Perry,
Arthur
Perry,
Arthur
Real Name: Arthur Perry
Identity/Class: Human cyborg
Occupation: assassin, agent of the
Hand;
former espionage agent
Group Membership: former agent of SHIELD (Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-Division), Operation: Scrambled Eggs
Affiliations: The Beast (demon of the
Hand), Chuck the Dwarf, the Hand, Ken Wind;
formerly SHIELD's ExTechOp division;
former partner of John Garrett
Enemies: Dr. Harold Beaker, Elektra, John Garrett, SHIELD (Nick Fury, Chastity McBryde, several others), Dr. Wreck
Known Relatives: mother (deceased), father (deceased), sister (deceased)
Aliases: none
Base of Operations: mobile across Earth
First Appearance: Elektra: Assassin#2 (September, 1986)
Powers/Abilities: Per SHIELD data files
as dictated by agent Chastity McBryde:
"Perry's entire skeletal and nervous
systems have been rebuilt with stress-resistant plastics and
nearly indestructible alloys. He is fireproof, bulletproof, and
shockproof. He neither breathes nor eats.
Housed in his chest--roughly where his heart
would be--is a miniaturized solar generator powerful enough to
light a city block. This gives him superhuman strength (enhanced
human to Class 10), and feeds laser weaponry concealed in his
skull and forearms. His skull is also equipped with radar, sonar,
and infrared sensors.
His detachable toes contain lethal nerve gas.
He can generate extreme heat from his hands.
The accidental erasure of one half of Perry's
file limits our knowledge beyond this--but existing blueprints
indicate that he may be capable of spraying acid from his eyes
and genitalia.
You must in no way regard Perry as human.
Indeed, but for a portion of living brain, he is completely the
creation of ExTechOp technology.
He is also completely insane."
He possesses artificial frontal lobes and a completely digitized optic system. Also of note is that a chemical was found within Perry's brain, the same chemical that had been found within Elektra and anyone she had controlled (such as Garrett). This chemical seemed to heighten the primitive "reptilian" portions of the brain.
For traveling distances, Perry held on to the demon-possessed Chuck the Dwarf, who could fly by flapping his arms. Alternatively, he used a jet pack.
SHIELD possesses a particle cannon, designed to cancel out Perry's internal generator with a concentrated stream of protons.
History:
(Elektra: Assassin#6 (fb) - BTS) - Perry was apprehended on three
counts of rape and mutilation at age twelve and spent six months
institutionalized. He was released, but was readmitted for
treatment following the brutal murder of his parents and sister.
He escaped at fourteen and fell in with a Los Angeles Street Gang.
He was arrested at age sixteen for selling poisoned heroin to
school children. There is spotty evidence that he was involved in
a snuff film operation.
At the age of eighteen, Perry fell in with a
terrorist organization in Lebanon and participated in the
slaughter of fourteen civilian Israeli hostages.
(Elektra: Assassin#2 (fb) - BTS) - Under unknown circumstances, the records of Perry's past history and crimes were hidden, and he became an agent of SHIELD.
(Elektra: Assassin#2 / 6(fb-BTS)) - Perry was sent, along with John Garrett, to investigate the murder of San Concepcion president Carlos Huevos, part of SHIELD's Operation: Scrambled Eggs. Perry brutally beat "subversive" Julio Gonzalez until he confessed to hiring Elektra to kill Huevos, after which Perry killed Gonzalez. He and Garrett then paid off a Bolivian border guard to allow them half an hour with a prisoner, whose wrist they broke, after which they gave the man some narcotic drugs to loosen his tongue, gaining information on Elektra's struggles with Huevos' guards.
Later that night, Elektra psychically seduced Garrett and when Perry tracked Elektra to the harbor, she slew him, shoving his own bayonet through his forehead. A subsequent explosion at the harbor left Perry little more than a human head and the burnt husk of a skeleton.
(Elektra: Assassin#6) - In an effort to create a warrior powerful enough to stand up to Garrett, who was under Elektra's control and helping her target presidential hopeful Ken Wind (who was possessed by the Beast), SHIELD commissioned ExTechOp Division leader Harold Beaker to rebuild Perry as a super-warrior. Though Beaker was aware of Perry's past, he determined to make Perry the most powerful warrior ever, in order to prove his divisions worth in the face of lobbying for budget cuts by Democratic Presidential candidate Ken Wind. While Beaker and his agents began to rebuild Perry, Chuck the Dwarf(?)--also possessed by the Beast--began whispering to Perry, seducing him into the ways of the Beast.
After thirty straight hours of labor, ExTechOp technicians had
rebuilt Perry's brain, replacing destroyed cerebral matter with
computer components. Brain activity was restored by a series of
electric shocks and Perry regained consciousness with no apparent
loss of memory or reason, after which he signed a release
granting ExTechOp complete freedom in reconstructing his body.
