Dr. Nicolai Vardoff and his assistant Ludwig had created a super-silk formula which provided one strand of silk the tensile strength of steel. Vardoff was being harassed by businessmen and the mob for his formula. The United States Military was interested in his formula and Major Crane from the Army told Vardoff that they wanted his formula to help improve their parachutes. Vardoff agreed to have a parachute ready for them and told Crane to send a man to his laboratory later that evening. Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes came to his laboratory and discovered a fire and a burnt body hanging from the ceiling. An individual called the Hangman and his men had caused the fire. They ran into Captain America and Bucky but the two heroes were knocked out when they were ambushed from behind. Captain America realized that the body burned beyond recognition in the lab had a glass eye and Vardoff didn’t have a glass eye. Suddenly Captain America and Bucky were captured by the Hangman and his men. An invention that shot out acid was aimed at the back of Captain America and Bucky while they were bounded by the super strong silk. The Hangman didn’t realize that some acid was dripping and it burned through the ropes that were binding Captain America. The super soldier broke free and unmasked the Hangman. Vardoff was behind the mask and told Captain America that he wanted to be left alone with his formula. He revealed that he had killed the businessman with the glass eye and used his body to fake his death. Vardoff killed his assistant because he was discovering the truth and killed the mob girl for simple revenge. Vardoff gave the super silk formula to Captain America before he killed himself with his acid invention.
Creation
The Hangman was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby in 1941 and first appeared in Captain America Comics # 6.
Abilities
Vardoff had created the super-silk formula which granted one strand of silk the tensile strength of steel. He made a rope from that formula to hang his enemies.