Enemies: Vance Astro of Earth-691, Luke Cage, Amaryllis Dejure (Death), Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers), Bobby Spector, Thing (Ben Grimm), unidentified spiders in Watcher's Citadel in the Blue Area of the Moon;
formerly Doctor Doom (Victor von Doom)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Watcher's Citadel in the Blue Area of the Moon;
   formerly the ship Drydock;
   formerly Latveria;
   formerly the planet Tk'kn

First Appearance: Astonishing Tales I#2/2 (October, 1970)

Powers/Abilities: As a Kt'kn, the Faceless One's true form possesses six insect-like legs projecting from a featureless globe. It communicates telepathically and has psionic senses rather than physical ones. It absorbs air and food across its body surface rather than eating it. It possesses limited telekinetic powers. It secretes a nerve toxin from the sharp base of its claws which can cause temporary paralysis. Two of its limbs were partially severed by Vance Astro.

The Faceless One utilized an android body of a headless human form to disguise its true nature. It can control this form mentally even when physically separated from it. This form carried a laser rifle and could generate a powerful force field.

The Faceless One also used an interstellar starship, an Omni-Sphere for air travel, a teleport globe, and a device which (when imbedded in the back of the neck) enabled it to control a person.

Height: 3' 5"; (with android body) 6' 8"
Weight: 74 lbs.; (with android body) 315 lbs.

History:
(Astonishing Tales I#2/2-3/2) - The Faceless One is a member of the Kt'kn race, from the Tk'kn system in the Milky Way Galaxy. It apparently sought to take over the Earth. When first seen, it had allied itself with the Latverian prince Rudolfo, apparently hoping to wrest control from Victor von Doom and use it as base from which to take over the Earth. Shortly after Doom's forces had defeated Rudolfo's rebellion, Rudolfo escaped by replacing himself with a robot double. The Faceless One discovered the original Doomsman, an android created by Doom with his own memory and thought patterns. Rudolfo then led a group of rebels to invade Castle Doom and occupy Doom's human and robot guards. Meanwhile the Faceless One led the Doomsman to confront Doom himself. Doom sought to command the Doomsman as well, and their two attempts cancelled out each other, allowing it to regain its own mind and attack them both.

   However, Doom was able to use his mind-transference trick (learned from the Ovoids), made easier by the fact that the Doomsman had his own brain patterns, to take control of the Doomsman and turn him against the Faceless One. The Doomsman shorted out its force field and grabbed the body of the Faceless One, who chose to reveal its true form in order to get free. It then detonated its android body and used the confusion to seemingly escape into its Omni-Sphere. However, while Doom watched the Sphere leave, the Faceless One made its way to Doom's master command center to turn his own castle's defenses against him. Doom fled and Rudolfo and the rebels claimed victory, but Doom then activated a vibration machine to cause an earthquake to destroy the castle.

(Luke Cage, Hero for Hire#8 - BTS - #9) - The Faceless One later somehow became the leader of a revolt of the robots serving Dr. Doom. Luke Cage, Hero for Hire, was hired by Dr. Doom to stop some of his robots in the USA. However, after Cage did so, Doom reneged on his payment. Cage traveled to Latveria in order to force Doom to pay him for the services on which he had reneged. On arrival, Cage was met by armed guards of Doom, but a group of robots defeated the guards and led Cage to the Faceless One. Cage agreed to join the Faceless One's invasion of Doom's castle, if only to gain entry to force Doom to pay him for his services. Cage actually succeeded in damaging Doom's armor, at which point the Faceless One confronted and attempted to slay Doom. Cage, not wanting to allow murder, stopped the Faceless One, destroying his exoskeleton and forcing him to flee. The Faceless One claimed that leading the revolts with Rudolfo and the robots were both but means to get close to Doom (and presumably slay him). However, his true motives were not revealed. Doom paid Cage the $200 dollars he owed him.

