mostly fullVICTOR FARRINGTON

Real Name: Victor Farrington

Identity/Class: Human (pre-modern era)

Occupation: Enterpreneur

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Formerly served by a butler and presumably other members of his support staff (and I'm betting they didn't care for him too much);
    while not his friend, the unidentified Centauran (futilely) advised him in how to live a better life

Enemies: A large number of people he swindled; members of a court on Earth

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: A barren asteroid in "solar sector XB-61";
    formerly his estate, presumably somewhere in the USA, or perhaps England?

First Appearance: Tales of Suspense I#45 (September, 1963)

Powers/Abilities: Victor Farrington has no superhuman abilities. 

    Fanatically greedy, he was willing to do perform all manner of shady business deals, risking lives, cheating people, etc. in the name of profit. 

    He maintains a large amount of gold, but has no way of spending it on his solitary asteroid home.

    Presumably it is his spacesuit that allows him to survive on the barren asteroid, although it is possible there was some sort of artifical atmosphere, some form of nutrition, source of heat and light (it seemed plenty light when the Centauran visited), etc.

Height: Unrevealed (approximately 5'11")
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately 170 lbs.)
Eyes: Possibly light green (almost white in the pictures shown)
Hair: Brown (gray at temples) with brown moustache

History:
face(Tales of Suspense I#45 (fb) - BTS) - Victor Farrington was wealthy -- perhaps via a combination of inheritance (purely speculative) and crooked business deals -- and owned a large, luxurious estate.

(Tales of Suspense I#45 (fb)) <1963> - A Centauran space wanderer landed his ship on Victor Farrington's estate to make emergency repairs. Farrington's butler was surprised to see this and informed Farrington, who thought he was joking until seeing it for himself. When his butler suggested they notify the authorities, as they, the newspapers, and the whole world would want to know about this, but the greedy Farrington avoided informing the authorities in hopes of gaining exclusive rights to the alien's world's ores and minerals via trade agreement, after which he would sell them to the rest of mankind at a huge profit.

(Tales of Suspense I#45 (fb) - BTS) - Farrington approached the Centauran and began asking questions of trade. 

(Tales of Suspense I#45 (fb)) - Farrington declined any discussion of the Centaurus' advanced culture or their superior way of life, telling the alien he couldn't care less about that and was only concerned with making money. The Centauran told him this was foolish and shared that his people had learned life held richer joys than the quest for wealth; but Farrington continued to assert his fanatical obsession with money, telling him the almighty dollar was his best and only friend, and that he would do anything to get it.

    The Centauran saw in Farrington's eyes that greed made Farrington selfish, even ruthless to his fellow men, and he told Farrington that it could lead to no good. He advised Farrington to mend his ways before it was too late. 

    When Farrington questioned how the Centauran could know what would happen in the future, the Centauran produced a time sphere, which he used show an image of Farrington 20 years into the future. Farrington was ecstatic to see an image of himself sitting atop and surrounded by large amounts of gold. When Farrington laughed at how wrong the Centauran had been, the Centauran departed, telling him he left Farrington to his fate.

(Tales of Suspense I#45 (fb)) - After the Centauran fixed his ship and departed Earth, Farrington decided that even though he hadn't been able to get the alien to sign a trade agreement, he was still happy because the time sphere had showed him he was going to be fabulously rich. 

    In the months and years that followed, Farrington contineeud to mass wealth, without scruples, without ethics, without caring who got hurt.

(Tales of Suspense I#45 (fb) - BTS) - Farrington sold phony stocks to people.

(Tales of Suspense I#45 (fb)) - When the victims of the phony stocks complained they had invested their life savings in them and were now penniless, Farrington mocked them, telling them he was so sorry he would cry all the way to the bank.

(Tales of Suspense I#45 (fb) - BTS) - Farrington made a profit selling cheap, sub-standard steel to a construction company.

(Tales of Suspense I#45 (fb)) - When a warehouse collapsed from the shoddy materials, Farrington was merely pleased at how much he had made in the process.

