MR. WREN

Real Name: Hubert Wren

Identity/Class: Normal human (Post-World War II era)

Occupation: Scientist, owner of Wren Sales Company

Affiliations: "Barb"

Enemies: "Barb's clone"

Known Relatives: Unnamed parents

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Mobile;
    Post-World War II era

First Appearance: Uncanny Tales#54/5 (April, 1957)

Powers/Abilities: Mr. Wren was a scientific genius and a knowledgeable businessman.

History: (Uncanny Tales#54/5) - Hubert Wren grew up in a troubled household; his parents never stopped fighting. They always argued over money, and young Wren made up his mind never to marry until he was rich. Wren worked hard all through school and beyond, eventually inventing a matter duplicator. He used the duplicator to create warehouses full of major appliances, then opened up Wren Sales Co. Once he was a millionaire, Wren sought true love, and found it in young socialite Barb. When Wren proposed, he nervously bumped into his matter duplicator, cloning Barb. Mr. Wren's hopes of a happy future were shattered by Barb and her clone arguing ceaselessly over who would get to marry him.

Comments: Created by John Tartaglione and an unnamed writer.

As with many 1950's and 1960's Marvel horror stories, this story is not confirmed as part of Earth-616 continuity, but there's nothing to exclude it either.

Wren's fiancée was described as having a voice "barbed to cruel sharpness," thus the name "Barb."

Could Mr. Wren's matter duplicator blueprints have been discovered and used decades later by Professor Zaxton? I think it's a possibility.

In Strange Tales I#100 (September 1962), scientist Pedro Lopez also created a "duplicating machine" that created a dozen duplicates of Central American dictator Carlos Zarago; was there perhaps some connection between his duplicator and Hubert Wren's?
--John Kaminski

Considering the mixed success he had with his duplicating machine, he might have been among the geniuses later abducted by the Window Washer. And, thus, recruited by Kulla's insectoid successors to help co-invent Chairman's molecular rearranger.
--Carycomic

One more scientist with a duplicating machine (duplicator ray) was seen in Strange Tales of the Unusual#10 (June, 1957) 4th story.
--Gammatotem