Name

Current Alias

Aliases

The High Evolutionary intends to build a god fit for the twenty-first century. And you will be his raw materials.

Early Life[]

Herbert Wyndham was born inManchester, England but soon moved to theWelsh countryside with his parents.^{[citation needed]}

As a student in the 1920s, Herbert Wyndham was inspired by the work ofNathaniel Essex to perform his own genetic experiments, evolving rats in his parents' basement. Later, when he attended a conference inGeneva, Wyndham was approached bya disguised Inhuman, who gave Wyndham the secrets for unlocking genetic codes. As a result, he created a serum that allowed for genetic alteration, but his controversial work got him expelled fromOxford University.^[4]

However, Wyndham joined with another fellow scientist,Jonathan Drew, to continue his work, and they set up base inTransia onWundagore Mountain in a futuristic citadel that his Inhuman contact gave him a workforce ofMoloids to build.^[5]

Spider-Woman[]

Drew's daughter,Jessica, became ill thanks to their proximity to the mountain's reserves of uranium, and she was treated by a combination of spider serum and Wyndham's evolutionary technology and placed in suspended animation. This process would later result in Jessica becoming the super-heroine known as Spider-Woman.^[6] Drew's wife was killed by a werewolf,Gregor Russoff, while Wyndham survived the attack. Jonathan left Wundagore, and Wyndham constructed a suit of advanced armor to protect himself.^[7][8]

The New Men[]

Soon after this, aided by a new assistant namedMiles Warren, Wyndham created theNew Men by evolving animals into humanoid forms.^[9] Jonathan returned to Wundagore possessed by the sorcererMagnus, who warned him that the mountain was the banishing place of the demonChthon, though the scientifically-minded Wyndham scoffed at this - albeit Magnus convinced Wyndham to teach the New Men a chivalry code as ethics.^[10] One of the New Men was theInheritor, an evolved cockroach who developed megalomania and, unlike his peers, refused to follow Wyndham's orders and chivalry code. Wyndham reacted by banishing him into outer space.^[11]

Chthon[]

Russoff used the mystical book theDarkhold to try and cure his lycanthropy, freeing Chthon in the process. Wyndham, now known as the High Evolutionary, and the New Men, now known as theKnights of Wundagore, fought the demon and banished him again.

The Maximoff Twins[]

However, at that moment, a pregnant womanMagda gave birth to twins,Wanda andPietro, on the mountain in the citadel, and Chthon's power touched them, giving him a conduit into the world. The twins would grow up to become the mutant super-heroes the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, respectively. The High Evolutionary's New ManBova first tried to pass the twins on toRobert Frank, whose wife had died in childbirth,^[12] before giving them to a Romani couple who had lost their own children.^[13]

Gaining Powers[]

After clashes with the heroesThor^[14] and theHulk,^[15] the High Evolutionary decided to launch his citadel into outer space. There, Wyndham temporarily evolved himself into a disembodied intelligence.^[16] He was called back to Wundagore by a colony of New Men that had been left behind; it had fallen under the partial sway of theMan-Beast with the complicating factor of Wolverine and Kitty Pryde being there for a reconnaissance mission.^[17] Both god and beast were left with things to contemplate.

He later devolved himself back into his normal form, but now had internalized his powers, including the ability to evolve or devolve other creatures at will.

Counter-Earth[]

After his return to corporeality, the High Evolutionary took a ship disguised as an asteroid to the point inEarth's orbit on the opposite side of theSun and used his technology and abilities to advance a small chunk of terrestrial material into a nearly identical copy of Earth. His goal was to create an Earth without the corruption of evil, but while he was resting, theMan-Beast sneaked aboard his ship and tampered with the process to add that corruption himself. At the same time, the High Evolutionary had recovered the cocoon ofHim and was taking care of it until its inhabitant would emerge again in a new form. When Him was reborn, the High Evolutionary re-christened him as Adam Warlock, gave him theSoul Gem (which he had obtained by unrevealed circumstances), and enlisted him to protect Counter-Earth from the Man-Beast and his evil New Men.^[18]

WhenGalactus discovered the existence of Counter-Earth, the High Evolutionary created another army of New Men and sentGorr the Golden Gorilla to acquire the help of theFantastic Four against the Devourer of Worlds and his then-Herald, theDestroyer.^[19]

Counter-Earth was soon after stolen by thePrime Movers of Tarkus at the behest of theBeyonders to be put in a cosmic museum.^[20] Wyndham pursued those responsible to reclaim his creation, but when he learned of the Beyonders' nature and how unfathomably advanced they were compared to his own conceivable potential, he fell into despair and sought to end his own life. His sealed armor foiled conventional suicide attempts, but by goading the Hulk into a fight, he damaged his armor enough to turn his de-evolution powers on himself, reducing himself to protoplasmic goo.^[21]

