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STONE

Real Name: Gerald Stone

Identity/Class: Human mutate, former technology user, citizen of the United States

Occupation: Mercenary, former bio-technician

Group Membership: Partner of Styx (Jacob Eichorn)

Affiliations: Jonathan Caesar, Cult of Entropy, William "Bill" Grant, Justin Hammer, Life Foundation,

Enemies: Cardiac (Elias Wertham), Deadpool (Wade Wilson), Hawkeye (Clint Barton), Logan of Earth-21923, Mercs for Money (Foolkiller/Greg Salinger, Masacre, Slapstick/Steve Harmon, Solo/James Bourne, Stingray/Walter Newell), Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Venom (Eddie Brock), Mary Jane Watson

Known Relatives: Unrevealed

Aliases: "Mr. Stone" (nickname used by Styx), "Terminator" (nickname used by Spider-Man)

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
    formerly Jonathan Caesar's condominium in New York City, New York;
    formerly the Cult of Entropy's hideout in Bolivia;
    formerly his penthouse in New York City, New York

First Appearance: Amazing Spider-Man I#308 (November, 1988)

Powers/Abilities: Originally, Stone had no super-human powers but he used a flying "turbo-hopper" hover platform and a shoulder mounted dual gun construct of his own design One gun fires projectiles such as gas pellets, chains, steel cable, adhesive gel and glue. The other fires beam weapons such as sonic waves, a blinding strobe burst and a heat-generating "nova beam". During his time with the Cult of Entropy, Stone was turned into a large rock creature that could dissolve all inorganic matter with his acidic touch. In his new form he had superhuman strength and durability, though his massive bulk made him slower than baseline human.

Height: 6'2" (approximately 8'2" in stone form)
Weight: 134 lbs. (approximately 500 lbs. in stone form)
Eyes: Hazel (red in stone form)
Hair: Brown (bald in stone form)

History:

(Amazing Spider-Man I#377 (fb) - BTS) - Gerald Stone was an ambitious, highly paid bio-technician who lived in a penthouse on Manhattan's East Side. He worked at Elias Wertham's medical research company where he became fascinated with finding a way to cure cancer. Eager to field test his promising theories, he convinced Wertham to allow him to start experimenting on homeless people.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#333 (fb) ) - At the research firm Stone met Jacob Eichorn, a vagrant who had agreed to participate in experiments for new pharmaceuticals. He was unaware that Stone had selected him to prove his radical theory that people could develop immunity to cancer through controlled exposure. Stone injected Eichorn with a mutated cancer compound only to find that it not only made him immune to the disease, it also turned him into a living cancer, able to rot and kill organic matter with a mere touch.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#333 (fb) - BTS) - Eichorn's mental stability was also affected by the mutation. Now calling himself Styx, after the mythological passage to Hades, he grew obsessed with death and started to savor the pleasure that ending lives gave him.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#377 (fb) - BTS) - Stone, feeling responsible for Eichorn's fate and unable to tell Wertham because of the money he stole, decided to become Eichorn's minder. He promised "Mr. Styx" he'd always be safe with him and that he'd never hand him over to anyone.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#333 (fb) - BTS) - Using his engineering expertise, Stone came up with his dual gun weapons pack and a flying two man hovercraft he dubbed the "Turbo Hopper". Adopting a costumed identity and calling himself Stone, Gerald convinced Styx they should hire themselves out as mercenaries. Stone justified this move by claiming this was not only a way to earn money for research into curing Eichorn, it also served to redirect his bloodlust towards "justifiable targets".

(Amazing Spider-Man I#377 (fb) - BTS) - As an added benefit, their new careers as highly paid mercenaries and assassins also funded Stone's  rather opulent lifestyle. 

