It’s Trivia Tuesday! Tell us, which of the below characters did Stan Lee have a hand in co-creating?
A. Unicorn
B. Ultragirl
C. Unspoken
D. Unus the Untouchable
And the answers are…
A. Unicorn and D. Unus the Untouchable!
But before we get to those two, let’s check out the other ‘U’ characters.
Ultragirl
Ultragirl first landed in the pages of Marvel Comics in November 1996 in her own title, Ultragirl #1, from writer Barbara Kesel and artist Leonard Kirk.
Unspoken
The brainchild of Dan Slott, Khoi Pham, and Christos N. Gage, the supervillain Unspoken made his mark in Mighty Avengers #27 in September 2009.
And now onto Stan’s co-creations!
Unicorn
A few Marvel supervillains operate under the name Unicorn, but we’re focusing on the original here, Milos Masaryk. Co-created by Stan Lee and Don Heck, Unicorn first leapt into the pages of Tales of Suspense #56 in August 1964. Over his comicbook life, he partnered with such baddies as Count Nefaria, the Mandarin, Red Ghost and many more, usually in attempts to bring Iron Man down. (Though he also attacked the Fantastic Four at Reed Richard and Susan Storm’s wedding! How rude.) Unicorn’s helmet originally was the source of all his power; he utilized it to cast energy, project force fields and even levitate objects. Eventually, he endures radiation treatments that bestow him with super strength and stamina. But that comes with a downside, too, because those artificial powers ultimately negatively influence his health.
Unus the Untouchable
I mean, that’s a Stan name right there. This supervillain made his Marvel debut in the pages of X-Men vol. 1 #8 back in November 1964, straight from the brains of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Born Angelo Unuscione in Italy, Angelo re-named himself Gunther Bain when he moved to America. The “untouchable” part of his moniker comes from the fact that he is capable of creating a force field around his body. This comes in handy when it’s time to deflect select objects and energy that threaten him. On top of that, Unus is also an exceptional wrestler and a skilled athlete. When that athletic ability mixes with his invisible energy barrier, watch out!
Every couple of weeks, we’ll spotlight some of Stan’s most obscure co-creations through trivia, starting with A and ending with Z! Stay tuned for ‘V,’ coming soon!