Headmen

Publication history

The Headmen first appeared (as a team) in The Defenders #21 (March 1975) and were created by Steve Gerber, Sal Buscema, and Sal Trapani.

Fictional team biography

The Headmen are a group of would-be masterminds who use magic, science, and surgery to gain superpowers. They fought the Defenders, She-Hulk, and Spider-Man on different occasions.

Defenders writer Steve Gerber formed the Headmen from 1950s anthological horror-story characters appearing in the reprint title Weird Wonder Tales #7 (Dec. 1974). That comic's five reprinted stories included the introduction of Dr. Arthur Nagan, the Gorilla-Man, from Mystery Tales #21 (art by Bob Powell); Chondu the Yogi, from Tales of Suspense #9 (art by George Evans); and Dr. Jerry Morgan, a.k.a. Shrunken Bones, from World of Fantasy #11 (art by Angelo Torres).

In The Defenders #32 (Feb. 1976), the Headmen were joined by Gerber's newly created Ruby Thursday (Thursday Rubinstein), who ran for President of the United States and was the instigator of the death of another Gerber creation, Omega the Unknown. In the same issue, Doctor Strange declared that Chondu's real name was Harvey Schlemerman, and Jack Norris, husband of the woman whose body was being used by Valkyrie, claimed to have seen him perform.

The Headmen made an appearance in John Byrne's She-Hulk comic, during a period when he was reviving Marvel villains. They had kidnapped She-Hulk for the purpose of giving Chondu a slightly more normal body than he currently sported. She-Hulk had temporarily been convinced her head had been detached and placed on a life-support system but this was not true, as she discovered with the aid of Spider-Man.

They also turned up for one issue of the Defenders vol. 2 relaunch, by Kurt Busiek and Erik Larsen. Chondu had an arachnid cyborg body for this outing.

The Headmen next appear in Heroes for Hire Vol. 2 when they have reprogrammed a Doombot to team with them to fight Humbug.

Members