(Amazing Spider-Man I#376 (fb) - BTS) - Stone moved Styx into his luxurious penthouse on the East Side of Manhattan.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#309 (fb) - BTS) -  Over time, Styx and Stone made a name for themselves as ruthless and efficient mercenaries. Among their clients was the malevolent businessman Jonathan Caesar.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#309 - BTS) - After kidnapping Mary Jane Watson, Jonathan Caesar learned Spider-Man was looking for her. He called on the services of Styx and Stone to deal with this menace.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#309) - Styx and Stone arrived at Jonathan Caesar's apartment in the Bedford Towers for their briefing. Taking off one of his gloves, Styx demonstrated his powers by withering away one of Caesar's house plants with a mere touch. Caesar told them to stand ready to go out and deal with Spider-Man.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#309 - BTS) - When Caesar happened to spot Spider-Man swing by, he had Styx and Stone alerted to go after the wallcrawler. Not too long after this, Mary Jane managed to free herself, armed with one of Caesar's bodyguards' guns.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#309) - Riding their Turbo Hopper, Styx and Stone caught up with Spider-Man near Central Park. After Stone subjected the hero to gas pellets and a sonic barrage, they briefly blinded him with a giant strobe flash. Styx directed Stone to use his nova beam weapon against the disoriented hero.
Spider-Man dodged the heat ray, but didn't see he was tricked into landing on a layer of fast-acting glue. Styx moved in for the kill, but was distracted by the arrival of Mary Jane who fired several shots at them to get the villains to back off. This allowed Spider-Man to recover, webbing up Stone's guns. Styx and Stone decided on a strategic retreat, jumping on their Turbo Hopper and taking off. Styx lamented he didn't get to kill anything, but Stone cheered him up by saying they might run into a stray puppy.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#332 (fb) - BTS) - Jonathan Caesar once again hired Styx and Stone to kill Spider-Man.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#332) - Learning that Spider-Man would be appearing at a charity event, Styx and Stone decided to attack him there. Styx made his way through the crowds and tried to get the jump on the hero who simply webbed up his exposed hand. Styx was rescued by Stone who dropped a rope ladder from the Turbo Hopper and got ready to take off. A well-aimed webline allowed Spider-Man to force the vehicle to crash into a nearby building. Their fight continued in a rooftop garden with Styx's touch killing all the flowers until Stone got the Turbo Hopper working again. The duo blasted off to safety.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#332 - BTS) - Styx and Stone returned to Caesar's apartment at the Bedford Towers where they heard their boss arguing with Mary Jane Watson who had come to tell him to stop harassing Spider-Man.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#332) - As soon as Mary Jane left, Styx and Stone went to check on their employer. He told the duo to keep monitoring news broadcasts and police communications to find their target.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#333 (fb) - Styx and Stone learned that Spider-Man was fighting Venom, but failed to reach their location in time. Unable to follow Spider-Man undetected, they instead opted to shadow Venom. They figured that his obsession with their shared enemy would inevitably lead them to him. However, they eventually lost track of him as well and returned to Jonathan Caesar empty-handed.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#333) - Caesar was beyond displeased with the duo, especially when Styx started killing plants to satisfy himself. Stone ordered him to wait in the alley and amuse himself by killing some cockroaches. After Styx left, Stone told Caesar an abbreviated version of their origin story before the businessman barked new orders at him: Styx and Stone were to return to Central Park and watch the tunnel Venom originally disappeared into.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#333) - During their stakeout, Stone had an increasingly difficult time stopping the easily bored Styx from killing the foliage that provided them cover. The duo spotted Spider-Man who went into the tunnel to confront Venom in his fallout shelter base. Following their quarry, they soon found themselves facing Venom as well. Stone briefly incapacitated the symbiote by firing chains and sonics at him while Styx tangled with Spider-Man. Stone figured he had Venom on the ropes because of the vigilante's vulnerabilities to fire and high frequency sound beams. However, Venom proved too much for Stone when he withstood the nova beam and simply shifted his eyes away to protect against the strobe bust. Stone got so desperate he finally started firing bullets before Venom destroyed his gun construct altogether.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#333 - BTS) - Styx noticed Stone was in trouble.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#333) - Stone was about to get crushed by Venom when Styx came up from behind and touched him. The interaction instantly killed the symbiote leaving Styx in in a state of ecstatic bliss. Before Stone could recover, he was knocked out by Spider-Man. In the aftermath, Stone was taken to prison while Styx was taken to a mental institution.

(Venom: Lethal Protector II#4 (fb) - BTS) - Styx and Stone started working for Jonathan Caesar again. He allowed the duo to stay at a condominium in one of the buildings he owned on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

(Venom: Lethal Protector II#4 (fb) - BTS) - Styx and Stone learned of the 200.000 dollar bounty placed on the head of Venom (Eddie Brock) by Justin Hammer. Bored and eager to earn some money, they started to study their target to prepare an ambush.