TheEvolutionary War[]

The High Evolutionary later turned up alive and rededicated himself to his goal of advancing human evolution to a level to rival the Beyonders. Rather than limit his methods to his own subjects, he took his quest global and aimed to remove obstacles to his design by attacking genetic groups he deemed evolutionary dead ends and aggressively procuring resources towards his master project. To assist in these tasks, he recruited armored agents to carry out simultaneous raids around the world: Gatherers to identify and locate target groups and resources, Purifiers to suppress and neutralize targets, and heavily armed Eliminators for outright destruction of opposing institutions. Despite his increasingly violent methods, the High Evolutionary still considered himself a benevolent god, and believed by sterilizing beings or removing their powers while avoiding killing them, he was being sufficiently merciful.^[4][8]

Among the steps the High Evolutionary took in his crusade was discrediting the work of his former associate, cloning specialist Miles Warren. Wyndham still believed cloning was a dead end in genetic research and did everything he could to discredit the idea. After studying the Gwen Stacy clone created by Warren, he lied to Spider-Man and the woman, claiming that she was not a clone at all.^[22] Wyndham even went so far as to plant false journals of Warren's around Empire state University, claiming he had created a DNA recombinant virus that would re-engineer one person into the physical and genetic duplicate of another, rather than actual clones.^[23]

TheAvengers stopped him, though the High Evolutionary andHercules were exposed to the High Evolutionary'sGenesis Chamber and both of them became "more than a god", evolving out of existence.^[24]

The Black Galaxy Saga[]

The evolved essences of the High Evolutionary and Hercules were harvested by theCelestials and imprisoned and manipulated for unknown purposes in theBlack Galaxy. Eventually, both were returned to their human forms.^[25]

After his liberation, the High Evolutionary decided that rather than advancing humanity, he would create new gods and immortals using the unique matter that composed the Black Galaxy, which included theNew Immortals and theAnalyzer. He and his creations were on hand to witness the birth of anew Celestial, but viewing this event with all his hyper-evolved senses seemed to drive the High Evolutionary back to madness.^[26]

He and his adopted son, Adam Warlock, reunited in conflict with the Man-Beast.^[27]

TheSavage Land[]

Mount Wundagore came under attack by theAcolytes and theGenoshan Mutates led byExodus, who saw the High Evolutionary's artificial work as an affront to natural evolution. Wyndham was forced to flee Wundagore, and left a garrison of Knights under the command of Pietro Maximoff.^[28]

Fleeing to theSavage Land, Wyndham's experiments with the unstable Isotope E left him an evolutionary unstable addict, shifting from Neanderthal to hyper-evolved human states uncontrollably without regular exposure.^[29]

His mental instability progressed to the point that the High Evolutionary became infatuated withShanna the She-Devil, the wife ofKa-Zar. Infused with the power of the Savage Land's terraformer (commissioned by the Beyonders), she had become much like the High Evolutionary himself. The two became obsessed with each other, and nearly departed Earth to create a new world of their own, but Ka-Zar convinced Shanna otherwise. The High Evolutionary repented, agreeing to return Shanna to her normal state once he realized that the relationship shouldnot be pursued. He then restored the engines that kept the volcanoes active, saving the Savage Land.^{[citation needed]}

De-powering Mutants[]

The High Evolutionary devised the means to negate the X-factor in every mutant on the planet using satellite technology. He was manipulated into this by Mister Sinister, but the de-powered X-Men ultimately ended his scheme.^[30][31]

Endangered Species[]

The High Evolutionary was one of the scientists who the Beast consulted with after M-Day.^[32] In a separate experiment, he devised the means to restore Magneto's mutant powers after being decimated, using power harvested from the Dreaming Celestial.^[33][34]

Annihilation: Conquest[]

While working on restructuring theKree genome in a fortress inside a star, Adam Warlock brought Quasar and Moondragon to him after being overwhelmed byPhalanx warriors, who quickly invaded the High Evolutionary's vessel. OnceUltron was revealed to be the leader of the Phalanx militia, the High Evolutionary detonated the star, vaporizing his ship, Ultron, and the invading Phalanx warriors. He was then captured by the Phalanx and forced to transfer the essence of Ultron into the body of Adam Warlock, apparently killing him. However, the High Evolutionary was aware that Warlock's consciousness had survived and implied that Warlock would "lead the way" for the newGuardians of the Galaxy.^[35]

The War of the Four Cities[]

