DR. MORGAN
Real Name: Dr. Phillip Morgan
Identity/Class: Normal human (1950s)
Occupation: Scientist
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: None
Enemies: "Demon"
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Unrevealed American University, formerly Egypt
First Appearance: Journey into Mystery I#40/1 (November, 1956)
Powers/Abilities: Doctor Morgan possessed a keen scientific mind in the fields of archeology, radiation and acoustic engineering. He was able to create a specialized machine he dubbed the Morgan Communications Machine that could channel radiation from an object into sound recordings that may have been trapped within them in the past.
History:
(Journey into Mystery I#40/1 - BTS) – Doctor Morgan spent time in Egypt and excavated an ancient temple belonging to the Temple of the Black Arts. He took a piece of stone found at the site and returned to America for further study.
(Journey into Mystery I#40/1) – Doctor Morgan had a discussion with a fellow colleague about building a specialized radiation machine his friend designed to date the age of ancient artifacts. He told his friend that he was designing a similar device based on his theory that radioactive waves could be etched upon the surface and with the proper machine could be converted into recordable sound. After a month of long hours of research in his lab, Dr. Morgan made a breakthrough and succeeded in building his machine. He began testing his device on a piece of rock he had recovered from the ancient Egyptian temple and was able to record his voice onto it. While doing some adjustments and fine tuning, he uncovered a strange static crackling that reverberated from the stone. Turning the dial further, the sound took the form of chanting like some sort of magic incantation. Suddenly the room began to swirl with mist as a figure took shape in front of him. Now appearing before the startled Dr. Morgan, the figure introduced himself as a “demon” and began revealing his history and origin and ability to grant wishes. He also explained that the ancient sorcerers who imprisoned him were now long gone and that he was free to conquer the world with his vast powers. The “demon” was about to destroy Dr. Morgan but the smart doctor forced the evil being to grant him a wish per the ancient agreement he was bound to. Unable to comply or face instant death, the “demon” was wished back to his prison dimension. As the “demon” began to disappear, he vowed that he would return.
Comments: Created by an unrevealed wirter and John Giunta (art).
Strangely, this story predates the pseudo-science Archaeoacoustics which was introduced in 1969 by Richard G. Woodbridge. Maybe he was a fan of Journey Into Mystery and got his idea from this story. To read more about Archeoacoustics check these sites out: http://www.christerhamp.se/phono/archaeo/archaeo.html and http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002875.html.
Dr. Morgan’s colleague was never named in the story and based on the time period in which this story was written he may have been Willard F. Libby, the Nobel Prize winner in chemistry for inventing radio-carbon dating in 1951. You can read more about him here.
Profile by AvatarWarlord72.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Dr. Phillip Morgan has no known connections to:
Morgan Communications Machine
Advancing on his theory that radiation from an object could record sound waves and with the right machine could be extracted and made audible, Dr. Morgan began work in his lab for such a device. Dr. Morgan spent over a month designing his machine capable of converting radiation into recordable sound and in the process accidentally summoned an evil entity calling itself a “demon”. After banishing the demon back to its prison dimension, Dr. Morgan destroyed the machine in hopes no one would ever be able to summon them again.
--Journey into Mystery I#40
images: (without ads)
Journey into Mystery I#40, p1, pan1 (main image)
Appearances:
Journey into Mystery I#40 (November, 1956) - John Giunta (artist)
Last updated: 01/29/06
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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