Enclave (comics)

Enclave
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Fantastic Four #66 (Sep 1967)
Created by	Stan Lee Jack Kirby
In-story information
Type of organization	Subversive
Leader(s)	Maris Morlak Carlo Zota Wladyslav Shinsky Jerome Hamilton (deceased)

The Enclave is a fictional subversive organization of dictatorially-minded scientists featured in comics published by Marvel Comics. The characters are a part of the Marvel Universe.

Fictional organization history

The organization that would eventually become known as the Enclave was founded by four scientists (each of whom was a world-class scientist in a different area of expertise) consisting of Dr. Jerome Hamilton, Maris Morlak, Professor Wladyslav Shinski, and Carlo Zota.

The goal of the organization was to use advanced technology to establish a benevolent world dictatorship under the rule of the scientists. The four scientists successfully faked their own deaths and disappeared from society, founding the Citadel of Science (a.k.a. the "Beehive"); on an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, using both their own technology and abandoned Deviant technology they had found. Their operations were initially funded by their own personal fortunes, and they hired mercenaries as additional personnel as needed. The scientists began their advanced scientific research and development, achieving various scientific breakthroughs and creating many advanced inventions. Before long, their level of technology was more advanced than most known on Earth.

The scientists' first major accomplishment was the creation of the superhumanly powerful humanoid being they referred to as "Him" (who would one day become known as Adam Warlock). In an attempt to "create a perfect race of human beings", "without evil - without sin", they created Him to be "the forerunner of a supreme new race". The scientists, who have lost control of Him, abducted Alicia Masters to sculpt his likeness as this would help them regain control in an unspecified way. Since she is blind, she would not be affected by "the blinding power he generates". She reached Him as he was about to emerge from a cocoon in his final metamorphosis. The Fantastic Four discovered the scientists' existence and came to rescue Alicia wrecking the citadel as they battle its security forces. Jerome Hamilton was killed by falling debris a result of energy bursts that were released by the emergence of Him from the cocoon. The citadel is destroyed when Him builds up enough energy to escape.

The scientists were not discouraged by their failure with Him or the death of Hamilton. So they created another superhumanly powerful humanoid they called "Paragon" (who would later become known as Her and Kismet). Although they enlisted Doctor Strange to perform brain surgery on Paragon, they lost control of her as well and she destroyed the rebuilt citadel. The scientists battled the Hulk, Doctor Strange, and Paragon before she departed.

Taking the name the Enclave, the scientists financed Security College in New York State. The College was actually part of an information-gathering scheme, and the Enclave hired the Monocle to acquire industrial, military, and political information from students. However, the Security College operation was uncovered, and the Monocle was defeated by the Human Torch and Spider-Man. Monocle was later killed by the Enclave who abandoned the operation. Thanks to their efforts though, the Enclave learned of the Inhumans and abducted Medusa.

The Enclave made an alliance with Maximus and successfully infiltrated Attilan as part of an attempt to conquer the Inhumans' Great Refuge. The Enclave attacked the Inhumans, but were betrayed by Maximus and defeated. With Maximus again, they launched an attack on Earth from Attilan in an attempt to foment war between Earth and the Inhumans. This plan failed, and they instead battled the Avengers and Inhumans. Morlak and Zota were captured and imprisoned.

Morlak and Zota were later freed from prison by Shinski. All three were injured in an airplane crash, captured, and hospitalized.

The Enclave obtained both financial backing and an agent named Frank as an assistant from A.I.M. In exchange, they are to capture Kismet and turn her over to A.I.M. Shinski had a stroke and ended up bed-ridden where he required intravenous therapy after suffering heart and lung damage. In a new base somewhere in the American Midwest, the Enclave rebuilt their Transfer Grid. Morlak and Zota used the Transfer Grid to travel to Project Pegasus and obtain a cocoon containing a healing Kismet. After removing Kismet from the cocoon, they placed it around Shinsky where his ailments are cured. While Shinsky was overjoyed to see his only "daughter," Morlak and Zota planned to extract some of Kismet's DNA and inject them into themselves in order to become metahumans. Frank however assaulted Morlak and Zota preventing them from betraying A.I.M. as they intended to do once they have gotten superpowers. Kismet stopped Frank from killing Shinsky, but Frank turned out to be an adaptoid and took on Paragon's powers. As the two fight, Shinski infected and destroyed Paragon with a genetic virus designed as a fail-safe should Kismet attack them. Kismet then made more cocoons to heal Shinski, Morlak, and Zota. Kismet decided to stay and nurture her "parents." Kismet declined an offer from Quasar to join him in space preferring to stay with the Enclave.

