History
Emil Burbank, when in his prime, was the foremost criminal mastermind of the Squadron Supreme's world as the villainous Master Menace. Burbank's greatest and most frequent nemesis was the Squadron leader Hyperion. Burbank once contended that their enmity began when Hyperion's atomic vision somehow altered Burbank's hormones, so that since then, Burbank's hair (at least that upon his head and face) grows at an unusually rapid rate.[2]
In his first recorded appearance, Burbank appeared on the set of a film biography of Hyperion being directed by his brother, L.L. Burbank, raving that no one would leave the place alive. Burbank wore no armor and seemingly carried only one weapon: a handgun. He was confronted by Hyperion, who revealed that he was actually Hyperion's villainous counterpart and was secretly impersonating his double. The criminal Hyperion and Burbank conspired together to destroy the heroic Hyperion using a robot of Burbank had invented. The robot was defeated by Thor, the Asgardian god from "mainstream" Earth, and the heroic Hyperion overcame his criminal counterpart, and Burbank presumably escaped.[2]
Years later, when the Overmind succeeding in taking control of the Squadron's Earth, Burbank, now calling himself Master Menace and wearing a weapons-ladened battle suit, spent six months conquering the Middle East. He then discovered that the Squadron Supreme's proposed "Utopia Program" would be a threat to his own plans for world domination, particularly its plans to use "behavior modification" on all criminals. The criminals Mink, Remnant, and Pinball sought help from Burbank to flee the Squadron's dimension entirely, which he agreed to.[1]
Burbank wanted to overthrow the Squadron himself, and discovered the criminal Hyperion adrift and trapped in an extradimensional realm. Burbank freed him and they carried out a plan in which Hyperion captured and replaced his heroic counterpart in the Squadron and Burbank trapped him within a pocket dimension. Burbank wanted to use Hyperion II to subvert the Squadron from within, but Hyperion II refused, in part because of his crush on his teammate Power Princess. Hyperion II trapped Burbank within the same dimension as his counterpart.[3] Burbank and Hyperion were forced to work together to return, whereupon Hyperion defeated his villainous analog.[4]
Burbank agreed to aid the renegade Squadron member Nighthawk and his anti-Utopia Program team, Redeemers. Burbank was instrumental in creating a behavior modification device to remove its effects from the criminals that had been subjected to it. However, Burbank refused to aid the Redeemers directly in their final conflict with the Squadron.[5]
When the existence of the Nth Man threatened to destroy the Squadron's dimension, Burbank agreed to help the Squadron face the entity. With the help of the Squadron's other enemy, the time-traveling Scarlet Centurion, Burbank spent fifteen years in the Centurion's time era developing a dimensional gateway that he hoped would shunt the Nth Man out of their dimension, although he returned only 46 minutes after leaving. Burbank also accompanied the Squadron in his spaceship when confronting the Nth Man. The device failed, however, and Burbank fled the dimension rather than risk being annihilated.[6] Unknown to the Squadron, Burbank had designed his spaceship to force his enemies to return to the "mainstream" Earth instead of their own, arranging for their absence from the universe so that, if it survived, he could return with no one to oppose him.[7]
Burbank returned to his native dimension, but he encountered a temporal flux that forced him to return years later than he had anticipated. He found Earth controlled by the tyrannical Global Directorate, who took the aged Burbank captive and subjected him to behavior modification, his intellect enslaved to serve the Directorate's agenda. When the Squadron returned to their native Earth, they believed Burbank responsible for the Global Directorate. Instead, they found him decrepit and captive. They rescued him and returned him to their new headquarters on Utopia Isle.[7]Attributes
Abilities
Paraphernalia
Equipment
- Battle Armor: As Master Menace, Burbank wears an advanced armored battle suit that provides him with resistance to injury, enhanced strength and offensive capabilities enabling him to fight against superhuman opponents.[8]
- Superhuman Strength: The battlesuit enhances his strength to unknown levels.[8]
- Superhuman Durability: The battlesuit can encase itself in a protective force field.[8] This force field could resist the atomic vision and the blows of Hyperion but Burbank still experienced pain.[3] The armor also allowed him to survive fall from great heights with no damage.[4]
- Energy Projection: The battlesuit's gloves can project powerful concussive bolts.[8]
See Also
- 11 appearance(s) of Emil Burbank (Earth-712)
- 1 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Emil Burbank (Earth-712)
- 1 mention(s) of Emil Burbank (Earth-712)
- 3 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Emil Burbank (Earth-712)
- 1 image(s) of Emil Burbank (Earth-712)
- 1 quotation(s) by or about Emil Burbank (Earth-712)
Links and References
- The Unofficial Handbook to the Marvel Universe
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Squadron Supreme #6
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Thor #280
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Squadron Supreme #7
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Squadron Supreme #8
- ↑ Squadron Supreme #10–12
- ↑ Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe #1
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Squadron Supreme: New World Order #1
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89 #5