"IRON HAND" HAUPTMANN
Real Name: Jurgen Hauptmann
Identity/Class: Human technology user (World War 2 to modern era);
citizen of Germany
Occupation: Mercenary
Group Membership: Exiles (Angelo Baldini, Franz Cadavus, Jun Ching, Eric Gruning, Ivan Krushki, Gottfried Rothman)
Affiliations: Baron Zemo (Heinrich Zemo), Baron Zemo (Helmut Zemo), Count Nefaria (see comments), Doctor Strange (See Comments), Fixer (P. Norbert Ebersol), Master Man (Max Lohmer), Red Skull (Johann Shmidt), Sin (Sinthea Shmidt)
Enemies: Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff), Captain America (Steve Rogers),
Captain America (James Barnes), Sharon Carter, Doctor Doom (Victor von Doom), Falcon (Sam
Wilson), Victoria Hand, Maria
Hill, Mandroids,
Quake (Daisy Johnson);
formerly Red Skull (Johann Shmidt)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Butcher of Bavaria
Base of Operations: Castle in Helsingborg, Sweden;
formerly the Isle
of the Exiles, somewhere around the Sargasso Sea
First Appearance: (Seen) Tales of Suspense I#41 (See Comments) (May, 1963); (identified) Captain America I#102 (June, 1968)
Powers/Abilities: He used an iron glove as his weapon of choice. In recent years, he had it re-vamped, allowing him to discharge powerful electric blasts and nanotech viruses through it (see comments).
Height: 6' (by
approximation)
Weight: 190 lbs.(by approximation)
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Black
History:
(Captain America I#606 (fb) - BTS) - For unrevealed reasons, Hauptmann owed Heinrich Zemo a debt (see comments).
(Captain America I#103 (fb) - BTS) - Hauptmann was a member of the Exiles, a group of international would-be world conquerors, who were allies of the Red Skull during World War II. Their exploits during the war and activities between then and the modern era are unrevealed.
(Tales of Suspense#41) - After breaking out of prison, the mad scientist known as Doctor Strange gathered a group of international allies--"...the most cunning scientists and power-mad military men on Earth!"--in his plot to take over the world--one of these allies may have been Hauptmann (see comments).
(Captain America I#102-104) - Not too long after
recovering from suspended animation since World War II, the Red Skull
traveled to the Isle of the Exiles, where he was reunited with his old
allies. The Skull had his men kidnap Sharon Carter and bring her
to the Isle, forcing Captain America to follow. Cap made his way
through the Exiles' armies; but after being surprised by the sudden
appearance of the Skull, he was clocked from behind by another
soldier. This enabled the Red Skull to apply a strip of "nuclear
tape", which would force Captain America to obey him, otherwise it would
cause him intense pain--in addition, if the strip were removed, it would
trigger a nuclear weapon hidden in Washington, D.C.
Assuming that controlling Captain America would give him control of the
world, the Red Skull prepared to divide the helpless Earth amongst
himself and the six Exiles. As they argued, Cap and Sharon Carter
broke free and escaped, despite the Red Skull's efforts to stop
them. The Skull claimed to have planned to let Cap go, since he
still had the nuclear tape's detonator, which could reach Cap at any
point on Earth.
Sure enough, Cap soon returned to the Isle, in hopes of stalling the
Skull while the spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D. (Supreme Headquarters International
Espionage Law-enforcement Division) located the bomb. Upon
arriving on the Isle, each of the Exiles challenged Cap, although none
of them could wait their turn to do so. Nonetheless, Cap took them on
and eventually defeated them. The Skull tried to use the detonator
against Cap, but by that time, S.H.I.E.L.D. had succeeded in defusing the
bomb, thus deactivating the tape. S.H.I.E.L.D. attacked the Isle, and
the Exiles and the Red Skull fled.
(Captain
America I#115 (fb), 116-118) - The Exiles learned of the sudden
prosperity of an impoverished Mediterranean village and correctly
suspected the involvement of the Cosmic
Cube. Their agents stole the Cube and gave it to the
Skull, who refused to share it with any of them. To demonstrate its
power, the Skull used the Cube to temporarily transport Hauptmann
alone to "the edge of the Universe," then returned him moments
later--Hauptmann was left badly shaken by the experience, and was
driven to the point of madness. Afterward, the Skull dismissed the
Exiles, then he went after Captain America on his own.
