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Roxxon Energy Corporation (Earth-616) from Captain America 1999 Vol 1 1 002

Roxxon Energy Corporation (NYSE: ROX) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered at the One Roxxon Plaza in Manhattan, New York City. It is one of the largest fuel conglomerates around the world. The Corporation generated billions of dollars in profits each year by refining and manufacturing products related to oil through its many holdings. Like any business enterprise, the goal of Roxxon was to increase their profits, and it was unclear if all its businesses were entirely legitimate. In fact, Roxxon had been involved in many activities morally questionable or illegal, including blatant violent crimes, but this fact was unknown to most consumers and the general public.[48] In the early 21st century, the corporation's annual revenue exceeded $500 billion, it employed over 100,000 men and women, and operated in 28 countries.[57]

History

Origin[]

Roxxon began as the Roxxon Oil Company, a small oil engineering business in the early 20th century in the United States of America.[58]

By World War II the Roxxon Oil Company had become a major northeastern US supplier with an exemplary record in the industry. This all changed when rival company Republic Oil and Natural Gas was formed and incorporated by J.T. Jones, a ruthless Texan oil magnate. Jones built the company into a profitable corporation and, on his death, the control of the company went to his son Hugh Jones who took control of both the "Roxxon Oil Company" and "Republic Oil and Natural Gas" and merged them to create the Roxxon Energy Corporation.[58]

Roxxon was one of the early funders of S.H.I.E.L.D., however they also had ties to Hydra as they helped them smuggle weapons in Roxxon tanker trucks. This was discovered by S.H.I.E.L.D. director Rick Stoner, but he was murdered before he could report it.[59]

Hugh Jones[]

Roxxon jumped to fame as something more than a business enterprise when its then chairman, Hugh Jones, was abducted by the second Serpent Squad. The Squad members were actually agents of the Serpent Crown, an object of great mystical power, built by the evil Set and uncovered when Roxxon used their machines to investigate the sunken city of Lemuria. Captain America, in his short career as the Nomad, rescued Jones and clashed with the Serpent Squadron, prompting the Crown to be lost. However, Jones was forced to wear the Crown during his captivity, creating a mental link between the Crown and Jones that would last for a lifetime.[60]

This mental nexus enabled Jones to trace the Crown, and he sent employees of Roxxon to recover it. Once found, Jones began wearing the Crown again, but it was invisible to anyone that wasn't aware of the Crown's existence. Jones used the powers granted to him by the Crown to enact a corporate conspiracy in an attempt to dominate the United States' government. During this plan, Jones made contact with President Nelson Rockefeller of Earth-712, which is also the home of the Squadron Supreme. President Rockefeller was also under the influence of a Serpent Crown, the Crown from Earth-712. When the Avengers attempted to stop Jones' plans, he transported them to Earth-712,[61] to be challenged and defeated by the Squadron Supreme, who were being manipulated by Jones and President Rockefeller. Instead, the Avengers stole Earth-712's Serpent Crown and freed the Squadron Supreme from its influence. The Avengers returned and defeated Jones and his crown-controlled minion Orka.[62]

Although Earth-712 was saved, the Avengers inadvertently made Earth-616 more dangerous, now that two Serpent Crowns existed on the same Earth. The Avenger known as Vision dropped the Serpent Crown from Earth-712 in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, believing that nobody could find it there. But the mental link between Jones and the Crown allowed Jones to find it. He formed a new version of the Serpent Squadron, consisting of Roxxon employees who were genetically mutated, and sent them to retrieve the Crown. Despite opposition from Stingray and Thing, the new Serpent Squadron recovered the Crown. After the second Crown was delivered to Jones by the leader of this new Serpent Squadron, Sidewinder, Jones moved to Washington DC, where he used the power of two Crowns to control the minds of members of Congress. His plans were thwarted by Stingray, the Thing and the Scarlet Witch. Finally, the Thing managed to remove the Crown from the head of Jones. He went crazy because of their traumatic separation of the Crown, and even months after the Crown was destroyed, Jones remained in a mental hospital. John T. Gamelin, previously Roxxon's Vice President in Charge of Foreign Matters, replace Jones as chairman of Roxxon.[42]

Roxxon then pursued an expensive and elaborate project, the installation of Star Well I, a massive orbiting platform that would absorb sunlight and send the converted energy back to Earth. Star Well's designer was Doctor Arthur Dearborn, who submitted to a voluntary mutagenic treatment to transform him into Sunturion. Then, an accident occurred in Allantown, Iowa, killing over two-hundred people. Iron Man went to Iowa to investigate the accident and discovered a camouflaged radar installation. During his investigation, Iron Man and Sunturion briefly clashed, but then had to work together when the Star Well lost hold of its orbit and fell towards Earth. To stop the Star Well from crashing into a populated Florida area, Sunturion channeled himself into Iron Man's armor. With their combined powers, Iron Man and Sunturion were able to disintegrate the falling station, but Sunturion appeared to die, apparently sacrificing himself to destroy the Star Well. The remaining components of the Star Well continued to operate in orbit.[63]

