Anthony Masterson (Earth-616)

Half-Life
Name	Anthony "Tony" Masterson
Current Alias	Half-Life
Aliases	John Doe, once said "call me Ishmael" but this was probably a reference to Melville's Moby-Dick
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Agent of the Leader
Relatives	Spouses: Barbara Masterson (wife)
Marital Status	Married
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Hair	Green, Grey
Skin	Green
Unusual Features	Wrinkled skin (except if enough life essence has been absorbed); exposed teeth without lips. When absorbing enough energy, he becomes muscular and parts of his body are restored, including the lips; his hair becomes stronger and greener.
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Human mutated by gamma rays
Living Status	Deceased
Reality	Earth-616
Place of Birth	Tempe, Arizona
Place of Death	Alan Quartermain's farm, Kansas
Cause of Death	Suicide
Personal Information
Identity	Secret
Citizenship	American
Occupation	Former English professor
Base of Operations	Mobile
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Peter David, Todd McFarlane
First	Incredible Hulk #334 (May, 1987)
First	Incredible Hulk #334 (May, 1987)
Death	Incredible Hulk #342 (December, 1987)
Death	Incredible Hulk #342 (December, 1987)

A professor of English affected by a government Gamma Bomb detonating in Colorado, Tony Masterson was apparently killed - but his green-skinned husk of a body resurrected every night to feed on the life forces of nearby beings as Half-Life. Masterson began a rampage trying to absorb enough energy to restore his previous appearance and return to his human life - but with the dawn, the gamma radiation in his body stopped working and he lied in a death-like state, leading to him being buried several times.

Gamma-powered supervillain the Leader recruited Half-Life as one of his operatives, sending him against the Leader's enemy the Hulk -who, in his human form of Dr. Bruce Banner, had designed the bomb. Half-Life tried to absorb the gray Hulk's humongous energy, but the Hulk defeated and dismembered him. By questioning Half-Life, the Hulk discovered that the government was stockpiling and using Gamma Bombs, and began a quest to stop them, not without leaving Half-Life in the desert to his apparent death. The Leader rescued and restored Half-Life, using him as a minion of sorts during his following plans. At Half-Life's insistence, the Leader agreed to send Half-Life again on a mission to kill the Hulk, though the Leader doubted Half-Life would be up to it. Now outfitted with a titanium armor provided by the Leader, Half-Life murdered several people en route to kill the Hulk, and managed to get the upper hand - but the weakened Hulk convinced Half-Life that the stolen energy would eventually wear out and Half-Life would return to his previous state as a corpse-like being. Half-Life committed suicide by bursting away all of his absorbed energy, leaving only a skeleton behind that the Leader doubted would ever resurrect again.

History

Tony Masterson was a tenured professor of English who taught literature to his students. He had a wife, Barbara Masterson and more family, along with friends, and apparently had tea with the dean.

Crawling from the grave

While in Colorado (either because he lived there or because he was visiting at some point), Masterson was caught in the blast of a U.S.-government Gamma Bomb in an apparent test. The blast turned Masterson into a withered, green-skinned being with corpse-like appearance, and affected his sanity. During the night, the gamma radiation in his system absorbed life force around him, including that in the earth where he had been buried, and resurrected him, but only as a vampire-like creature who absorbed life and energy from the people he touched. This contribute to upset his already unbalanced mind, turning him crazy; Masterson believed himself dead, and only artificially animated. He adopted the alias Half-Life and wandered about in a demented rampage for some time, but with the daylight, his gamma-poisoned body stopped working and he was found as a corpse. Dozens of times, in dozens of cities, he was found in such state and buried, only for him to exhume himself the following night. This situation continued for at least one year, thou the deaths he had caused had not attracted widespread media attention.

Half-Life did attract the attention of similarly gamma-mutated criminal Leader, a super-intelligent strategist and one of the Hulk's greatest foes. The Leader tracked Half-Life, finding his tomb in Miller Heights Cemetery, The Leader convinced Half-Life to go after the Hulk and absorb the latter's plentiful energy, which Half-Life hoped would be enough to allow him survive during daytime. Hulk's alter ego Dr. Bruce Banner had also designed the Gamma bomb, so getting revenge on the Hulk had a poetic flair that Half-Life somewhat enjoyed. The Leader, on the other hand, was merely using Half-Life as a pawn in a convoluted plan to attract the Hulk to Middletown, Arizona without revealing himself and obtaining information on the Hulk's then-new gray form.

