STEVEN TUVAL

Real Name: Tuval

Identity/Class: Extradimensional (Black Sea dimension) humanoid

Occupation: Unrevealed

Group Membership: People of the Black Sea; former owner/leader of Dovecote

Affiliations: Led a group of human followers (including Leonard McKenzie);
    Mrs. Grant, Widowmaker

Enemies: Mentallo, Namor the Sub-Mariner, SHIELD (Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-enforcement Division), Snowfall, Turalla

Known Relatives: Tuvia (niece), Tuvia's father (brother, deceased)

Aliases: Mind-Master

Base of Operations: currently unknown;
    formerly Dovecote
    formerly Boston, Massachusetts;
    formerly the Black Sea dimension

First Appearance: Sub-Mariner I#40 (August, 1971)

 

 

Powers/Abilities: Tuval has psychic powers, including telepathy, telekinesis, illusion projection, and astral projection. He can perform a ritual that allows him to drain the psychic power from willing donors, restoring his youth and full power. At his full power, he can teleport, restructure matter, transform himself or others into animal forms, and rapidly age others. It may be that some of the powers demonstrated by him were merely illusion. However, he requires a continual supply of psychic energy to maintain his youth and power.

History:
(Sub-Mariner I#40 (fb) - BTS) - One of the People of the Black Sea, Tuval left his home at some point in the past and traveled to Earth. He set up an identity as Steven Tuval, living in Boston, Massachusetts. Eventually he grew old and infirm, forgetting his past life.

(Sub-Mariner I#40) - Tuval's caretaker, Mrs. Grant, reminded him of the past he used to talk about, and it all began to come back to him. Later, he sensed the psychic power of the usurper Turalla and lashed out at him, striking him down across the dimensional gulf.

(Sub-Mariner I#41) - Tuval tested his powers, finding them greatly restored, but also found that the special ethereal code which would allow him to pass through to the Black Sea dimension was forever gone from his mind.

(Sub-Mariner I#42) - Tuval pined over his continued exile from the Black Sea. When Mrs. Grant disturbed him, he trapped her within a psychic field.

(Sub-Mariner I#43 (fb) - BTS) - Tuval began to assemble a group of followers, almost all of which were elderly men who felt that society no longer appreciated them.

(Sub-Mariner I#43) - Namor encountered a follower of Tuval, who died after mentioning Tuval's name. Namor followed a trail to Boston, where he located Tuval within an abandoned building, whipping his followers into a frenzy. Promising to help them regain their past glory if they supplied him with psychic power, he performed a ceremony that drained filled him with their energies, restoring him to his youthful vitality. Tuval then teleported to a park, where he assaulted a crowd of young musicians and their audience (of which Namor happened to be a part). Namor fought back against Tuval, who countered several attacks before finally being stunned in direct combat. With Tuval defeated, Namor noticed the crowd of elderly men who appeared to be entranced. Namor forced the old men to realize that Tuval was using and killing them, and they regained consciousness and threw off Tuval's control.

 

 

(Captain America I#239 (fb)) - Surviving, but weakened, Tuval relocated to Dovecote, an armed fortress that served as a haven from the outside world, where he used his powers to take control. He then located and abducted the young mutant telepath who was to become Snowfall. The scientists of Dovecote gave Tuval the facilities to develop Snowfall's mind to its fullest capacity and to control it for their own highly commercial ends.
    However, Snowfall's training but a drain on Tuval's powers. When she rebelled against him, Tuval forced her to use her powers to kill a number of men, including Mentallo and several SHIELD agents, as punishment.

(Captain America I#238) - Snowfall managed to contact Captain America and guide him towards Dovecote. Tuval dispatched the fortress's defenses against her, but she used her own powers to cause a number of illusions to foil Captain America's capture.

(Captain America I#239) - As Captain America fought his way into Dovecote, Tuval personally caused a series of illusions in an effort to break him. However, Cap's strength of will allowed him to throw off the illusions and confront Tuval, who explained his actions.
    One of the directors of Dovecote initiated Plan H, blowing up the compromised facility. Tuval's parting comments indicated that he was going to accept punishment for his failure, after which he seemingly faded from existence.

 

 

 

Comments: Created by Gerry Conway, Gene Colan, and Sam Grainger.

    I'd guess that Tuval merely made himself invisible to Cap's senses and allowed himself to be killed in the explosion of Dovecote, but that remains uncertain.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
No known connection to:

images:
Sub-Mariner I#43
Sub-Mariner I#40, p8, panel 2
Captain America I#239, p19, panel 5

Appearances:
Sub-Mariner I#40 (August, 1971) - Roy Thomas & Gerry Conway (writers), Gene Colan (pencils), Sam Grainger & Marie Severin (inks), Stan Lee (editor)
Sub-Mariner I#41-43 (September-November, 1971) - Gerry Conway (writer), George Tuska (pencils), Sam Grainger (#41), Jim Mooney (#42) & Mike Esposito (#43) (inks), Stan Lee (editor)
Captain America I#238 - 239 (October - November, 1979) - Peter Gillis (writer), Fred Kida (pencils), Don Perlin (inks), Roger Stern (editor)

First Posted: 07/15/2004
Last updated: 07/15/2004

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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