DR. VAULT

Real Name: Aloysius Vault

Identity/Class: Human technology user

Occupation: Mad scientist

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Dr. Braun;
    used Fin Fang Foom as a pawn

Enemies: It, the Living Colossus (Bob O'Bryan)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: A hotel room in Los Angeles, California;
    formerly a laboratory in a cavern near the coast, outside of Los Angeles, California

First Appearance: Astonishing Tales#21 (December, 1973)

Powers/Abilities: Dr. Vault was a brilliant scientist whose inventions included a nerve gas which could knock out even the Living Colossus, tractor beams which could suspend the Colossus's body into mid-air, disintegrator rays, and devices which could take possession of both Fin Fang Foom and the Living Colossus.

History: (Astonishing Tales#21) - Suffering from a nerve disease, Dr. Vault decided to prolong his life by transferring his consciousness into the body of the Living Colossus, a statue which had once been animated by the consciousness of alien invaders. Dr. Vault led a team of mercenaries to Delazny Studios to capture it, but special effects man Bob O'Bryan's consciousness reactivated the long-dormant statue, and it attacked them. Dr. Vault was able to bring the statue down with a specially-designed nerve gas, and made off with it.

Dr. Vault brought the Colossus to his laboratory, and prepared to transfer his mind into it by first shrinking the statue in size, using matter-condensing rays to reduce it from 100 feet to 30 feet, but it was reinhabited by O'Bryan. Dr. Vault fled his lab and had his men destroy it, hoping to seal the Colossus inside; however, the Colossus managed to escape.

(Astonishing Tales#23) - Intending to drive O'Bryan's consciousness from the Colossus' body, Vault created a device that joined "science and sorcery" to take possession of the dragon Fin Fang Foom, intending to have him fight the Colossus. However, Fin Fang Foom escaped Vault's control, and aided the Colossus against an invasion of the Stonians. Vault eventually re-established control over the dragon, and ordered it to attack the Colossus.

(Astonishing Tales#24) - Fin Fang Foom fought the Colossus in Los Angeles, but eventually overcame Vault's control again, and drew a picture of Vault's face in the sand to inform the Colossus who had sent him. Dr. Braun was put off by Vault's failure and decided to walk out; Vault responded by destroying him with a disintegrator beam.

(Incredible Hulk II#244) - Vault fell upon hard times waiting for the Colossus to show again, and was reduced to advertising screen tests on the streets of Los Angeles. When the Colossus returned to battle the Hulk, Vault realized that his time had come, and returned to his hotel room to activate the device he had designed to control the Colossus. He managed to force O'Bryan out of the statue and fought the Hulk, but the Hulk began to destroy the statue's body, smashing it into dust. Vault remained in control of its matter even as dust, and tried to choke the Hulk, but the Hulk clapped his hands together, scattering the dust across Los Angeles. This jolted Vault's mind back into his body, and it caused his disease to accelerate. He died within moments of returning to his body.

Vault's body was found by a hotel maid, and the man who dreamed of conquering the world was buried as a pauper.

Comments: Created by Tony Isabella and Dick Ayers.

I'd have thought that rather than the jolt of returning to his body accelerating the disease, that it was the absence of Vault's mind and spirit that allowed it to progress.
--Snood.

Karl Malus' remark that the technology used to mutate Coldfire was the same as that used to animate "a Living Colossus" might have been a reference to reverse-engineering of the original Kigor's spacecraft, by the Gargoyle (Gremlin's father), on behalf of the Soviet Union. This technology was then either bought (via the black market) or stolen, then duplicated, by Dr. Vault to temporarily take control of the Living Colossus during its violent encounter with the Hulk in L.A.
 
Dr. Vault might even have been Dr. Malus's mentor -- the latter thereby "inheriting" the equipment, by that means!
--Carycomic

by Prime Eternal

CLARIFICATIONS:
Dr. Vault should not be confused with:

• Vault, of the Hellbent, @ Marc Spector: Moon Knight#52
• The Vault, maximum prison for super-villains, @ Avengers Annual#15
• Vault of Forbidden Science of Earth-2099, housed advanced technology, @ Ghost Rider 2099#18
• Fault of Forbidden Knowledge, of the Black Museum @ Death's Head & the Origin of Die-Cut#1
• Vault of Making, Subterranea, used by Jinku to create Avatar of Cha'sa'dra, @ Avengers I#306
• Vault of Whispers, prison in Asgard, held Malekith, @ Thor II#36

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