(Venom: Lethal Protector II#4 - BTS) - Sick and tired of being hounded by vigilantes out to make a quick buck, Venom went on television to issue a challenge: anyone who wanted to take him down was welcome to try at noon at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.

(Venom: Lethal Protector II#4) - Styx and Stone watched Venom's announcement on television, but Styx was too bored to really pay attention. He was entertaining himself killing Caesar's houseplants with his death touch and even called down to the concierge to order a basket of kittens to be sent up for his amusement. Stone stepped in and cancelled his partner's request. Instead, they focused on ambushing Venom before he could reach Yankee Stadium.

(Venom: Lethal Protector II#4) - Riding the Turbo Hopper, Styx and Stone caught up with Venom who was web swinging through the city. After forcing him to stop, they fought on a nearby construction site. Venom downed the Turbo Hopper, briefly taking Stone out of the fight.

(Venom: Lethal Protector II# -BTS) - Venom dodged Styx's attack, grabbing his arm and forcing him to touch his own face, hoping it would instantly kill his opponent. Styx calmly explained he was immune to his own powers, otherwise he would have put himself out his misery a long time ago. Venom then hurled his lethal opponent into a pile of sand so he could focus on the newly recovered Stone.

(Venom: Lethal Protector II#4) - Stone began his assault by firing adhesive gel to restrain Venom, followed by gas pods to knock him out. Neither weapons proved effective, Venom was unaffected and damaged Stone's backpack arsenal when he slammed him into a container. Stone tried to counterattack using a gasoline impact drill he discovered on the ground, but the Venom symbiote proved impervious to its effects.

(Venom: Lethal Protector II#4) - Styx tried to help Stone by attacking Venom from behind, but the symbiote sensed the attack and cleverly shifted his body so his hands almost touched Stone instead. For a brief moment, Styx openly relished the chance to end the life of his partner, admitting he often wondered what it would be like before realizing it would also mean losing his only friend. Styx willingly told Venom that Justin Hammer was the one who put a price on his head.

(Venom: Lethal Protector II#4 - BTS) - Styx and Stone were arrested and taken away by the Metro special incident team.
(Amazing Spider-Man I#376 (fb) - BTS) - Some time after escaping and reconnecting, Styx and Stone were hired by controversial film director William Grant to protect his studio from vandals. Unbeknownst to them, Peter Parker snuck in as Spider-Man to take a few photos of the sets to sell to the Daily Bugle.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#376) -  Styx and Stone attacked Spider-Man who wasn't expecting "Dracula and the Terminator". Their fight caused major damage to the studio, much to Grant's frustration. When a security guard tried to step in, Styx grabbed the man and delighted in draining his life energy. Outraged and determined to finally put an end to the killing, Spider-Man attacked Styx but Stone's intervened. His counterattack caused a fire and injured Grant, forcing Spider-Man to stay behind and help the civilians get to safety.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#376) - On the roof Styx and Stone had a chance encounter with the vigilante Cardiac who had come to take down Grant for making movies that incited violence and murder. On the run from Spider-Man, they had no time to waste and attacked Cardiac to get to their Turbo Hopper. Cardiac blasted Stone and then used his weapon stick to engage Styx, chiding him for wallowing in his handicap instead of trying to overcome it.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#376) - Stone lost his mask during the fight, leading Cardiac to realize the mercenary was actually his old employee Gerald Stone. Briefly startled, Cardiac could not prevent Stone from using his weapons to blast his way to safety. Some time later at his home base, Cardiac confirmed Gerald Stone's identity, which led him to vow he would not escape him.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#376) -  Styx and Stone went down to Grant's offices to collect the money he owed them. When the director protested, after all they did destroy his studio, Styx expedited matters by calmly withering away a nearby plant. Later that night, Styx and Stone were relaxing at their penthouse home. Styx refused to join Stone in the pool, opting instead to murder a goldfish in a bowl. At that point, Spider-Man entered and attacked the startled duo. Styx kept the hero occupied while Stone rushed to get his weaponry. Once he was fully armed, Stone managed to glue down and tie up Spider-Man, setting him up for Styx to lay his hands on him.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#377) - Styx was horrified to learn the material in Spider-Man's mask was immune to his touch. Before they could remove it, Spider-Man slipped out of his boots and jumped to the ceiling where he continued his attack. Staying away from Styx, he webbed up Stone's weapon pack and swung the mercenary around on a webline, dumping him on top of his lethal partner. Styx did his best not touch Stone's exposed flesh. The duo escaped when Cardiac burst into the penthouse and attacked.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#377) - Taking a break from minding Styx, Stone went for coffee at a local diner where he was approached by his old boss Elias Wirtham. Stone confessed what had happened that led to the creation of Styx and Stone, falling for Wirtham's claims he was sympathetic to their plight. He offered Stone access to a research facility in Hoboken that could cure Styx's condition. Stone happily accepted the offer, unaware that Wirtham was Cardiac and that he planned to kill Styx.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#377 - BTS) - Stone did not inform Styx of his plan to cure him, instead he brought him to the Hoboken facility in a van which was secretly traced by Spider-Man.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#377) - Once inside, Styx got anxious when he saw Cardiac was waiting for him. When Styx got ready to kill Cardiac, Stone was forced to punch his partner out. Stone placed Styx in a nearby diagnostic tube while Cardiac started the "treatment". It didn't take long for Stone to realize he was killing Eichorn, leading to a fight that was interrupted when Spider-Man showed up.While the masked vigilantes fought, Stone headed for the van to suit up. He returned firing on all cylinders, furious and vowing to feed both his enemies to Mr. Styx. He retrieved his still unconscious partner from the tube and headed for the Turbo Hopper. Cardiac and Spider-Man caused the flying hovercraft to crash, which incapacitated both Styx and Stone.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#377 - BTS) - After making sure Cardiac didn't kill them, Spider-Man webbed up Styx and Stone and left them for the approaching police to find.

