When genetics student Herbert Wyndham develops a controversial serum that alters genetic code, he gets expelled. Though, the unethical Wyndham continues his experiments, establishing a Citadel of Science on Wundagore Mountain where he enhances his intellect and creates evolved, anthropomorphic beings.
Mad Geneticist
It’s 1928. College student Herbert Edgar Wyndham looks up to heretical biologist Dr. Nathaniel Essex, AKA Mister Sinister, and conducts genetic experiments in his mother’s suburban London basement, attempting with limited success to evolve rats in his genetic accelerator. At that year’s International Conference on Genetics in Geneva, Switzerland, Herbert befriends fellow scientist Jonathon Drew, a Yale arthropod specialist. While drinking with Drew, Herbert encounters a mysterious stranger (actually the Inhuman Phaeder, father of Maelstrom) who hands Herbert papers containing a blueprint for breaking the genetic code. Documents in hand, Wyndham returns to Oxford University and develops a serum capable of controlled genetic alteration, which he later names Isotope A. When 1930 rolls around, his professors frown upon his single-minded focus and expel Wyndham.
That same year, Wyndham returns to his mother’s basement while his mother goes to live with her sister and finally succeeds, evolving his Dalmatian, Dempsey, into humanoid form, but hunters shoot Dempsey. Halfway through 1930, via a partnership with Jonathon Drew, Wyndham moves to the eastern side of Transia’s Wundagore Mountain to land Drew’s wife Meriem had inherited from her uncle. Herbert finances a lab for them by selling his mother’s home, but their discovery of uranium on the land in July of that same year soon allows them virtually unlimited finances. With their newfound wealth, they purchase large quantities of additional land from neighbor Baron (Gregor) Russoff. In exchange for financing his rocketry, German rocket scientist Horace Grabsheid (later Grayson) designs their “Citadel of Science” (named Wundagore). Grabsheid builds a spaceship into their base, and subsequently continues upgrading the Citadel.
Again, Phaeder intervenes, bringing Herbert an army of underground dwelling Moloids as a labor force to build the Citadel. Construction proceeded, but Drew’s daughter Jessica fell ill in March 1931, affected by the radioactive uranium. Herbert and Jonathon devise an emergency treatment, injecting her with Drew’s experimental spider serum, subjecting her to Wyndham’s evolving ray, and then placing her into extended suspended animation. A month later, a werewolf kills Meriem Drew on the adjoining Russoff estate; Wyndham is also attacked but survives unscathed, and Jonathon, shattered by the loss of both wife and child, wordlessly leaves Wundagore. As such, Wyndham designs a suit of protective silver-plated armor and captures the werewolf (who turned out to be Gregor Russoff), but not before it scared off Wyndham’s Moloids. When 1932 arrives, Wyndham develops a newer mutagen, Isotope B, and evolves several animals into human form and sentience, his first dozen “New Men,” including the Guernsey cow Bova Ayrshire, AKA Bova, Tagar (tiger), and Porga (pig). Wyndham tinkers with Grabsheid’s spaceflight technology, building flycycles--anti-gravitic atomic steeds that his New Men would ride into battle.
Jonathon Drew returns in March 1932, having been possessed by 6th-century wizard Magnus, a former disciple of Morgan le Fay. Drew's exposure to the energies of Chthon, an ancient demon imprisoned within Wundagore mountain, attracted Morgan. Magnus/Drew warns Wyndham that the Citadel was constructed over Chthon's prison, but Wyndham believes that his partner's grief had driven him mad. Wyndham refuses to leave, and Magnus stays in Wundagore, each man watching over the other.
HE's colleague Miles Warren, AKA Carrion, begins his own experiments. When one of them, an evolved jackal (who later believed himself to be Warren’s son), escapes into a nearby town Wyndham asks Warren to leave. Warren convinces several New Men that Wyndham values them only as experiments, and those New Men depart with Warren. Magnus begins training the remaining New Men and, over the next several years, instills in them a code of conduct derived from the chivalry of Magnus’ youth; these “Knights of Wundagore” start to respectfully refer to Wyndham as the Lord High Evolutionary (HE). During this time, HE evolves a cockroach into a New Man, but when it refuses to follow the Knights’ code of chivalry, HE banishes it to space. Decades later, the cockroach, now calling itself the Inheritor, returns to Earth and battles Bruce Banner, AKA the Hulk, before devolving back into a common roach.
