DREXEL CORD

Real Name: Drexel Cord

Identity/Class: Human, mad scientist type

Occupation: Munitions manufacturer

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Demolisher (former servant)

Enemies: Demolisher, Tony Stark/Iron Man, SHIELD I (Jasper Sitwell)

Known Relatives: Janice (daughter);
    see comments

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: A castle on the coast somewhere, imported stone by stone from an unspecified location.

First Appearance: Iron Man I#2 (June, 1968)

Powers/Abilities: Genius inventor, skilled with robotics and weapons design.

History:
(Iron Man I#2 (fb) - BTS) - Drexel Cord long harbored a resentment for Tony Stark and Stark Industries, who outdid his own accomplishments and his own company. In an effort to outdo him he once paid to have a castle shipped to America brick by brick and then rebuilt in its original form. He eventually had a nervous breakdown (actually a series of breakdowns), but he returned to work, and began to suffer the same frustrations, which eventually developed into an obsessive need to surpass Stark. In an effort to do so, he designed the Demolisher robot to destroy Iron Man, the crowning accomplishment of Stark Industries (Cord had no idea that Stark and Iron Man were one and the same).

(Iron Man I#2) - Despite the desperate pleas of his daughter, Janice, Drexel unleashed the Demolisher, sending it against Iron Man. The robot proved more powerful than Iron Man, who eventually feigned complete defeat in hopes that it would take him back to its master. Wishing to personally witness Iron Man's destruction, Cord did direct the Demolisher to bring Stark back to his castle. However, Janice had seen the madness in her father's behavior and contacted Jasper Sitwell of SHIELD for aid, and she led him to her father. Upon seeing the SHIELD agent in his base, Drexel destroyed the robot's control mechanism, so that its original programming would remain in place and it could not be stopped from its mission to destroy Iron Man.

    The Demolisher arrived seconds later and continued its assault on Iron Man. Janice rushed to the armored Avenger's side, and into the path of the Demolisher. Cord soon realized that the Demolisher would kill Janice if she was in his way, so he ran up to the Demolisher and tried to physically stop it himself. Cord was swatted aside, while Iron Man shielded Janice from the Demolisher's energy blasts. In an attempt to save Janice, Drexel again tried to distract the Demolisher, hitting it from behind with a pipe, but was then blasted by the Demolisher's energy beam. Iron Man incapacitated the Demolisher by striking it in a spot where its wiring had been exposed, but Cord had been mortally wounded; too late, he returned to his senses and realized that his obsession to outdo Stark had nearly killed his daughter, and then he passed away.

Comments: Created by Archie Goodwin and Johnny Craig.

    I was certain that the relationship between Drexel and Edwin Cord (@ Daredevil I#167, etc.) of Cordco had been detailed somewhere, but I can't find it. I'd guess Edwin is perhaps a nephew...or they're not actually related.

    Carycomix adds: If Edwin is Drexel's nephew, I think the brother's name was Joseph (a.k.a. "Joey") Cord. There is an early issue of MARVEL TEAM-UP, where the Chameleon impersonated Rick Jones to enlist the Hulk's aid in liberating Joey from the police. The motive was repayment for the latter saving the former's life. Now, in that same issue, the life-saving was supposed to have occurred when both were kids. In light of recent ret-cons, however, Marvel could do a sequel where Joey Cord was an ex-partner of the Chameleon's! Drexel hired the latter for industrial espionage, with Joey as a go-between. And, in time, the two became good friends, starting with Joey saving Cham's life during some get-away. Then came the fateful misadventure where Spidey and the Hulk were inadvertently brought together by Cham. One of the arresting officers half-seriously joked about shooting him "trying to escape;" Joey took it too literally; and the cop instinctively shot-and-killed Joey in self-defense. Edwin Cord might one day (in between his own attempts to avenge the deaths of his Uncle Drexel and Cousin Janice) be willing to hide Chameleon from the authorities. And, of course, Spidey, too.