Profile: 3-D Man

The 3-D Man was a 1950s hero who came about through the unique merger of two brothers, Hal and Chuck Chandler. Chuck was a test pilot who was abducted by alien Skrulls during an important test flight. Earth is a strategic location in the ongoing conflict between the alien Kree and Skrull Empires, so the Skrulls were seeking information on Earth’s space program and had captured Chuck to interrogate him. Chuck resisted and escaped, accidentally causing the explosion of the Skrull spacecraft in the process. While his brother Hal watched, the radiation from the explosion seemingly disintegrated Chuck, who disappeared in a burst of light. Hal later discovered, however, that the light burst had imprinted an image of Chuck on each lens of Hal’s eyeglasses. Through concentration, Hal could merge the images and cause Chuck to reappear as a three-dimensional man. Chuck become the costumed adventurer known as the 3-D Man and single-handedly subverted the Skrulls’ early attempts to undermine Earthly civilization.

Hal would remain comatose whenever the 3-D Man was active, but was aware of the 3-D Man’s activities through a sort of mental link. Later, a Skrull’s ray weapon altered the transformation so that Hal was the 3-D Man’s dominant consciousness for some time. Both brothers’ minds seemed to be present in the 3-D Man at all times, but only one of them (usually Chuck) would be in conscious control of the 3-D Man’s form on any given occasion. 

In at least one timeline, which may or may not be an alternate past, a team of adventurers known as the Avengers briefly formed in the 1950’s before disbanding at the request of the President, who felt the public wasn’t ready to learn of them and their exploits. The 3-D Man was part of that short-lived Avengers team, and their rescue of the President from the Yellow Claw helped dispel the 3-D Man’s reputation as a dangerous outlaw thanks to the President’s influence. 

After a brief career as a costumed adventurer, Hal decided to retire the 3-D Man, partly because he was thinking about starting a family, and partly because he was afraid his brother’s consciousness might somehow be lost during periods when Hal was the 3-D Man’s dominant consciousness. Hal settled down into a career as a research scientist, got married and raised two sons. He has only activated the 3-D Man twice in recent years, and Chuck seemed to be its dominant consciousness again.