The Strongest Survives
The High Evolutionary evolves his brain to its full potential; he has virtually unlimited knowledge and intellectual ability. His vast psionic powers enable him to rearrange matter. The full range of his powers is unrevealed; he can evolve and devolve life, increase and decrease his own size/mass, and travel extradimensionally.
His abilities have fluctuated markedly due to his previously unstable evolutionary status, ranging from that of a virtually god-like being of pure intellect and energy to that of a gorilla-like man of barely human intellect unable to utilize the weaponry in his own armor. He frequently uses machinery to control evolutionary effects, and his armor safeguards him of its own accord.
He owns a space-worthy Citadel of Science on Transia’s Mount Wundagore, a research fortress in the Savage Land, an upstate New York castle, research facilities beneath several major cities, and space facilities ranging from asteroid bases to orbital ships to the worldship New Wundagore.
Revolutionary Enemies
Taking pointers from the diabolical genetics-obsessed Dr. Nathaniel Essex, HE is a pupil of Essex only to be betrayed by him.
The High Evolutionary’s creations don’t always turn out the way he plans. From his evolved cockroach known as Inheritor, who fails to follow the rules set forth by his Knights of Wundargore, to Man-Beast, who seeks revenge upon his creator, HE creates his own worst enemies.
With his never-ending goals to evolve humanity, HE often goes up against Super Heroes, including members of the Avengers and the X-Men—both of which are occasional allies—the young team of Super Heroes, the Champions, and the New Warriors. He even faces a few maniacal Super Villains such as Ultron, Miles Warren, AKA Carrion, and En Sabah Nur, AKA Apocalypse. HE also tangles with the sky gods known as the Celestials, cosmic super-beings who also toy with creation.
Creating Evolved Allies
Adam Warlock, AKA Magus, is a fierce defender of the High Evolutionary, even protecting him against his other more unruly creations. While they don’t always agree and occasionally come to blows, HE sees Warlock as a surrogate son.
HE is the creator and leader of the New Men, Knights of Wundagore, Animutants/Animen, Godpack, New Immortals, Nu Kree, and Master Kree. While all of these creations are typically loyal to him, he wastes almost no opportunity to dispatch of any that he deems a failure.
His New Men are evolved animals gifted with intelligence and most notably includes the Guernsey cow Bova. Bova joins HE’s Knights of Wundagore alongside other New Men Count Tagar, White Tiger, Man-Beast, as well as mutants Pietro Maximoff, AKA Quicksilver and Logan/James Howlett, AKA Wolverine, and wielder of the Ebony Blade, Dane Whitman, AKA Black Knight.
Demanding Humanity’s Evolution
In 1958, Gregor Russoff used the Darkhold, a powerful black magic tome created by Chthon, in an effort to cure himself of his lycanthropy, allowing Chthon to break free. While the Knights of Wundagore and Wyndham battled Chthon’s mystical forces, Magnus managed to rebind Chthon; however, a pregnant woman, Magda, had sought sanctuary in the Citadel, and the delivery of her twin children, midwifed by Bova, coincided with Chthon’s defeat. A segment of his powers touched the twins, giving Chthon another avenue of access to Earth. Seventeen of eft not long thereafter, asking Bova to find someone to raise her children Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, who would later become Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, and Magnus/Drew also departed. Herbert sent Porga to locate parents for the twins, and he brought Americans Robert, AKA Whizzer, and Madeline Frank, AKA Miss America, to the citadel. Madeline was pregnant herself and died while delivering a stillborn child at the Citadel. Bova told Robert the twins were his, but when she also informed him that Madeline had died, he fled into the night. Unable to find suitable guardians, Wyndham placed the twins into suspended animation, and years later personally delivered the twins to Porga’s next choice, Django and Marya Maximoff, a gypsy couple who had lost their own twins, Ana and Mateo. At some point, HE worked with research assistant Miles Warren who would later become Carrion, in creating a new batch of New Men that appeared practically human; when some New Men deified Warren, tensions between he and HE ultimately resulted in Warren being banished from Wundagore.
