ANDREW MORRIS

Real Name: Andrew Morris

Identity/Class: Human technology user (1950s era)

Occupation: Inventor

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Henry Bensinger, Maud Bensinger, unidentified baby

Enemies: Unidentified bankrobber, unidentified extraterrestrial

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None (see comments)

Base of Operations: His home, somewhere on the east-coast of the United States (see comments)

First Appearance: Adventure into Mystery#7/2 (May, 1957)

Powers/Abilities: Andrew Morris was a scientific genius and inventor; although he lacked confidence and was a self-described "scientific nobody," Morris invented a "Window Machine" which created a portal through space (see comments).

When Morris extended his arm through the portal, his hand was somehow enlarged to gigantic size with proportionally greater strength; however, this effect did not occur when he extended his leg through the portal, for it retained its normal size (see comments).

Morris used his "Window Machine" to act as the good Samaritan, and he helped others in danger.

Height: 5'6" (by approximation)
Weight: 150 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Brown (balding)

History:
(Adventure into Mystery#7/2 (fb) - BTS) - Andrew Morris developed an unusual machine that operated as an interactive "window" through which he could observe various locations by means of adjusting the device's dials.

(Adventure Into Mystery#7/2) - Watching the world through his strange apparatus, Morris' first interaction was to reach out his hand to save Henry and Maud Bensinger when their out-of-control car crashed off a bridge.

   Morris next tripped up a fleeing bankrobber thousands of miles away; elsewhere, he saved a baby from falling from a high-rise ledge.

   While trying to determine his machine's maximum range, Morris adjusted a dial and scanned the surface of the Moon, only to be caught in a vacuum as the air was sucked out around him--only a frantic turn of a dial, and the fact that he had slumped to the floor, inadvertently saved his life, for the light of a distant sun began pouring its fatal radiation above his head.

   With another turn of a dial, the portal changed its view to another world, where Morris saw an alien civilization; as Morris watched a humanoid being, the extraterrestrial turned and noticed him--the interactive nature of the portal allowed the alien to shoot energy bolts from its hand at Morris. But the inventor dodged the blast, then grabbed a chair and quickly smashed his machine apart.

   As he stood by the wreckage of his invention, Andrew Morris was nevertheless determined to build a new "Window Machine," but this time he would do it with the aid of some of the world's greatest thinkers and scientists.

Comments: Created by uncredited writer and Marvin Stein (artist).

The title of this 4-page story was "The Watcher!", but I wouldn't classify this as an alias for Morris.

The location of Morris' home was never specified, but I inferred it was on the east-coast because that bankrobber he tripped was on the west-coast, and Morris stated the distance was three thousand miles away (the span of the United States).

My guess is that the "Window Machine" generated some kind of a wormhole through space.--Ron Fredricks

Curiously, the distance between the portal and the item observed seemed to influence the size of his limbs: his giant hand comfortably held the Bensingers' car, while his "normal-sized" fingers gently held the baby by the diapers.

No explanation was given as to how Morris' hand got so large when he extended it through the portal, while his leg retained its same relative size--maybe his hand passed through the dimension of Kosmos and picked up some size-altering Pym Particles along the way; as to why his leg didn't enlarge when he tripped the robber--maybe it had something to do with his hand being closer to his brain?

The metallic-gray skin of that hostile extraterrestrial implies it may have been a mechanical being--maybe it was an Autocron.

And maybe the "Central City" where the Bensingers were driving was the same place that would later be the original hometown of the Fantastic Four (@ Fantastic Four I#1).
--Ron Fredricks

Andrew Morris isn't the only one to create "Window Machines" -- Zeelmo [a Golden Age Red Raven foe] has his "Gazegrapho Machine" which depicts troublesome scenes everywhere, and the Kalahians [who are associated with the Golden Age Thin Man] have their "Electronic Television" which can view events on Mars or any city on Earth.
---John Holstein.

Profile by Grendel Prime. Expansion by Ron Fredricks.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Andrew Morris has no known connections to:

Andrew Morris' "Window Machine"

Looking somewhat like an over-sized front-load washing machine, Andrew Morris' "Window Machine" provided an interactive portal through which he could observe various locations by means of adjusting the device's dials; the maximum range of the portal was unspecified.