(Spider-Man: The Arachnis Project I#1 (fb) - BTS) - Some time after escaping prison, Styx and Stone were approached by the Life Foundation, posing as a secret crime society working out of Washington D.C. The cabal wanted the duo to come work for them, but insisted they auditioned first. This offended Styx and Stone who considered themselves top-notch talent who don't need to prove themselves to anyone.

(Spider-Man: The Arachnis Project I#1 (fb) - BTS) - Top-notch talent or not, they still needed money. That's why Styx and Stone robbed a bank on Wall Street instead. But after breaking into the vault, Styx gave into his darker urges, killing two guards with his life absorption powers. This delayed the villains long enough for the automated security systems to inform the authorities, which drew the attention of Spider-Man.

(Spider-Man: The Arachnis Project I#1) - Styx couldn't control his desire to take more lives and was ready to lunge at nearby bank patrons. Spider-Man intervened, leading to Stone firing his weapons at the wall-crawler who dodged the blasts that instead knocked out Styx. Stone was so lost in thought pondering the situation, he was not prepared for Spider-Man drop-kicking him to the ground. After threatening to crush his skull, Spider-Man got Stone to tell him about the secret society that wanted to hire them.

(Spider-Man/Deadpool I#3 (fb) - BTS) - Stone and Styx fell under the influence of the Cult of Entropy. Embracing the cult's nihilistic philosophies, Styx and Stone became dutiful believers and moved to Bolivia. During their time with the Cult, they began to change. Stone turned into a giant rock creature now able to wither away inorganic matter with an acidic touch. Styx grew increasingly emaciated and his arms and hands became permanently extended.

(Spider-Man/Deadpool I#3) - Styx and Stone were called to action when the Cult's base was attacked by Spider-Man, Deadpool and his Mercs for Money. Styx used his elongated fingers to kill the horse Deadpool was riding into battle. He was briefly stopped by Spider-Man's webbing, but Stone's new powers easily freed him. While Styx faced Deadpool, Stone's lumbering stone form proved impossible for Spider-Man to damage. Instead, the webbed hero doused Stone in a sodium hydroxide solution which briefly neutralized his acidic death touch. Stone was slammed into Styx, which took the fight out of both of them. Realizing they were outmatched, the duo retreated to the Cult's base.

(Dead Man Logan I#2) - Styx and Stone had a brief altercation with Hawkeye and Logan of Earth-21923 who were looking for Mysterio. The two villains had no idea where Quentin Beck was.