(Tales of Suspense I#45 (fb)) - As his schemes and swindles made him richer with each day, Farrington was ecstatic that the time sphere's prediction was coming true. He wished "that fool alien could see me now!"spacesuit face

(Tales of Suspense I#45 (fb) - BTS) <1983> - Farrington's crimes were discovered, and he was brought to trial .

(Tales of Suspense I#45 (fb)) - The court found Farrington guilty on all counts, and asked if he had anything to say before the sentence was passed, but Farrington told them they couldn't lock him up and/or separate him from his money, as it was against the prophecy. The court had no idea what he was talking about, but told him they were not sending to prison, as they felt that for his crimes, the best punishment was exile. spacesuit

(Tales of Suspense I#45 (fb) - BTS) - Wearing some sort of space suit that allowed him to survive, Farrington was exiled -- along with his gold, at least -- to a barren asteroid in "solar sector XB-61."

    At last he could see that wealth by itself was worthless.

(Tales of Suspense I#45) - That same year, the Centauran visited Farrington on the asteroid, reminding him how he had told him no good would come of his ruthless pursuit of riches. Farrington agreed that the prediction had come true, butthat  it did him no good.

    The Centauran further admonished the tragic human, noting that he had learned too late that wealth meant nothing by itself. He further added that when the entire human race learned that lesson, then mankind will truly have come of age.

Comments: Created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Matt Fox.

    The Time Sphere was a little off in its depiction of the future, as Farrington was shown without his headgear, but since he wasn't wearing a face mask, it would seem he could somehow breathe on the asteroid and perhaps could put on and take off the headgear at will...however, you CAN tell from the image he wasn't happy with his current station in life, but Farrington was so excited by the wealth he saw for his future self that he probably didn't even look at his face.

    It's debatable whether this story takes place in Reality-616, as it seems unlikely that some conventional tribunal on Earth-616 circa 1983 would have banished a person to a distant asteroid for mundane crimes. It's not really a conventionally held technology, but there were many advanced societies on Earth-616 even in what might be two decades before the modern era (before the rocket launch that empowered the Fantastic Four). Farrington could have wronged someone from one such society, and they could have done this to him...Nothing to exclude it, so leave it in.

    The images come from my scans of the Marvel Masterworks of this issue, and as you get closer to the book's spine, they don't want to lay flat, and the image gets more distorted. That being said, I don't want to pull my issue of Tales of Suspense I#45 and crush it in the scanner to resolve this issue...

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Victor Farrington should be distinguished from:


asteroidasteroid

    A barren asteroid in "solar sector XB-61" to which Victor Farrington was banished.

    Farrington wore a relatively form-fitting space suit with his face (exposed), although he may have had a transparent face plate.

    Farrington also had his wealth with him, but there was no obvious source of food, warm, or light seen...nonetheless, it was bright as day when the Centauran visited.

    Did the asteroid somehow supply these needed elements of survival, or did the suit keep him alive?

    Or was it just 1960s sci-fi?

--Tales of Suspense I#45
courthead judgecourt

    They weren't called anything but the court, but there was a trio of judges who condemned Farrington to exile.

    Note: It seems unlikely that some conventional tribunal on Earth-616 circa 1983 would have banished a person to a distant asteroid for mundane crimes. It's not really a conventionally held technology, but there were many advanced societies on Earth-616 even in what might be two decades before the modern era (before the rocket launch that empowered the Fantastic Four). Farrington could have wronged someone from one such society, and they could have done this to him

    As the story was written in 1963, and this was supposed to be a glimpse of 20 years into the future, the judges had these high collars, while a guard/bailiff could be seen with some sort of armor, complete with spikes on his helmet.

    They kind of remind me the tribunal or the Tribunal race...perhaps even an earlier incarnation of the Magistratri, agents of the Living Tribunal

--Tales of Suspense I#45

images: (without ads)
Tales of Suspense I#45 "I come from far Centaurus!"

Appearances:
Tales of Suspense I#45 (September, 1963) - Stan Lee (plot/editor), Larry Lieber (script/penciler), Matt Fox (inker)

Last updated: 02/26/15

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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