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Corporation (Earth-616)

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History

The Corporation was a nationwide criminal-political organization run like a business. It employed a large number of operatives in its schemes.

One of these schemes involved blackmailing the scientist Phillip Hart into not releasing his Zero Fluid, a new, clean form of fuel to the public, threatening to reveal that he had done dealings with the Allende government in Chile. The Corporation sought the Zero Fluid as a bargaining chip to form an alliance with Fu Manchu. When Hart refused, the Corporation had him killed. His son fled from the assassins, but was caught in an explosion and exposed to the Zero Fluid, turning him into the Jack of Hearts.[1] After his battle with the White Tiger, they tried to kidnap him from the hospital.[2][3]

One of their leaders was Filippo Ayala, the White Tiger's brother. Pretending to be a drug dealer, he returned home, claiming that he had been strapped with a bomb by the Corporation.[4] He led the White Tiger to their headquarters on the ship El Tigre, where he was ambushed by the Corporation's mercenary soldiers. After the fight, Filippo found the other leaders of their branch having killed themselves after seeing a message from Fu Manchu who expressed no interest in an alliance with them. Filippo then exploded the bomb he was still strapped to and destroyed their headquarters.[5]

Although this appeared to be a fatal blow for the organization, the Corporation continued on, with all operations in the western half of America ("Corporation-West") being overseen by businessman Curtiss Jackson while Eugene Stivak, a U.S. senator who led a secret criminal life under the name "Kligger", took over as head of operations for "Corporation-East", the Mid-Atlantic branch. During their administrations, the Corporation continued to deal with assaults by the Jack of Hearts,[6] and made attempts to capture the refugee Machine Man with the intention of creating duplicates of him as part of their illegal arms deals.[7] Another project at the time was an inexplicable alliance with the alien Dire Wraiths forged by Kligger, during which the Corporation attempted to produce a flying battle-suit with which to battle the Wraiths' enemy, the Galadorian spaceknight Rom. This resulted in the Corporation accidentally creating a new enemy in the form of the Torpedo, who was originally the flying suit's creator, who had learned Kligger's true intentions, and later the would-be super-hero Brock Jones, who accidentally received the prototype flying suit.[8]

In spite of these distractions, the Corporation's main objectives during this time was to undermine the counter-espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D. while also obtaining influence over The Hulk, perhaps as part of a wider plan to undermine the American military as well. These actions drew not only the attention of the Gamma Goliath but also that of Captain America, which came to a head after operatives of both Jackson and Stivak kidnapped Cap's partner The Falcon and his nephew Jim Wilson, who at the time had been the misunderstood Hulk's friend and fellow outcast. A confrontation in a hidden Corporation base on Alcatraz Island ended with Stivak's death, liquidated with his permission by Jackson to escape imprisonment and scandal.[9] Shortly thereafter, Jackson attempted one last time to capture the Machine Man, which only caused a showdown with the Hulk, who destroyed Corporation-West's skyscraper headquarters while Jackson himself was turned over to the police by the Machine Man.[10]

For an extended time, it seemed that the Corporation was defunct, but over the years it slowly made reappearances. Surviving elements set up a "factory" for superhumans to operate as agents or hired muscle, provided by the criminal biochemist Karl Malus, but they were eventually found out by Power Man.[11] More recently, the Corporation ran a black market organ trafficking operation in New York City that specialized in transplanting Skrull organs. It was found out and battled by Heroes for Hire after a number of their Skrull organ-recipients aided one of Misty Knight's old enemies in attempting to destroy the team.[12]

While the Corporation has not been heard since then, presumably either a core group or surviving factions are still in operation at present, albeit returned to covert activities. Time will tell...

Leaders[]

Agents[]

Notes

  • The entry for Silvermane in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #10 states that the Corporation backed Silvermane's appointment as the Supreme Hydra of a reformed faction of HYDRA seen in Daredevil #121 through 123. However, this was never stated outside of OHOTMU, so its canonicity may be in question.
  • Comic book fans and historians believe it was a coincidence that Bill Mantlo and Jack Kirby both invented criminal organizations named "The Corporation" and that they were never intended to be the same group originally, only to be later retconned by succeeding writers and editors. Similarly, Kligger and Senator Stivak were separate characters originally but, due to their similar appearance, were amalgamated into a single person as the respective storylines they were part of were drawn together.

See Also

Links and References

References

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