Years later, realizing his New Men needed knowledge of the modern world, Wyndham had Porga recruit a teacher: Jane Foster, an American nurse. Foster’s friend Thor Odinson, AKA Thor, invaded Wundagore in search of her and interrupted Wyndham as he was evolving a wolf using a new mutagen, Isotope C. The experiment went awry, leaving the wolf under the genetic accelerator too long, and the resultant Man-Beast reached the endpoints of human and lupine evolution, yet hated all life. The combined efforts of Thor, HE, and the New Men barely defeated the Man-Beast (and several men-beasts that he evolved himself), and HE decided that Earth could never accept his New Men; the Man-Beast and his men-beasts were launched into space towards the Galaxy Dromisana, and the Citadel also launched, traveling out to establish Wundagore II on another planet. A few New Men, including Bova, remained on Earth. The off-Earth New Men were adversely affected by Wundagore II’s atmosphere and began degrading into savagery. Seeking physical help to control them, HE had his gatherers capture the Hulk and ship him to Wundagore II. The Hulk could not cope with the sheer numbers of New Men, and in desperation Wyndham treated himself with Isotope D, a mutagen which evolved him into a powerful disembodied intelligence. In this form, HE returned the Hulk home and devolved the New Men to animal forms.
Presumably while in this state, HE learned of and acquired Infinity Gems, immensely powerful artifacts granting mastery of various domains such as time and space. Having failed in earlier attempts to evolve his New Men beyond their violent natures, HE experimented on a grander scale, planning to create a “Counter-Earth” opposite the Earth’s solar orbit, fully evolved but free of evil. Facilitated by the gems, HE set Counter-Earth’s creation in motion while in his temporarily evolved state, he restored himself to corporeal form, now possessing the power to evolve and devolve himself and others. Appreciating the Soul Gem’s parasitic nature, HE isolated it to prevent it from claiming a host body. HE bound elements from Earth, asteroids, space debris, and unstable extradimensional mass together with gravitic rays, subjecting them to seven score hours of treatment with evolutionary bio-rays. The result was a fully evolved world almost perfectly mimicking Earth’s life forms, history and societies; though Counter-Earth’s entire history had been created within this short time span, temporal manipulation allowed its history to parallel true Earth’s time span. In addition, Counter-Earth was artificially held together with only one percent the mass of true Earth. The exhausted HE napped as the evolution concluded, and the Man-Beast intervened, instilling on Counter-Earth the evil that HE had so carefully excluded. HE decided to destroy Counter-Earth and begin again, but the being created by the Enclave known as “Him” convinced Wyndham to refrain, asking to live on Counter-Earth as its protector. HE agreed, seeing in Him a like-minded surrogate son, gifting him with the Soul Gem, renaming him Adam Warlock and recruiting a Rigellian Recorder to observe the experiment. HE placed Counter-Earth a micro-second out of dimensional synch to hide it from Earth.
When the planet-eating Galactus discovered Counter-Earth, Wyndham evolved and sent Gorr the Golden Gorilla to recruit aid from the Fantastic Four while he bargained with Galactus, gaining time to find him a new world to devour, and then HE sent the FF to evaluate possible worlds. Believing they had failed, HE fought Galactus and was banished to the Negative Zone, but the Four found Galactus a new world in his absence. When Galactus fell ill while devouring the world Poppup, HE temporarily evolved him into a disembodied force.
