CLAIRE GIDEON

Real Name: Claire Gideon

Identity/Class: Human civilian

Occupation: Presumed homemaker

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: None revealed

Enemies: Unidentified members of a Russian underwater atomic testing crew (albeit unintentionally)

Known Relatives: Gregory Hungerford Gidedon (husband, deceased), Thomas Gideon (later Glorian)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Unrevealed
    formerly a hundred acre estate in Rochester, New York

First Appearance: Fantastic Four I#34 (January, 1965)

Powers/Abilities: Claire Gideon had no superhuman powers.

    The most significant feature Claire demonstrated in her limited appearances was a desire to have a happy family, primarily by guiding her husband to focus on her and their son rather than his goals of wealth and/or power.

Height: Unrevealed (perhaps 5'7"; in heels, she looked about 2" shorter than Gregory Gideon)
Weight: Unrevealed (perhaps 130 lbs.)
Eyes: Possibly light blue
Hair: Presumably brown or blond (one may be her real color and the other dyed; I'd speculate she was brown and dyed it blond, to have more fun, but who knows [see comments])

History:
(Fantastic Four I#34 (fb) - BTS) - As her husband, multi-billionaire financial wizard Gregory Gideon, was rarely home because he was constantly out building his empire, Claire and their son, Tom, missed him dearly; Claire was often lonely.

(Fantastic Four I#34 (fb) - BTS) - Gregory instructed Claire to never interrupt him when he was talking business.

(Fantastic Four I#34 - BTS) - Gregory engaged in a wager to defeat the Fantastic Four in order to more swiftly gain control of three of his top competitor's empires, with the risk of failure being forfeiture of his plan for world domination.

(Fantastic Four I#34) - Hearing Gregory at home (continuing his plots against the Fantastic Four by driving them against each other), Claire entered the room and asked if he was ready for dinner now. Gregory's assistant Smedley, having never met his boss' wife before, started to greet Claire, but Gregory swiftly dismissed Smedley. Gregory then chided Claire, reminding her of his instructions not to interrupt his business and asking her when she would learn to know her place.

    Apologizing, Claire explained that she was so glad he was home and that she was so lonely. When Tom rushed in to hug his dad, Claire remained silent as Gregory tried to explain he was away because he would someday give his son the entire planet.

    Later, Claire observed as Tom ran off after learning his father's plans to destroy the Fantastic Four, whom the boy idolized. She asked Gregory why Tom had run away, and he told her he had no time for her "eternal questions," and that they would discuss this later. Upset, Claire noted that it was always "later," and she asked why they had become such strangers to each other...what happened to the man she loved and married? He angrily told her to cease her "incessant prattling," asking if she couldn't see that he had more pressing problems to attend to; but she continued, asking if he had placed Tom in any danger.

    Still later, as Gregory prepared the Fantastic Four's final defeat, Claire noted that she knew she wasn't supposed to interfere, but asked again where Tom was. When he told her he could worry about that after he had finished the last details, as once he controlled all the world's wealth it would be easy to find one teenage boy. Claire asked him how he could want more money and power than he already had, and when he explained his world domination goals, she told him that the reporters and people in the street were right when they said he was drunk with power.

(Fantastic Four I#34 - BTS) - Having observed (via his TV transceiver) Thomas enter the Baxter Building in hopes of saving the Fantastic Four and then vanishing in a time machine trap along with the Thing, Gregory rushed to the Baxter Building, desperate to rescue Tom.

(Fantastic Four I#34 (fb) - BTS) - Claire followed closely behind Gregory. Encountering the Fantastic Four, she told them of her husband's plot.

(Fantastic Four I#34 (fb) - BTS) - Unseen by Gregory, Tom and the Thing returned to the present when Reed Richards shut down the power to the time machine.

(Fantastic Four I#34) - After Gregory Gideon broke down, realizing all of the power and wealth meant nothing without his son, Claire emerged with Tom; Gregory was elated that Tom was safe, but Claire reminded him that this was no thanks to him.

    As Gregory hugged Tom, Claire told the Fantastic Four that she knew her husband had to be punished, but she would not desert him and that she would always be his wife.

   Gregory renounced his financial empire, vowing to donate all his wealth to charity. Embracing Claire and Tom in his arms and noting that they were his greatest treasures, he vowed to devote the rest of his life making amends for neglecting them.

    Claire and Tom departed with Gideon, who instructed the Fantastic Four he would be waiting for the police at his home with his family.

(Fantastic Four I#135 (fb) - BTS) - Despite his plot against them, the Fantastic Four were apparently sympathetic to the reunited family, and didn't press any charges against Gideon with the authorities.

(Fantastic Four I#135 (fb)) - Claire and Thomas accompanied Gregory Gideon on a calming vacation, after which he had planned to renounce his fortune.

(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z hardcover: Glorian entry) - Some two years later, with Thomas now in his teens, the Gideons were returning by private jet from an extended vacation.

(Fantastic Four I#135 (fb)) - Aboard the jet, Claire was playing a card game with Thomas, while her husband read a newspaper.

(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z hardcover: Glorian entry / Fantastic Four I#135 (fb) - BTS) - Under unrevealed circumstances, Gideon's pilot missed all of the warning signals sent from a Russian underwater atomic bomb testing site and blundered into range of the energy pulse/wave of a nuclear explosion that caused their jet to crash into the ocean.

(Fantastic Four I#135 (fb)) - Thomas and Gregory Gideon survived, with Gregory helping keep Thomas afloat, but the rest of the party--including Claire--was presumably lost at sea.

Comments: Created by Stan "The Man" Lee, Jack "King" Kirby, and Chic "...The Brick?" Stone.

Actually, the second story's colorist made an error--Claire had brown hair in the original story, but when next seen in Gideon's memory flashbacks in FF I#135, she was a blonde. Maybe the nuclear radiation  affected Gideon's memory, and he just misremembered this detail about his wife's hair...do I get a No-Prize?--Ron Fredricks.

New images by Ron Fredricks.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Claire Gideon should be distinguished from:


images: (without ads)
Fantastic Four I#34, p14, pan3 (main image - Claire Gideon)
Fantastic Four I#34, p10, pan3 (Claire Gideon [full, distant])
Fantastic Four I#34, p9, pan5 (Claire Gideon [upper body, in dress])
Fantastic Four I#135, p7, pan2 (in Gregory Gideon's memory flashback: Claire Gideon playing cards with Thomas on jet; Gregory Gideon [background])


Appearances:
Fantastic Four I#34 (January, 1965) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Jack Kirby (pencils), and Chic Stone (inks), Artie Simek (letters)
Fantastic Four I#135 (June, 1973) - Gerry Conway (writer), John Buscema (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks), Petra Goldberg (colors), Artie Simek (letters), Roy Thomas (editor)


First posted: 04/13/2018
Last updated: 05/21/2024

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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