ELECTRO

Real Name: Ivan Kronov

Identity/Class: Human mutate (1950s era);
   Citizen of USSR

Occupation: Servant of Communist USSR

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Red Skull (Albert Malik)

Enemies: Bucky (Jack Monroe), Captain America (William Burnside)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Russia; mobile in New York City

First Appearance: Captain America Comics#78/1 (September, 1954)

Powers/Abilities: Electro possessed the ability to absorb large amounts of electricity; he could release it in blasts from his hands, with sufficient force to tear through a vault door or a brick wall. When fully charged, he could operate for roughly 24 hours before he had to recharge himself with a dynamo.

Electro could alter electrical current flow, such that he could change the wording on an electric sign, but he usually used his powers in a more direct and blunt fashion.

His body had an unspecified limit as to how much electricity it could contain, and he would "short-circuit" if he was forced to absorb power beyond this limit, or if he was drenched in water -- in such a case, his body entered a death-like coma, but he could be resuscitated by a smaller, precise shock -- it was unrevealed how long he could remain in this state and still be revived. After he was revived, Electro gained enhanced strength, durability, and speed.

   The process that mutated Kronov into Electro also gave him green skin and a hairy body.

Height: 6'6"
Weight: 250 lbs.
Eyes: Yellow (glowing)
Hair: Green

History:
(Captain America Comics#78/1) - In 1954, a pair of Soviet officials bemoaned Captain America's effectiveness as a fighter against Communism, so they introduced a new super-agent whom Soviet scientists had just created -- Electro, an "electricity-charged creature".

   The officials reminded Electro that he must recharge himself at a dynamo every 24 hours, then they smuggled him to the shores of New York City in the dead of night, and sent him to go after Cap -- they advised Electro to remember that Cap's one weakness was his "affection for his young partner, Bucky" (see comments).

   The next day, Cap and Bucky were making an appearance at a parade in Times Square honoring "business progress and achievement". Suddenly, atop the "business machines building," a threatening message in bright lights appeared on an electric sign: "CAPTAIN AMERICA DIES TODAY"! Cap and Bucky climbed a nearby fireman's ladder to investigate, and they encountered Electro.

   The ensuing battle led them all into the building, where Electro fell into the guts of a functional giant typewriter (obviously built by the Dick Sprang Typewriter Company) on exhibit there, and Cap and Bucky pummeled him senseless by jumping up and down on the keys!

   Electro managed to short-circuit the giant machine, and the feedback knocked out Bucky; but Electro was weakening, for the discharge used up most of his power. Then Electro warned Cap not to come any closer, or else he would fry the kid. Fortunately for Electro, there just happened to be a dynamo on display nearby, which Cap noticed him edging toward. At that point, Cap realized that Electro was just stalling, because he wouldn't have waited if he could have carried out his deadly threat. Fortunately for Cap, there also just happened to be a "waterfall exhibit" nearby, and Cap not-so-subtly reached for the big switch labelled WATERFALL CONTROL on the wall next to him. (Though apparently subtly enough to fool Electro, who seemed to lack Cap's keen eyesight -- Electro was, after all, standing all of three feet away, apparently too far for him to read the six-inch letters on the switch or see Cap's arm reaching for it.)

   At the second that Electro grabbed the dynamo, Cap threw the waterfall switch to the FULL position, and Electro was doused in the down-flow of the water -- the man of electricity was seemingly electrocuted.

   Victorious, Cap and Bucky rejoined the festival below, then noted that the electric sign above had been changed to read "CAPTAIN AMERICA LIVES" in tribute.

(Captain America Annual I#13/1 (fb) - BTS) - Believed to be dead, Electro's "corpse" was taken to the morgue.

(Captain America Annual I#13/1 (fb)) - Two nights later, the Red Skull tracked Electro's body down to the morgue, and he revived him by using a device which recharged Electro with electricity. The Red Skull had been sent to recover Hitler's strongbox from the UN building, and he took Electro with him to ensure the mission succeeded. They managed to obtain the strongbox (although it later proved to be only a false replica), but were intercepted by Captain America and Bucky. The Red Skull abandoned Electro to escape with the strongbox, while the two heroes fought Electro. But Electro was defeated when Bucky rammed him with a car. Finding that Electro was once more seemingly dead, Cap and Bucky wondered what could have done it -- possibly the direct-current charge of the battery in the car, although they couldn't be certain.

Comments: Created by Stan Lee and John Romita.