The extradimensional Beyonders later became interested in Counter-Earth and hired the Pegasusian Planet Movers, led by Sphinxor, to take the planet for them. Sphinxor caused Warlock to believe Counter-Earth had been destroyed; in a fit of rage, Warlock attacked HE, and Wyndham’s armor automatically super-evolved him for protection. Sphinxor removed Counter-Earth, and HE was restored when Her, a being created in the same manner as Him/Warlock, came seeking Warlock. HE tracked down his world but allowed the Movers to take it in return for being allowed to accompany them. Counter-Earth’s inherent instability threatened to one day destroy it, and HE wished this fixed. However, the Beyonders were further above HE while Wyndham was beyond humanity. Counter-Earth remained in the Beyonders’ museum of curiosities, and HE was left disillusioned.
Summoned back to Earth by the New Men when several of them had begun to disappear, HE had difficulty mustering concern for his followers. Before long, HE degenerated from indifference to deep depression, and he departed Wundagore. Traveling to the American Southwest, he tried to devolve himself out of existence, but his armor’s protective mechanisms prevented this. As HE increased his efforts, the energies he was generating began to affect progressively larger regions, devolving those around him into more primitive life forms. The Hulk attacked the Evolutionary, who encouraged the Hulk’s efforts despite his armor’s attempts to stop the Hulk. Eventually the Hulk damaged the armor’s protective mechanisms sufficiently for HE to override them, and he suicidally devolved himself to protoplasm.
HE’s armor eventually restored him, and Wyndham, refreshed by his experience, decided to evolve humanity to surpass the Beyonders via a genetic bomb. HE reestablished Wundagore, placing New Man Count Tagar in charge. When the world-dismantling Terminus destroyed the Savage Land, the High Evolutionary built a fortress in the Land’s ruins, studying the mechanisms placed there by the Nuwali race and their monument to the alien Beyonders. He recruited Zaladane and many of the Savage Land’s artificially evolved mutates to serve him (and for him to study). When another Terminus arose, HE battled it beside the X-Men, and afterwards created evolutionary terraformers that restored the Savage Land from the mind and biology of Garokk, AKA The Petrified Man, who had previously been attuned to the Land. HE saw this as a last chance to enjoy the simple pleasures of uncomplicated creation before engaging in the final stages of his plan to evolutionarily accelerate the entire planet. Many of the Savage Land’s residents had fled extradimensionally, others had been rescued on Earth; most of these survivors chose to return to the recreated and repopulated Savage Land.
HE briefly aided humanity when the efforts of his old research assistant Miles Warren caused chaos. HE altered Warren’s notes to prevent humanity from learning the truth about Warren’s cloning work, creating a second version of the mutated Carrion with false memories to support the deception, and later would cure the Carrion Plague that Warren had created.
HE created an organization consisting of Gatherers collecting genetic data for him, Technicians studying and compiling the data, Purifiers sterilizing those whose genes were unfit, Eliminators killing those who acted against Earth’s genetic benefit, and Priests (mostly New Men) managing the project. Notably, his Purifiers sterilized large portions of Earth’s subterranean races, though the emergence of a telepathic Moloid named Val-Or, coupled with the interference of Apocalypse caused HE to see that the Moloids still could evolve, and HE terminated their sterilization. His Purifiers sterilized Earth’s more genetically dangerous mutants; his Eliminators acted against the drug trade; and his Gatherers studied the genetic codes of the Eternals, Deviants, Inhumans, Atlanteans , and alien races, including Skrulls and Melmacians. He sent Eliminators to seal the Nexus of Realities and briefly protect Earth from interdimensional genetic impurities, but the interference of the extradimensionally empowered Cecilia Cardinale, AKA Poison, reopened the Nexus. As the genetic bomb neared completion, one of HE’s Technicians, Bill Foster, AKA Goliath, and formerly an Avengers associate, warned the Avengers, and they invaded the Savage Land base. HE abandoned the base, moving to a submarine base, but other Avengers interfered, and Wyndham’s dreams were destroyed when the demigod Heracles, AKA Hercules, was super-evolved to be his equal; under the influence of HE’s machinery, both HE and Hercules evolved into disembodied forms. These forms attracted the Celestials, who collected and stored their essences.