Knowing that Banner stayed at Gamma Base, New Mexico, the Leader had Half-Life's corpse transported to a town close to it. Half-Life was taken to the town's mortuary as a "John Doe" by a man named Utley, who claimed that the corpse was unusual, but that failed to catch the medical examiner's attention; at nightfall, Half-Life woke up, strangled the examiner and murdered him before leaving to the nearby desert in a probably stolen jeep. He came across the Hulk, who was jumping through the desert - and the mere proximity between them activated his power, draining the Hulk's strength and empowering Half-Life. The Hulk, far smarter than in his previous green manifestation, identified the jeep as the source of his sudden problem because the closer it was, the weaker he felt - so, to stop the jeep, he slapped his hands, causing a shock wave that sent the jeep overturning, immobilizing it.

Fighting the Hulk

Unscathed due to his new resistance stolen from the Hulk, Half-Life emerged from the wreckage, covered only in rags and scraps of dirt, and introduced himself with a quote from Moby Dick, followed by an explanation of his origin. Understanding the threat, and not at all amused by Half-Life's humor, the Hulk pummeled Half-Life; the latter, knowing that the Hulk was stronger the angrier he got, realized that he could extract more energy from the Hulk the more enraged the Hulk was. The Hulk's punches tore off Half-Life's jaw, but Half-Life simply picked it up and put it back in place while describing himself as an insane animated corpse. Finding that his touch from him drained significant amounts of strength from the Hulk, Half-Life hugged the Hulk with arms and legs, drawing strength from him, much to the Hulk's chagrin. The Hulk freed himself from this embrace by tearing off Half-Life's arms and legs, but these limbs continued to animate independently; the Hulk then grabbed each of the limbs and threw them away, at least a mile away. The limbs crawled across the desert ground, trying to reunite with the torso, but that would take time, and the Hulk spent that time questioning Half-Life, from a safe distance so that Half-Life's power would not affect him.

Half-Life did not reveal the Leader's involvement in the attack, instead suggesting he was working solo. He did reveal his origin, including the government's use of a Gamma Bomb in Colorado that the Hulk (and Banner) knew nothing about. Aghast at the idea of the Army stockpiling and using more Gamma Bombs, the Hulk left to ponder about it, eventually starting a quest to find these Gamma Bombs and stop the people using them. Hulk left Half-Life behind, dismembered; although Banner sympathized with Half-Life, he took no action to save him. At dawn, Half-Life's body laid motionless in the desert, his limbs close but too far away, and four vultures circled him to devour him. This was not enough to finish him off: The scavengers were poisoned by the radiation from their breakfast, and the corpse was recovered and reanimated by the Leader that same morning. Taking to Half-Life as an aide of sorts, the Leader provided Half-Life with a shell of titanium armor, to prevent the same dismemberment from happening again, while the Leader continued his operations to get hold of the Bombs Army Gamma. After the Leader controlled the mind of Pentagon General Mark Hamilton, Half-Life was kept in his master's secret lair while he adapted his plans. The Leader accepted the presence of Half-Life although he reproached him for his pathos and obviousness. Half-Life prompted the Leader to get hold of the Army's Gamma Bombs and use them against the Hulk, and the Leader agreed and contacted Hamilton to find where they were.

Meanwhile, the Hulk's investigation on the Gamma Bomb led him to open conflict with S.H.I.E.L.D. agents involved in the conspiracy. He found allies in Doc Samson, the X-Terminators, and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Clay Quartermain, who listened to Hulk's concerns related to Half-Life's origins, eventually leading to Gamma Base's destruction.

With the Leader, at the Leader's secret base

The Leader doubted that Half-Life could steal a Gamma Bomb for him, and started designing the Redeemer Armor for a new agent to wear. Half-Life repeatedly begged his master to entrust him with such a mission, although the Leader was reluctant because Half-Life had failed miserably in his first mission to face the Hulk. Half-Life was so annoying, however, that the Leader agreed to put him to the test: Half-Life would once again try to destroy the Hulk and, if should succeeded, the Leader would allow him to try to steal the Bombs for him. The Leader was convinced that Half-Life would fail due to its clear intellectual limitations, but the attempt would allow the Leader to see the gray Hulk in action and study his power. The Leader incorporated a chest camera in Half-Life's armor to stream video of the fight, which the Leader would record from his base. The Leader found out where the Hulk was thanks to his own powers, and teleported Half-Life into the area using his Matter Transporter. Before going after the Hulk, Half-Life accosted several women in the night, including Fiona Webster, whom Half-Life mistook for his wife Barbara, killing them in the process and discarding their corpses, absorbing their life forces to increase his power, but reducing his sanity.

