Roxxon Energy Corporation is a billion-dollar, multinational company that has no equal. The company often backs many suspect endeavors in its drive for political and economic power. Despite being implicated in many shady practices, Roxxon executives and employees have skirted outright arrest and conviction.
A Promising Start
First known as the Roxxon Oil Company, the corporation becomes a major northeastern United States supplier, with a sterling reputation in its industry in the 1940s. However, this proved to be its economic peak, and setbacks in following decades lowers Roxxon’s prominence until its major asset is its brand name alone.
In recent years, it diversifies into high-tech research and development, aiding in the development of the S.H.I.E.L.D. intelligence agency.
Changing Leadership
Roxxon’s high-tech assets catch the eye of corporate financiers, such as Republic Oil and Natural Gas, who wins the bid for it after a lengthy fight. Republic Oil is a relative newcomer on the scene, having been incorporated by crooked Texas oil speculator J.T. Jones. J.T. builds Republic into a valuable corporation, and upon his death, control of the company passed to his son, Hugh Jones.
Hugh eventually concentrates control of Republic into a small board consisting of himself (as president), Jonas Hale (vice president for research), John Gamelin (vice president for foreign operations) and Simon Krieger (vice president for acquisitions). Thoroughly corrupt, they try to take over several corporations by purchase, blackmail or force, and Roxxon is among their acquisitions. They arrange the murder of Stark Enterprises’ head Howard Stark (and his wife Maria), but Stark’s son Tony, AKA Iron Man, thwarts their Krieger-led takeover of the company his father had built. Following Krieger’s arrest and imprisonment, Jones has him killed in jail and declares a hands-off policy on Stark. Afterward, Republic seeks to build a positive public image, and changes its name to that of one of its subsidiaries, becoming the Roxxon Energy Corporation.
Hired Mercs
Roxxon is sometimes subject to terrorist attacks by Super Villains such as Viper, AKA Madame Hydra, who controls Jones and all of Roxxon’s subsidiaries. She does so by using the Serpent Crown which puts Jones in contact with the Elder God Set, who provides agents to serve him. The Crown, however, has a mind of its own and has its own ends which sometimes controls Roxxon, and its leader Jones. Several heroes help remove the Crown, leaving Jones in a catatonic state. The Avengers and the U.S. government also go up against Roxxon and its subsidiaries when their work harms people.
Often though, Roxxon, being the evil corporation that it is, covers up its major disasters to protect itself. Roxxon also takes out its competition by employing hired mercenaries or using their advanced technology and sending them to other dimensions, such as the U.S. government’s Project: PEGASUS.
Subsidiaries
Roxxon’s subsidiaries are its allies such as Cybertek Inc and Brand, to name a few. Roxxon also employs various hired agents, covertly sending David Angar, AKA Angar the Screamer, against S.H.I.E.L.D. and sends hired eco-terrorists against the Blackfoot Nation and William Talltrees, AKA Red Wolf. They develop their own superhumans, outfitting people with experimental battle suits and creating human-cyborgs as well through Cybertek.
Namor the Sub-Mariner, AKA Namor, Steve Rogers, Captain America, and even the Avengers who often go up against them, are a few of the Super Heroes that come to Roxxon’s aid in times of need or inadvertently help them in their nefarious business.
Corporate Report
Under this new name, Roxxon Energy Corporation, they built a stunning skyscraper in New York as their new headquarters, the world-renowned One Roxxon Plaza. When the Brand Corporation (a major researcher into the development of superhuman abilities) was greatly devalued after the revelation it had been infiltrated by the subversive Secret Empire, Roxxon acquired it at a cheap price as well. Hugh Jones was kidnapped by the terrorist Madame Hydra, who placed the mystical Serpent Crown on Jones’ head, putting him in contact with the Elder God Set. At Viper’s command, Jones used a Roxxon oil drilling facility to try to raise the sunken continent Lemuria, but the plan was foiled by Namor and Captain America, who was known as Nomad at the time. The Crown was removed from Jones’ head but Set remained in contact with him; Roxxon workers soon retrieved the Crown, and Jones took to wearing it invisibly. Under the Crown’s influence, Jones achieved several goals for Roxxon’s subsidiaries. He personally oversaw the full development of Brand’s mutagenics and robotics departments. One early success was the enhancement of the superhuman Orka, while other research avenues included the study of Greer Nelson, AKA the Cat (later Tigra)’s costume and the development of battlesuits and enhanced prosthetic limbs (used to develop Manticore, Jane St. Ives, AKA Nemesis, Simon Maddicks, AKA Killer Shrike, John McIver, AKA Bushmaster, and Doug Taggert, AKA Grasshopper, as well as a robotic version of Luther Manning, AKA Deathlok’s cyborg and the robot Delphine Courtney); they also partner with Canada’s Weapon X program.