(Ms. Marvel I#23) - When next seen, the Faceless One had taken control of the space station Drydock, at that time the base of the time-traveling Guardians of the Galaxy, which was stationed just outside of Earth's atmosphere in the modern era. It implanted a mind-control device in the neck of astronaut Salia Petrie, whom it had captured when she had appeared to burn up while free-falling through Earth's atmosphere. It had Petrie come to her old friend Carol Danvers for help, and then catch her unawares and blast her into unconsciousness. The Faceless One teleported Danvers and Petrie aboard Drydock. The Faceless One tried to take control of Danvers as well, but she broke free, met up with the Guardian Vance Astro, and (as Ms.Marvel) joined him against the Faceless One and Salia. The two separated it from its android body, but it injected Ms.Marvel with its toxin and sought to place a mind-control device in her neck. Vance Astro blew off two of its legs, and then destroyed the body before it could attack Ms.Marvel from behind. Realizing its defeat, the Faceless One teleported away, claiming that its next attempt at world conquest would be successful. Ms.Marvel and Astro succeeded in freeing Salia from its control, and prevented her from being teleported away with it.

(Thing III#5 (fb) - BTS) - Doctor Doom hired Berserker as part of a plot to invade Death's realm.

(Thing III#4) - Thing, Amaryllis Dejure and Bobby Spector ran into the Faceless One, Terrax and Berserker in the Blue Area of the Moon. One of the trio asked Thing where the Champion was and learned from him that he had been taken care of. The three villains then leapt at him.

(Thing III#5) - Thing tackled the three villains, but the Faceless One went after Bobby while Berserker fought Thing. Faceless One hit Bobby's right leg with an energy beam, but Bobby fled into a room filled with vegetation and spiders. The Faceless One caught up with Bobby, who tried to warn of the large spider, which was bigger than the Faceless One. The spider attacked the Faceless One, but the alien easily dealt with the animal. Two more spiders attacked, but were blown apart by the Faceless One as well. More spiders surrounded the Faceless One and eventually they became too much for him to deal with and drove their fangs into the Faceless One, who cried for help.

(Thing III#5 - BTS) - Bobby Spector watched the Faceless One get eaten alive by the spiders. With the spiders distracted by their prey, Bobby ran away.

Comments: Created by Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, and Wally Wood.

A large number of Kt'kn were seen in Thor I#334, but I don't recall any mention of the Faceless One.

I'm not sure why the Faceless One needed Salia Petrie, or Carol Danvers (whom it apparently did not know was Ms. Marvel). I guess since they both had experience with NASA that it wanted them to help control Drydock, perhaps transforming it into a battleship.

My theory is after its last injury, the Faceless One decided to act behind the scenes, and orchestrated the Cockroach Conspiracy, alongside the Scarlet Beetle.

Considering their past it was a bit surprising to see the Faceless One working for Doom in Thing III#4-5. Maybe he was controlled by Doom in some way.

The Faceless One has an entry in Marvel Legacy: The 1970's Handbook.

Profile by Snood. Update by Markus Raymond (Thing).

Clarifications: The Faceless One is not related to:

• Faceless Ones - a cannibalistic aquatic race--Tales to Astonish I#72
• Faceless Man (Mr. Windom) - enemy of American Chemron Board of Directors--Tomb of Dracula I46
• Faceless Priests - Microverse, resurrected Shaitan--Micronauts I#21/2
• Man with no Face (Philip Wing) - Chinese communist spy--Captain America Comics#77
• Man Without a Face - owner of Warkin's Grocery, member of Black-Hooded Hooligans--Strange Tales I#71/5

images:
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z HC#4, Faceless One (main, based on Astonishing Tales I#2/2, p10, pan1)
Astonishing Tales I#2/2, p4, pan1 (first appearance)
Astonishing Tales I#3/2, p4, pan1-2 (true form revealed)
Thing III#4, p19, pan4 (working for Doom)
Thing III#5, p7, pan9 (apparent death)

Appearances:
Astonishing Tales I#2/2 (October, 1970) - Roy Thomas (writer), Wally Wood (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
Astonishing Tales I#3/2 (December, 1970) - Larry Lieber (writer), Wally Wood (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
Luke Cage, Hero for Hire#8-9 (April-May, 1973) - Steve Englehart (writer), George Tuska (pencils), Billy Graham (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Ms. Marvel I#23 (April, 1979) - Chris Claremont (writer), Mike Vosburg (pencils), Bruce D. Patterson (inks), Roger Stern (editor)
Thing III#4-5 (April-May, 2022) - Walter Mosley (writer), Tom Reilly (artist), Tom Brevoort (editor)

First Posted: 09/19/2001
Last updated: 11/08/2023

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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