Half-Life tracked the Hulk to Alan Quartermain's farm and family home, where the Hulk was with his allies Clay Quartermain (Alan's brother) and Rick Jones. Seeing Alan Quartermain's wife June through a window, Half-Life attacked her, again believing she was Barbara - but the Hulk stopped Half-Life in time, grabbing him.

After that fight, only his skeleton remained

As in the previous match, Half-Life jumped on the Hulk to absorb his energy, bragging that his new armor would prevent the Hulk from tearing him apart (indeed, the armor proved to be enough to withstand the strength of gray Hulk, weakened by Half-Life powers). Jones came up behind Half-Life and hit him on the head with a shovel, briefly stunning him and allowing the Hulk to throw him away. The Hulk considered going with his allies, claiming that his new attitude did not require him to empathize with the problems of Alan Quartermain and his family, but when Alan accused the Hulk of fearing Half-Life, the Hulk took up the fight. Using a ten-foot lamppost as a weapon to keep from getting too close, the Hulk attempted to keep Half-Life at a distance, then leaped on his foe to crush him; but even so, Half-Life took advantage of the contact of the Hulk's feet to weaken him. Half-Life managed to absorb life essence faster than the Hulk was able to recover it, taking the form of a muscular man (though still green-skinned) while the Hulk lost muscle mass. Jones and Clay Quartermain tried to get closer and the Leader watched the combat through his camera. With a Hulk nearing death, Half-Life reveled in the possibility of becoming human again - but then the Hulk convinced him that Half-Life, being but a parasite, would consume the stolen power and eventually return to his former, impaired form, with that fear in each of his days - something the Hulk had accepted but Half-Life, being weaker-willed, found terrifying. Panicking, Half-Life released the Hulk's energy in a single short-range burst, becoming a mere smoking skeleton in the process. The Leader concluded that Half-Life would possibly not be resurrected the following night, and dismissed him as a minion, sparing only a few brief words to him in a voice recording that explained his plans to the Hulk, primarily to discuss Half-Life's limitations especially in comparison to himself.

Hulk and his associates left Alan Quartermain's farm; Alan decided that he would call the local authorities to deal with the Half-Life remains and the titanium armor; apparently, the forensic study did not point to the Leader's involvement at any point.

The Hulk recalled his encounter with Half-Life in later times. On one occasion, the Hulk listed Half-Life as one of the victims of the Gamma Bomb that Banner had built, along with the Leader, the Abomination, and the Madman.

When Half-Life absorbed enough power, his physical shape improved considerably

Personality

Half-Life was clinically crazy, mistakenly believing to have died in the gamma explosion, then resurrected - and also believing he had nothing left to fear because he was already dead. He wanted to recover his previous life as a boring teacher and family man, which he believed could be done by absorbing enough life force from others. Knowing that the bomb that had turned him into a freak had been designed by Dr. Bruce Banner, Half-Life found it poetic that his plan to restore his previous life involved killing the Hulk, who was also Banner. The Leader however believed that Half-Life's plan would fail, correctly thinking that Half-Life was unable to beat the Hulk, even though Half-Life was determined in his intent.

A very important aspect of Half-Life's life was related to being with his wife, Barbara Masterson. On several occasions, whenever finding a woman, Half-Life's deranged mind took that woman for Barbara, leading to Half-Life jumping to embrace her. Due to his superpowers, this ended several times in the woman's death. The women he took for Barbara were different to each other in appearance.

Half-Life worked for the Leader in the past. While the Leader did not have a high opinion of Half-Life, Half-Life was devoted and went the extra mile to not absorb the Leader's life force.

Attributes

Powers

• Energy Absorption: As Half-Life, Masterson had the ability to drain the life-force of others through his touch and absorb it into himself. This led to him becoming stronger, while his victim become growingly weak. A normal, adult human could die in a few seconds if in contact with Half-Life. If Half-life tried to drain the life of a person who was granted powers by gamma radiation, Half-life also drained the powers of his victim, transferring them to himself: Superpowered people like the Hulk provided Half-Life with far more strength, with Half-Life even obtaining superpowers if absorbing a superpowered victim for long enough. In some cases, Half-Life could absorb life force even if he was not in physical contact and only in the proximity of a person (at least 10 feet), but this seemed to work only in Gamma-powered victims like the Hulk. Half-Life once said that he grew stronger if the Hulk was in his range and getting angrier, because the Hulk's power grew up the angrier he got. At the same time, Half-Life could not use his power, as he was near the Leader (who was also a Gamma-powered person) and the latter felt no ill effects. If a victim survived the absorption, he or she would recover energy and superpowers at a steady pace once Half-Life was out of range; Gamma-powered victims may recovered quickly, with Half-Life losing such power at a similar rate. However, Half-Life could not recover energy by himself without absorbing it from another party: Like a vampire, Half-life is dependant on such energy for survival, even if he could not really die without energy.

