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Marvel Boy (Robert Grayson)

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Marvel Boy
Agents of Atlas #3.
Cover art by Tomm Coker
Publication information
PublisherMarvel Comics
First appearanceMarvel Boy #1 (Dec. 1950)
Created byStan Lee
Russ Heath
In-story information
Alter egoRobert Grayson
Team affiliationsAgents of Atlas
Notable aliasesMarvel Boy
The Crusader, Uranian
AbilitiesTelepathy
Light blasts

Marvel Boy is the name of several fictional characters in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The Robert Grayson Marvel Boy, currentlly know as The Uranian, is a superhero created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Russ Heath, and first appeared in Marvel Boy #1 (Dec. 1950).

Publication history

Robert Grayson is the 1950s Marvel Boy, created by Stan Lee and Russ Heath in Marvel Boy #1 (Dec. 1950), from Marvel 1950s forerunner, Atlas Comics. Writer-artist Bill Everett took over with issue #2. Marvel Boy continued to star when the series title changed to Astonishing with issue #3. The character's final Atlas story was in Astonishing #7 (Dec. 1951).

Grayson would not appear again until issue #9 (June 1978) of Marvel Comics' alternate-reality series What If. This version of Marvel Boy was revived within mainstream Marvel continuity in the 1950s-set, 12-issue miniseries Marvel: The Lost Generation (2001-2002) and the Agents of Atlas (2006).

Fictional character biography

Robert Grayson was born in Trenton, New Jersey, the son of Dr. Horace Grabshield (later Anglicized as Grayson). Robert's father was a Jewish scientist who fled Earth with his infant son during the rise of Nazi Germany. The Graysons landed on Uranus, where they were greeted by the native Uranian Eternals. Robert was given a costume and a pair of powerful energy-band bracelets, and returned to Earth in the 1950's to battle crime. He battled such foes as the Great Video.

The Crusader

Robert Grayson, purportedly, returned much later as an antagonist and vigilante, having been revived from suspended animation. He was apparently driven insane by grief over the death of the Uranian colony and called himself The Crusader (no relation to the medieval character from the Atlas Comics title The Black Knight). He murdered banker Calvin McClary, and battled the Fantastic Four. When he lost control over the energies channeled through his power wrist-bracelets — which writer-editor Roy Thomas here dubbed "Quantum Bands" — they overloaded, and he was vaporized.[1] His ghost later appeared in the pages of Quasar (then holder of the quantum bands), as the Blue Marvel.[volume & issue needed]

Agents of Atlas

The 2006 Marvel miniseries Agents of Atlas explained his survival by stating that the Crusader had actually been a different person — a confused and surgically altered Uranian Eternal who had been using the Quantum Bands as a replacement for Marvel Boy's own power bracelets. This replacement was intended as an unquestioningly loyal servant of the Uranian Eternals, conditioned to obey and to believe he was actually the original Marvel Boy. However, the plan went awry when a disaster destroyed his creators midway through the project, leaving the Crusader in a deranged and delusional state.

Powers and abilities

Atlas Comics' Marvel Boy #1 (Dec. 1950): Cover artist uncertain; possibly Sol Brodsky.

Throughout his career, Marvel Boy utilized two different pairs of wrist-bands. The first pair manipulated gravity and magnified light. The second pair, which he wore as Marvel Boy, controlled gravity and light to a greater extent than the first. Marvel Boy possessed superhuman strength, stamina, and durability. Grayson also utilized a rocket-ship designed by his father Horace Grayson, based on designs by Uranian technicians. He wore polarized contact lenses which protected him when he manipulated light.

Marvel Boy's Quantum Bands absorbed solar radiation and transformed it into powers and enhanced abilities, such as superhuman strength, endurance, and resistance to injury. He used the bands to manipulate gravity, enabling him to fly. His primary use of them, however, was to magnify low levels of light to create blinding bursts in order to incapacitate his opponents.

Marvel Boy's primary weapon is now the headband he received from the Uranians. This headband consists of highly sophisticated technologies that not only allow him to control his spaceship remotely, but affords him a high degree of telepathic ability. He can read minds, project highly convincing images and commands into the brains of others, and can scan the physiological state of those around him.

Marvel Boy has been reborn to share, on some level, a Uranian physiology. The full extent of this remains unrevealed, although it is known that he must breathe an atmosphere akin to the planet Uranus' and that, in order to eat, he must distend his esophagus.[2] It should be noted however, that these are not characteristics of an actual Uranian Eternal (see Eternals) and were not seen before the Agents of Atlas series.

Grayson was an accomplished athlete and schooled in sciences far beyond even today's level of technology, having received advanced studies at the Uranian academy. He was also an expert pilot of air and spacecraft.

Other versions

The manipulative mastermind Thanos created a duplicate of Marvel Boy via the Infinity Gauntlet; this double was later renamed the Blue Marvel and attempted to become the Punisher's sidekick, but was rejected and was later exiled to a limbo dimension.

The parallel universe anthology What If #9 (June 1978) showed a world where Marvel Boy was a member of a team of 1950s "Avengers." This team battled the Yellow Claw and his superhuman minions, though the team was asked to disband by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. This alternate timeline was destroyed in the 1998-2000 limited series Avengers Forever.

Bibliography

  • Marvel Boy Vol. 1 #1-2 (Dec. 1950- Jan. 1951)
  • Astonishing #3-7
  • What If Vol. 1 #9 (June 1978)
  • Marvel: The Lost Generation #1-12 (2001-2002)
  • Agents of Atlas Vol. 1 #1-6

Notes

  1. ^ Fantastic Four #164-165 (Nov.-Dec.1975).
  2. ^ Agents of Atlas #3

References

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