Some time after the defeat of Paragon, the Enclave were each transformed into powerful metahumans as they had hoped. However, their advanced minds turned them away from their former plans for world conquest while their desires to cure the ill resided. While their opinions on how to do that are different, they also found that they cannot leave each others' presence or they would suffer power loss and great pain. Testing their powers, the Enclave proved themselves by stopping a tornado, saving dying patients, bringing rain to a drought region, curing deadly jungle diseases, disposing of nuclear wastes, and revitalizing rainforests amongst other things. However, they were unaware of the long-term effects of their actions and several places suffered even worse fates from their over-compensations. Kismet tried to stop them, but their actions caused a volcano to erupt. With her aid, they averted a disaster and they accepted her advice to learn more about their powers by investigating their source. Kismet accompanied the Enclave into space. Kismet and the Enclave encountered the powerful being Khatylis in the midst of a battle with the Silver Surfer. Unwittingly attacking Khatylis, the Enclavers were quickly destroyed by Khatylis. Kismet assaulted Khatylis causing an interdimensional rift that nearly destroyed them all, but Khatylis healed the rift and restored Kismet, Silver Surfer, and the Enclave. Again they were all reminded of the damage they can cause by using their powers irresponsibly. By the time the Enclave returned to Earth, their powers apparently faded.

The Enclave later hired Tinkerer to repair their Transfer Grid in order to get their operations running again.

Falling on hard times, the Enclave operated out of a building in the South Bronx where they have designed control chips that they have implanted in criminals and other dregs of society to use a drones. They also created a robot called Remote to help them "acquire" needed technologies from other companies. While looting Micron Labs, Remote killed a security guard and his silhouette made others think that Spider-Man was responsible. This ended up drawing Spider-Man and the Thunderbolts (who have not yet been outed as former members of the Masters of Evil) to investigate. The Thunderbolts followed Remote back to the Enclave with Spider-Man following them. With their most recent components, the Enclave completed the Transfer Grid and the Bio-Modem (a beam that would be able to control the minds of others). When the heroes arrived, the Enclave used the Bio-Modem on them. However, Spider-Man and MACH-I managed to set up interference to the Bio-Modem's power and they freed the others. The heroes then destroy Remote and the Enclave fled through the Transfer Grid taking the Transfer Grid and their equipment with them.

Seeking a way to jumpstart their efforts to bio-engineering the human race, Morlak and Shinski came up with a plan to usurp the creative genius of Mister Fantastic. Presumably with the aid of Zota, they created a device to do this. Possibly hoping to pique Mister Fantastic's interest, they travel to the Tibetan monastery of the Tibetan "Monks of Doom" (the very sect that had constructed Doctor Doom's armor). Slaughtering many of the monks, they enslaved the rest of the monks and had them forge a pair of suits of armor.

Reporter Isabel Aguirre and photographer Gordon Clay traveled to the same monastery to learn why these monks would be associated with Doctor Doom. They were surprised to find the monks slaughtered and were even surprised to find the armored form of Crucible. Crucible then forced Isabel and Gordon on a plane piloted by a pair of monks. Isabel and Gordon are flown to Europe where Crucible states that he was the crucible form which would be formed a brave new world. Crucible transformed Isabel and Gordon into stone gargoyles in order to facilitate smuggling them through immigration. In Stockholm, Sweden, Crucible restored Isabel and Gordon to life. Crucible coerced them into serving him or live out their lives trapped as stone gargoyles. Isabel and Gordon ended up agreeing to serve Crucible. Crucible then attacked a science symposium in order to draw out Mister Fantastic. While using a decoy device disguised as a bomb to draw away Thing, Crucible fought Reed Richards and activated a device that would drain Mister Fantastic's inventive genius transferring it into himself before escaping.

Morlak and Shinski relocate to Genosha where they set up a shop and began using the war-torn nation as a providing ground for their weapons and tactics. At the same time, they began gathering and experimenting on the Genoshan people hoping to transform them into a master race. At some point, the two captured Kismet and brainwashed her into serving them. Altering her appearance and powers, they renamed her Ayesha. Seeking to oppose Crucible, the Genoshan government and Trapster to capture Mister Fantastic not knowing that Crucible had stolen Mister Fantastic's inventive genius. The remaining members of the Fantastic Four followed Mister Fantastic's kidnappers to Genosha only to be defeated by Ayesha. She brought them to Crucible who swapped their minds with that of Crucible's three Genoshan accomplices. Thing's mind was swapped with Jomo Kimaine, Invisible Woman's mind was swapped with Farisa Mansour, and Human Torch's mind was swapped with Harry Soong. The powerless heroes escaped from Crucible. Harry tried to use Human Torch's powers resulting in a miniature nova-like explosion that destroyed the several top floors of a building with some civilians caught in the explosion. The powerless heroes reunited with Mister Fantastic. Along with Genoshan Chief Magistrate Anderson, the four storm Crucible's base. Thing, Invisible Woman, and Human Torch fought their superpowered counterparts and reclaimed their bodies. Mister Fantastic entered the inner sanctum and discovered the human guinea pigs. Morlak revealed his face and confronted Mister Fantastic where Morlak began to crack under the stress of the continued influx of thoughts and ideas that came from Mister Fantastic's stolen inventive genius. Shinski also appeared in the Crucible armor and killed Morlak. Morlak died happily having been released from the torment of seeing the fate of the world. Shinski pronounced Morlak as being unworthy of claiming the cosmos and serving as a consort to Ayesha as he names himself the true Crucible with Morlak as his lackey. Mister Fantastic was able to stun Crucible and flee with the rest of the Fantastic Four. Crucible located Ayesha having apparently one the fight against Genoshan Chief Magistrate Anderson. However, the magistrate surprised both of them with a black hole generator creating a mini black hole that pulled all three of them in and seemingly ending the Crucible threat forever.