Under the Crown’s influence, Jones developed several snake-themed agents to serve him. Seeking to enhance its own powers, the Crown put Jones in contact with the wearer of another Serpent Crown on Earth-712 (“Earth-S”), the Squadron Supreme’s home. Soon, a covert Roxxon subsidiary, the Nth Command, headed by Albert DeVoor (aided by scientists Abner Doolittle, T.W. Erwin and Thomas Lightner, among others), had developed Nth Projectors, devices that made interdimensional transport possible. Teams of Nth Commandos were soon exploring the multiverse, with useful universes quickly tagged and exploited. This provided a great influx of new technology to Roxxon’s research subsidiaries. When the Avengers invaded Brand, Jones employed a modified Nth Projector to transport them to the Squadron Supreme’s world, but they soon returned, and Jones was captured. Employing the Crown’s ability to control minds, Jones saw to it that no charges were filed, and the entire event was hushed up; however, the Avengers had brought the Earth-712 Serpent Crown to their own Earth, and Jones’ Serpent Squad retrieved it. Now wearing both Crowns, Jones seized control of the U.S. capitol. Ben Grimm, AKA The Thing, Wanda Maximoff, AKA Scarlet Witch, and Walter Newell, AKA Stingray, stopped Jones and removed the Crowns; his separation from the combined Crowns drove him into catatonia. He was placed in a mental institution, and the Board of Directors elected John T. Gamelin as Roxxon’s new president; however, Gamelin was soon kidnapped and replaced by a Life Model Decoy (LMD) under control of the Deltite, a rogue LMD that was also secretly subverting S.H.I.E.L.D. from within, which had little effect on Roxxon’s day-to-day operations for several years.
Roxxon Vice President Jonas “Jonah” Hale oversaw Roxxon’s energy operations as the company expanded its Middle East interests into Bagmom and other countries, but following the Avengers’ conflict with Brand, the United States government began interfering with Roxxon’s legitimate operations, and their Middle Eastern operations were curtailed. Hale led the creation of Star Well I, a solar energy facility, and also conducted heavy research into Vibranium, a metal needed to power the station. Roxxon’s Vibranium research led Hale into direct conflict with Iron Man, who stopped their mining efforts and exposed Roxxon to further Avengers scrutiny. Roxxon also employed the mercenary Denton Phelps, AKA Hellrazor, to tarnish the reputations of Wakanda and T’Challa, AKA Black Panther, to further their Vibranium goals. Star Well I went into operation (manned by Arthur Dearborn, a Roxxon executive transformed by Brand into Sunturion), and functioned well for some time before an accident resulted in a microwave radiation beam killing 200 people in Allantown, Iowa. Iron Man investigated, and he and Sunturion were eventually forced to destroy Star Well I. The Allantown disaster was covered up as an anthrax outbreak, and Roxxon’s involvement remained known only to a select few.
When the U.S. government’s new energy research facility Project: PEGASUS showed signs of making breakthroughs that threatened Roxxon’s growth, Jones decided to use an Nth Projector to transport PEGASUS into another dimension. Scientist Thomas Lightner infiltrated PEGASUS with orders to construct the Nth Projector within the facility, using Brand creations the Grapplers (super-powered women wrestlers) and a Deathlok robot, as well as the extradimensional Thundra, to smuggle the parts in to him; however, Lightner, formerly the Super Villain Dr. Thomas Lightner, AKA Blacksun (later Mysterium), instead used the Nth Projector in an attempt to restore his own powers, indirectly thwarting Roxxon’s plot. Following information provided by Thundra, the Thing, and Wendell Vaughn, AKA Quasar, later shut down the Nth Command’s extradimensional oil pipeline from Earth-78411 (“Dinosaur World”), though the rest of the organization remained concealed. Under Gamelin’s orders, DeVoor and Brand President James Melvin began Operation: Purge, a combined effort to relocate the majority of Earth’s superhumans to toxic dimensions, but this plan was thwarted by Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America, forewarned by Earth-7484’s Godwulf, who had been an Nth Commando in his own timeline, where Purge had succeeded only in plunging the world into chaos.