The Forever City of the High Evolutionary was one of the sites in the War of the Four Cities. Wyndham worked with the Future Foundation during the early days of the conflict.^[36]

The Zebra Children[]

When the High Evolutionary learned of the Origin Bombs launched at Earth by the Gardeners, he arrived in the Savage Land to study theZebra Children.^[37]

New Warriors[]

The High Evolutionary was later convinced byZuras of theEternals that theCelestials were going to come to Earth and judge it, for which Wyndham killed all of the New Men and sent numerousEvolutionaries to assault metahumans.^[38] He attempted to use a gene bomb that would have killed anything that was not human on the surface of Earth, but was stopped by theNew Warriors.^[39]

He later tried once again to build the bomb, even though the New Warriors pinned him down.^[40] This time, the Eternals arrived to help the High Evolutionary and defeated the New Warriors.^[41] After gaining a second wind, the New Warriors discovered that Zuras had been lying. Zuras blamed the High Evolutionary for his actions and blasted him, leaving him for dead.^[42]

Counter-Evolutionary[]

The High Evolutionary later returned to a somehow-restoredCounter-Earth, and used it as a test tube to create the perfect New Men, periodically performing a cleansing each time he noticed a "flaw" and starting all over again. The High Evolutionary was assisted by theMaster Scientist and his creationLuminous, who he created using the genetic templates of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. He did not know it yet, but some of these New Men "flaws" were given refuge in Lowtown by theLow Evolutionary.^[43] The High Evolutionary confronted theAvengers Unity Division when they interfered with his plan to destroy Lowtown, a refuge for a resistance formed by the High Evolutionary's rejects led by the Low Evolutionary.^[44] The High Evolutionary was defeated afterDoctor Voodoo unleashed upon him the thousands of souls of those he had exterminated. His mask was removed during the conflict, revealing his deformed face. The High Evolutionary was forced to flee through a portal with Luminous after being beaten up by Quicksilver.^[45]

TheEternity War[]

Upon returning to Counter-Earth at some point, the High Evolutionary was approached by theMaker, the Reed Richards froman alternate universe, who wanted his help with a mission that was given to him by theMolecule Man: to evolve the entireMultiverse.^[46] TheUltimates later encountered the High Evolutionary and the Maker watching theInfinity Watch fight theAspirants created by theFirst Firmament. The two of them then harvested the energies of the Aspirants and were able to destroy theSuperflow that separated the different universes, thus succeeding in bringing every universe together into a single reality.^[47] The damage was subsequently reversed by the combined efforts of the Ultimates and theirnamesake team from the Maker's universe.^[48]

Worlds Collide[]

After continuing his work on Counter-Earth, the High Evolutionary targeted the real Earth. First, Wyndham used his technology to accelerate Counter-Earth's orbit, causing it to lap Earth every few minutes. Because the planets differed in vibrational frequency, they simply phased through each other. The High Evolutionary subsequently sent a meteor towards Earth containing a device that altered the planet's vibrational frequency, slowly syncing the vibrations of the two planets until they would eventually merge.^[49][50]

The Avengers and theChampions fought to prevent this. TheFalcon of the Avengers andViv of theChampions were unexpectedly transported to Counter-Earth, where they were captured by the High Evolutionary's Ani-Men and brought before him. The High Evolutionary decided to evolve the two heroes. In Viv's case, he transformed her into a human.^[3]

The Champions eventually learned from one of the New Men that the High Evolutionary intended to crash Counter-Earth into Earth, destroying both worlds in the process, in an insane attempt to further evolution by starting things all over again from scratch. The Avengers and the Champions traveled to Counter-Earth to stop the High Evolutionary's plan and rescued the Falcon and Viv. As the Evolutionary planned to escape using a teleporter, the Avengers and the Champions confronted him. As he fled, the heroes struck him with energy attacks, causing him to fall into his teleporter as it malfunctioned, seemingly causing him to die.^[51]

It was also revealed that the High Evolutionary had a compassionate clone called theHigher Evolutionary whose personality caused the High Evolutionary to hook up to the Orbit-Engine in which his removal would destroy Counter-Earth.^[52]

However, the High Evolutionary survived, but was transformed completely into sentient digital data and was trapped in an unknown dimension. While evolving the life on the planet that he had landed on, he unexpectedly encountered Viv, who was also sent to the unknown dimension after deactivating the machine that would have caused Earth and Counter-Earth to collide. The High Evolutionary explained his situation and revealed that he could not return to their world because his digital existence required a connection. The High Evolutionary then revealed that he could use Viv as a means to return to their world because Viv was creating asecond Viv to replace her and he believed that the second Viv could be that connection that could take both of them back to their dimension. Viv refused to take the High Evolutionary back to their dimension and managed to use her connection to the second Viv to transport herself back home alone, stranding the High Evolutionary in the unknown dimension.^[53]

