RADIOACTIVE MAN
Real Name: Igor Stancheck
Identity/Class: Human (Russian) mutate
Occupation: Mercenary
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Batroc the Leaper (Georges Batroc), Black Knight (Augustine du Lac), Cannibal, Klaw, M'Butu, Rhino (Aleksei Sytsevich), many unidentified mercenaries
Enemies: Black Panther (T'Challa), Q'Ran, Shuri, Wakanda
Known Relatives: Unidentified wife
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Monbile;
formerly somewhere in Russia;
formerly Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Pripyat, Ukraine, UDSSR (or if it was 1995: Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Slavutych, Ukraine)
First Appearance: (Speaking) Black Panther IV#3 (June, 2005); (seen) Black Panther IV#4 (July, 2005)
Powers/Abilities: Radioactive Man constantly leaked radiation from his body and can release it from his hands in a deadly amount. He can melt substances, kill humans with a mere touch or release the energy as lethal blasts. Tapping into the wavelength of certain elements like Vibranium he can manipulate large concentrated amounts of it causing earthquakes.
Height: 6'6" (by approximation)
Weight: 290 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Solid yellow
Hair: Bald
History:
(Black Panther IV#5 (fb) - BTS) - According to Cannibal, who possessed Igor's estranged wife's body, she had ten years ago been informed by Soviet authorities that Igor had died at Chernobyl. In actuality the Russians had turned Igor into their version of the Radioactive Man. (see comments)
Recently Igor allegedly contacted his wife to inform her that he was still alive and would soon have the money to cure his condition. (see comments)
(Black Panther IV#3 (fb) - BTS) - Arriving in Niganda in a high-tech containment shelter Igor repeatedly had problems with his shelter's toilet.
(Black Panther IV#3) - Trapped inside his containment shelter Igor complained to Klaw that his toilet was backing up again and that he needed a tech to fix it. Klaw told him that radiation levels inside the shelter were too high to send someone in at the moment, but Klaw promised to do something about it.
(Black Panther IV#3 - BTS) - Klaw asked M'Butu of Niganda for a disposable plumber, which he was granted. He then had Igor informed that his toilet would be fixed.
(Black Panther IV#4 - BTS) - Klaw gave Igor a piece of Vibranium. Following Klaw's instructions Igor tapped into the atomic wavelength of the metal and reached out to play with a large collection of it causing an earthquake at the Great Mound in Wakanda.
(Black Panther IV#4) - Klaw was pleased with Igor successfully causing an earthquake in Wakanda.
Placed inside a rocket ship Radioactive Man was shot into the Great Mound. Upon leaving the ship Radioactive Man murdered Q'Ran in front of Wakandan princess Shuri with a mere touch of his irradiated hands. He vowed that this would only be the first man this day to die by his hands.
(Black Panther IV#5) - Shuri hid from Radioactive Man, who kept walking around the mine while talking to himself. Hearing Shuri talk Radioactive Man destroyed the wall behind her, but she was gone when the dust cleared.
(Black Panther IV#6) - On Klaw's order Igor caused another earthquake at the Great Mound to send a message to the Wakandans. When an explosion occurred near Klaw he believed it was Igor's fault, but the Russian told him it wasn't. Hacking into the Wakandan security cameras Klaw learned the Americans were attacking with Deathloks and ordered Igor to destroy the Great Mound because he didn't want the Americans to reap the fruits of their conquest. Igor agreed to bring the mound down in fifteen minutes, but got distracted when Shuri tossed a rock at him. While Igor hunted down Shuri Klaw failed to hack the Wakandan computer systems and ordered Igor to bring down the mound immediately. Igor didn't comply because he wanted to kill Shuri first. He didn't listen to Klaw, who told him that she would die along with everyone else anyway as soon as Igor brought down everything with an earthquake. Reaching Shuri Igor mocked her when she threatened him with the Ebony Blade, but unlike Igor Shuri had realized what the sword was capable off when it cut through solid rock. Shuri cut Igor in half with the Ebony Blade, killing him and preventing him from causing an earthquake that could destroy the whole nation of Wakanda.
Comments: Created by Reginald Hudlin (writer), John Romita Jr. (pencils) & Klaus Janson (inks).
Hudlin's first Black Panther arc was a continuity nightmare. At least his Radioactive Man was named differently from the start and we were never tricked into believing he was the original Chinese version. Unfortunately it was not the same with the reimagined Klaw, Black Knight, Batroc and Rhino. Black Knight was revealed as a Vatican agent a few issues later when Iraq created their own Arabian Knight. Batroc wasn't much of a problem because Batroc's identity is always that of a stereotypical French jerk. Rhino was turned into an American, but was revealed in Shuri's handbook profile as the original Russian Rhino. And Klaw? It was him, but nothing fits for his character and his background history with T'Challa's family. Not even the murder of Black Panther's dad T'Chaka stayed the same. Hudlin's first arc is like John Byrne's Spider-Man: Chapter One. Something that can only be ignored, fixed by other writers or be accepted as the new canon. Klaw went back to being who he was the next time we saw him so it seems like people at Marvel wisened up and ignored or fixed the parts that didn't fit.
Noting in a story published in 2005 that Igor's alleged wife was informed ten years ago by Soviets of her husband's death at Chernobyl shows one thing. Hudlin should've done some research on the topic before writing about it. The incident he was referring to occurred in 1986, 19 years before 2005. If Hudlin didn't want it to be the known Chernobyl disaster that transformed Igor into the Radioactive Man it would've still worked because in 1995 people were working at the power plant again, but then the reference to the Soviet Union doesn't work anymore because the Soviet Union had been disbanded in 1991. Either way: Hudlin didn't do his history homework!
BTW Klaw is a shitty ally. He had Cannibal kill and possess Igor's wife while Igor was working for him. We don't know if Igor actually contacted his wife like Cannibal, who had gained her memories after possessing her body, claimed. Maybe Igor's wife didn't care anymore for her husband and this was the reason why Klaw had Cannibal take over her body or Klaw found her for Igor without her even knowing about her husband's survival. Having Igor's wife strut around in front of him probably helped to keep the irradiated Russian motivated and happy.
The explosion at the Chernobyl Power Plant was engineered by Meltdown and Doctor Neutron. Winter Guard member Powersurge (Illarion Pavlovich Ramskov) was also mutated by exposure to radiation while trying to contain the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Profile by Markus Raymond.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Radioactive Man has no known connection to:
images (without ads)
Black Panther IV#6, p2, pan4 (main image)
Black Panther IV#5, p8, pan1 (head shot)
Appearances:
Black Panther IV#3-6 (June-September, 2005) - Reginald Hudlin (writer), John Romita Jr. (pencils), Klaus Janson (inks), Axel Alonso (editor)
Last updated: 02/21/16
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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