While Fury agreed in the importance of proving ExTechOp's worth,
he sent agent McBryde to uncover the complete story on Perry,
whose record seemed suspiciously thin. Her first search showed
Perry to have been honorably discharged from the Green Berets
before joining SHIELD--and nothing else. McBryde suspected that
the records had been altered and thus continued her search.
Six hours later, McBryde uncovered incomplete finals on Perry, which revealed portions of his true history. Fury demanded an immediate halt to Perry's construction, but he was already completed. SHIELD agents arrived to ensure that he was not activated, but Chuck the Dwarf flipped the switch. As soon as Perry was switched on, he slew Beaker, co-creator Dr. Wreck, and six other SHIELD agents, before leaping out a portal in the Helicarrier from a height of 30, 000 feet.
(Elektra: Assassin#7) - McBryde and other
SHIELD agents approached Perry as he and Chuck flew through the
air, but their bullets failed to harm Perry (or the Dwarf), and
Perry physically ripped their helicopter apart, causing it to
crash. McBryde leapt free from the craft, Margolis and Spenser
were killed, and Mekkelson climbed from the wreckage only long
enough to be decapitated by a backhanded swipe from Perry. Fury
directed another helicopter to pick up McBryde, after which a
third helicopter firebombed Perry, following an order for "scorched
earth."
Afterwards, Chuck led Perry to a confrontation with the Beast
itself, which offered Perry its "milk," and he was fully corrupted, communing
with the Beast's plan for annihilation of all life on Earth.
(Elektra: Assassin#8) - Despite SHIELD devices designed to detect his cyborg systems, Perry slipped inside a SHIELD operation, killing agents Simpson and Jurgens. While Perry's goal was actually to protect Ken Wind (who was possessed by the Beast) from Garrett and Elektra, SHIELD assumed he was after Wind himself. Chastity narrowly survived another encounter with Perry, after which Elektra caused Wind's escape pod (and the helicopter carrying it to crash into Perry, which crashed into the Lincoln Memorial. However, this merely allowed Perry to defend Wind himself, as he had intended.
At Wind's command, Perry completely dismantled the super-strong cyborg form of Garrett. Elektra's sword--composed of metal made soft by fire, folded and flattened by a hundred thousand hammer blows...folded, flattened, patiently, lovingly, endlessly...until each of its million layers is thinner than air...until its edge is thinner than air--proved by be sharp enough to cut through anything "made in cauldrons...by computers." Elektra thus cut through the toughest alloys SHIELD could make with a samurai sword. However, Perry's body continued to function and it attempted to retrieve its head, while the head itself cursed and fired lasers at Elektra. The ninja cut off Perry's hand and then impaled him, but she was knocked to the ground by the electric shock he then released into her through it. Perry then grabbed Elektra and began to bend her spine, but she managed to grab his head. She stabbed her fingers--like a cobra--up through his neck, through the tubes, and into his soft brain, which she crushed, slaying the cyborg super-agent.
Comments: Created by Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz.
Reptilian shmeptilian. What people are talking about is the Medulla Oblongata, IIRC, which is the portion of your brain that controls breathing, heart rate, and many survival instincts. This brain dominates in primitive animals, like reptiles, who lack the advanced Cerebrum (which controls advanced conscious thought) or even the Cerebellum (which finely coordinates movements), of higher mammals. I guess this is supposed to mean they function more on instinct than conscious thought in certain situations.
We can actually nail down when some of the events of
Elektra: Assassin took place thanks to George Olshevksy's Avengers Index#3. In
that issue, he discusses Avengers I#61, and notes that some freak weather
conditions, such as the abnormally premature snowstorms seen in Elektra:
Assassin, were caused by the battle between Ymir and Surtur in Avengers I#61, as
well as by the events of Incredible Hulk I#109-110 (in which a large machine
that affected the Earth's rotation existed in the Savage Land--this machine was
the Planet-Destroyer, which was a weapon of the Sagittarians, used in the
service of the Galaxy Master. It is seen in the profile for
Umbu the Unliving).
Thus, some of the events of Elektra: Assassin took place around the time of
other stories with premature snowstorms, such as Amazing Spider-Man I#85,
Incredible Hulk I#115, and Daredevil I#52-53. These premature snowstorms came
ever now and then during a period of two or three months following the events of
Avengers I#61.
Further, Avengers I#61 took place towards the end of the third week of
September of Peter Parker's sophomore year in college. So, we can nail things
down ever further.
--Per Degaton
I had intended this to be a "quickie" profile so I could get on to other things, but the Elektra: Assassin series just should not be sold short.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
No known connection to:
images:
Elektra: Assassin#8, p16, panel 2
#7, p14, panel 1
#2, p13, panel 4
#8, p24, panel 1
Elektra: Assassin#3-8 (October, 1986 - March, 1987)
Last updated: 06/16/04
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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