ASTROLOGERASTROLOGER
Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Human
Occupation: Criminal leader
Group Membership: none
Affiliations: Boys and young men without a home (Benny,
Freddy, Max,
Queenie, Waldo, Willie,
Zenobia), henchmen;
formerly an unnamed boy
Enemies: Black Widow, Dr. Lichenstein, Ivan Petrovich; unnamed boy
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: "Asty"
Base of Operations: New York City, New York
First Appearance: Amazing Adventures#5/2 (March, 1971)
For Italian readers: Il Mitico Thor Editoriale Corno#73/78
(January 1974)
Powers/Abilities: Read the stars? Probably it is just the ability to calculate the horoscope.
History:
(Amazing Adventures II#5/2 (fb) - BTS) - In October, the
Astrologer met a boy who came outside New York and didn't know where to sleep.
The Astrologer offered the boy a place to live with other hippies and
young people who hated society.
The Astrologer, an old man, planned small crimes, he said, "planned with the
stars". The young men robbed the rich to give to the poor (themselves
and the Astrologer).
One night, some days before Christmas, the Astrologer organized the theft of all the 0-negative blood of the
city, to ask a ransom. The young boy rebelled against the plan and was beaten by
the Astrologer's henchmen.
(Amazing Adventures II#5/2 (fb) - BTS) - The young boy fled.
(Amazing Adventures II#5/2) The Astrologer had the young boy followed by his henchmen to Natasha
Romanoff's flat on the top of Mammon Towers in Manhattan, and the henchmen tangled with Ivan and the Black
Widow. In the fight, the boy died, falling from the building with Willie, another boy.
(Amazing Adventures II#6/2) - Later, at night, the Astrologer
and some of his boys, stopped an ambulance of the city hospital and stunned the
driver. While stealing the ambulance, the Astrologer claimed that their doom was
"written in blood". They disguised themselves as some paramedics and
the Astrologer as a patient,
and they entered in the hospital around the same time as Natasha Romanoff and
Ivan; but they did not go to the blood ward. They instead invaded the research labs and kidnapped
Doctor Lichenstein who was making experiments on a blood substitute. Meanwhile the Black Widow, who had suspected something strange,
had put on her
costume. She and Ivan attacked the boys, but the Astrologer caught Natasha from
behind and forced her to inspire some anesthetic from a cloth, then pushed her out the window.
The criminals reached the roof where Zenobia disarmed a policeman and they stole the helicopter, after throwing gas bombs at the policemen who were arriving from the stairs. The Black Widow, having awakened in time thanks to the fresh air, managed to seize a pole. She climbed the building and could have blasted a Widow-bite at Waldo, but she instead allowed the criminals to flee.
(Amazing Adventures II#7/2) - In his base in the lower East Side, the Astrologer
ordered Freddy to go to the police with his request of ransom: $60,000! Ivan
(what a coincidence!) noted the boy while entering into the police central,
and when the hippie left Ivan "convinced" him to "talk."
Ivan then let
Freddy free to go back to the Astrologer.
Ivan called Natasha and followed the truck used to transfer Dr. Lichtenstein to another place. Benny, one of Astrologer's boys, noticed Ivan, and the Astrologer ordered Queenie to set them free from the car who was following them, which she did by shooting at the car. Shortly thereafter, the Black Widow reached the truck under the Arc in Washington Square and hid herself on the top. The truck passed through the 12th avenue and arrived at the docks, where the Black Widow attacked the criminals. The Astrologer was very amazed because "the stars didn't foretell this!". The Black Widow was knocking all the boys out, so the Astrologer used Dr. Lichenstein's body as a shield, threatening to kill the researcher with a ray-gun. The Black Widow shot the wood platform under the Astrologer's feet, and the criminal and the Widow fell in the water. The Astrologer tried to shoot Natasha while underwater, but the ray-gun exploded, probably broken by the water. Natasha remained unconscious in the water for a few minutes and was saved by Ivan, but the Astrologer was never seen again, probably drowned.
Comments: Created by Roy Thomas, Gene Colan, and Bill Everett.
In several occasions the Astrologer mentioned the stars and what they suggested him but it seems that these suggestions didn't worked with the Black Widow. While falling in the water he tried to shout something other about the stars or to call them but we'll never know what he intended to say. In that period, Natasha believed that she had a sort of "jinx" that led to the death of the men she met. Maybe the jinx was real and interfered with the stars suggestions (superstition vs superstition...)? However the Astrologer could be also survived, very improbable but not impossible.
Clarifications:
The Astrologer, has no known connections to:
Zenobia, has no known connections to:
Young
Boy
We don't know his name, nor did Natasha or Ivan. He arrived in
NY, with little money and lots of confusion in his mind and soon was obliged to
sleep in the public parks of the East Side. During a cold day in October he met
an old man who offered him a place to live. The old man was the
Astrologer.
The young boy and the other Astrologer boys started to perform little crimes for
the Astrologer; but when the Astrologer proposed to steal all the 0-negative
blood of the town, the young boy rebelled. Only in that moment he notice the
henchmen of the Astrologer. They beat him, and then he lied, claiming his
agreement.
Probably the remorse was too much for him and he tried suicide jumping from a bridge. In that moment he was saved by Ivan, who brought him to the Black Widow's flat, and there the boy told his mis-adventures to the two Russians.
