ADAM CLAYTON

Real Name: Adam Clayton

Identity/Class: Human mutate

Occupation: Scientist, robber, troublemaker

Affiliations: None

Enemies: None

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Invisible Man

Base of Operations: An unnamed American city

First Appearance: Strange Tales I#67 (February, 1959)

Powers/Abilities: Adam Clayton possessed superhuman speed to such an extent that he could not be perceived by others while travelling at superhuman speed. He appeared by others to be invisible.

History: (Strange Tales I#67) - Not long after his graduation from college, Adam Clayton perfected his Vibra-Light, a device which would bombard him with vibrating light particles, to speed up the vibrations of his own atomic structure. By bathing himself in these beams, Clayton was granted superhuman speed, and set out to test himself. Along the way, he found criminals robbing a bank and stole the money from them. The confused robbers thought they were dealing with an invisible man, and soon Clayton was known in the papers as "The Invisible Man." Deciding that he liked the notoriety, Clayton returned the money he had taken to the police, and set out performing good deeds to maintain the public's attention.

As the Invisible Man, Clayton saved a man from being struck by a falling safe, spun a man in mid-air for fun, delivered a mailman's mail, beat a champion boxer, built a house, and took the tires off a pair of teenagers' buggy.

Unfortunately, Clayton then discovered that the changes in his atomic structure were such that the more he used his superhuman speed, the more he aged. In the few days he had spent as the Invisible Man, he had aged 40 years into an old man. No longer able to use his power of super speed, Clayton was forced to settle into life as a slow, old man.

BTS- At some point later, Clayton passed away.

(Marvel Universe#5-6 - BTS) - The Eternal Makkari, in his guise as NSA agent Jake Curtiss, claimed to be Adam Clayton as a means of explaining his superhuman speed to his allies in the Monster Hunters, but after Dr. Druid checked with friends and learned that Clayton was dead, Makkari was forced to admit he was not Clayton, but that he had used the alias on more than one occasion.

Comments: Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Both Adam Clayton and Thunderbolt (William Carver) aged to death because of their super-speed powers. If it was me I would reveal that their aging was a temporary side effect of their bodies adjusting to their new Flash level speeds.
--Gammatotem

Unlike Adam Clayton criminal speedster Kurt Brown in Uncanny Tales#4 (December, 1952) "Worse Than Black Magic" was magically mutated by a ghostly being he summoned, but like Adam Clayton and Bill Carver (Thunderbolt) he too aged rapidly.
--Gammatotem

Profile by Prime Eternal

CLARIFICATIONS:
Adam Clayton should not be confused with:

• K.J. Clayton, publisher of the Daily Globe, @ Amazing Spider-Man I#190
• Lee Clayton, Stark Enterprises employee, @ Marvel Super-Heroes III#9/3
• Invisible Man, golden age hero able to become intangible, @ Mystic Comics#2
• Invisible Man, Gallahger, enemy of Agent X, @ Agent X#8

Non-Marvel Copyright info
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