• Energy Release: Only once, Half-Life released all the absorbed energy in a short-range explosion, which apparently killed him for good.

• Regeneration:

  

  Half-Life's limbs could crawl independently, and he felt no pain when being so dismembered

Half-Life died immediately every morning, only to resurrect the following nightfall. Beyond that, Half-life was very difficult to injure or kill. He has proven able to recover from battles after being left for dead. If his body parts were detached, they could move independently while still under Half-life's control, and re-attach themselves (as long as it was during nighttime): When the Hulk tore off his limbs, it did not even elicit a cry of pain: Individual arms and legs crawled across the floor under his control, attempting to return to the Half-Life body, where they could be reattached. Another attack from the Hulk tore off his jaw, which fell to the ground only for Half-Life to pick it up and put it back; apparently, unlike arms or legs, the jaw could not crawl or move on its own. Half-Life's corpse was once partially eaten by vultures, but the scavengers suffered from radiation poisoning, and Half-Life recovered from that ordeal (though only thanks to the Leader's help). However, Half-Life was not immune to physical damage: He did utter a soft moan as he fell to the ground, and Rick Jones briefly stunned him by hitting him over the head with a shovel.

Abilities

Masterson had been a well-read man, and as such Half-Life punctuated his conversation with literary quotes, including Melville's Moby-Dick, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar, Dibdin's Tom Bowling, and a Bell Telephone advertisement, often in what he seemed to perceive as a humorous intent.

While never trained in martial arts or wrestling before obtaining his powers, Half-Life had instinctively grasped the movements and concepts of several techniques, which improved his capacities to attack using grappling movements with all of his limbs.

Half-Life was able to drive a jeep.

Weaknesses

Unable to move around in the daytime. During the daytime, Half-Life was clinically dead and cannot move. Only by night, the gamma radiation in his system absorbed energy from around his body, which could be simply the earth he was buried in (including nearby corpses), and give him strength enough to dig himself out of his own grave.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Half-Life wearing his titanium armor

Titanium Armor: Initially dressing only rags and dust, Half-Life was later provided with a Titanium Armor by the Leader. The armor provided him with phenomenal invulnerability, able to withstand blows from even the Hulk (except on his head, which was exposed), while it also allowed him to absorb life force from the Hulk and other victims on touch. The Leader had also mounted a camera on the breastplate, so he could receive a live feed on his minion's actions (jokingly referred to as a "half-life feed"). The armor proved enough to withstand the power of the grey Hulk (who was admittedly weakened by Half-Life's power; yet in a previous encounter Hulk had managed to maim Half-Life, and this was impossible when Half-Life wore the armor), and it even resisted the moment when Half-Life destroyed himself.

Notes

• A different character, a female alien enemy to the Avengers West Coast, uses the similar alias Halflife (without the hyphen). She was however called Half-Life (with a hyphen) in the profile of her ally Zzzax in both Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Hulk 2004 and New Avengers Most Wanted Files.
• Half-Life has a profile in Gamer's Handbook of the Marvel Universe #5, one of the very few characters who had a profile in Gamer's Handbook without having had a previous one in some Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. It is the only source giving his name as Anthony (instead of Tony) and specifying his birthplace.

Trivia

• Half-Life mentioned that "sweet pomegranate wine in my mouth is bitter" and that he had "mud for blood, slime for skin." It is unclear whether these were literal statements or he was just being melodramatic.

See Also

• 4 appearance(s) of Anthony Masterson (Earth-616)
• 3 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Anthony Masterson (Earth-616)
• 1 minor appearance(s) of Anthony Masterson (Earth-616)
• 2 mention(s) of Anthony Masterson (Earth-616)
• 11 image(s) of Anthony Masterson (Earth-616)
• 1 victim(s) killed by Anthony Masterson (Earth-616)

Links and References

• Half-Life at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe