NEUTRALIZER

Real Name: ?? Burstyn

Identity/Class: Human technology user

Occupation: Inventor; industrial spy

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Fawlkes

Enemies: Fawkles, Happy Hogan, Iron Man (Tony Stark), Pepper Potts

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: An old warehouse in New York City

First Appearance: Marvel Comics Presents#58/4 (September, 1990)

Powers/Abilities: None. Without the Neutralizer suit, Burstyn used a pistol. With the suit, Burstyn could neutralize any kind of energy source with a beam that was produced by the transmitting circuits in his gloves. He could also use that beam to throw things around.

(Marvel Comics Presents#58/4 (fb) - BTS) - Burstyn and Fawlkes had the perfect plan: As young executives, they went from company to company and stole ideas from the companies they worked for to build their Neutralizer suit and sell it to the highest bidder when it was finished. Together with Fawlkes, Burstyn became an investor at Stark Industries for an energizing module he planned to steal.

(Marvel Comics Presents#58/4) - Neutralizer broke into a Stark Industries lab and was confronted by Iron Man. Neutralizer used maximum power against Iron Man and managed to knock him out. Neutralizer then broke the electronic locks of the safe and stole Stark's new energizing module. The next morning, Tony Stark met with his investors and told them about the theft. He asked them to give Iron Man one day to retrieve the module, but Burstyn and Fawlkes were sceptical and wanted the police to deal with the theft. Later that day, Burstyn killed Fawlkes after Fawlkes told him that the module wasn't working because Stark had removed a vital component. Burstyn now laid out a trail to place the blame on Fawlkes, and he also planned to steal the missing component from Stark. Meanwhile, Stark found out where the module's thief was hiding with a little help from Pepper and Happy. Iron Man went to the warehouse and surprised Neutralizer. They fought again, but this time Iron Man managed to block and redirect his neutralizing beam back to Neutralizer himself. Neutralizer then made the mistake of getting too close to Iron Man and had the transmitting circuits in his gloves smashed. Iron Man knocked him out and was surprised to see that the man behind the mask was Burstyn. Burstyn gave up and confessed.

Comments: Created by Steve Ditko, Hollis Bright & Chris Ivy.

This story took place early in Iron Man's career when he still wore his first golden armor (first seen in Tales of Suspense#40).

On the back cover the Neutralizer suit was mistakenly colored orange and the Iron Man armor grey. If this would've been the case, the story would've been thrown back to a more exact date (shortly after Iron Man's debut in Tales of Suspense I#39, but before the armor was painted gold in Tales of Suspense I#40).

Purely speculative, but perhaps Burstyn one day later modified the Neutralizer suit and returned as the Human Computer (they do have similar powers/appearances); and perhaps Burstyn later decided to retire from a life of crime and sold the suit to the Tinkerer, who further modified it and resold it to Joseph Rambo, who became the Binary Bug.
--John Kaminski

Profile by Markus Raymond

CLARIFICATIONS:
Neutralizer has no known connection to:

• Neutralizer, weapon used by Rom @ Rom#1
• Neutralizer, weapon built by Forge @ Uncanny X-Men#184
• Neutralizer Helmet, Eternal device to contain mental powers of Dromedan @ Eternals I#16
• or to anyone else with a similar name

Fawlkes has no known connection to:

• anyone else with a similar name

Fawlkes

He was Burstyn's partner in crime. Together with Burstyn, he stole ideas from different companies he worked for as an executive to build the Neutralizer suit with Burstyn. He became an investor for the energizing module at Stark Industries and acted very sceptical after the theft when Stark wanted Iron Man to get the module back. In the warehouse, Fawlkes was hiding with Burstyn. He found out that the module they stole wasn't working because Stark had removed a vital component. Burstyn shot Fawlkes because he was now useless to him. Burstyn then tried to make the dead Fawlkes the scapegoat for their evil deeds.

--Marvel Comics Presents#58/4

images:
Marvel Comics Presents#58, p26, pan3 (Neutralizer)
  p32, pan5 (Burstyn)
  p29, pan6 (Fawlkes)

Last updated: 03/15/05