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Williams Innovations (Earth-616)

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History

Sanford Williams[]

Williams Innovations was a highly successful munition factory founded by Paterson, New Jersey-based industrialist Sanford Williams,[4][5][9] which Sanford expanded to create a commercial empire with assets in other states,[7] including steel mill in Pittsburgh[6] and a printing company in Derby, Technical Press Inc. which, thou existing as an independent company, was also a division of Williams Innovations.[7]

Sanford had two sons, whom he raised with stern methods.[1] Sanford had wanted his older son Eric to manage the business conglomerate when the later retired; but Eric, rebellious and loutish, refused to join the company,[4][5][1][9][10] instead becoming a gambler and a professional gangster for the organize crime syndicate Maggia.[10] Sanford's youngest son Simon, bookish and shy, was eager to accept when his father made him the same offer.[5][9] Simon studied engineering for this purpose.[11]

Apparently Sanford died in a fire accidentally caused by a very young Eric, which destroyed the family home in Paterson.[12] Years later, Simon inherited full control of Williams Innovations[10] when he was only 22 years old.[4][5][1][9]

Simon Williams[]

Williams Innovations (Earth-616) from Marvel Premiere Vol 1 55 001

Williams Innovations' Brooklyn branch, built by Simon Williams.

Simon then oversaw the construction of Williams Innovations' Brooklyn branch, a several-building complex in Canarsie. Simon named Madison Dash, a man of proven morals, his vice president for Brooklyn Operations. Dash became Simon's friend.[3]

While Williams Innovations was initially successful under Simon's leadership[1] and made important breakthroughs,[2] Simon eventually proved to be too inexperienced a manager for such a big venture.[5][1][9][13] Several other up-and-coming companies, especially Stark Industries.[5][1][13] Stark Industries was led by extraordinarily talented Anthony Stark, who singlehandedly produced several technological advances that rendered many of Williams Innovations' patents obsolete.[1][8] Williams Innovation lost its competitive edge[1][9] and failed to recover, with Simon taking the failure personally.[2]

Paterson from Avengers West Coast Vol 2 2 001

Williams Innovations facility in Paterson .

In the verge of bankrupcy[13] and highly distressed, Simon asked Eric for help,[2][10] justifying his decision as a way to channel Eric's destructive tendencies into a legal, productive field like miltiary research.[12] Eric, who had squandered his inheritance in gambling and jetsetting,[5] but had since became a member of the East Coast family of Maggia,[1] joined the company[5] and initially tried to change the minds of government contractors using physical threats and literal arm-twisting so that they'd hire Williams and not Stark, but this method failed.[2][10][1] Eric then suggested Simon that he embezzle money from the company to invest it in business entreprises that Eric had gotten wealthy from, namely illicit racketeering run by Maggia,[10][14][9] to obtain fast profit that would save the business[10] and allow him to compete with Stark.[13] Despairing over his inability to reverse the company's decline,[1] Simon emblezzled money for that reason[11][14][8][1] but his crime was discovered[4][5][10] by his company's board of directors[14] Simon was arrested,[10][13][1] brought to trial,[14][9] and found guilty[13][5] in a mediatic case covered by the Daily Gazette.[8] Supervillain Baron Heinrich Zemo, also an enemy of Anthony Stark, red about William's case in the papers, noticing how Simon blamed Stark for his downfall, and Zemo sent his minion the Enchantress to recruit Williams for their criminal organization, the Masters of Evil,[5] as they wanted to use Williams' hate toward Stark to their advantage.[13] Simon was facing a prison sentence[14][9] but was released when the Enchantress paid his bail[5] and ensorceled the authorities.[5] Disoriented by the upheavals in his life, Simon accompanied[5] this woman he had not known before.[8] Zemo gave Simon powers so that the later would join the Masters of Evil as Wonder Man in a plot against the superhero team Avengers, but Simon then changed sides and sacrificed his own life to save the Avengers.[8]

Eric valued too much Simon's reputation and was aghast at the idea of it being besmirched. He took several steps to convince several people, including his and Simon's mother[1][10] and the Avengers, that Eric had been the real embezzler[1] to pay his own gambling debts.[5][4] and Simon had taken the blame[1][4] to protect him,[1][5] and because Simon blamed himself for both the company's failure and for asking Eric for help.[2] Especially when Wonder Man came back from the grave as a superhero and joined the Avengers, Eric was widely believed to have been the real embezzler,[15] and even the resurrected Wonder Man supported this claim.[12] At the same time, Eric became the supervillain Grim Reaper to avenge his brother's death,[15] for which he blamed the Avengers,[1] and was transferred to Las Vegas Maggia family.[2]

Maggia[]

Anthony Stark (Earth-616), Technical Press (Earth-616), Williams Innovations (Earth-616) from Iron Man Vol 1 181 001

Technical Press remained a division of Williams Innovation under Maggia control.

