Intelligencia

Comics

From his gamma-irradiated origins to his relationships with Bruce Banner and General Thaddeus Ross, learn all about the villainous Samuel Sterns, founder of the Intelligencia.

Comics

This big head is going to change the world!

Games

Discover how Dr. George Tarleton became the Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing!

They are some of the most brilliant minds on the planet, and some of the most dangerous criminals as well. United they may achieve things denied to them on their own, and the world would be at the mercy of the Intelligencia.

Meeting of the Minds

Many years ago, theLeader had a vision of assembling the world's most intelligent criminals for the sole purpose of plundering the greatest intellectual treasure of all time – The Library of Alexandria. The Library contained writings from some of the most renowned minds of all time, including arcane studies such as alchemy and transmutation. The Leader wanted to rescue this knowledge from those who didn't truly deserve to possess it.

The first genius he approached was theWizard, both for his experience in working within a team dynamic as leader of theFrightful Four and for his ingenious creations utilizing anti-gravity technology. The next on his list was a former member of theMasters of Evil, the notoriousEgghead. However useful Egghead's brilliance was, the Leader had to explain the Intelligencia was not a combative team, since Egghead mainly suggested they kill the object of his obsession – Henry Pym. TheMad Thinker was the third member to join followed by theRed Ghost. Of course the Thinker had hisAwesome Android for protection just as the Ghost had his Super Apes, and both were long-time enemies of the fabledFantastic Four, proving they could hold their own.

Team Effort

Using technology that required all of them to operate, the Intelligencia's first and greatest accomplishment was sneaking inside the home of theEternals and stealing their portion of the Library of Alexandria right from under their noses. In addition to great knowledge, the group couldn't pass up stealing munitions and other random artifacts. The Intelligencia needed a stronghold to house the Library, and the place they chose was Latveria, home of their last member, Doctor Doom. When the group wasn't working together, they each pursued separate ventures – mostly ending with them incarcerated – but those who remained free would liberate the others and sometimes unaffiliated villains just to avoid anyone making a connection between them. Unfortunately, Egghead became a tad overzealous in his quest to kill Pym, and he took on theAvengers solo which resulted in his death.

Thinking the Intelligencia finished, the surviving members squabbled over what to do since the Library of Alexandria was not completed. The Leader was prepared for such a setback and enlisted the murderous M.O.D.O.K. to join them. With their ranks restored, the nations of Wakanda and Atlantis, homes of the Black Panther andNamor, the Sub-Mariner respectively, were subject to the same fate as Olympia, and the final pieces belonging to Library of Alexandria was theirs.

Fall and Rise

The Intelligencia were betrayed by Doom as he was unwilling to share the benefits of all the knowledge the Library possessed, and they were expelled from Latveria. The Leader abandoned his group as they were locked in combat with Doom's army, knowing the despot could not be defeated on his own territory, and he hid away in seclusion. Time passed, and even though the Leader thought the Intelligencia was finished, M.O.D.O.K. continued to carry out what they started. He found the Leader before Hulk waged war with Earth, and M.O.D.O.K. explained his plan to exact revenge on all those who ever wronged them, including Doom, and the key to their success was theHulk. The Leader insisted they would not be able to control the brute, but M.O.D.O.K. told him of his plan to create a Hulk they can bargain with – aRed Hulk. Besides gathering most of their old allies back into the fold, the Intelligencia expanded their roster by adding a now schizophrenicDoc Samson, aRed She-Hulk, the daughter of the Hulk,Lyra, and it even appeared General Ross was working with them.

Red Hulk and Ross were constantly at odds with each other, and in a devastating turn of events, Ross confronted the Red Hulk in the Redeemer armor, fully intending to kill the beast, but Red Hulk ended the general's life instead. It turned out Ross was merely a Life Model Decoy controlled by the Leader, but it was vital to their plans. Still, M.O.D.O.K. was undeterred from achieving their ultimate goal. Since then, the Intelligencia used the Frightful Four to kidnapReed Richards, the Cosmic Hulk to seize Doctor Doom, and the Red She-Hulk to attack the Avengers and escape with Henry Pym. The Red Ghost, along with his Super Apes, managed to abductBeast and T'Challa, the former Black Panther, despite interference from theX-Men and Red Hulk.