Roxxon, Joy Mercado (Earth-616) from Web of Spider-Man Vol 1 20

Roxxon's logo

Roxxon's illegal activities have not always remained hidden from the government. Raymond Royton of the Department of Justice appointed a special investigator on possible illegal activities within Roxxon, who in turn, hid any evidence of fraud within the company. Nevertheless, Roxxon was unable to prevent the opening of an inquest into its scientific branch, the Brand Corporation, whose illegal activities were brought to light by the actions of Spider-Man and Will o' The Wisp. To prevent an investigation from exposing any possible link between Roxxon and the Brand Corporation, the president of Roxxon closed all Brand plants, including its main facility in Queens, New York.[64]

Roxxon has developed other illicit activities, such as stealing the comatose body of James Hudson, abducting several super-powered beings to analyze their powers, and joining a conglomerate of major companies to launch an attack on the Stark Company. Most recently Captain America uncovered a sinister plot involving Roxxon CEO Calvin Hardeman. Hardeman was indicted and replaced as CEO by Don Kaminski.[9]

Heroic Age[]

During the Dark Reign, Roxxon was mining on Mars. Their operations were halted by the discovery of an unknown civilization controlled by the Shadow Council. The Shadow Council's agents terminated Roxxon's staff, who were under the influence of a new Serpent Crown. The lost workers were simply erased from Roxxon's staff listing. The Serpent Crown was sent to Earth, tracked by both the Shadow Council and Steve Rogers' Secret Avengers. Eventually The Secret Avengers discovered the Crown to be in the possession of Mr. Bromley, Roxxon's Vice President. The Secret Avengers went to Dubai and stole this new Crown from Bromley.

Eventually, the new Serpent Crown was stolen from the Secret Avengers by Max Fury, a member of the Shadow Council, and a third Crown was found by Nova on Mars. While under the Crown's influence, Nova commanded the Shadow Council's agents to dig the surface for an unknown mean, using Roxxon's equipment.

The Shadow Council sent four kamikaze pilots armed with atomic bombs to terminate the Serpent Crown's pawns and the Secret Avengers, but Ant-Man managed to make the bombs explode during the teleportation, destroying the Shadow Council's citadel on Earth and Roxxon's installation on Mars, but leaving the Avengers unharmed.[65]

Mentallo[]

Mentallo tried to take control of the creatures on Monster Isle on behalf of the Roxxon Corporation who wanted to drill for oil there.[66] He was however stopped by the Mutant heroes the X-Men. He tried to flee with the billion dollars promised to him by Roxxon, but one of the monsters got hold of it and dropped the pile of money on him.[67]

Dario Agger[]

Dario Agger became the CEO and strove to make as much as money as possible regardless of the effects on the environment and uses Roxxon's vast financial resources to pay for lobbyists and lawyers in order to exploit and pollute as much as he wanted without consequence.[5] One of his most frequent critics was S.H.I.E.L.D. environmental agent Rosalind Solomon. When Agent Solomon learned that Dario and Roxxon had mined ice from Europa, one of the moons of the planet Jupiter, and were planning to sell it as well for a lot of money, Solomon decided to teach them a lesson by convincing Thor, the god of thunder, to bring an even larger chunk of ice from the realm of Jotunheim and give it away for free. Dario brushed off Thor's interference at first.[5] However, Dario was forced to deal with Thor after the god was motivated to fight Roxxon after Agent Solomon explained the company's negative effects on the environment. Thor's first act against Roxxon was to destroy some of its factories with a blast of lightning. Dario angrily asked his lawyers what they should do. When his lawyers didn't give a satisfactory answer, Dario fed some of them to bloodthirsty bears.[6]

Dario got back at Thor for destroying his factories by building a floating island full of factories above Broxton, OK, which heavily polluted the town. Dario knew this would infuriate Thor and waited for the god of thunder to appear on the floating island he built. When Thor arrived, Dario and his remaining lawyers slapped Thor with a lawsuit for destroy Roxxon's factories and with an injunction that forbade him from entering Broxton.[68] Thor was undeterred by the injunction and sneaked into Broxton looking for a way to stop Dario. Thor eventually confronted Dario as he was ordering people out of a diner he planned to tear down. That was when Dario sprang his trap. Dario had made a secret deal with the leader of the Rock Trolls, Ulik, that allowed Ulik and a large group of Trolls to live beneath Broxton in exchange for attacking Thor. The Trolls attacked and killed Dario's remaining lawyers.[69] Dario told the Trolls that they could do what they want to Broxton. Dario also revealed his true form as the Minotaur to Thor and explained that his ultimate goal was to exploit all of Earth's natural resources before moving on to a new area. The Trolls were ultimately defeated by the combined forces of the Asgardians and S.H.I.E.L.D., but Ulik was able to flee and Broxton was left in ruins. Dario pleaded ignorance to the whole incident.[70] Through a media campaign, Dario was able to pin the Trolls' attack on Broxton on the Asgardians and their presence in the United States. After giving a speech that blasted the Asgardians, he was confronted by Agent Solomon and punched in the face. Dario threatened legal action against Solomon, but Solomon reminded Dario that he had killed off all of his lawyers. Dario later met with Ulik and asked the Troll about the Nine Realms as he would like to exploit them next.[71]