The Department of Justice began a long-term investigation into Brand corruption under the agent Raymond Royton’s direction, shutting down a Daily Bugle investigation of the corporation for fear it could compromise their case; however, shortly thereafter, the Will o’ the Wisp, a renegade Brand mutate, hypnotized James Melvin into confessing to Brand’s crimes. Gamelin ordered Brand permanently shut down, distributing personnel and research to other Roxxon facilities. Much later, biochemist Herbert Landon would start a new super-powers research firm under the Brand Corporation name (headquartered from the Brand Pavilion in New York), but Landon and Roxxon executives maintain that no connection exists between the two firms.
Under the Deltite’s direction, Gamelin had become less and less effective as president, and control of the company defaulted to Chairman of the Board August D’Angelo. D’Angelo hired Jerome “Jerry” Jaxon, who offered inside information on Canada’s Alpha Flight super-agent program. With his Roxxon-assigned assistant Delphine Courtney (secretly a Brand-built robot), Jaxon recruited several Canadian operatives as Omega Flight, hired Alpha Flight’s leader, scientist James Hudson, AKA Guardian, to lure him to New York, and attacked him in One Roxxon Plaza. Both Hudson and Jaxon were presumed killed in the fight, though not long after, Roxxon would secretly recover Hudson’s body a continent away. Under Gamelin and D’Angelo, Roxxon continued to suffer setbacks, including the destruction of an underground research facility led by Jonathan Darque, AKA Magma, in Virginia, and the loss of a great deal of money at their weapons research facility in Ireland (both events due to Peter Parker, AKA Spider-Man’s intervention).
Iron Man’s recurring conflict with Roxxon began anew after Carrington Pax, head of Roxxon’s Los Angeles operations, hired the corporate terrorist Ghost to destroy Accutech Enterprises (whose work Roxxon wanted), although Roxxon’s involvement remained unrevealed. When Jonas Hale had Roxxon super-operative Stratosfire’s friend Barbara Bendix murdered, Stratosfire turned on the corporation, doing serious damage to their San Francisco Roxxon Monolith headquarters, before Iron Man and Sunturion stopped her. Hale soon employed Paul Ebersol, AKA Fixer, to destroy multiple Stark subsidiaries, but Stark’s allies stopped him.
Calvin Halderman became Roxxon’s president when the Gamelin LMD was destroyed with the Deltite’s other servant LMDs, and Roxxon curtailed many of its upper-level criminal activities. Roxxon continued to be a target. Former Brand employee Paul Hazlett modified the Killer Shrike suit he had once helped design and targeted Roxxon as the Raptor, and Namor the Sub-Mariner attacked the company when he wrongly associated Johnny Horton, AKA Griffin, with them. Another superhuman, Cameron Leonard, AKA Firebolt, infiltrated and attacked Project: PEGASUS and was killed, though not before claiming to work for Roxxon; similarly, super-agent Cypress, also said to be in Roxxon’s employ, attacked and destroyed a Roxxon facility. Renegade Roxxon employee Larry Curtiss stole and used an experimental Trapster suit; Roxxon’s Dr. Malachi Oz abducted several of the genetically engineered Changelings to study before Changeling leader and creator Woodgod stopped him; and Roxxon agents tried to reprogram the android Victor Shade, AKA Vision, before being stopped by Miles Lipton, whose son Alexander had been killed by his Roxxon employers.
Roxxon’s earlier focus on Vibranium bore fruit when they developed a synthetic Vibranium that they named Nuform. Despite a flaw that made it dangerously unstable (decaying into the metal-liquefying Anti-Metal/“Antarctic Vibranium”), Hale publicly announced its development. Both the crimelord Wilson Fisk, AKA Kingpin, and mad robot Ultron independently tried to steal Nuform, only to be stopped by Spider-Man, Iron Man, Black Panther, and Sunturion. When its instability threatened to destroy Empire State University, the four allied to destroy the Nuform, and Roxxon publicly curtailed its production.