The Enclave (with Shinski and Morlak turning up alive) posed as the motion picture company Beehive Productions hiring the young Danny as an intern to design a female "Warlock" for a movie character. They created a powerful fail-safe program to better enable them to control her. However, Adam Warlock apparently sensed this new being in development stages and he uploaded a scenario into her which taught her a sense of right and wrong allowing her to resist the Enclave's control and escape.

Members

• Dr. Jerome Hamilton - An American medical biologist. He was killed by Adam Warlock.
• Maris Morlak - A Lithuanian nuclear physicist. He briefly possessed cosmic power on the same level as Kismet and Silver Surfer. He could rearrange matter, manipulate energy, manipulate weather, fly, survive in space, and project energy bolts.
• Professor Wladyslav Shinski - A Polish geneticist. He briefly possessed cosmic power on the same level as Kismet and Silver Surfer. He could rearrange matter, manipulate energy, manipulate weather, fly, survive in space, and project energy bolts.
• Carlo Zota - A Spanish electronics technician. He briefly possessed cosmic power on the same level as Kismet and Silver Surfer. He could rearrange matter, manipulate energy, manipulate weather, fly, survive in space, and project energy bolts.

Crucible

Crucible is the supervillain identity used by Maris Morlak and Professor Wladyslav Shinski, two members of the Enclave. Crucible went after Mister Fantastic in a plot to steal his inventive genius and kick-start the Enclave's genetics program. They wore identical suits of power armor, forged by the same monks who forged Doctor Doom's armor, which have the ability to transmute the shape and composition of materials.

Enclave II

There is another, unrelated Enclave in Marvel Comics that first appeared in the pages of Tomb of Dracula vol. 2 #2 in December 1979. The group consisted of Damian Burnemissza, Druig, Satas, Kirk Druker, and Sondra. This Enclave was an organization of occultists dedicated to the worship of the demon Asmodeus. They were enemies of the Dimensional Man and Dracula. This group was created by Marv Wolfman and Steve Ditko.

Other versions

Ultimate Enclave

In the Ultimate Extinction miniseries, it was revealed that a group of scientists rented a radio telescope, applied their own algorithms to it, and were able to see a 'processional entity' (the creature known as Gah Lak Tus) which would arrive within 20 years. To fight the entity when it arrived, they hired Heather Douglas, a contract killer, cloned her, and raised the clones to be an army against Gah-Lak-Tus. The clones refer to the scientists as 'the Enclave', but it also operates as the Paragon Corporation.

In other media

Video games

• The Enclave appears in The Incredible Hulk video game. The leaders of Enclave are depicted as scientists in full high-tech body armor each with their own private army. Their leaders are referred to as Ceres Leader (voiced by Simbi Khali Williams), Jupiter Leader (voiced by S. Scott Bullock), Minerva Leader (voiced by Courtenay Taylor), and Vulcan Leader (voiced by Dave Wittenberg). Ceres Sector is Enclave's chemical weapon and genetic engineering specialists where they try to eliminate Rick Jones, set up chemical bombs, and also use Bi-Beast in their plans. Minerva Sector is the psych-ops division who use energy siphoning machines and mind-control devices in their plans. Jupiter Sector is the weather manipulation division that use Earthquake Generators and orbiting laser satellites to attack Hulk. Vulcan Sector is the mechanical design division that unleashes Kyklops robots, use giant turrets to destroy the Hulk, and tries to steal the Hulkbuster armors. Their soldiers consist of normal Legionnaire soldiers, flying Centurion soldiers, and giant mutated soldiers called the Barbaria. Eventually, they realized that they need to defeat the Hulk by confronting him directly or, if they're lucky, let the Army do it for them. After beating the story mode, bonus levels involve destroying the remaining Enclave bases and defeating their leaders. After the section's headquarters are demolished, the Enclave leaders will attack in different ways besides using the energy attacks emitted from their high-tech staffs. Vulcan Leader will attack Hulk with orbital satellite lasers, Ceres Leader will attack Hulk with Bi-Beast clones, Minerva Leader will clone herself, and Jupiter Leader will call forth lightning. The Enclave use a front company to conceal their activities, called the "Paragon" Corporation.

External links

• Enclave at Marvel.com
• Enclave at Marvel Wiki
• Enclave at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
• Enclave at MarvelDirectory.com