Many thanks to my friend Crusher Hogan for providing information from Captain America Comics#78.

Crusher's comments: Electro's most frightful feature is not his green skin, glowing eyes, or ability to shoot electrical bolts from his hands, but what must be the most enormous and hairy exposed pot-belly ever to be sported by a super-villain. About 70 pounds overweight, he had (we can safely assume) survived Stalin's government-engineered "famine" in Ukraine. Maybe "Uncle Joe" had just sent Electro to eat everything before the Kulaks could get to it!

Regarding Cap's "affection for his young partner, Bucky", one suspects Dr. Wertham must have missed this issue, or it would surely have been mentioned in "Seduction of the Innocent".

How a guy who's pretty much made of electricity could get electrocuted is left unexplained.

After the battle, Cap and Bucky, as was their custom in Golden Age stories, calmly stand around and chat over their enemy's corpse -- or apparent corpse, as we know he lived to fight again in Captain America Annual#13, evidently having done some dieting and weight-lifting in the meantime.

As seen in What If? I#9, Electro had a counterpart on Earth-9904, until that reality was erased by Immortus; details of that Electro's participation in the story follow below:

(What If? I#9) - In 1958, Electro was re-powered by the Yellow Claw using alchemy potions, and was one of several superhuman criminals assembled by the Claw as part of his scheme to capture President Eisenhower. Alongside Skull-Face, the Great Video, and the Cold Warrior, Electro tunneled underneath a golf course and kidnapped Eisenhower, then sealed the tunnel's opening, and they took the President to the Yellow Claw.

Later, Electro discovered that FBI agent Jimmy Woo had sneaked into the Yellow Claw's base, and he blasted him with electricity. The Yellow Claw took Woo captive, but Suwan contacted the Avengers, whom Woo had brought together. Electro first confronted the Gorilla-Man, and frightened him off with a blast of electricity. He then attempted to menace Venus, but Marvel Boy carried her to safety. 3-D Man jumped in the fray and ran circles around Electro, to trick him into firing a blast that freed the Human Robot from the block of ice that the Cold Warrior had frozen the automaton into. The Human Robot then confronted Electro and absorbed his electrical power, then released the charge back at him, causing Electro to short-circuit and fall unconscious.

(For a good while, it was presumed that the 1950s Avengers from Earth-9904 existed on Earth-616. But they were seemingly ret-conned out of existence when Kurt Busiek destroyed their reality in Avengers Forever. However, in a personal communication with Busiek (on Avengers Message Board), he specifically stated that he did not wipe the Avengers of the 1950s from existence -- only one alternate timeline containing them was wiped out. The group may well have existed in the mainstream past, but they just weren't called the Avengers. He suggested the name: "The G-Men".

Later, when Agents of Atlas was published, it was explained that the heroes did team up together on Earth-616, only they were called the G-Men and 3-D Man never joined, which explained that the What If issue's reality (Earth-9904) was the one that Immortus actually destroyed.)

Electro in Russian is Elektro or Elyektro. I would use the Elyektro spelling to distinguish him from the robot Elektro. Electro could be a product of the Russian answer to Project: Rebirth called Department X (Captain America V#11; November, 2005), who also created the Winter Soldier.
--Gammatotem

Updated images by Ron Fredricks and Markus Raymond.

Electro has an entry in Captain America: America's Avenger#1 (August, 2011), from which some of this information was taken. - Ron Fredricks

Profile by Prime Eternal

CLARIFICATIONS:
Electro should not be confused with:

images: (without ads)
Captain America Comics#78/1, p2, pan1 (main image)
Captain America Comics#78/1, p5, pan2 (head shot)
Captain America Comics#78/1, p3, pan5 (Electro zaps Captain America and Bucky)
Captain America Annual#13, p24, pan6 (Electro being revived by Red Skull)
What If? I#9, p28, pan5 (Earth-9904 - Human Robot short-circuits Electro)

Appearances:
Captain America Comics#78/1 (September, 1954) -Don Rico (writer), John Romita (pencils/inks), Stan Lee (editor)
Captain America Annual I#13 (1994) - Roy Thomas (writer), Arvell Jones (pencils), David & Dan Day (inks), Diana Albers (letter), Dave Sampson (colors), Mike Rockwitz (editor)

First Posted: 07/12/2003
Last updated: 07/30/2022

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com

Special Thanks to http://www.g-mart.com/ for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!

Back to Characters