Roxxon has covertly employed various hired agents to go up against S.H.I.E.L.D. and eco-terrorists against the Blackfoot Nation and William Talltrees, AKA Red Wolf. They have also continued developing their own superhumans, outfitting Brazilian Carlos Carago in the experimental Repulsor suit (which was claimed by environmentalist Claudio Juarez after Carago’s defeat). President Calvin Halderman began taking a more personal hand in Roxxon’s shadier side, ordering operative Linden Laswell to support an attempt by Bram Velsing, AKA Dreadknight, to conquer Latveria in its leader’s absence; when Silver Sablinova, AKA Silver Sable, and Spider-Man stopped Laswell, Halderman ordered the Latverian project terminated and Laswell disavowed. After Roxxon agents were captured breaking into the United Nations, Halderman personally oversaw the use of the brain-damaged Karl Morgentahau, AKA Flag-Smasher (U.L.T.I.M.A.T.U.M.’s founder) to kill the captured agents; his involvement was exposed by Daily Bugle reporters and Halderman resigned from Roxxon, to be replaced by new president Don Kaminski.
Cybertek Inc. was a Roxxon subsidiary headed by Harlan Ryker, who had been part of the Brand team that created the Deathlok robot. Ryker and several other former Brand employees moved to Cybertek when Brand collapsed and created a cyborg program there based on their Deathlok research. Their first attempt at creating their own Deathlok cyborg failed when subject John Kelly was electrocuted by his computer, but a subsequent attempt using rebellious employee Michael Collins succeeded; however, Collins went rogue, shut down Cybertek, and disabled Roxxon efforts in the South American country, Estrella. Ryker was eventually arrested for various crimes against the U.S. government and incriminated his Roxxon superior, Vice President of International Development Clayton Burr, who was also arrested.
Roxxon has developed many facilities outside its main centers in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. One significant lab has been the Roxxon Energy Research Facility (also known as Roxxon House), just outside Denver, Colorado. Facility Director Samuel Higgins was in charge when James MacDonald Hudson’s body was discovered in the Pacific Ocean and brought to the Denver facility. Under protest, Higgins supervised Roxxon’s study of Hudson over the next several years. When they accidentally activated the cyborg-like Hudson, he began controlling Roxxon’s technology and Higgins called in Alpha Flight and Forge (with Roxxon operative Colin Hume, AKA Windshear) to investigate; the facility was ultimately destroyed, Higgins’ career was damaged, and Alpha Flight reclaimed Hudson. Eventually, Higgins rebuilt his corporate image and oversaw the Denver facility’s development of “hard air” weaponry. This led to a government contract to create Omega-32, a hard air weapon, which the U.S. saw as an ultimate “death from afar” tool, but when their work was exposed, the government ordered Higgins to destroy Omega-32 and all related files. They also developed the Roxxon Hot Cell, a weapon that identifies targets by bio-signature, and marketed these to both sides in the Genoshan civil war.
The Roxxon Energy Corporation was once the world’s largest and most profitable corporation. Though primarily an oil and energy corporation, Roxxon, in addition to its covert superhuman technologies, has been involved in producing products ranging from exotic weaponry to the Roxxee-10 acne cream, and Roxxon contains numerous subsidiary companies including Metrobank and New York’s WYDY television. Though Roxxon has suffered from many criminal leaders and employees, its illegal efforts remain a small portion of a corporation that employs several hundred thousand workers worldwide. Russian mogul Aleksander Lukin used the Cosmic Cube to force Roxxon executives to sign over control of large portions of the company to him, including many of its power-generating facilities; however, Roxxon still exists in its entirety as a corporate subsidiary of Lukin’s Kronos Corporation.
Seeking to harvest the vast Vibranium deposits in the Savage Land, Roxxon, under direct orders from Kaminski, sent a group of special agents led by Killer Shrike to take control of the area; however, the Savage Land’s defender Kevin Plunder, AKA Ka-Zar, fought back, killing all the invaders except Killer Shrike, who was sent back to warn his employers to leave the region alone. Roxxon responded by sending in a larger team, consisting of Killer Shrike, a Saboteur (one of many Roxxon agents to use that identity and its weapons), agents in S.H.I.E.L.D. Mandroid armor and ground troops, but various Savage Land factions, including the Savage Land Mutates, the dinosaur man Dr. Vincent Stegron, AKA Stegron, and his undead dinosaur army, and Earth-78411’s Devil Dinosaur and Moon Boy, set aside their differences temporarily to defeat Roxxon’s forces; Kaminski seemingly died in the conflict. Roxxon subsequently tried to build an additional pipeline in Western Canada, with operative Anton Aubuisson using robots to slay protesting native Anunquit tribe representatives. James Rhodes, AKA War Machine, repelled Aubuisson’s forces and turned the robots against Aubuisson, who seemingly died in the altercation.