In Wundagore, Count Tagar sought his creator and eventually located him at the Heart of the Black Galaxy, a living Bio-Verse. Aided by Thor, Tagar saw HE and Hercules freed, and HE chose to focus on pure research, tired of the unproductiveness of conflict. HE built a world ship dubbed New Wundagore at the fringes of the Black Galaxy, adapted his Isotope C (now Isotope C2) and created three New Immortals (Nobilus, Juvan, Zon) partially based on Thor’s genetic material. When the Black Galaxy began to “hatch” into a new Celestial, HE bonded himself with a Rigellian Recorder to absorb more knowledge, evolving the Recorder into a more capable Analyzer; however, the data absorbed from the Celestial’s creation was too much to comprehend, driving HE insane. The New Immortals, with New Man Count Tagar, who had subjected himself to Isotope C2, seized control of HE’s worldship, though Nobilus and several faithful New Men fled with HE. The Man-Beast chose this point to seek revenge on his creator, freeing 12 mutated souls from Counter-Earth (shortly before its apparent accidental destruction at Thanos’ hands), poisoning their hearts against HE, converting them into cyborgs and empowering them to quench the seething fires in their twisted souls. Warlock intervened to save Wyndham and denounced the Man-Beast as a false god for ordering them to kill their creator. Recalling Warlock as a man who had died for their sins and been reborn on Counter-Earth, They (as the transformed Counter-Earth natives were known) were torn between the Man-Beast’s reprogramming and their own beliefs, and They overloaded their armors and died.
HE’s mind gradually returned, but Wyndham realized he had lost control of his own evolution and was randomly moving, both mentally and physically, both directions along the evolutionary line. He began developing Isotope E to control this genetic shift. Isotope E had short- lived effects, and he could not develop a permanent “cure.” When the Recorder/Analyzer warned Wyndham that the New Immortals were creating an Earth-threatening weapon, HE returned to Wundagore Mountain on Earth and built forces to oppose them. He created newer and more powerful New Men, as well as the Godpack, effectively New Immortals created by treating humans rather than creating them anew. He created the White Tiger during this time, designed to hunt out and destroy the Man-Beast. He allowed the Godpack and New Men to fight to further their abilities, and when the Godpack proved superior, he abandoned his New Men. The Man-Beast (calling himself Karnivore) took control of the New Men and attacked Wundagore. After the Man-Beast was driven off, HE apologetically reclaimed his New Men. HE, with Thor, the Godpack, and his New Men, traveled to the New Wundagore worldship and defeated the New Immortals, despite betrayal by the Godpack’s Luminor. The New Immortals were placed in suspended animation, the Godpack sent to live in New York City, and HE returned to Wundagore Mountain with his New Men.
During this time, the mutant Bennet du Paris, AKA Exodus, and his Acolytes had attacked HE near Wundagore. Learning of Isotope E, they assaulted Wundagore and drove out HE and his New Men. Leaving the New Men in the custody of Quicksilver (Magda’s now-adult son Pietro), HE retreated to his Savage Land fortress, there continuing work on Isotope E. When Kevin Plunder, AKA Ka-Zar, shut down the Land-maintaining terraformers, their energies redirected through Ka-Zar’s wife Shanna, granting her power comparable to HE’s. HE saw in Shanna a potential cure and became infatuated with her sharing of his evolutionary talents, but Shanna ultimately rejected him; HE restored the terraformers and retreated to his fortress again. The Acolytes soon located and attacked him there and HE, Quicksilver, and the New Men returned to Wundagore; however, the Man-Beast had been masquerading as one of HE’s New Men, and assaulted HE, leaving him nearly comatose. While the New Men, Acolytes, Man-Beast and Heroes for Hire (brought by the White Tiger, hunting the Man-Beast) all battled in Wundagore, HE jumped to the high end of the evolutionary spectrum, insanely driving himself towards purging the world’s life to end the chaos around him. The New Man Lord Delphis finalized a permanent cure from Isotope E; both Man-Beast and the White Tiger were devolved to animal forms, the Acolytes’ leader Exodus was left comatose and placed in a sealed chamber below Wundagore, and Black Knight (Whitman), of Heroes for Hire remained in Wundagore to train a new generation of Knights of Wundagore.
