"EVOLUTION ACCELERATOR"

Classification: Extraterrestrial technology

Creator: Unrevealed (see comments)

User/Possessors: Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards), Uatu the Watcher

First Appearance: Fantastic Four I#29 (August, 1964)

Powers/Abilities/Functions: This device could mutate an individual who made physical contact with it, speeding up the individual's evolution by ten thousand years a second -- the effect was only temporary, however, and the individual would return to normal once contact was broken.

History:
(Fantastic Four I#29 (fb) - BTS) - At some point, the Watcher acquired the "Evolution Accelerator" and placed the alien artifact in his home on Earth's moon.

(Fantastic Four I#29) - After being lured to Yancy Street, the Fantastic Four were kidnapped by the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes and sent on a one-way trip to the moon. Marooned on the moon's airless surface, the FF made their way to the Blue Area and into the Watcher's home for refuge.

  Although the Watcher was away in a far-distant galaxy, he sent a spectro-image of himself to greet the FF. He welcomed them to seek shelter, but warned them not to tamper with any of the alien artifacts within his home; however, Reed's curiosity got the better of him and he absent-mindedly picked up the "Evolution Accelerator," which immediately caused him to transform. The Watcher warned Reed to drop it before it was too late, and breaking contact with the device returned him to normal.

Comments: Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

...and after they defeated the Red Ghost and his apes, the Watcher himself returned and teleported the FF back to Earth -- the Thing was so happy to be back home, he didn't even mind that they had been transported back to Yancy Street, where it all started.

The "Evolution Accelerator" wasn't actually referred to by any specific name in this story -- it probably works on the same pseudo-scientific principles as the High Evolutionary's Genetic Accelerator (an early model of which can be seen HERE).

The Watcher didn't reveal where this device came from -- possibly it was something that the Celestials left behind on one of their planetary experiments.

And a BIG Thank You to Dennis Giansante for getting me the scans!

Profile by John Kaminski

CLARIFICATIONS:
The "Evolution Accelerator" has no known connections to

• any other devices with similar names

images: (without ads)
Fantastic Four I#29, p16, pan3 (Reed holding device)