Drom The Backwards Man

Origin

Shortly after he was born, Drom’s infant form was exchanged through time with his elderly future self due to a failed experiment by a future scientist. This ended up making Drom into The Backwards Man, as he was now forced to have to live his entire life in reverse. He aged backwards, he talked backwards, and even his body’s metabolic rate went backwards, making him incapable of eating. Drom was forced to live in seclusion for 45 years, during which his entire survival was dependent on various conversion machines that allowed him to be able to talk and eat in the right order again, and it also became necessary for him to drain energy from other human beings in order to slow his regressive aging. 

Creation

Drom the Backwards Man was created by Gerry Conway, Jim Mooney, and Vince Colletta.

Major Story Arc

A Few Fists More!

Drom the Backwards Man first appeared when he secretly instigated a fight between Iron Fist and a street thief in order to drain them off their energy during the battle. Once the battle ceased, Iron Fist ended up being followed by Spider-Man. Believing that Spider-Man and Iron Fist could together provide him with great amounts of energy, Drom tricked them into fighting each other so that he could drain their energy during the battle. Eventually however, the two heroes came to their senses and stopped their fighting. Unsatisfied, Drom used his Chronal Gun to turn a sandbox into a four-armed monster and once again forced the heroes into a fight. The monster ended up knocking out Iron Fist, but Spider-Man was able to trap it using his web-shooters. Drom then attempted to use his Chronal Gun on Spider-Man, but he was able to avoid it and ended up getting Drom to blast his own monster, destroying it. Spider-Man tried to web up Drom, but his webbing turned to dust as soon as it got too close to him. Drom then knocked out Spider-Man and took him back to his lab, where he placed Spider-Man in his Metabolic Disrupter in order to break down his cellular structure and completely siphon off the hero’s life energy.

When Spider-Man regained consciousness, Drom explained his condition to Spider-Man and why he had been forcing him to fight. He also explained that he now had no option other than to completely drain Spider-Man of his life energy. Luckily, Iron Fist arrived on the scene just in time to save Spider-Man. The two heroes teamed-up against Drom, but they couldn’t touch him without having him drain their energy. They therefore took a mirror that was situated in Drom’s lab in order to attack him with it. Drom desperately tried to explain that the mirror was actually vital to maintaining his existance, but Iron Fist and Spider-Man didn’t listen in time. As soon as the mirror was smashed over Drom’s head, he rapidly regressed to infancy and beyond until he simply disappeared. Due to the fact that Drom had now never existed, both Iron Fist and Spider-Man ended up completely forgetting about Drom.

Powers and Abilities

Due to having been time-exchanged with his elderly self, Drom was forced to age and exist backwards. His touch was capable of draining the energy of virtually anything, eventually reducing it to dust. In order to counter-act his reverse aging, Drom also had to continually drain the life enregy of other humans.

Drom had access to highly advanced technology, and used various different devices, including:

• a device that translated his backwards language
• a machine that made food edible for his reversed metabolism
• high-tech binoculars
• his Chronal Gun, which was capable of decaying objects, aging living things, and animating lifeless objects
• his Metabolic Disrupter, which broke down a victim’s cellular structure in order to more easily and thoroughly drain their life energy
• and his mirror, which was responsible for maintaining his very existence.