Voice (comics)

Publication history

Voice first appeared in Tales to Astonish #42 and was created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Don Heck.

Fictional character biography

Jason Lorne Cragg was born in Gary, Indiana. He was an unspectacular radio announcer from the Midwest until "ionizing atoms" activated his latent mutation after they escaped from a nearby atomic experimental laboratory and went through his microphone. Jason's voice changed to an unnatural tone that caused anyone who heard him to follow his commands. Thus, he became "The Man with the Voice of Doom." He began to get rich with the profits he earns, working as a public orator. He then uses his powers on the people to cause them to fight Ant-Man upon arriving in New York. At a soap box derby, Jason used his powers to make the people think that Ant-Man was a villain. Hank shrunk himself to evade being controlled by Jason Cragg. To evade being found by people with metal detectors, he ditched his helmet and size-changing canisters making him vulnerable when Jason told him to jump off the pier. When it was said that he drowned, one of Hank's loyal ants saved him. After donning a duplicate costume, Ant-Man confronted Jason at a TV studio where he was going to broadcast that Ant-Man was a villain until Ant-Man arrived and used a gun loaded with microbes that caused Laryngitis resulting in Jason's voice becoming hoarse. His control over the people was severed and he was almost run over by an angry mob.

Jason later became a bum on the street until Madame X found him and told him that her organization can help him. Hungarian surgeons performed micro-operations on his tongue and vocal cords. They also built him a rig that will amplify his voice with digital perception. He joined the People's Defense Force as a Soviet agent and worked with some of Hank Pym's old enemies as well as Quicksilver (who was manipulated by Maximus to be an enemy of the Avengers) and used his powers to stop the West Coast Avengers and used them to hunt down Hank Pym and was stopped by his "long believed to be dead" wife Maria Trovaya.

He then began working as a professional criminal and took control of Mantis (or a fragment of her) and used her to attack the West Coast Avengers until he was thwarted by Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch and sent to the Vault.

During the Acts of Vengeance, he was freed from the Vault and hired by the Red Skull. With Crossbones, he was sent by the Red Skull to retrieve the Controller to break into the Smith Building. Alongside Crossbones and the Controller, and they battled and were thwarted by Captain America.

Following the Acts of Vengeance, Magneto had abducted the Red Skull. Hoping to find his boss, Crossbones, Voice, and the Skeleton Crew went to search for the Red Skull. The Skeleton Crew investigated the Hellfire Club and the Red Skull wasn't there. They encountered Selene the Black Queen who imprisoned the legs of the Skeleton Crew members. Voice used his powers on her until she used her mind to choke him and crush his speakers unless he released her from his control. He released her and she began to choke him again and drain his life force until she was stopped by Captain America and Diamondback. The Skeleton Crew took the injured Voice back to the Smith building.

Voice resurfaces in All-New, All-Different Marvel as a contractor for Cross Technological Enterprises's "Lackey App" (a knock-off of Power Broker Inc.'s Hench App). He was hired by Darla Deering's boyfriend Paul Scheer to interrupt a charity basketball game that the two were attending, but he was defeated by Ant-Man. As Scheer was being arrested by the police, he claimed to have unintentionally hired Voice due to mistaking the Lackey App for a game "like Candy Crush or something."

Powers and abilities

Exposure to "ionized atom" radiation gave the Voice the ability to control anyone within the sound of his voice to believe he is speaking the truth and to obey his every command. His voice is even effective when transmitted by artificial means (e.g. radio and the vocal amplifier attached to his costume) but it has to be clearly heard and understood, and can be obstructed and sometimes be negated by loud noises. After he lost this power, microsurgery on his tongue and vocal cords restored this power. The Voice wears synthetic stretch fabric and body armor including a neck brace supporting a specially modified digital precision vocal amplifier, allowing his powers to work over greater distances and louder noises.

It was revealed in the new profile for Voice in the Avengers Assemble one-shot (reprinted in the Marvel: Heroic Age TPB) that he may indeed be a latent mutant.