The Knights of Wundagore developed a machine that allowed them to lock on the High Evolutionary's position in the dimension he was trapped in and bring him back. As soon as he came back, Wyndham stated his disappointment in the Counter-Earth experiment and left.^[54]

Hunted[]

• Artificially Evolved Physiology: The High Evolutionary was exposed to his Evolutionary Accelerator machine, giving him superhuman abilities by accelerating his personal evolution. The High Evolutionary has shifted between various levels of evolution over the years, sometimes deliberately, sometimes not, with different power levels as well. Often he maintains some level of superhuman power while incorporating the Evolutionary Accelerator machine into his armor, letting him evolve himself further at will. The unstableIsotope E caused the High Evolutionary to uncontrollably fluctuate between god-like powers and Neanderthal-level abilities and intelligence.^[56] Among the abilities the High Evolutionary has demonstrated, thanks to the Evolutionary Accelerator, are:
  • Superhuman Strength
  • Superhuman Intelligence: The High Evolutionary has evolved his own brain to its full potential; he has virtually unlimited knowledge and intellectual ability.^[57]
  • Superhuman Durability
  • Regeneration: Augmented by his armor's automatic Evolutionary Accelerator equipment, the High Evolutionary is virtually unkillable. Even after being ripped to pieces and pulverized into organic jelly by the Hulk,^[21] the High Evolutionary evolved out of his injuries and was fully restored.^[24]
  • Telepathy: The High Evolutionary possesses vast psionic abilities and could easily repelMoondragon's psychic scans.^[58]
  • Astral Projection: The High Evolutionary can separate his spirit from his physical form and can survive in this state for an indefinite period of time.
  • Self-Levitation
  • Mental Invisibility: Preventing detection by other powerful telepaths, which he can extend to an entire world.
  • Force Fields
  • Mass Manipulation: The High Evolutionary can increase and decrease his own size/mass and can grow to a maximum height of 300 feet.^[59]
  • Psychokinesis: The High Evolutionary possesses vast psionic abilities that enable him to rearrange matter.^[57]
  • Concussive Force Blasts
  • Telekinesis: The High Evolutionary could forceTalon to stab herself with her claws.^[60]
  • Plasmatic Rays: The High Evolutionary can release destructive blasts of energy from his hands that have proved able to incinerateTalon and even herAdamantium claws.^[60]
  • Total Recall Memory
  • Artificial Evolution: Capable of forcibly evolving or devolving life forms at an accelerated rate.^[57]
  • Immortality: Allegedly, at one point Wyndham managed to alter his own genetic code to finally achieve eternal life.^[3]
  • Dimensional Travel: The High Evolutionary can travel extradimensionally.^[57]

• Super-Genius Intelligence: Skilled in science, especially relating to genetics and engineering. Brilliant theoretician.^[57]
  • Master Geneticist: The High Evolutionary can evolve various biological life forms to a Lamarckian level through their knowledge of genetics and bioengineering. It is even capable of increasing the intelligence of a non-sentient living being, evolving it to sentient, as is the case of theNew Men.^[57]

Evolutionary Exoskeleton: Most of the High Evolutionary's powers are derived from his protective suit, which also provides its wearer with amazing protection against all physical attacks and protection from energy, psionic, or magical attacks.

• Automatic Defense: The suit is designed to protect its wearer at all costs and, as such, works automatically to prevent disasters from affecting the High Evolutionary.
• Reconstitution Protocol: Body armor, including micro-circuitry containing his complete genetic information and thus capable of restoring him to life in the event of his death. Thus the suit can, in time, regenerate his body or even create a whole new body for him. This process can be done even if nothing but a tiny piece of the body armor is left.
• Life-Support System: The suit provides complete life support for him, automatic recycling his air and providing him with food and water.

• The High Evolutionary owns a spaceworthy Citadel of Science on Transia's Mount Wundagore, a research fortress in the Savage Land, an upstate New York castle, research facilities beneath several major cities, and space facilities ranging from asteroid bases to orbital ships to the worldship named New Wundagore.
• He dislikes cloning, as he regards it as stagnating evolution, whereas he seeks to speed it up.^[22][9]
  • However, his aversion to cloning didnot stop him from creatingNobilus from Thor's beard samples. In addition, he also made other clones, such asLuminous (who was a binary clone of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch), theHigher Evolutionary, theSons of Kraven, andMiriam Drew.

• Fantasy
• Sci-fi
• Marvel