THE PRODIGY
Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial mutate (race unknown)
Occupation: Enslaver
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: His security guards
Enemies: Spider-Man
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Brainy, Slimy, Saucerman (as called by Spider-Man)
Base of Operations: His secluded estate somewhere in the mountains; originally from the planet Intellectia in the Andromeda galaxy
First Appearance: "Amazing Spider-Man vs. The Prodigy!" (1976) (see comments)
Powers/Abilities: The Prodigy's voice could mesmerize humans and enthrall them into believing the lies he told (although his powers only seemed to work on teenagers). The Prodigy wore a face mask to disguise his alien appearance so he could pass for a human.
History: ("the Amazing Spider-Man vs. The Prodigy!" (fb) - BTS) - As his rocket ship passed through Earth's ionosphere, its weak deflector shields allowed intense heat and radiation exposure to the Prodigy's vocal chords, which gave him his "magnetic monotone" voice, giving him the power to brainwash those who heard him speak.
("the Amazing Spider-Man vs. The Prodigy!") - Seeing the need for child labor back on his home world ("...so we superior ones can put our brain power to conquering other planets! "), the Prodigy began his campaign to spread misinformation about sex to Earth's teens and lead them into making stupid mistakes so that the pregnancy rate would go up and saucers from Intellectia could snatch thousands of human babies.
The Prodigy began his plan one summer evening by having a group of teens picked up with a helicopter from the top of the Pan Am Building in New York City -- luckily, Spider-Man happened to see this and, suspicious of the scene, Spidey spun a web-line and hitched a ride on the copter.
When the helicopter reached its destination at the Prodigy's estate, the teenagers were taken into a classroom where the Prodigy spread his pro-pregnancy propaganda ( "Pregnancy's good for you -- helps your hormones, even clears up acne..."). Watching outside the window, the Wall-Crawler realized the true intentions of the insidious instructor of insemination ("What jive this turkey hands out! He wants them to be baby machines! Changing diapers, going nowhere in dead-end jobs..."), and then learned that the Prodigy next planned to go on a nationwide television broadcast to further spread his lies.
At the TV studio, the Prodigy and Spidey briefly fought. When Spider-Man gained the upper-hand, he tore the face mask off the perverted prevaricator of procreation, revealing him to be an alien, then shot some webbing into his mouth, thus ending the menace of the mutated miscreant's magnetic monotone.
Comments: Created by Ann Robinson and Ross Andru.
This story was produced by Marvel and distributed by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in an informational mini-comic booklet for teens to help dispel some of the false myths regarding sex, teen pregnancy, venereal disease, etc. It featured a 15-page comic story plus an additional page with information about "The Birds and The Bees"..."The Facts of Life"...ask your parents.
Profile by John Kaminski
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Prodigy has no known connections to:
images: (without ads)
"the Amazing Spider-Man vs. The Prodigy", p4, pan4 (main image)
p4, pan1 (head shot)
Last updated: 05/21/06
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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