Meteor Man
Norton Fester

Powers

Talents

Repair/Tinker, Astronomy (Specialist in Meteors), Guns, Pilot-Aircraft

Contacts

None

History

Norton G. Fester was a crackpot scientist who believed he was a genius, even though he had failed science courses in high school. One day he found a meteor fragment that he had seen landing. Since he believed that meteors contain microscopic living matter he wanted to prove it and attempted to raise money for research. All attempts failed and he went to study the meteor. He did this by chipping away a piece from it, which released a pocket of gas from its interior. Fester breathed the gas, which clung to him, and passed out. When he awoke later he discovered that he now had superhuman strength and leaping abilities. Fester immediately made a special suit for himself and committed a series of bank robberies under the name of the Looter. Since he also worried that his powers might go away he decided to get hold of more meteors.

The Looter, who now was quite well known already, attempted to take a meteor at the local Space Exhibit, but was stopped by Spider-Man. The Looter escaped, but without the meteor. Days later he attempted to steal the meteor again, but Spider-Man was waiting for him and this time defeated him and got him jailed.

Years later Fester was still serving time in prison being a model prisoner. A fellow prisoner asked Fester why he hadn't used his superpowers to escape from jail. Fester hadn't thought of it, so he promptly used his powers to escape. Since Fester's arrest Kyle Richmond, alias Nighthawk, had bought the meteor from the Space Exhibit. Fester immediately stole if from him and had a run in with Nighthawk, but successfully escaped with the meteor. The heroine called Valkyrie was told about the theft and decided to team up with Spider-Man who also was hunting Fester (who now called himself the Meteor Man). When they found Fester he was escaping after a theft of a small figurine sculpted from a meteor. Spider-Man attempted to fight the Meteor Man, but Valkyrie punctured the balloon and they both fell. Spider-Man was caught by Valkyrie, but the Meteor Man fell far down to the ground. His superpowers, however, allowed him to survive the fall and Fester was sentenced to a jail sentence again.

Years later, again, Fester escaped and had a run in with Giant-Man III (Bill Foster) and Spider-Man. Althought Fester managed to steal an experimental microwave generator and got away, Spider-Man had put a Spider Tracer on him before he escaped. While Spider-Man and Giant Man were tracking Fester he was busy building his latest invention (a modification of a basic design he had seen in an old issue of Popular Mechanics !). This invention somehow drew raw energy from the meteors in his collection and transformed it into microwave energy. This energy was then routed to a backpack Fester was wearing and the backpack transmitted the energy directly into Fester's nervous system. Spider-Man and Giant-Man arrived just as Fester had activated the invention. Surprisingly enough, the invention actually worked and the glowing Fester began growing, as his strength increased steadily.

Fester had no trouble beating the heroes and he soon reached the height of a tall building. The microwave transmitter on Fester's back suddenly exploded due to an energy overload. The energy feedback rocketed Fester into the air, where he suddenly exploded and apparently died.

Fester had, however, survived and later came back to loot money so that he could buy the next meteor he was after. After some success (he was actually celebrating with champagne in his secret hideout !) he again was captured by Spider-Man and put in jail. Fester will probably resurface again to steal more money and meteors...