History
Gert Hauptmann was the brother of Gustav Hauptmann, a Nazi war criminal who was forced into serving Latverian monarch Doctor Doom. When Gustav was later killed by Doctor Doom during one of his many battles against the Fantastic Four,[1] Gert took over his position.
The earliest recorded time Gert has been depicted working with Doctor Doom was during a complex scheme where Doom plotted to take over the world by convincing he had stepped down as ruler of Latveria and was succeeded by a clone posing as a previously unheard of son.[2] To this end, Gert was ordered to remove components from the Psycho-Man's armor to put into a device to turn the United Nations against the Fantastic Four. He later used a mental probe to brainwash the Fantastic Four's Mister Fantastic into thinking he was the Invincible Man, in order to pull the Fantastic Four back together after they had spent time broken up.[3] The Fantastic Four later sided with Prince Zorba and the Latverian resistance in trying to oust Doom. Hauptman was knocked out in the castle and Reed Richards briefly posed as the scientist.[4] Despite the fact that Doom was at risk of losing his throne, Gert remained loyal to Doom.[2] Ultimately the Fantastic Four and the Latverian resistance won, and Doom was driven catatonic and imprisoned and Zorba took over the Latverian throne.[5] However, Zorba proved very unpopular with the people of Latveria. Although Gert was hired on by Zorba as his chief scientist to keep an eye on Doom, he was still loyal to Doom, and facilitated those seeking to reinstall him to power in smuggling him out of Castle Doom. Gert then assisted in restoring Doctor Doom's mind and joining his cause to return to power.[6]
Hauptmann was not always loyal to Doom, such as when he used Doom's time platform to send both Doctor Doom and Iron Man back in time to the 6th Century with the intention to trap Doom there.[7] However, Doom and Iron Man ultimately returned.[8] Hauptmann later was consigned to develop a means of harnessing the Power Cosmic for Doom's latest scheme against the Fantastic Four. When the device was completed, Doom forced Hauptmann to test it on himself. As predicted, channeling the Power Cosmic through this device proved to be dangerous to humans and Gert Hauptmann's body was incinerated.[9]See Also
- 8 appearance(s) of Gert Hauptmann (Earth-616)
- 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Gert Hauptmann (Earth-616)
- 4 image(s) of Gert Hauptmann (Earth-616)
Links and References
References
- ↑ Fantastic Four #87
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Fantastic Four #199
- ↑ Fantastic Four #196: The Fantastic Four had broken up in Fantastic Four #191 after Mister Fantastic lost his stretching powers and felt he could no longer run the team.
- ↑ Fantastic Four #198
- ↑ Fantastic Four #200
- ↑ Fantastic Four Annual #15
- ↑ Iron Man #149
- ↑ Iron Man #150
- ↑ Fantastic Four #258