ferrol notices jewelry on bedroom dresser)
Strange Tales I#58/1, p4, pan1 (Earl Ferrol, flying away from first burglary, with jewelery in hand)
Strange Tales I#58/1, p4, pan5 (weightless Earl Ferrol standing on exit-door treadle, unable to disengage lock)
Strange Tales I#58/1, p1, pan1 (Earl Ferrol working in his lab)
Strange Tales I#58/1, p4, pan3 (Foley and Sweeny chasing after Earl Ferrol)
Strange Tales I#58/1, p4, pan7 (Foley (background); Earl Ferrol in handcuffs; Sweeny)
Appearances:
Strange Tales I#58/1 (May, 1957) - unidentified writer, Al Williamson (pencils), Ralph Mayo (inks), Stan Lee (editor)
First Posted: 06/09/2021
Last updated: 06/09/2021
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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