Meanwhile some of Astrologer's henchmen had followed Ivan's Rolls Royce and managed to enter in Black Widow's home starting a fight. When Willie, one of the Astrologer's boys, tried to push Natasha over the balcony edge, the young boy launched himself against Willie, saving Natasha but killing Willie and himself, falling to his death.
--Amazing Adventures#5/2 (5/2 (fb) - BTS, 5/2
Astrologer's
Henchmen
Not all the Astrologer's followers were boys, there was also girls
(both blonde) and adult men, two at least. One of these beat the young boy when
he rebelled against the Astrologer's plans, and another one spoke with the Black Widow
at the interphone from the ground floor of the building where she lived. It
seems that the adult henchmen didn't take part in
the fight in Natasha's flat nor the kidnapping later.
Many other boys were part of the Astrologer's followers, most of them hippies,
and some of them were widely against the "olds" (the adults in general). They used normal weapons, such guns and a rifle, but one of them and
the Astrologer had two ray-guns (?stunning rays?) and other two had some
strange rifles (but probably was just Don Heck's creativity).
--Amazing Adventures#5/2 (6/2, 7/2
Willie and Max
Willie (left/middle) and Max (center/top) snatched in Natasha's flat from the roof. They succeeded in hitting Natasha, and Willie was pushing Natasha off the border of the balcony when the young boy interfered, saving Natasha and killing Willie and himself.
--Amazing Adventures#5/2
When the Policeman guarding the helicopter stopped the Astrologer and the other boys, Zenobia was probably hidden somewhere and sneakily shot the Policeman's gun. She hadn't super-powers but she had a very good aim! She also called the Astrologer: "Asty". When in the Astrologer's base she joked with Dr. Lichenstein calling him "gray beard".
She probably was between the boys knocked down by Natasha on the docks.
--Amazing Adventures#6/2 (7/2
Waldo was part of the group of boys on the roof together
with the Astrologer
. Waldo probably threw the gas bombs down the stairs because he was the last to
arrive to the helicopter and the helicopter was taking off yet. One of the boys
noticed that Waldo was missing, but the Astrologer gave the order to take
off, ignoring him.
Waldo succeeded in seizing one of helicopters "legs" but he was in
Black Widow's sight when she arrived on the roof. She thought for a while
whether to
blast Waldo to capture and question him, but the probabilities that would Waldo
fall
on or out the roof was 50%/50% and she gave up. So she shot a
"Widow-Cable" that missed the helicopter, probably because se didn't
want to hit Waldo.
Waldo, ungrateful, pulled Natasha's leg.
He probably was between the boys knocked down by Natasha on the docks.
--Amazing Adventures#6/2 (7/2
Freddy was sent to the police central by the Astrologer to ask the ransom for Doctor Lichenstein. Just when Freddy was going into the police central he was seen by Ivan who waited for him hiding in an alley. Freddy talked to Captain Lumas and when he left the police station, the Captain and the Officer decided to pay. Suddenly after, Ivan grabbed Freddy and "convinced" him to reveal the Astrologer's plan.
[BTS] Freddy went back to the Astrologer's base and probably joins to the other boys to go to the docks.
--Amazing Adventures#7/2
Benny drove the truck that transported the criminals and Dr. Lichenstein to the docks. He noticed Ivan's car and had Ivan shot by Queenie.
--Amazing Adventures#6/2
Queenie was in the truck that transported the criminals to the docks. When the Astrologer asked her to free them from the following car, she took a rifle and shot without any doubt, believing that in the car were some Policemen. She damaged the car but didn't kill Ivan.
--Amazing Adventures#7/2
Dr.
Lichenstein
Dr. Lichenstein worked to the experimental ward of the city hospital. He was trying to create a substitute for blood, so he was a rather important scientist. Moreover his work was related to blood, apparently enough, for the Astrologer to involve him in his plans "driven from the stars". Dr. Lichenstein had a gray beard and seemed 40 years old, but, despite this fact, Zenobia and other boys called him "old".
--Amazing Adventures#6/2 (7/2
images:
The Astrologer - full body, Amazing Adventures
II#5/2, page 7, panel 1
The Astrologer - head shot, Amazing Adventures II#6/2, page 8, panel 6
Black Widow, Amazing Adventures II#5/2, page 4, panel 1
Zenobia, Amazing Adventures II#6/2, page 8, panel 6
Young boy, Amazing Adventures II#5/2, page 5, panel 5
Astrologer's henchman, Amazing Adventures II#5/2, page 7, panel 2
Willie and Max, Amazing Adventures II#5/2, page 9, panel 1
Zenobia and Dr. Lichenstein, Amazing Adventures II#7/2, page 4, panel 4
Waldo, Amazing Adventures II#6/2, page 10, panel 3
Freddy, Amazing Adventures II#7/2, page 4, panel 5
Dr Lichenstein, Amazing Adventures II#6/2, page 9, panel 2
Other appearances:
Amazing Adventures#6/2 (May, 1971) {for Italian readers: Il Mitico Thor Editoriale Corno
#75,76 (March, April 1974)}.
Amazing Adventures#7/2 (July, 1971) {for Italian readers: Il Mitico Thor Editoriale Corno
#77,78 (May, June 1974)}.
First Posted: 02/21/2005
Last updated: 02/16/2014
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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