He forged a pact with Malekith the Accursed: when Malekith and his allies conquered a world, Roxxon would be given exclusive rights to essentially strip mine it.[72] Dario was recruited on to the Dark Council. Their first act of war was the massacre of the Light Elves of Alfheim, an event Malekith surely expected would bring the attention of Thor. Because of this, they tasked one person that was seeking admittance in the council, Loki, with carrying out the murder of the Goddess of Thunder.[73]

Locations[]

The main headquarters of the Roxxon Oil Company is in the Roxxon Plaza, in New York. Because of its multiple business interests and complex system of command, Roxxon Oil continues to be one of the main and most important corporations in the world.[48] Most recently, the corporation headquarters of Roxxon were located in Wilmington, Delaware.[7] Among its subsidiaries is Roxxon Casino in Las Vegas, where the Criminal Technology Show Expo was held.[74]

Employees[]

Trivia

  • Steve Englehart named Roxxon after the oil company Exxon.[75]

See Also

Links and References

References

  1. Heroic Age: Villains #1
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Iron Man: The Iron Age #1
  3. Cable & Deadpool #7
  4. Deadpool (Vol. 5) #40
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 Thor: God of Thunder #19.NOW
  6. 6.0 6.1 Thor: God of Thunder #20
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 Secret Avengers #1
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 Captain America #180
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 Captain America 1999 #1
  10. 10.0 10.1 Captain America (Vol. 5) #18
  11. 11.0 11.1 Savage She-Hulk #5
  12. 12.0 12.1 12.2 Champions (Vol. 4) #5
  13. 13.0 13.1 Fantastic Four: Countdown To Chaos
  14. 14.0 14.1 Iron Man Annual #9
  15. 15.0 15.1 15.2 Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) #37
  16. 16.0 16.1 16.2 Iron Man #142
  17. 17.0 17.1 17.2 Spider-Man Unlimited #22
  18. Iron Man #120
  19. 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 Iron Man #220
  20. Howard the Duck Annual #1
  21. Captain America #251
  22. Ka-Zar (Vol. 4) #2
  23. Ka-Zar (Vol. 4) #3
  24. 24.0 24.1 24.2 24.3 Thing & She-Hulk: The Long Night #1
  25. 25.0 25.1 Iron Man Annual #12
  26. Deathlok (Vol. 2) #1
  27. Thunderbolts #35
  28. Civil War: Fallen Son Daily Bugle Special #1
  29. Marvel Comics Presents #76
  30. 30.0 30.1 Namor #3
  31. Loki: Agent of Asgard #2
  32. Thunderbolts #113
  33. Champions (Vol. 4) #6
  34. Generation X: Genogoths
  35. Thunderbolts #114
  36. Marvel Comics Presents #75
  37. Iron Man: The Iron Age #2
  38. Ghost Rider (Vol. 2) #27
  39. 39.0 39.1 39.2 Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Vol. 3) #33
  40. Dark Reign: New Nation #1
  41. Iron Man #316
  42. 42.0 42.1 42.2 42.3 Marvel Team-Up #87
  43. Deathlok #1
  44. Spider-Man, Punisher, Sabertooth: Designer Genes #1
  45. Captain America (Vol. 4) #18
  46. Web of Spider-Man #17
  47. 47.0 47.1 Web of Spider-Man #22
  48. 48.0 48.1 48.2 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) #11
  49. Spider-Man Unlimited #16
  50. Alpha Flight #11
  51. G.L.A. #1
  52. Excalibur Air Apparent #1
  53. Marvel Super-Heroes (Vol. 2) #3
  54. Amazing Adventures (Vol. 2) #13
  55. Captain America Annual #8
  56. Spectacular Spider-Man #235
  57. Scarlet Spider (Vol. 2) #7
  58. 58.0 58.1 All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #9
  59. Fury #1
  60. Captain America #180181
  61. Avengers #144
  62. Avengers #147149
  63. Iron Man #143144
  64. Amazing Spider-Man #234236
  65. Secret Avengers #15
  66. Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) #3637
  67. Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) #3941
  68. Thor: God of Thunder #21
  69. Thor: God of Thunder #22
  70. Thor: God of Thunder #23
  71. Thor: God of Thunder #24
  72. Thor (Vol. 4) #6
  73. Mighty Thor (Vol. 3) #1
  74. M.O.D.O.K.: Head Games #2
  75. Steve Englehart (July 2011). “I Think [Having Been An Artist] Gave Me An Edge In Writing Comics”, Alter Ego Vol 1 103. “There was a major corporation named Roxxon (after Exxon—an oil company, of course) that was involved.”

References[]

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