HALF-FACEHALF-FACE
Real Name: Trung Tuan
Identity/Class: Human scientist, technology user
Occupation: former weapons designer
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Beetle (Abner Jenkins), Blacklash, Blizzard (Donald Gill), Crimson Dynamo (Bukharin), Iron Man (Tony Stark), Space Phantom, Inoshiro Kondo; (formerly) Titanium Man (Boris Bullski); refused an alliance with Fu Manchu extended by Midnight
Enemies: (formerly) Iron Man (Tony Stark),
Known Relatives: Ly Chieu Tuan (wife), Kiem Tuan (son)
Aliases: "The commies' answer to Tony Stark"
Base of Operations: currently unknown; formerly a Castle on Hill 38, Viet Nam
First Appearance: Tales of Suspense I#92 (August, 1967)
Powers: None. Half-Face designed advanced weapons and technology. He was able to reactivate and enhance the armor of the Titanium Man. His castle is loaded with sophisticated sensors to detect the presence of invaders. Other weapons he has designed include the Solar-Powered Destructo-Ray, robot dogs, holographic imaging, etc..
Half-Face briefly had some aspirations of becoming famous (or infamous) for his weapons-designs, even surpassing the level of the Mandarin.
History: (Tales of Suspense I#93(fb)) - Half-Face was commissioned by the communist rulers of his country to develop a new explosive for use in a war. While he felt pride for himself and his country, his toils kept him distanced from his wife and son, whom he missed very much. Unfortunately, while lost in thought about his family, he mixed together two chemicals and uncovered the explosive in a means other than he might have wished. The blast blew off much of his lower face, and he was rebuilt with a bulky prosthesis. Now known as Half-Face, he felt that his appearance prevented him from ever returning to his family.
BTS - Half-Face's communist superiors found the derelict form of the Titanium Man floating in the sea, on the verge of death. They brought him to Half-Face, who not only saved his life, but improved on his armored power.
(Tales of Suspense I#92-94) - Iron Man was called in by the US Army to stop Half-Face's development of explosives. Iron Man made it past his castle's defenses, but Half-Face activated the Titanium Man and sent him after Iron Man. The augmented Titanium Man overpowered Iron Man. Half-Face followed his orders and sent the Titanium Man to destroy the nearest peaceful village (Those
nasty commies, what are you gonna do...)
Iron Man recharged himself on Half-Face's dynamo and attacked the Titanium Man anew. Half-Face learned that his own wife and child were in the village he had nearly had destroyed. Half-Face used his remote control device to drain the Titanium Man's power. Having seen the results of blindly following his former masters, Half-Face stopped working for them, vowing only to fight for freedom. Iron Man reported that Half-Face was gone, allowing him to live his life in peace.
(Iron Man Annual#4/2) - Fu Manchu sought to recruit Half-Face to his side. He sent his agent, Midnight, to enlist him. Half-Face, still based in his castle, met with Midnight and told him he had no further interest in causes or masters. Midnight sympathized with his disfigurement, and left Half-Face in peace, but warned him that no man can long ignore the summons of Fu Manchu.
(Iron Man Annual#10/2) - Apparently healed from his previous disfigurement (or perhpas using an image inducer, or having improved the appearance of his prosthetics, or...), Half-Face was seen in one of those "super-villain bar"/"Bar with No Name" deals. As Iron Man was invovled in one of the struggles of "Atlantis Attacks," Half-Face and several other super-villains (Crimson Dynamo, Space Phantom, Inoshiro Kondo, Blizzard, Beetle and Blacklash) discussed the previous encounters with the golden avenger and debated whether he was one man or a series of armor wearing agents of Stark. When Iron Man himself showed up, the whole group fled.
Comments: Created by Stan "The Man" Lee and Gene "The Dean" Colan.
All references to the Viet Nam war are topical. Omar Karindu points out that in the MU, the fictional country of Sin Cong makes a good substitute.
Midnight, M'Nai, is the same character as the one from the original Legion of the Unliving. He was later remade as Midnight Sun. His encounter with Half-Face precedes his modern era story in Special Marvel Editon#16.
Thanks to Hugo V. Negron for pointing out the Iron Man Annual#10, which I had neglected to remember.
His real name was revealed in Titanium Man's profile in OHOTMU A-Z HC#12. His family's names were revealed in his entry in Iron Manual Mark 3.
CLARIFICATIONS:
No known connections to:
Half-Face's wife and son are
unnamed, but were last seen living with him in Viet Nam.
--Tales of Suspense I#93 (93(fb), 94
Solar-Powered Destructo-Ray
--Tales of Suspense I#92
Robot Dogs
--Tales of Suspense I#92
Appearances:
Tales of Suspense I#92-94 (August-October, 1967) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Gene Colan (pencils), Frank Giacoia (#93) & Dan Adkins (#94) (inks)
Iron Man Annual#4 (August, 1977) - Roger Stern (writer), Jeff Aclin (pencils), Don Newton (inks)
Iron Man Annual#10 (September, 1989) - David Wohl (writer), Jackson Guice, Gene Colan, John Byrne, Keith Pollard & Bob Layton (artists), Howard Mackie (editor)
First Posted: 04/30/2002
Last updated: 10/23/2010
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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™ and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights
Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real
thing!
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