INFINITUS - THE REINCARNATED MAN

Real Name: Michael Rodgers

Identity/Class: Human being with no enhanced abilities or powers, though he claimed to have some.

Occupation: Petty assassin

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: None

Enemies: Human Torch, and Iron Man, and his brother

Known Relatives: His brother (no first name?) Rodgers, an employee of Tony Stark

Aliases: Pharoah Amenemhet III

Base of Operations: Detroit, Michigan, probably in his parent's basement

First Appearance: Marvel Team-Up I#29 (January, 1974)

Powers: He claimed to be a reincarnation of Pharoah Amenemhet III of the 11th dynasty in Egypt, and that somehow this meant he couldn't be killed. In actuality he was just some guy in a green version of Hawkeye's costume. Possibly he had some athletic skill but he didn't seem to hold his own at all against the heroes in hand-to-hand combat. The only thing he did have was a 'heat gun' capable of melting Iron Man's armor (God knows where that came from).

History: (Marvel Team-Up I#29) - A series of odd mechanical failures were causing death throughout the fair city of Detroit, from a foreman being encased in cement to a girl being electrocuted by a washing machine. These continued for months and were thought to be accidents until Tony Stark experienced one of these “mechanical failures” first hand. Tony and his assistant, Rodgers, were inspecting a vat of chemicals when it overheated and exploded. Rodgers was rendered unconscious but managed to pull Tony safely away. Tony awoke and saw a man with a gun in a green costume running away from the explosion. Knowing this must be the perpetrator and not some Halloween trick-or-treater, he immediately donned his Iron Man costume and followed him. Infinitus noticed Iron Man following him and was able to blast Iron Man with his heat gun. He escaped, rambling something about being an Egyptian "King" reincarnate, etc. (Yup, that's what he said. They say King instead of Pharoah through the whole story.) He also claims to only kill people who are reincarnations of people he was mad at in a former life. Watch out Shirley Maclaine! -Prime ED-ternal

Tony Stark rather embarrassingly decided that he couldn't handle Infinitus alone because of his "heat-ray". He summoned the Fantastic Four but only got the Human Torch instead. He had just finished filling in the Human Torch on all the details when Infinitus struck again. The Human Torch, Stark, and Rodgers were standing in Stark's office when it exploded. Human Torch saved both the men by flying them out a window. Human Torch quickly found and pursued Infinitus, but he shot the Human Torch with his heat ray and the Torch fell to the ground and was unable to get back up in time to catch him, and Infinitus escaped.

The heroes split up. Iron Man decided to build a tracking device of some unknown kind that could somehow trace Infinitus using "modified electro-magnetic waves". The Human Torch decided to hit the books to find Infinitus. He researched everything he could on Amenemhet III of the 11th dynasty, whom Infinitus claimed to be. Torch found this guy was the king of the 12th and not the 11th dynasty. He knew that if Infinitus was a "true reincarnate" he wouldn't make a mistake like that. Torch then confronted Rodgers (not Infinitus, Tony Stark's assistant), present at both the most recent attempts made by Infinitus, and asked him if anyone would want to see him killed, or if he had his life threatened by any individual. After Rodgers revealed his answer to Torch (but not the reader) and it was time for the final showdown with Infinitus. Iron Man tracked Infinitus to a warehouse and was almost killed when Infinitus melted his chest plate that kept his heart beating. The Human Torch, having gotten an address from Rodgers, swooped over just in time to save him. The Torch and Iron Man then punched Infinitus until he gave up. They unmasked him and Rodgers (the assistant) told the two he was Infinitus' (a.k.a. Michael Rodgers) brother.

Michael had hated his brother and attempted to cover up killing him with the "mechanical failures". That's right, he staged the elaborate deaths of some ten strangers to look like industrial accidents, so no one would be suspicious when his brother died in a similar accident. He then dressed in a Green Suit and claimed to be a Pharaoh so, uh, in case someone realized these weren't accidents, they would just think it was an insane ex-Pharoah super-villain who caused the random accidents. All to kill his brother. O-kay...... I guess. Michael was handed over to the authorities and is presumably still in prison for murder, thankfully.

Comments: Created by Gerry Conway and Jim Mooney.

Editor's Side Note: I was really confused as to why the Human Torch was so positive that because Infinitus claimed he was from the 11th dynasty when Amenemhet III was really from the 12th immediately meant the guy must be a phony. Do all the ancient Egyptian reincarnates get together at some club in New York and say "Oh, so you're Arkenhotep VII, reincarnated in the body of a bald hot dog vendor. So, what dynasty were you? 17th?" "No no, I was early 19th." "Oh, hey, good dynasty, that one."

This has to be one of Iron Man's worst showings ever. He gets beat (three times!) by a guy with some heat gun he made during metalshop or something. He gets saved twice by the Human Torch, whom he has to call for help against this "menace of life and death". Then completely out of the blue he builds some perfect tracking device, which apparently is able to track weridos in green costumes perfectly. This story (indeed most of his Marvel Team-Up run) is also pretty low in the rankings of Gerry Conway stories, which is saying something.

Clarifications: Infinitus should not be confused with:

• Infinity, cosmic/abstract entity that represents part of the space/time continuum, first mentioned in @Thor I#184 and appearing in @ Quasar#24
• Crazy Eight, Leslie Shappe, aka Infinity, @ Incredible Hulk II#380
• Infinity Gauntlet, Gems, War, Abyss, Well, Crusade, Watch - or various other Starlin creations. Not that anyone's likely to confuse them with this lame-o.
• Infinity Thrall, a cool unstoppable energy beast, @ Warlock and the Infinity Watch#5