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Quote1 So long as I am master of my stilts, I'm unbeatable! I'm completely invincible! Quote2
Stilt-Man[src]

History

Wilbur Day was a scientist employed by Carl Kaxton who invented a hydraulic ram device. Wilbur stole Kaxton's designs and used them to engineered a pair of extremely long, telescopic metal legs, which allowed him to tower high above the ground. Lawyer Matt Murdock was hired by Wilbur, who contacted Kaxton to tell him that his former employee intended to sue him, a threat which Kaxton encouraged them to follow through on. Later in his Daredevil guise, Murdock unsuccessfully battled Stilt-Man, who managed to get away. Later, when meeting with Wilbur again, Kaxton arrived at the Nelson and Murdock offices to contest the lawsuit. While the two argued over who owned the rights to the hydraulic device, Matt noticed that one of them was lying due to an irregular heart beat, but couldn't figure out which one was the liar because they were too close together.

Daredevil Vol 1 8

Battling Daredevil

Following Kaxton as Daredevil, he was quickly shaken by Kaxton, who realized he was being followed. Daredevil couldn't resume tailing because of reports that Stilt-Man was causing havoc again. He again failed to stop Stilt-Man. Returning to Day, the two went to confront Kaxton directly. There they found the hydraulic lifts, which turned out to be Stilt-Man's stilts. Attacked by Kaxton with a gun, Day managed to knock Kaxton out, and then revealed to Murdock that he was really Stilt-Man, and that he came to steal a shrinking device from Kaxton before knocking Murdock out. Taking the device and making a run for it in his stilts, Day was followed by Daredevil, and in the ensuing battle the shrinking ray was turned on Day, who shrank so small that he disappeared from sight. Returning to the Nelson and Murdock law office, Matt was confronted by Kaxton, but Murdock told him that Day had dropped the lawsuit and they decided to let the whole thing go.[4]

He was once saved by the Masked Marauder and teamed up with him to kidnap the Nelson and Murdock law firm employees.[1] After fighting Spider-Man he went to fire a ray gun as he was standing in water and shorted out his electrical systems leaving him unconscious and ready to be picked up by the police.[5]

However, he was rescued by the supervillain Electro and joined his Emissaries of Evil. Their plan was to defeat Daredevil as a team, but they were in turn defeated themselves.[6][7] Wilbur was later hired to kill district attorney candidate Foggy, but was stopped by Daredevil.[8] Wilbur then disguised as Stunt-Master and attacked Daredevil on a Hollywood movie set.[9]

In San Francisco, Stilt-Man kidnapped Carl Kaxton and his daughter, to force him to recreate his molecular condenser. Kaxton kept working, but ran out of parts, so Stilt-Man had to arrange for others to be brought in. Stilt-Man brought back the new parts and forced Kaxton to get back to work. When Kaxton briefly refused, Stilt-Man struck him and reminded him that Barbara could be turned over to Endros. Stilt-Man soon took the finished condenser, with which he planned to shrink the Golden Gate Bridge, taking Barbara with him. Daredevil soon arrived and defeated Endros. The hero had to strike Kaxton to get useful information from him about Barbara, then he rescued her with Black Widow. They picked Kaxton up and took him to breakfast with Barbara after Stilt-Man was defeated. Later, a homeless man, Eddie, found the condenser and planned to sell it to Jonny the Rake, but chose to throw it away instead.[10]

Stilt-Man came across the still hovering Trapster and took his weaponry. As Falcon was about to testify against his former associates, Stilt-Man attacked. The heroes eventually managed to topple Stilt-Man and defeat him, despite his advantage of Trapster's weapons.[11] Stilt-Man continued his criminal career and fought several superheroes such as Black Goliath,[12] but without much success.[13] He battled the Champions of Los Angeles as well.[14] Wilbur freed Blastaar and F.A.U.S.T., and was given a special new battlesuit constructed of secondary Adamantium.[15] He stole some radioactive isotopes and battled Thor, but lost the fight and was stripped of his suit.[16]

When his armor was stolen by a small-time crook named Turk Barrett, Day contacted Daredevil and informed him of a weakness in the armor. Thanks to Day's information, Daredevil easily disabled the auto-gyroscopes necessary for the armor to keep its balance and brought Turk down. Day later modified the armor to prevent Daredevil from using this newfound knowledge against him.[17] In an attempt to regain his reputation, Stilt-Man set out to defeat Spider-Man. He turned an automated Cordco factory against the wall-crawler. When Spidey saved his life from an automatic sonic disruptor, Wilbur decided not to kill him. He delivered Spidey's unconscious body to Vincent Martinelli's security detail and left the premises.[18]

Wilbur was one of the many armored villains whose technology had been upgraded from stolen plans from Stark Industries. He was intercepted by Iron Man during a robbery, and Wilbur attempted to flee using newly-implemented failsafe bootjets that ejected him from his hydraulic legs. Iron Man took one of the legs and used it to club Stilt-Man, knocking him out. Afterward, Iron Man used a negator pack on the unconscious Stilt-Man which neutralized any trace of Stark tech in his armor.[19]

Stilt-Man later attempted to kill D.A. Blake Tower for sending him to prison, but was captured by She-Hulk.[20] During the Acts of Vengeance enacted by a cabal of super villains, Stilt-Man fell under the mind control of Doctor Doom and was ordered, alongside many other villains, to attack the Fantastic Four in Washington, D.C. while they were giving a speech to the congress. He and his fellow attackers were defeated by The Thing, the Human Torch and the She-Thing.[21]