Seeking a means to gain revenge on his hated enemy, the Red Skull used
the powers of the Cosmic Cube to switch bodies with Cap. After
allowing Cap to fight off a few attacks by unwitting allies, the Red
Skull then sent Cap to the Isle of the Exiles, knowing that they now
hated him and would try to kill him. As expected the Exiles
attacked the "Red Skull" soon after he arrived on the Isle.
However, Cap found a new ally in the Falcon, who helped him fight off
the Exiles by sending in Redwing, the Falcon's bird of prey.
Cap, in turn (after wisely figuring
out that the Skull's "face" was a mask, and that no one would
recognize him without it), trained the Falcon to fight, and
helped him pick out his "super-hero" name and first costume.
Falcon joined Cap in fighting the Exiles, and also inspired the
natives of the Isle to rebel against their tyranny. The Exiles
fled under a hail of stones.
(Astonishing Tales I#4/2 (fb), 4/2-5/2) - The Red Skull returned to the Exiles, and cowed them into serving him again by telling them that they were nothing without a leader. He then led the Exiles to Dr. Doom's Latveria, where they succeeded in taking over the country while Doom was out vacationing in the Riviera (yep, it's true). They used Doom's own soldiers against him when he returned, gassed him unconscious, and put him on public display in an "adamantine mummy case". However, Doom absorbed the sun's rays into his armor until he had the strength to break free. The Exiles attacked Doom, but since their natural abilities were just about worthless against super-powered armor, Doom defeated them quickly. Doom then gassed them with hypno-gas, which made them believe that they had become only a few inches tall, and then sent them back to the Isle of the Exiles.
(Captain America I#370 - BTS) - Red Skull kept an image of the Exiles in a room filled with his past glories at his private estate, Skullhouse.
(Iron Man III#6 (fb) - BTS) - Count Nefaria presumably hired Hauptmann to assassinate Tony Stark.
(Iron Man III#6) - Stark teamed up with the Black Widow to try to track down several missing prominent scientists, who were kidnapped by Tuatara, for the Mandarin. While working undercover in one of Sydney's finest hotels, the Widow confronted Hauptmann. Hauptmann used a new, electrified iron glove (see comments), but the fight ended when he smashed it into a punch bowl and was shocked into unconsciousness. Stark was kidnapped during the fight.
(Captain America I#606 (fb) - BTS) - Hauptmann returned to the Isle of the Exiles.
(Captain America I#606) - Helmut Zemo and Fixer traveled to the Isle of the Exiles to hire Hauptmann over a debt he owed to Helmut's father Heinrich (see comments). Hauptmann was drunk and picked a fight at the Biergarten with pretty much everyone. He gave in after Zemo defeated him quickly.
(Captain America I#607) - Zemo sent Hauptmann, armed with a nanotech virus invented by Fixer that he could transmit through his glove, to fight Captain America (Barnes) in front of St. Luke's Hospital and called the police. During the fight Hauptmann infected Barnes with a nanotech virus each time he hit Barnes. The brutal fight ended on the street where Barnes started hallucinating, seeing the police as Nazi soldiers. Hauptmann escaped when Barnes started attacking the police.
(Captain America I#609) - Zemo sent Hauptmann to monitor Barnes' apartment. He informed Zemo when Rogers, Widow and Falcon where inside and told Hauptmann to keep them there. Hauptmann used a rocket launcher to blow up the apartment, then was defeated by the trio after Rogers crushed his iron glove and Hauptmann's hand with it--unfortunately for them, Hauptmann didn't know Zemo's further plans with Barnes.
(Captain America I#610) - Hauptmann was accompanied to a prison transport by Mandroids.
(Avengers IV#16) - Sin sent encrypted intel to lure Captain America to a castle in Helsingborg, Sweden, where the Exiles and Master Man waited for Cap and his allies. Cap took Carter, Hand and Hill with him to investigate. They were soon assaulted by Master Man and the Exiles. During the battle, Carter shot Hauptmann three times through the chest.