Morris used the machine to perform small good deeds on Earth, but the portal also went the other way across vast distances, allowing those being observed to affect Andrew Morris as well.

After he was attacked by a hostile extraterrestrial, Morris destroyed the device when he recognized the dangers it posed, but he vowed to work collaboratively on any such future machine.

--Adventure into Mystery#7/2

Henry and Maud Bensinger

A married couple, they were driving their car across a bridge near Central City (see comments) when one of the tires blew out--Andrew Morris was watching this occurrence with his "Window Machine".

As their automobile swerved and crashed through the the bridge's guard-rail to certain death in the river below, the Bensingers were saved when Morris extended his arm through his machine's portal and grabbed their plunging car with his gigantic hand, then placed it gently back on the bridge.

Unable to explain their miraculous rescue, the Bensingers never reported the fantastic event.

-Adventure into Mystery#7/2

Unidentified bankrobber

A hold-up man in an unidentified city on the west-coast of the United States, he had just robbed a bank--Andrew Morris was watching this event with his "Window Machine".

The criminal fled with his ill-gotten gains, but he suddenly fell when Morris extended his leg through his machine's portal and tripped the law-breaker.

As he was promptly arrested by a policeman, the robber claimed he had been tripped by "a foot with nobody at the other end of it".

--Adventure into Mystery#7/2

Unidentified baby

In an unidentified city in the southern region of the United States, a toddler had crawled out on the ledge of a high-rise building--Andrew Morris happened to attune his "Window Machine" to see this event occur.

As the baby tottered on the ledge, he was saved from certain doom when Morris extended his arm through the machine's portal and saved the child; holding the baby by the diaper with his gigantic fingers, Morris returned him to his grateful mother.

--Adventure into Mystery#7/2

Unidentified extraterrestrial

A hostile inhabitant of an unidentified world (see comments), it was angered when Andrew Morris accidentally attuned his "Window Machine" to view its planet.

Because of the two-way nature of the portal created by the "Window Machine," the alien retaliated by pointing its finger and sending an electrical discharge through the portal and at Morris. Morris dodged the energy blast, then he grabbed a chair and smashed his invention, which sealed the portal.

--Adventure into Mystery#7/2

images: (without ads)
Adventure into Mystery#7/2, p2, pan6 (Main Image - Andrew Morris uses "Window Machine" to watch baby on ledge)
Adventure into Mystery#7/2, p2, pan5 (Headshot - Andrew Morris)
Adventure into Mystery#7/2, p3, pan4 (Morris standing by "Window Machine")
Adventure into Mystery#7/2, p4, pan7 (Morris stands be wreckage of "Window Machine" but vows to rebuild it)
Adventure into Mystery#7/2, p2, pan4 (Morris watches arrest of bankrobber on "Window Machine")
Adventure into Mystery#7/2, p4, pan6 (Morris smashes "Window Machine" with chair)
Adventure into Mystery#7/2, p1, pan1 (Henry and Maud Bensinger's car swerves through bridge rail, as Morris' gigantic hand catches them)
Adventure into Mystery#7/2, p1, pan3 (Morris' gigantic hand sets Henry and Maud Bensinger's car gently on road)
Adventure into Mystery#7/2, p2, pan1 (bankrobber flees bank with his loot)
Adventure into Mystery#7/2, p2, pan2 (fleeing bankrobber tripped by Morris' foot)
Adventure into Mystery#7/2, p2, pan7 (baby on ledge, as Morris extends his hand through "Window Machine" portal)
Adventure into Mystery#7/2, p3, pan2 (baby returned to his mother by Morris' gigantic hand)
Adventure into Mystery#7/2, p4, pan3 (Morris sees alien's world on his "Window Machine")
Adventure into Mystery#7/2, p4, pan4 (alien sees Morris)
Adventure into Mystery#7/2, p4, pan5 (alien fires electrical discharge at Morris)

Appearances:
Adventure into Mystery#7/2 (May, 1957) - unidentified writer, Marvin Stein (pencils and inks), Stan Lee (editor)

First Posted: 09/04/2009
Last updated: 05/28/2019

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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