Origin
The clone of Hyperion was a member of the supervillian team; the Squadron Sinister.
Creation
Hyperion was introduced in The Avengers #69, and was created by Roy Thomas and John Buscema. The character is loosely based on DC Comics Superman, sharing similar powers and origin.
Character Evolution
Marvel Comics Hyperion has changed a great deal since his introduction in October of 1969. After many misdeeds and misadventures, he eventually traveled to Earth-712 where he briefly replaced his heroic counterpart and eventually died in an epic battle with the Earth-712 Hyperion.
Major Story Arcs
Squadron Sinister
Hyperion makes his appearance as a member of Squadron Sinister, a group of supervillains assembled by the Grandmaster to battle the team of heroes known as the Avengers. Years later, the Squadron Sinister is reunited when Hyperion encounters Nebulon, and in exchange for his freedom promises him the Earth. The Squadron Sinister then manufactures a giant laser cannon in the Arctic and plans to use it to melt the polar ice caps, covering the entirety of the Earth’s surface with water. They are foiled, however, by the superhero team known as the Defenders. After this defeat the Squadron Sinister are teleported off the world by Nebulon, but later are returned to Earth. After acquiring an energy-draining weapon, the Squadron Sinister plan to threaten the Earth once again but are defeated once more by the Defenders and the Avenger Hank Pym.
Hyperion later has another encounter with several members of the Avengers, who at the time are seeking out a way to separate Dr. Spectrum’s Power Prism from the Wasp. At this time Hyperion was found working in a commercial gym in Queens, New York while in an amnesiatic state. He had just met the warrior woman Thundra.
The Good versus the Bad
Soon after, Hyperion battled Thor once again and encounters the Earth-712 version of Hyperion from the Squadron Supreme when he became imprisoned in the Earth-712 universe. Hyperion was later freed by Earth-616’s Nth Command and gets his chance to see Thundra again when he finds out they have the same pro-wrestling agent/promoter.
Hyperion finds Thundra attactive and hopes to start a relationship with her. He tells his benefactors/contacts at Nth Command about Thundra’s re-emergence on the scene and they promptly send him to recruit her to once again to their cause. Thundra works for them before being stopped by the Thing and his allies.
Thundra and Hyperion joined together again, going to Nth Command together so Thundra could receive her payment for infiltrating Project: Pegasus for them. The Nth projector is shown to and demonstrated for Thundra, who promptly steals it and tries to escape. Hyperion followed her, explaining he’d fallen for her. Before she used the device to return home, Thundra sought to contact the Fantastic Four to give them the device after she’d used it to return home. Hyperion and Thundra arrive at the Baxter Building where they are spotted by the Ben Grimm.
Before Thundra can introduce the two of them to each other, Hyperion and the Thing begin to battle. Thundra was then attacked by some Nth Command agents who were determined to retrieve the projector. Thundra is able to defeat her pursuers as Hyperion overpowers the Thing. Thundra had Hyperion stop fighting with the Thing so she could tell him what the device was and that she intended to use it to return home. She told Ben about the device and she then told him she loved him as she kissed him goodbye.
Thundra activated the device and was going home when Hyperion hurries to join her. They disappeared together, presumably traveling to Thundra’s homeworld, but Hyperion was just a second behind her and became trapped in inter-dimensional space. Hyperion was trapped there for some time before being freed by the villain Master Menace who reveals he is actually an inorganic clone created by the Grandmaster, modeled from the Hyperion from Earth-712.
He later is giving the mission of impersonating the Earth-712 Hyperion, during this time the clone falls deeply in love with Zarda and, in order to win that love, goes so far as to kill her elderly husband by sucking the air out of his lungs and inducing a heart attack. His love for Zarda also drives him to turn on Master Menace and destroy the device that would have brought him to Thundra’s reality.
However, thanks to Master Menace, the real Hyperion returned to Earth-712 and engaged his clone in battle. Unfortunately for the clone, the true Hyperion proved to be too powerful and overwhelmed him as the battle reached its climax. Mortally wounded and now dying in Zarda’s arms the clone admitted to murdering her husband, explaining that he did so because he was in love with her.
Powers and Abilities
Hyperion is a clone of the original Hyperion from the Earth-712. He possesses all the same powers as the original although as seen in the fight between the two which he was ultimately killed in, he is somewhat inferior to his counterpart. Hyperion had an extremely high level of superhuman strength approaching the original’s and was able to lift at least 90 tons but quite possibly, and probably, much more. Hyperion can project very intense beams of heat energy from his eyes but his level of power in this area was shown to be slightly weaker than that of the original Hyperion’s. Though he could heal from nearly any wound, in the rare times he incurred any, there was a limit to his powers of recuperation which was shown when he proved unable to heal from the injury inflicted upon him by the original Hyperion; the injury which ultimately killed him. This Hyperion’s durability was very high level, yet it still proved to be slightly inferior to that of the original. He was able to fight Thor, who was using his hammer Mjolnir, to a standstill on multiple occasions without the benefit of any weapon of his own.