| The subject of superhuman powers fascinated Dr. Karl Malus since the first time he read a newspaper account of the hero team Fantastic Four. Upon graduating with a degree in biology from the University of California at Los Angeles, he applied to various institutions for a grant to study supernormal capacities in depth. Unable to get any funding through legal means, Malus contacted certain wealthy investors active in the Los Angeles underworld. They set him up with a laboratory facility he immodestly called the Institute for Supranormality Research, despite the fact that he comprised its entire staff. The underworld provided him with human test subjects to experiment upon, usually individuals the mob sought to liquidate. Malus hoped eventually to find an individual who already had superhuman powers he could study. In the course of research, Malus came up with a number of special toxins and other chemical-based weaponry, which he sold to such Los Angeles criminals as the Enforcer. |