Comments: Created by David Michelinie, Todd McFarlane.

It's remarkable that Styx and Stone languished in comics limbo from 1994 until 2016. They have an interesting dynamic that begs to be fleshed out more On the one hand you can understand Stone's guilt over turning an innocent man into a walking cancer just o satisfy his own scientific curiosity. On the other hand: allowing Eichorn to continue to kill has caused so much preventable tragedy... Which Stone was (in)directly profiting off of as well. He definitely is not the good guy in all this.

In their first appearance, it felt like Styx was ordering Stone around. This quickly changed over subsequent appearances with Stone becomig the more dominant of the two, trying to deal with the cravings of the "death junkie" Styx.

Stone (along with Styx) received full profiles in Spider-Man: Back in Black Handbook I#1 and Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z I#11

Profile by Norvo

CLARIFICATIONS:
Stone should not be confused with

Images: (without ads)
Spider-Man Deadpool I#3, p10, pan1 (mainimage)
Amazing Spider-Man I#309, p12, pan2 (without costume)
Amazing Spider-Man I#309, p14, pan3 (original costume)
Amazing Spider-Man I#333, p12, pan5 (hiding with Styx)
Amazing Spider-Man I#333, (p20, pan2 (versus Venom)
Amazing Spider-Man I#377, p5, pan4 (don't touch me Mr Styx)
Venom - Lethal Protector II#4, p19, pan3 (fires gas pods)

Appearances:
Amazing Spider-Man I#309 (November, 1988) - David Michelinie (writer), Todd McFarlane (pencils & inks), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Amazing Spider-Man I#332 (May, 1990) - David Michelinie (writer), Erik Larsen (pencils), Mike Machlan (inks), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Amazing Spider-Man I#333 (June, 1990) - David Michelinie (writer), Erik Larsen (pencils), Mike Machlan (inks), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Amazing Spider-Man I#376 (April, 1993) - David Michelinie (plot), Steven Grant (script), Jeff Johnson (pencils), Al Milgrom, Dan Panosian (inks), Danny Fingeroth (editor)
Amazing Spider-Man I#377 (May, 1993) - David Michelinie (plot), Steven Grant (script), Jeff Johnson (pencils), Randy Emberlin (inks), Danny Fingeroth (editor)
Spider-Man: The Arachnis Project I#1 (August, 1994) - Mike Lackey (writer), Andrew Wildman (pencils), Stephen Baskerville (inks), Eric Fein, Danny Fingeroth (editors)
Spider-Man: Back in Black Handbook I#1 (November, 2007) - Mike Fichera, Ronald Byrd, Al Sjoerdsma, Stuart Vandal, Anthony Flamini, Michael Hoskin, Jeff Christiansen, Sean McQuaid, Madison Carter, Eliot Brown (writers), Jeff Youngquist, Jennifer Grunwald (editors)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z I#11 (November, 2009) - Jeff Christiansen, Stuart Vandal, Sean McQuaid, Ronald Byrd, Michael Hoskin, Mike Fichera, Mike O'Sullivan, Madison Carter, Eric Moreels, Rob London, David Wiltfong, Jacob Rougemont, Gabriel Shechter, Markus Raymond, Chris Biggs, Rich Green, Kevin Garcia, Jeph York, Mark O'English, Chad Anderson, Al Sjoerdsma, Anthony Flamini, Jonathan Couper-Smartt, Bill Lentz, Barry Reese, Eliot Brown, David Sexton (writers), Jeff Youngquist, Jennifer Grunwald, Mark D. Beazley (editors)
Spider-Man/Deadpool I#3 (May, 2016) - Joe Kelly (writer), Ed McGuinness (pencils), Mark Morales (inks), Jordan D. White, Nick Lowe, Devin Lewis (editors)
Dead Man Logan I#2 (February, 2019) - Ed Brisson (writer), Mike Henderson (pencils & inks), Jordan D. White, Chris Robinson (editors)
Venom: Lethal Protector II#3 (September, 2022) - David Michelinie (writer), Ivan Fiorelli (pencils & inks), Tom Groneman, Devin Lewis (editors)

First Posted: 07/25/2024
Last Updated: 07/25/2024

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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