HAL

Real Name: Hal (surname unrevealed)

Identity/Class: Human

Occupation: Talent agent

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Ben Grimm

Enemies: None

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Presumably  New York City, New York, USA

First Appearance: Fantastic Four I#168 (March, 1976)

Powers/Abilities: Hal has no superhuman powers but appeared to be a skilled talent agent.

Height: Unrevealed (approximately 5'9")
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately 155 lbs.)
Eyes: Unrevealed (see comments)
Hair: Brown (balding)

History:
(Fantastic Four I#168) - After being replaced on the Fantastic Four due to a recent transformation back to his human form, a frustrated Ben Grimm phoned his agent Hal to ask how the bookings for late night talk shows were coming along. Admitting that he was having trouble booking Grimm following his transformation, Hal commented that a few days ago, he could've had the Thing on anything, but since the transformation, Grimm was no longer visually interesting and television was a visual medium. Hal then suggested that he might be able to book Grimm for five minutes on a local show if Grimm could provide some old film clips of himself as the Thing but the angry Grimm hung up the phone.

Comments: Created by Roy Thomas, Rich Buckler and Joe Sinnott.

    As near as I can tell, Fantastic Four I#168 was the only appearance of Hal. One would think, given the Thing's celebrity personality, that Hal would've appeared or been mentioned several times throughout the Thing's history but I could not find any other appearances. If any come out of the woodwork, I'll be sure to add them into the profile.

    Hal's eye color was impossible to determine, as he was only seen in one panel and his eyes were not drawn in a way that showed any sort of color.

Profile by Proto-Man.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Hal should be distinguished from:

• Hal - Parasites, bad breath--Captain Britain II#13
• Hal - friend of Mark, killed the Shambler--Marvel Two-in-One I#34
• Hal - auditor, discovered tax evasion, fraud & stock manipulation in Kyle Richmond's finances--Defenders I#66
  
• Hal - accountant for Marc Spector--Marc Spector: Moon Knight I#2
• Hal - V.I.G.I.L. forensics agent--Punisher War Journal I#67
• or any other "Hal" characters
  

Appearances:
Fantastic Four I#168 (March, 1976) - Roy Thomas (writer, editor), Rich Buckler (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)

First posted: 09/23/2022
Last updated: 09/23/2022

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
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