GILES PEACOCK

Real Name: Giles Peacock

Identity/Class: Human

Occupation: Butler

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Fantastic Four (Human Torch/Johnny Storm, Invisible Girl/Susan Richards, Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards, She-Hulk/Jennifer Walters), "Alicia Masters" (Lyja), Franklin Richards, Nathaniel Richards, Wyatt Wingfoot

Enemies: None

Known Relatives: Mrs. Peacock (wife)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: The Richards Estate, Central City, California

First Appearance: Fantastic Four I#271 (October, 1984)

Powers/Abilities: Giles Peacock possesses no known superhuman abilities. A conscientious, dutiful caretaker and butler, he was a trusted servant of the Richards family for several decades. He enjoys art, visiting exhibitions regularly. Peacock has some rudimentary scientific training, allowing him to operate complex machinery like the time platform after minimal instructions.

Height: 5'7" (by approximation)
Weight: 120 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Grey

History:
(Fantastic Four I#271 (fb) - BTS) - Giles Peacock and his wife served as the butler and housekeeping staff at the Richards family estate in Central City, California. As Nathaniel Richards' personal aide, Giles and his spouse were considered close family friends. Three years before Reed Richards' space flight would turn him and his friends into the Fantastic Four, Nathaniel Richards mysteriously vanished (using a time platform he'd created in his basement lab, he planned to travel into the future, but inadvertently ended up on Other-Earth). Before his departure, the independently wealthy Nathaniel put his affairs in order. He left his son two billion dollars while also setting up a self-perpetuating fund for the upkeep of the estate which included salaries for the Peacock family. The Peacocks continued to live on the estate as its caretakers.

(Fantastic Four I#271 (fb) ) - Shortly after Nathaniel left, the Peacocks were alarmed one night by voices. Checking out the sounds, Peacock followed the noise to Richards' basement lab where he was shocked to find the ghostly image of two cowboys emanating through the door and passing through him. Startled, he fell to the floor, trembling in terror until his wife came looking for him. Over the years, there were thirteen similar incidents that Peacock didn't report to Reed because they'd grown to consider the appearances to be harmless.

(Fantastic Four I#271 (fb) - BTS) - On at least one occasion, Reed visited the estate, bringing along his wife Susan to meet the Peacocks.

(Fantastic Four I#271) - Early one morning, Giles Peacock was surprised to find Reed Richards, his family and friends like Alicia Masters and Wyatt Wingfoot at the door. Reed had come back home, hoping the trip would jog his memory (in a recent adventure against the Priest of the Mantracora, he had lost some memories). He introduced Peacock to his friends, with Giles being exceptionally pleased to meet Alicia Masters, whose work he'd recently seen with his wife at an LA art exhibit. Before they could continue, Mrs. Peacock walked up with Franklin, who had wandered off and was caught by her with his hand in the cookie jar. After a brief reunion, the Peacocks prepared lunch for their guests, during which the story of the ghost sightings came up. Judging from Peacock's descriptions about the frequency of the manifestations, Reed figured it sounded like a Taft-DeMaibring sequence, indicating the presence of an active time platform. Peacock then took the team down to Nathaniel's sealed off lab. Using their powers to undo the locks left in place, the FF entered the laboratory to find Reed's father had indeed constructed a time platform well before Doctor Doom. Examining the device, Reed discovered the reason for the ghost appearances: they were a partial ripple effect of temporal displacement caused by the platform's continued activity. Mr. Fantastic also deduced his father had tried to travel into his future, their present, but ended up on an alternate Earth as well, so he planned to go look for his father.

(Fantastic Four I#272) - After briefly explaining the workings of the time platform to Peacock, Reed took the FF and Wyatt Wingfoot on a trip to Other-Earth. He instructed the butler to remember they had no way of contacting him once they were gone, therefore Peacock had to activate the return sequence at 12 hour intervals until they came back; the trusty butler assured him he wouldn't forget.

(Fantastic Four I#272 - BTS) - Eventually, after the FF had located Nathaniel, Peacock was responsible for successfully returning them to their own, proper time and reality.

Comments: Created by John Byrne (writer, pencils & inks).

A delightful little character that really should have appeared more over the years, if only because there is so very little known about Reed's early years as a kid scientist with his father Nathaniel, who for all intents and purposes was even more brilliant and successful as Reed would later be. Heck, Nathaniel came up with a time platform in his basement and casually left it running for a good decade while his son blew a 2 billion inheritance on a rocket trip with improper shielding that ended up crashing, burning and turning his closest friends into radiation tainted freaks. Guess talent can skip a generation...

Some clean-up in the third image by Ron Fredricks.

Profile by Norvo.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Giles Peacock should not be confused with

Mrs. Peacock

She (first name unrevealed) is the dutiful wife of Giles Peacock who helped him run the Richards family Central City estate after Nathaniel vanished mysteriously and Reed Richards left for college. They remained on the estate for years, drawing their regular salary checks from the fund Nathaniel had set up for them. However, she was alarmed by mysterious, ghostly apparitions that would appear at semi-regular intervals (caused by the malfunctioning time platform Richards had set up in his hidden lab). When the Fantastic Four came to visit, Mrs. Peacock encountered Franklin, who had gone off exploring the sprawling estate. She gave her young visitor a cookie and brought him back to the others. Mrs. Peacock and her husband hosted Alicia Masters and Franklin while the FF and Wyatt Wingfoot used the time platform to go look for Nathaniel Richards.

--Fantastic Four I#271









images: (without ads)
Fantastic Four I#272, p2, pan1 (main image - operating time platform)
Fantastic Four I#271, p18, pan5 (closeup)
Fantastic Four I#271, p19, pan4 (encountering temporal ghosts)
Fantastic Four I#271, p18, pan2 (Mrs. Peacock with Franklin Richards)

Appearances:
Fantastic Four I#271 (October, 1984) -  John Byrne (writer, pencils, inks), Michael Carlin & Michael Higgins (editors)
Fantastic Four I#272 (November, 1984) - John Byrne (writer, pencils, inks), Michael Carlin & Michael Higgins (editors)

First Posted: 08/21/2015
Last updated: 09/15/2024

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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