While Williams Innovations remained an active endeavor,[3] its Paterson facilities were closed and abandoned, which contributed to Paterson losing economic strength in comparison with other cities.[2] The Brooklyn branch fell in the hands of Maggia, that staged a careful takeover: Key staff members were replaced, then workers were laid off, so that the employees were controlled by the underworld. They wanted Dash to remain, because he knew the plant better than anyone else, but Dash, noticing the organized crime influence, refused to cooperate; instead, Dash was fired and Maggia swore nobody would hire him again - eventually Dash was forced to spend his saving in a small shop, but was unable to save his own marriage. The Maggiosi, meanwhile, turned the Brooklyn factory into a warehouse for illegal weaponry, including submachine guns that only the military and the police were authorized to have, and upgrade the security system with pressure plates and chemical mace gas. The Maggiosa in charge was Madame Masque, who used the alias "The Director."[3] Masque was also in control of Derby-based Technical Press Inc., by then turned into a slightly seedy publishing concern.[7]

The Pittsburgh mill became a front business for Maggia to launder money illegally obtained. The business ended in hands of a Vince Paretta, and was renamed Paretta Steel Mill. When taking over, Paretta knew what Maggia was doing, and Maggia paid him a good amount to ignore the illegal business. Paretta accepted but then, greedily, he started a crooked numbers racket among employees to get even more money. One of the employees, Joseph Conroy, lost too much money, began to suspect what was happening, and threatened to go to the police,[16] at a point when Paretta was trying to sell the mill to Stark.[6] Paretta feared that Conroy's accusations would hamper his sale, plus Maggia could put price on Paretta's head if his number scam was discovered and Maggia's Pittsburgh operations were affected; so Paretta arranged for Conroy to be murdered in the facilitiy,[16] during a visit of Stark and his friend Simon Williams who, having owned the mill, was there as a consultant.[6] Paretta's employee Tim Turpin threw Conroy to a foundry, but Conroy, who happened to have a piece of Uru with him emerged from it with superpowers, damaging the mill in an attempt to track and murder the person responsible from his plight, namely Turpin and Paretta. Conroy was opposed by Simon Williams and by Stark, in his Iron Man guise; they failed to save Turpin but, with the Avengers' help, they saved Paretta's life and heard Paretta's confesion; Paretta was turned to the authorities, and Conroy apparently committed suicide.[16]

Fearing that Maggia may have taken over other Williams Innovations holding, Wonder Man decided to investigate on this. He approached the Brooklyn facility, with the excuse of talking about their current operations and considering a return to active management, but the board of directors threw him away. Looking for information, Wonder Man found that Dash had left the company and tracked him for information; Dash joined Wonder Man actively when the later decided to sneak into the factory by night. They were discovered by the security guards, then Wonder Man tried to obtain compromising files, but he was intercepted by Madame Masque and a Dreadnought combat robot. Wonder Man defeated the robot, but Madame Masque destroyed the factory with any compromising evidence, and Dash was killed in the fight.[3] Wonder Man then wrote a detailed report about what he knew (and could not prove) of Innovations' activities, for his partners. Iron Man was familiar with this report.[7]

At a later point, the criminal Spymaster was hired by Maggia for several reasons. The Spymaster killed and impersonated a Harmon Taylor, and Maggia printed him a check through Technical Press to pay "Harmon" for his services. While investigating the kidnapping of Bethany Cabe by the Spymaster, Cabe's boyfriend Anthony Stark found the check relating Spymaster with Williams Innovations and Technical Press. Stark went to Derby, where he found Dreadnoughts and Madame Masque,[7] and spoiled Maggia's operations there. Seeing that the front was compromised, Masque ordered to evacuate Technical Press, and she herself fled in a minicopter, but this time she felt no need to destroy the buildings.[17] However, Maggia covered its track so well that the police was unconvinced about Williams Innovations being related to the mob.[18]

Only one month later, Williams Innovation was cleared and it held a display booth at the 24th Annual Conclave of Electronics Engineers and Innovators, in the Sheraton Hotel of Dallas, Texas. Stark attended the Conclave and noticed Williams Innovations' booths; he considered investigating them, but he ended up being too busy for that.[18]

Years later, Simon Williams pubicly admitted to have embezzled from Williams Innovations, exonerating his brother Eric who had framed himself for it.[15][11]

See Also

Links and References

References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) #17 , Grim Reaper's profile
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 West Coast Avengers (Vol. 2) #2
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 Marvel Premiere #55
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #4 , Grim Reaper's profile
  5. ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 5.14 5.15 5.16 5.17 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #12 , Wonder Man's profile
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 Avengers #192
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 Iron Man #138
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 Avengers #9
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 9.8 Gamer's Handbook of the Marvel Universe #4 , Wonder Man's profile
  10. ↑ 10.00 10.01 10.02 10.03 10.04 10.05 10.06 10.07 10.08 10.09 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Avengers 2005 #1 , Grim Reaper's profile
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Avengers Two: Wonder Man & Beast #1
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Wonder Man (Vol. 2) #25
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 13.6 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Avengers 2004 #1 , Wonder Man's profile
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) #15 , Wonder Man's profile
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Avengers (Vol. 3) #23
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Avengers #193
  17. ↑ Iron Man #139
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Iron Man #145
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