An aged Dr. Nathaniel Essex, who had inspired Wyndham decades before, sought out his old pupil and convinced him to remove the advanced mutations that had created super-powered mutants. Wyndham did so from a shielded space station; however, Essex was secretly the diabolical Mister Sinister and betrayed HE, turning the experiment to the rampant mutation of all life on Earth. The X-Men, despite being powerless, intervened and stopped Essex, and HE voluntarily destroyed the equipment, restoring Earth to its prior form. HE subsequently refused to aid either Hank McCoy, AKA Beast, or his Earth-295 (“Age of Apocalypse”) counterpart, the Dark Beast, in their efforts to find a cure for potential mutant extinction post M-Day.
Contacted by the Supreme Intelligence, leader of the interstellar Kree empire, HE agreed to use his evolutionary expertise to create a new genetically pure breed of Master Kree warriors to take the Kree race to the next evolutionary level. The Supreme Intelligence financed a lab for HE in the heliosphere of outworld Terma’s sun to avoid prying eyes, gave him genetic samples, and financed an underground bunker on the Kree homeworld Hala to manufacture the perfected results of HE’s experiments. In the newly named Refuge, HE created several imperfect versions he called Nu-Kree before finally succeeding in creating the pure Master Kree versions. When Adam Warlock became overwhelmed by the dying souls created during the Annihilation War, HE found a refuge for him on Terma, and created several evolved animals to guard it while Warlock regenerated into a new form in his cocoon.
When the Ultron-led Phalanx race conquered the Kree Empire and isolated it from the rest of the universe, a disembodied Supreme Intelligence contacted Phyla-Vell, AKA Quasar, to find a savior for the Kree; her search led her to Terma, where she and her lover Heather Douglas, AKA Moondragon, inadvertently woke up Warlock before he was ready to handle his new powers. After fighting off a Phalanx attack, a badly disoriented Warlock led the duo to the Refuge, where HE revealed his connection to the Supreme Intelligence and the task set for him. When Ultron himself invaded the Refuge to capture Warlock and killed the Nu-Kree and Moondragon in the process, HE tried to kill Ultron by setting off a terminal reaction in the star’s heart, causing it to explode and destroy the Refuge. Escaping via Warlock’s energy bubble, HE, Quasar, and Warlock traveled to Hala to activate the Master Kree hidden in the bunker to help drive the Phalanx out of the Empire, but Warlock had a seizure caused by the Phalanx’s Babel Spire and passed out in Hala’s upper atmosphere, allowing the bubble to dissolve and drop its passengers. HE recovered via his armor and arrived at the bunker only to find the Phalanx waiting for him inside. Given the choice between willingly helping Ultron merge his mechanical perfection with Warlock’s artificial organic perfection or being changed into a Phalanx select and forced to help Ultron anyway, HE chose not to have his person degraded by the transmode virus and subdued Warlock and Quasar when they finally arrived at the bunker. After successfully transferring Ultron’s consciousness into Adam Warlock’s body, Ultron then informed HE that he was to merge the entire Phalanx host with the bodies of the engineered Master Kree to take the Phalanx to the next level of being, but an attack on the Babel Spire by Richard Rider, AKA Nova, Technarchs Warlock and Tyro, assassin Gamora and Drax the Destroyer, AKA Drax, distracted Ultron before he could implement the order. During the battle, HE departed the planet with his creations and some Phalanx cocoons, leaving Quasar to restore Adam Warlock’s soul to his body and destroy Ultron. HE subsequently allied with Max Eisenhardt, AKA Magneto, and acquired a power source from the Dreaming Celestial.
