Origin
Elihas Starr was a government scientist who was caught and jailed after smuggling blueprints out of work, presumably to sell on the black market. The media dubbed him “Egghead,” and he was soon contacted and freed by a high-placed crime lord, who gave him the charge of proving his worth by defeating the original Ant-Man. Although using his technological expertise, Egghead failed and narrowly avoided capture.
Time and again, he would try to defeat Hank Pym, such as trying to use Ant-Man’s new partner, the Wasp, as bait, or trying to trick Ant-Man into fighting against Spider-Man. Egghead regarded Pym as his arch-nemesis and grew desperate to prove Pym’s genius was inferior to his own.
Giving up on pure revenge, Egghead tried to form a short-lived alliance with the Mad Thinker and the Puppet Master. They hoped to use an orbiting laser death ray to extort money from the United States, but were defeated by the Avengers when Barney Barton, brother of Hawkeye (then, Goliath), tipped off the heroes. Tragically, Barney died in the ensuing battle. Later, Egghead would use the Swordsman (Jacques Duquesne) to capture Goliath, thinking him to be Hank Pym, but Hawkeye (Clint Barton) as Goliath soon defeated both criminals, avenging his brother at the same time.
Creation
Egghead is a Marvel comic book character who was created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby. Egghead first appears in Tales To Astonish #38 as an antagonist to Hank Pym the Ant-man. Tales To Astonish #38 was released in 1962.
Character Evolution
Egghead is a fairly typical Marvel styled villain for the era he was created in, drawing on many of the typical characteristics of the mad scientist role. His particular gimmick is based around the slang term egghead, which was a way to describe a person who was extremely intelligent but at the cost of being out of touch with regular people. A lack of common sense traded in for peculiar intellectual idiosyncrasies. In recent times the term has fallen out of popular use in favor of terms such as nerd and elitist. Visually Egghead appears less comedic as well in more modern appearances.
Major Story Arcs
Revenge Against Pym
Escaping from prison, Egghead planned to use a mind-transferal machine to rob Pym of his intelligence, and went so far as to test it on his own niece, Trish Starr, before being defeated by Pym as Ant-Man again. Egghead, in revenge, planted a bomb in his niece’s car, who survived the blast but lost her left arm. Egghead would lead a team calling themselves the Emissaries of Evil to hold the world ransom by an atomic bomb. They were stopped by the Flight, its predecessor being Alpha Flight.
Emissaries of Evil
A later incident found Egghead re-forming the Emissaries of Evil. He led the Cobalt Man, the Rhino, and Solarr in capturing a NASA space lab as headquarters, and then set about trying to capture the Star of Capistan, which was in the possession of the Defenders. Egghead sent the Emissaries to fight the heroes, secretly rigging the Cobalt Man’s armor to explode in hopes to kill the Defenders. But when the Defenders helped the Cobalt Man survive, he discovered Egghead’s treachery and turned on him. In the resulting battle, the Cobalt Man triggered a nuclear explosion, Egghead was presumed dead as the laboratory was destroyed.
Masters of Evil
Instead of dying, however, Egghead had teleported away at the last second. He stayed in Manhattan, little more than a derelict. When he learned of Pym’s mental breakdown and expulsion from the Avengers, he set up an elaborate scheme to frame Pym for kidnapping and stealing weapons from a nuclear base. Forming the third Masters of Evil, Egghead pretended to “free” Pym from his trial, making the world believe him to be a criminal. Egghead forced Pym to work on Egghead’s deepest wish, a cure for aging, but instead, Pym constructed a weapons device that allowed him to defeat the Masters of Evil just as the Avengers arrived to rescue him. Egghead attempted to shoot Pym in the back, but Hawkeye used an arrow to plug his gun, which misfired, killing Egghead. It has recently been shown that before his death, Egghead would meet with other evil geniuses to steal the lost information of the Library of Alexandria. As a member of the Intelligencia, they were able to steal all the necessary information, but Egghead grew too cocky since the team secretly rescued each other so much when they were in trouble. This resulted in his death.
After Death
He is later seen attacking Scarlet Witch and Vision with many other deceased villains. Deadpool later battled an Egghead clone and defeated him.
Powers and Abilities
Egghead does not possess any superhuman powers but he is a genius and has great leadership skills. Egghead’s incredible intellect is his greatest issue and the criminal mastermind possesses a great deal of knowledge and expertise in the field of robotics and engineering which makes him a tough enemy. He can grasp ideas at a seemingly superhuman rate. Egghead holds a degree in atomic science and possesses knowledge and expertise in many other scientific arenas. Eggman is able to produce and create many sophisticated weapons to aid his goals. Some of Egghead’s inventions include a device to communicate with insects, a sonic vibration gun, a size increasing ray, and an Earth orbiting ray gun station. Egghead also employs various trick egg projectile weapons, that can paralyze, trap, ensnare, contain and otherwise neutralize foes.
Physical Characteristics
Height: 5′ 11″
Weight: 320 lbs
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Bald
Other Media
Television
The Super Hero Squad Show (2009)
Egghead has made an appearance in Marvel Super Hero Squad Show on Cartoon Network. He appeared in episode 10, and it also guest starred his original nemesis Hank Pym as Ant Man. Egghead is voiced by Wayne Knight.
The Avengers: United They Stand (1999)
Egghead appears in the 1999 Avengers animated cartoon series The Avengers: United They Stand. Egghead appears in the episode Egg-Stream Vengeance and is voiced by Robert Latimer.
Movies
MCU
Antman and the Wasp
Although never seen, he was mentioned by his daughter whom would later become Ghost, telling her story of her father being involved with S.H.I.E.L.D working with Hank Pym.