Marvel Comicshas a rich menagerie of villains who are as equally responsible as its heroes for creating the iconic stories Marvel is known for. However, not every Marvel villain is as well-known as others, despite their best efforts. That said, there is one villain who has the potential to be considered one of Marvel’s most dangerous villains if only the publisher would give him a chance.
In 1977,Marvel introduced a supervillainwho broke the metrics of most other villains at the time. This particular character possessed incredible god-like powers, tempered by a broken mind.
This volatile concoction transformed a typical physicist into one of Marvel’s most powerful monstrosities. However, despite this villain’s incredible gravity-warping powers, which have easily dispatched the Avengers multiple times, he has ultimately been relegated to B-tier status.This is the story of Graviton, the Master of Gravity.
Marvel’s Coolest Villain Has An Astonishingly Successful Origin
Graviton, also known as Doctor Dr. Franklin Hall, first debuted inAvengers #158 (1977) -by Jim Shooter and Sal Buscema - as a physicist working on teleportation technology. As Hall was attempting to calibrate one of his machines, he accidentally overloaded the power,causing an explosion that fused Doctor Hall with sub-nuclear graviton particles.After recovering from the accident, Hall learned that he had developed the power to control gravity, allowing the scientist the ability to fly, launch concussive blasts, and crush his enemies in collapsing gravitation fields.
Hall originally believed that he would be shunned for his power but instead struck fear into the hearts of his colleagues, who now served him implicitly. Taking to his newfound powers, Doctor Hall officially dubbed himself Graviton, designed a new costume, and barred all outside communication while he continued his research. However, after successfullydispatching the Avengers,Graviton’s power began to transform him into a black holeuntil Thor banished Graviton to another dimension. While Hall would return, this would ultimately mark his descent in popularity until becoming one of Marvel’s most unknown villains.
Graviton Is An Underused Avengers-Level Threat
He Has Defeated The Heroes On Numerous Occassions
When Graviton and the Avengers first met, the budding villain easily defeated Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Despite the combined might of Captain America, Vision, and the Scarlet Witch,Graviton immediately proved his superiority after imprisoning the Avengersin his research facility. Frankly, if it wasn’t for the instability of Graviton’s self-consuming powers, he could haveeasily defeated Thorwhen their climactic conflict concluded inAvengers #159.Yet, each time Graviton has returned, his debut ultimately falls flat on its face.
Graviton quickly annihilated the Thunderbolts and the West Coast Avengers until the anti-hero Moonstone convinced Hall to stop his siege until his powers once again collapsed in on himself, yet again sending Graviton to another dimension.
That said, Doctor Hall eventually returned from the alternate dimension after Baron Zemo and the Thunderbolts unintentionally summoned Graviton back to Earth-616. Upon returning to his home dimension inThunderbolts #17 (1998), Graviton quickly annihilated the Thunderbolts andthe West Coast Avengersuntil the anti-hero Moonstone convinced Hall to stop his siege until his powers once again collapsed in on himself, yet again sending Graviton to another dimension. Once again,we see Graviton not defeated by the band of heroes, but instead by his own power.Without this blatant limitation, Graviton would have easily and single-handedly defeated three full-sized hero teams.
Graviton Possesses Psychological Depth Beyond His Powers
The Villain Is Torn Apart By A Splintered Psyche
Unlike many static, one-dimensional supervillains, Graviton’s powers are accompanied by profound mental instability. Following his first defeat, the grief of it eventually drove him to lose control. He finally snapped when he believed that his lover had died, triggering the first of Graviton’s gravitational collapses. Alongside his general instability, Graviton also began suffering from amnesia, now completely losing his grasp on reality. Likewise,Graviton’s psyche continued to plummet each time he was banished outside his home dimension.
But its this psychiatric weakness that ultimately holds back Graviton as a character while still giving him depth. These psychological breaks reveal a flawed yet fascinating character. While his frequent bouts of psychosis make him easy to exploit,a flaw that has condemned Graviton to his B-list status,Marvel as a publisherneeds to exploit the character’s psyche too. Picture a storyline where this god-like villain warps reality in accordance to his crumbling mind; entire landscapes would collapse under his raw, unstable power.
The Villain Has Tremendous Untapped Storytelling Potential
God-Like Powers And A Broken Mind Make For A Great Story
Graviton represents a hybrid of immense cosmic powers and frequent struggles with his unresolvable psychiatric state.He is an unstable man given the powers of a godwith no resources or allies to keep his powers in check. If given the chance, Graviton could command planets, generate spacetime anomalies, and rule over swaths of cosmic space as a true god among the stars. Yet, Marvel has relegated the villain as the B-list sidekick to other traditionalB-list villains like The Hood.
While Marvel favorites like Thanos or Doctor Doom headline the comics’ universe-shaking events, Graviton lingers in occasional filler arcs.
Gravitonpossesses all the comparative strengths of other characters like the Beyonders or Molecule Manwhile tackling the same emotional depths that characters like Wolverine have. Yet, whileMarvel favorites like Thanosor Doctor Doom headline the comics’ universe-shaking events, Graviton lingers in occasional filler arcs. As of now, his potential is purely speculative as Marvel has yet to fully give this character a chance, failing to flesh out what could easily become an A-list villain.
A Potential Future For Graviton In Marvel Comics
We Could See An Event Horizon Threaten To Destroy The Cosmos
Future Graviton stories should heavily focus on the relationship between his powers and his psyche. A potential storyline could see Doctor Hall’s power grow proportionally to his splintered ego, now subconsciously warping physics around him. Soon,Graviton’s powers could threaten an event horizon, promising the inevitable birth of a supermassive black hole suddenly appearing on Earth. Meanwhile, as reality slowly collapses into itself, the Avengers would be forced to choose whether to kill the villain or find a more sympathetic approach. While this story has been attempted, Marvel needs to fully dive into Graviton’s full possibilities as a character.
The other unique thing about Graviton as a villain is that he’s never been characterized as a strictly evil villain by most of Marvel’s metrics. Unlike Thanos orKang the Conqueror, Graviton has never been shown intending to hurt people. Yes, he threatened his colleagues and fought the Avengers, but the latter was done out of relative self-defense. When Doctor Hall returned to Earth the first time, he only attacked the Thunderbolts out of confusion. Given his damaged mind,it’s more likely that his villainous behavior comes from him being a victim of his own brain.
Graviton is truly an A-list villain and a top-tier threat thatMarvelhas yet to fully realize, depriving fans of one of the coolest characters the publisher has ever conceived.