Wilbur was one of the villains who attempted to attack the Avengers at the site of their reconstructed mansion, but was foiled by the construction workers.[22] Wilbur was a regular visitor to the Bar With No Name.[23] Stilt-Man is listed in one of Spider-Man's most embarrassing moments.[24] Wilbur and various other criminals witnessed Captain America disguised as Crossbones battle Batroc the Leaper.[25]

Stilt-Man joined Hobgoblin's team when they battled Alpha Flight.[26] He then appeared in the gallery during the Tinkerer's court case.[27]Phil Sheldon captured an image of Stilt-Man during a crime at some point.[28] Stilt-Man later attended the wedding of Absorbing Man and Titania.[29] While the heroes were away fighting the Secret Wars, the New York Police Department faced many supervillains such as Stilt-Man.[30][31] Wilbur would later join Kingpin's Emissaries of Evil, along with Le Concierge and Synapse.[32]

When Daredevil's secret identity as Matt Murdock was exposed by a local newspaper, Wilbur visited the law offices of Nelson and Murdock, announcing he was sick of the whole ordeal and that he was retiring as Stilt-Man. He left his armor in a suitcase on Murdock's desk, and was forcibly removed when he began yelling his paranoid conclusion that Murdock was the real Kingpin. Murdock then jokingly asked his law partner, Foggy Nelson, if he'd like to be the next Stilt-Man, an offer he quickly declined.[33] However, Wilbur returned to his old ways.[34][35] He was eventually arrested again and locked up in the Raft.[36]

Death & Legacy[]

When the Superhuman Registration Act was implemented, Wilbur signed up with the government and was outfitted with a new suit to serve as a law-enforcer during the ensuing superhuman civil war.[37] Fashioning himself a reformed hero, Stilt-Man ran into the Punisher while both were targeting child pornographer Fulvio Morsella. Wilbur offered the vigilante to team-up, but the Punisher held him accountable for his past life of crime and blew his legs up. Wilbur attempted to surrender, having realized that he and the Punisher weren't on the same page, but the Punisher shot and killed him.[2] After his death, many supervillains held a wake for him at a Bar with No Name, where it was revealed he had married Princess Python.[38]

Day's death became a cause célèbre for an anti-technology anarchist terrorist cell who called themselves the Bastard Sons of Wilbur Day, despite Spider-Man pointing out that their beliefs and goals had very little to do with anything Day had believed.[39] Another criminal, Lady Stilt-Man, paid homage to him posthumously.[40]

Dead No More[]

Several years later, the new Jackal brought many of Spider-Man's dead friends and foes back to life, including Stilt-Man, as part of a scheme to turn the web-slinger to his side. After being presented with this while under Jackal's custody, Spider-Man fled from his base with the help of the Spider-Woman of Earth-65.[3] Stilt-Man and the other revived villains were sent out to look for them.[41] When the Jackal's ally, Doctor Octopus, turned against him, he triggered the decay of all the people he had cloned back to life.[42] Spider-Man managed to stop this, but not before many people had died. Stilt-Man was one of the survivors.[43]

Inferno[]

As part of a plan to sow chaos in revenge for the loss of their fortune, the criminal Stromwyn siblings hired a group of super villains to wreak havoc in Hell's Kitchen. Stilt-Man was one of the villains alongside Crossbones, Bullseye, Rhino, and Bullet.[44] Day terrorized the neighbor using explosives, and when Daredevil confronted the villains, he stopped Stilt-Man by using one of his explosives against him, destroying his robotic legs.[45]

Megiddo[]

Tired of the constant humiliation he endured, Stilt-Man devised a plan to prove himself a leader. Finding the planet where the race of robotic giants known as Ultimos originated, Wilbur learned to reprogram them. Using an "interference beam" under his command, Wilbur routinely abducted random people from across the universe to this planet. Pretending that the same thing had inexplicably happened to him, Wilbur used his intellect to establish and run Megiddo, a small and peaceful colony where its inhabitants lived an unburdened life. In order give the colony something to bond over to avoid dissension, Day also regularly controlled the Ultimos remotely to attack the village and keep them as a looming threat.[46] Due to his reputation as a super villain, Wilbur operated mostly from the shadows, using a Kree soldier named Yar as the public leader.[47]

After hearing an S.O.S. signal from a spaceship piloted by Iron Man when the hero was pursuing the power-hungry android Korvac, Stilt-Man decided to abduct Stark to show the fruit of his labor.[46] Iron Man was initially captivated by the Megiddans' humble lifestyle as well as Stilt-Man's apparent change of heart,[47] but the constant threat of the Ultimos prompted him to look into them, and he ultimately discovered that Day was remotely controlling the killer robots. Together with another Megiddan, Avro-X, Iron Man confronted and defeated Stilt-Man. Afterward, the Megiddans took Wilbur away to punish him. In the aftermath of Stilt-Man's ruse being exposed, the Living Tribunal sought Iron Man to continue his pursuit of Korvac, and the hero asked him in exchange to return everyone on Megiddo home.[46] It can be presumed Stilt-Man was therefore returned to Earth.

Attributes

Power Grid[48]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Some Training:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/Single Type: Short Range:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Regenerative:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Superhuman:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Superhuman (800 lbs-25 ton):Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Gifted

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Stilt-Man's Battlesuit: If the lower portion of the legs were damaged, they could be detached. However, doing so decreased the height they could reach, due to the loss of the telescopic segments in that section. His armored suit's telescoping legs could extend up to 290 feet; silicon coating resisted adhesives such as Spider-Man's webbing; Augmented strength.[citation needed]

See Also

Links and References

References

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