During the War of the Four Cities, HE consulted with the Future Foundation and several other Super Villains to seemingly defeat Reed Richards, AKA Mister Fantastic. After he arrived to the meeting, Richards and Dr. Victor Von Doom, AKA Doctor Doom, explained that the Council Of Reeds, Reeds from other worlds, were on the loose and they needed to decide what to do with them. Later, HE returned to the Savage Land to study Zebra Children, humanoid creatures designed by Ex Nihilo to evolve Earth.
When the Eternals former leader Zuras summoned HE to a deserted location, Zuras revealed that the Celestials were on their way to judge Earth. In response, HE raised an army to combat the evolution of humanity and attempted to commit world-wide genocide with a gene bomb, but the New Warriors intervened and destroyed his means of doing so. The HE tried to wipe out all super-humans but faced the persistent New Warriors again, but this time assisted by the Eternals, who helped pummel them into defeat. Zuras was among them and after HE turned on a machine that would wipe out all mutants, Inhumans, and any super-powered being touched by science, Zuras tried to save face with the New Warriors who questioned his ethics in committing genocide. Zuras turned on Wyndham and blasted him unconscious.
Surviving the unexpected assault, Wyndham returned to Counter-Earth and used it to create a more perfect version of his New Men, dispatching any that he deemed flawed. Though some of them survived and took refuge in Lowtown thanks to the Low Evolutionary, a Counter-Earth human who worked against HE. HE planned an attack on Lowtown but the Avengers Unity Squad intervened. HE’s plant creatures swallowed up Sam Wilson, AKA Falcon (later Captain America), his men captured and experimented upon Anna Marie, AKA Rogue, and a reformed Victor Creed, AKA Sabretooth, and Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were defeated by Luminous—a creation of HE with both their powers. While he had the Maximoff twins in his grasp, he revealed their true parentage: he was responsible for altering their DNA and disguising them as common mutants to simply answer a question about nature versus nurture.
With the Avengers out of the way, HE pursued his original goal, to destroy his creations in Lowtown. It wasn’t until Jericho Drumm, AKA Doctor Voodoo, defeated HE by bringing the thousands of souls he killed to attack him. HE fought them, claiming they should be grateful to him for destroying his sloppy work. They seemed to gain the upper hand until an explosion blew the ghosts back, freeing HE. Though Quicksilver realized it wasn’t over and attacked HE with his superspeed, but still HE survived the attack, and HE revealed his damaged face underneath his helmet, the resulting visage a mess of animal and human aspects combined—potentially failed experiments he must have performed on himself. He then opened a portal and left them with a dire warning, that when it came to the impending Evolutionary War, he wouldn’t help their world.
At some point, the Maker, an alternate Reed Richards, contacted the High Evolutionary to help him evolve the multiverse. They succeeded when they harvested the energies of the Aspirants ad combined all universes into one. The Ultimates from Earth-616 and those from the Maker’s universe defeated HE.
His next plan involved crashing Earth and Counter-Earth together to create a new world. His plan drew together the Champions and the Avengers, and subsequently HE met Viv Vision, an synthezoid child of the Avenger Vision, and evolved her into human form. HE attempted an escape through a malfunctioning teleport pad and seemingly perished as the planets drew closer together, thanks to the Orbit-Engine, a machine located at the core of Counter-Earth and protected by a deadly threat: HE’s greatest triumph and greatest failure: the Higher Evolutionary. When HE tired of his Ani-Men, he created this new being, a clone born of HE’s genetic code but with compassion. He cast him into the depths of Counter-Earth where Higher Evolutionary chained himself to the Orbit-Engine to protect Counter-Earth from his father’s machinations. Viv convinced the clone to help her save their Earths and after its deactivation, Viv ended up in another dimension where HE had been trapped in a digital existence since he teleported. Viv stranded him there but the Knights of Wundagore eventually brought him back. They were rewarded with his disappointment in Counter-Earth. He was next seen making a deal with Sergei Kravinoff, AKA Kraven the Hunter, who needed him to create 87 clones of himself and convinced him by slaughtering HE’s New Men. In a surprising turn, HE was heartbroken and struck a deal with the heinous hunter.
