HERMAN HOOPER
Real Name: Herman Hooper
Identity/Class: Normal human (1950s Era)
Occupation: Scientist
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: None
Enemies: Humankind (especially the "good-looking people")
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: "Horrible Herman" (title of story)
Base of Operations: USA (?)
First Appearance: Strange Tales I#14/1 (January, 1953)
Powers/Abilities: Herman Hooper was a somewhat wealthy man who was shunned by society because of his short and ugly appearance, and he was resentful of this to the point of mass-murder. A loner, he was a genius in the design and manufacture of small spacecraft and highly destructive devices.
History:
(Strange Tales I#14/1 (fb) - BTS) - A brilliant scientist, Herman Hooper had become reclusive because society would shun him due to his appearance. He worked alone but took nightly walks and ate out every night.
(Strange Tales I#14/1) - One evening after working tirelessly in his laboratory, he went to his usual restaurant and found a new waitress there called Betty. Because she showed no revulsion to his appearance, he asked her if he could walk her home after work and she agreed, albeit jokingly. When Hooper returned, he heard her laughing about him to her boyfriend. Angered, he stabbed them both to death. His resentment of good-looking people turned to madness as he set to work in his laboratories to exterminate everyone by splitting the Earth asunder, believing then that he would no longer be considered ugly because there would be no-one left to judge him.
Weeks later, Hooper had crafted the destructive device and then built a space-worthy rocket ship to take him away from Earth's gravity. Days later, he took the rocket to a nearby hill and blasted off alone into the stratosphere with the bomb on board. Many miles from Earth and safe from the expected explosion, he released the bomb, but with no gravity in space, the bomb did not fall to Earth. Frustrated, he watched it on the view screen just before it collided with his rocket ship, detonating a powerful explosion that could be seen on Earth. Spectators saw the bright flash in the night sky and admired its beauty.
Comments: Created by Stan Lee (writer) and Jim Mooney (art).
This story was later retold as "The Man Who Blew Up The Earth!" in Tales to Astonish I#29/3 (March, 1962) with art by Jack Kirby and featuring a Quasimodo-like main character called Elias Cragston, this time spurned by a lab assistant.
Special thanks to The Fabulous Fifties blog site for the scans.
Profile by Grendel Prime.
CLARIFICATIONS
:
Herman Hooper has no known connections to:
images:
(without ads)
Strange Tales I#14/1, p1, pan1 (main image)
Other Appearances: None
Last updated: 02/06/10
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™
and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com