Real Name: Adrian Leverkuhn Castorp

Identity/Class: Human, Mutant

Occupation: Full-time student

Group Membership: M.O.N.S.T.E.R. (Mutants Only Need Sensitivity, Tolerance, and Equal Rights)

Affiliations: Art Nichols, Helen Williams, the student body of Fontane College in Boston, Massachusetts

Enemies: None known

Known Relatives: None known

Aliases: None known

Base of Operations: Fontane College

First Appearance: (New) Defenders I#142 (April, 1985)

((New) Defenders I#142) - Adrian, wearing a jacket with the word 'Monster' on the back, was invited to attend a Student Assembly meeting, but refused to go. Art Wagner announced the upcoming political science conference where Senator Robert Kelly and Hank McCoy (the Beast) would be presenting opposing views of the mutant issue to the student body. The campus was fairly pro-mutant.

    Weeks later, the Beast, Iceman, and Cloud arrived for the Beast's lecture. They were greeted by Adrian, who had been appointed to guide them through the campus. Adrian left as Art Wagner greeted them and complimented their positive public profile as mutants. When they heard a woman's scream outside, the Defenders discovered that Adrian had had an epileptic seizure, knocking over a table and frightening Helen. The Beast found a crushed walk-man, though, and figured that they had lied about the seizure. Later, Robert Kelly arrived and the students greeted him negatively. During the Beast's presentation, Adrian asked him how the Beast could act like a joker when the world needed him to be serious. The Beast couldn't answer, and Adrian walked out. The Beast approached Adrian later while Adrian played piano. Adrian confessed he was a mutant, and the Beast tried to console him, but Adrian walked away after unintentionally damaging the piano with his strength.

    Robert Kelly discussed the importance of the Mutant Registration Act with the student body. Adrian grew angry and attacked Kelly on stage. Iceman tried to stop him unsuccessfully and the Beast took a bullet from one of the security officers. Cloud sensed the equipment under Adrian's jacket and shorted it out with a lightning bolt. Adrian collapsed, unable to move his hands. Helen and Art ran to Adrian, telling of his struggles as a mutant. That evening, the Beast addressed the student body. He announced that he was helping Art Nichols and Helen Williams to start a group called M.O.N.S.T.E.R., standing for Mutants Only Need Sensitivity, Tolerance, and Equal Rights.

Comments: Created by Peter B. Gillis, Don Perlin, and Kim DeMulder.

    M.O.N.S.T.E.R. is only one many Marvel group acronyms that are really jumbled words put together to form another word by using the first letters (but don't make a whole lot of sense when thought about). Others include ULTIMATUM, SHIELD (twice), and AIM (although that one's not quite as bad...)

--(New) Defenders I#142 (142(fb), 142

    Helen Williams was a student at Fontane College. He helped Art Nichols design an amplification system for Adrian Castorp to combat the nerve disorder his mutant powers caused. He helped Art Nichols and the Beast design the group M.O.N.S.T.E.R.

--(New) Defenders I#142 (142(fb), 142

    M.O.N.S.T.E.R. stands for Mutants Only Need Sensitivity, Tolerance, and Equal Rights. It was a mutant rights group started at Fontane College (in the words of the Beast) "not to stop [mutant haters] from caging [mutants] -but to keep them from turning [mutants] into things [they] are not - into beings driven by fear and dread - into beasts." The Beast, Art Nichols, and Helen Williams started the group in honor of Adrian Castorp.

(Generation X: Crossroads) - Professor X supported M.O.N.S.T.E.R., encouraging it as a support group for mutants with smaller and less obvious mutations, the people who were too numerous for Professor X to help directly. Hank McCoy continued to act as advisor to the M.O.N.S.T.E.R. groups when his other duties allowed.

Multiple chapters of M.O.N.S.T.E.R. opened up at more than twenty other universities, including Western Pacific University and the University of Colorado Springs. The chapters included mutant members, but also non-mutant supporters, and the "Genogoths", who were sort of like mutant groupies. The Genogoths sometimes acted as the eyes and ears for M.O.N.S.T.E.R., finding new members for them and bringing them in. The Genogoths also monitored the street talk, looking for antimutant activity. People looking for M.O.N.S.T.E.R. for the wrong reasons often contacted the Genogoths first; and sometimes those people were discouraged, and sometimes they had accidents. While the M.O.N.S.T.E.R. chapters may not have always approved of the type of protection the Genogoths provided, the mutants sometimes realized that they actually did need it.

One by one the M.O.N.S.T.E.R. chapters were closed down, often through fear, intimidation, and even sabotage. The Western Pacific University chapter lost their own status as an official student organization, and they received their share of threats. They gave up their storefront office and quietly moved into the basement of an abandoned fraternity house, subtly marked with the symbol Ξ (The Greek letter Xi).
    The original chapter at Fontane University went underground after the chapter house and national headquarters building was firebombed. All their records were destroyed, along with the hopes and dreams of many of those involved with it.

(X-Men: Smoke and Mirrors) - The work of Doctor Arnold Bocklin (actually a long-established alternate identity of Mister Sinister) to use a retrovirus to eliminate both the physical and neurological basis for mutant powers inspired the bill HR-485. Worldwatch and M.O.N.S.T.E.R. both pursued activities to oppose the passing of this bill.

    In the Generation X Novel: Crossroads, by J. Steven York

    Generation X journeyed to Seattle, Washington to meet with the chapter of M.O.N.S.T.E.R. at Western Pacific University. The chapter president, Chill, met with Banshee (Sean Cassidy) as part of an effort on Xavier's behalf to show continued support.

The only named members of this chapter were:

Chill (Peter B. DeMulder)
    Chapter president, he accompanied Dog Pound and Recall to Chicago where he got a job working in the cold storage warehouse of Recall's parent's company.
    A mutant with low-level ice production and manipulation powers
top right

Dog Pound (Willy Gillis)
    He accompanied Chill and Recall to Chicago, intending to then continue on to his home in Indiana.
    An animal telepath; though a well-built guy, he was not much of a fighter. He also has a small tail at the base of his spine
top left

Recall (Scooter McCloud)
    The son of wealthy parents who loved him but tried to keep his mutant status secret, he helped Generation X locate a child lost near Devils Tower national monument. He had a crush on Husk (Paige Guthrie), but the two were just close friends, though Husk did briefly let their relationship make Chamber jealous. He became the co-host of the Walt Norman talk show, acting as a counter-point to Norman's mutaphobic views. He also did a feature where he helped people find lost items.
    His grandfather was also named Scooter.
    A telepathic tracker, able to find lost objects or people anywhere after seeing them or a picture of them once; bottom right).

    Generation X also encountered a park ranger in Yellowstone National Park, Michael Timmons, who had been a non-mutant member of the University of Colorado Springs chapter of M.O.N.S.T.E.R.

    The M.O.N.S.T.E.R. members and alumni in this story wore pins depicting a six-fingered hand, in honor of Adrian Castorp.

    Chill, Dog Pound, and Recall took a road trip over the summer break and interacted several times with Generation X. The heroes saved them from an assault by mutaphobic rednecks

images:
(New) Defenders I#142, p15, pan1 (Adrian, headshot)
(New) Defenders I#142, p5, pan5 (Adrian, back)
(New) Defenders I#142, p5, pan3 (Art Nichols)
(New) Defenders I#142, p2, pan4 (Helen Williams)
(New) Defenders I#142, p22, pan3 (MONSTER insignia)