User Contributed Dictionary
Noun
headmen- Plural of headman
Extensive Definition
The Headmen is a group of fictional
supervillains in
the Marvel
Comics universe.
They first
appeared (as a team) in The Defenders #21 (March 1975).
History
The Headmen are a group of would-be masterminds
who use magic, science, and surgery to gain superpowers. They
fought the Defenders,
She-Hulk,
and Spider-Man on
different occasions.
Defenders writer Steve Gerber
formed the Headmen from 1950s anthological horror-story
characters appearing in the reprint title Weird
Wonder Tales #7 (Dec. 1974). That comic's five reprinted
stories included the introduction of
Dr. Arthur Nagan, the Gorilla-Man, from Mystery
Tales #21 (art by Bob
Powell); Chondu
the Yogi, from Tales of
Suspense #9 (art by George
Evans); and Dr. Jerry Morgan, a.k.a. Shrunken
Bones, from World of
Fantasy #11 (art by Angelo
Torres). In The Defenders #32 (Feb. 1976), the Headmen were
joined by Gerber's newly created Ruby Thursday (Thursday
Rubinstein), who ran for
President of the United States and was the instigator of the
death of another Gerber creation, Omega the
Unknown. In the same issue, Doctor
Strange declared that Chondu's real name was Harvey
Schlemerman, and Jack Norris, husband of the woman whose body was
being used by Valkyrie,
claimed to have seen him perform.
The Headmen made a comical appearance in John Byrne's
She-Hulk
comic, during a period when he was reviving Marvel villains, mostly
as fodder for purposes of She-Hulk's fourth-wall breaking
commentary. They had kidnapped She-Hulk for the purpose of giving
Chondu a slightly more normal body then he currently sported.
She-Hulk had temporarily been convinced her head had been detached
and placed on a life-support system but this was not true.
Appropriately, they also turned up for one issue
of the comical Defenders vol. 2 relaunch, by Kurt Busiek
and Erik
Larsen, up to their usual mad scientist hijinks. Chondu had an
arachnid cyborg body for this outing.
The Headmen next appear in Heroes for
Hire #6, in which they have reprogrammed a
Doombot to team with them to fight Humbug.
Members
- Dr. Arthur Nagan (Gorilla-Man II--name not used in the stories) (leader)
- Harvey Schlemerman (Chondu the Mystic)
- Dr. Jerold "Jerry" Morgan (Shrunken Bones--name not used in the stories)
- Thursday Rubinstein (Ruby Thursday)