Comments: Created by Stan "The Man" Lee and Jack "King" Kirby.
The original
Marvel Comics Index lists the Exiles as the unidentified allies of
Doctor Strange, in the credits for Tales of Suspense I#41.
"Intro: The Exiles (cameo: at least 11 characters, not identified,
but six of whom bear a striking resemblance to the characters
introduced and named in Captain America I#102-104; accomplices of
Doctor Strange)"
Hauptmann was presumably one of the assassins hired by Count Nefaria. Unlike the others (the Death Squad, Nitro & Whiplash) he didn't return in Iron Man 1999.
Hauptmann,
I believe, is German for "Captain." It's also been used as a
last name--I'm not sure which it is in this case.
--Snood
It is Captain indeed, and since Marvel Atlas#1, we know Hauptmann
is his last name.
The Exiles have an entry in Marvel Legacy: The 1960s Handbook & OHotMU A-Z Hardcover#4. The first name of Hauptmann was revealed in Marvel Atlas#1.
In Captain America I#112 is a flashback to Cap's first fight against the Exiles. The Doctor Doom vs. Red Skull story from Astonishing Tales I#4-5 was reprinted in Super-Villain Team-Up#15 (November, 1978). In Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America#5 (August, 2007) a flashback to the fight between Captain America & Falcon vs. the Exiles was seen.
Maybe the "debt" that Hauptmann owed Heinrich Zemo was for the use of Zemo's Compund X, which would have slowed Hauptmann's aging, and thus explained how he remained relatively young, despite being from the World War II era.
And
in his appearances, Hauptmann always wore his iron glove on his
right hand, but in Iron
Man III#6, his electrified glove was on his left hand--he also seemed to have shaved his head, too.
When he next appeared in Captain America I#606, his glove was
back on his right hand, and he'd also grown back his hair.
--Ron
Fredricks
Profile by Snood & Markus Raymond.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Jurgen "Iron Hand" Hauptmann has no known connection to:
Hauptmann's "iron hand" has no known connections to:
images:
(without ads)
Captain America I#607, p4 (main image)
Captain America I#104, cover (body shot)
Captain America I#117, p7, pan4 (head shot)
Iron Man III#6, p8, pan4 (new iron hand (on left hand) )
Avengers IV#16, p18, pan4 (Hauptmann gets shot)
Appearances:
Tales of Suspense I#41 (May, 1963) - Stan Lee (plot/editor), Robert Bernstein (writer), Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks)
Captain America I#102-103 (June-July, 1968) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Jack Kirby (pencils), Syd Shores (inks)
Captain America I#104 (August, 1968) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Jack Kirby (pencils), Dan Adkins & Jim Steranko (inks)
Captain America I#115 (July, 1969) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), John Buscema (pencils), Sal Buscema (inks), Sam Rosen (letters)
Captain America I#116-118 (August-October, 1969) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Gene Colan (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks), Sam Rosen (letters)
Astonishing Tales I#4 (February, 1971) - Larry Lieber (writer), Wally Wood (pencils), Wally Wood (inks), Stan Lee (editor)
Astonishing Tales I#5 (April, 1971) - Larry Lieber (writer), George Tuska (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks), Stan Lee (editor)
Captain America I#370 (May, 1990) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Ron Lim (pencils), Dan Bulanadi (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Iron Man III#6 (July, 1998) - Kurt Busiek & Richard Howell (writers), Patrick Zircher (pencils), Jon Holdredge (inks), Bobbie Chase (editor)
Captain America I#606 (August, 2010) - Ed Brubaker (writer), Butch Guice (artist), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Captain America I#607 (August, 2010) - Ed Brubaker (writer), Mitch Breitweiser (pencils/inks), Butch Guice (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Captain America I#609 (October, 2010) - Ed Brubaker (writer), Butch Guice (pencils/inks), Rick Magyar & Andrew Hennessey (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Captain America I#610 (November, 2010) - Ed Brubaker (writer), Butch Guice (pencils/inks), Rick Magyar (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers IV#16 (October, 2011) - Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Johm Romita Jr. (pencils), Klaus Janson (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
First Posted: 01/30/2013
Last updated: 02/07/2021
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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