Plans in Motion

Bruce Banner discovered the Intelligencia had his wife, Betty, and assumed she was their captive. He sentAmadeus Cho,A-Bomb andKorg of theWarbound to liberate her while he and his group attacked the Intelligencia's mobile base, theHellcarrier. As he andSkaar, with the help of Lyra - secretly working with Banner all along - made their way to the chamber where the smartest minds of the world lay incapacitated,Wolverine, Namor andSpider-Man took on the opposition.

Meantime, Red Hulk infiltrated a separate part of the Hellcarrier while members of the Avengers, Fantastic Four and X-Men waited to back him up. Red Hulk, privy to the Intelligencia's plans, was shocked to find the body of She-Hulk, thought to be held in stasis, missing as he was assaulted by the Thinker's newGammadroid. The android did a number on Red Hulk, but it was torn apart by his superior strength just before M.O.D.O.K. unleashed a devastating mind blast on him. Injured and weakened, Red Hulk was no match for Cosmic Hulk and was imprisoned. It was at that time, his backup plan was set in motion - Deadpool.

Triumphant At Last

Banner got dealt a serious blow when he found out Betty wanted nothing to do with him, but the worst was yet to come. Red She-Hulk was let loose on Banner's group just as Samson confronted Red Hulk, and even though Banner had numbers on his side and Deadpool leaped to action, it was too late. The Intelligencia activated their master stroke creating an army of Hulks out ofA.I.M. soldiers and the heroes previously working against them. Red Hulk was too injured to stand against their superior power, and Banner had been outsmarted, captured and inserted into the machine imprisoning the minds of the other kidnapped victims. The Intelligencia had won!

Arrogance Leads to Defeat

Only weeks prior to their victory, the Intelligencia used the Gammadroid to find a time machine stolen from Doom byThundra in order to peer one year into their future. What they saw pleased them, but in actuality, it was a fabricated vision planted by Banner to instill a certain amount of overconfidence which would hopefully result in the Intelligencia's downfall.

After Banner was captured and his mind imprisoned, Doom's mind showed it was too strong to remain trapped, and he convinced Banner that he was trapped too. The combined willpower of both men was enough to damage the Intelligencia's machine and allow them to break free. Doom escaped while Banner freed the others before acting out his final strategy. He knew the only way to defeat the Intelligencia was to siphon all the gamma energy out of all the A.I.M. soldiers and the "Hulked-Out Heroes" into a vessel that could contain it all. The only vessel capable of handling that much power was Banner himself. Before Banner reabsorbed all the radiation, Amadeus Cho used his augmented powers to revert M.O.D.O.K. back to his human form just as Red Hulk did the same to the Leader. Once Banner completed his task, the Hulk was reborn, and the remainder of the Intelligencia was on the run.

Outlaw Roundup

Wizard was the first to be caught by She-Hulk and Lyra, and he was brought to Banner and imprisoned. He vowed revenge on the jade giantesses but quickly turned on his teammates, bargaining for luxury items in return. The Red Ghost and his Super Apes were the next to be captured even though they nearly escaped by damaging the ship carrying them to Banner’s detention center, forcing an emergency landing. Klaw and the Mad Thinker had fled to Switzerland, but the She-Hulks brought them back after defeating an army of Gammadroids and the Mad Thinker's latest creation -Byte. The Wizard was content to have betrayed his former allies because despite their new hatred of him, he had asked for all the appropriate components to turn his cell into a rocket and escape Banner's penitentiary. He attacked Lyra during her school's prom, severely injured her classmate and forced her to reveal her true identity to everyone in attendance. Wizard's surprise attack had Lyra on the defensive until the She-Hulk showed up and took him down, using the Wizard's own weapons against him.

And Now…Ultron!

Somehow the Wizard avoided incarceration, and the other captured members of the Intelligencia were freed from Banner's prison. They reformed the team along with MODOK Superior, an artificial life form with a cloned brain from the original MODOK. An alien energy signature belonging to an unidentifiedspaceknight armor, compelled them to investigate and foundSpider-Woman doing the same. They captured her and took the armor back to their base, but the armor's uncategorized energy trail enabled the Avengers to find them. A brief battle ensued, but once the armor was activated, both teams were dealt a serious blow.Ultron programmed his artificial intelligence into the armor while off-world, manipulated the armor to adapt his form and unleashed a devastating blast, incapacitating all until such a time he was prepared to challenge them.