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Attributes

Height: 6'11" (Approximate.)

Weight: 300 pounds (Approximate.)

Eyes: Almost always closed. (They appear to be blue when open.)

Hair: Light brown (and originally in a bowl cut).

Features: Very large. Partial to yellow shirts with a vest.

Summary

Created By: Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

Real Name: Unknown.

Current Aliases: None.

Former Aliases: Dr. Karl Stragg.

Dual Identity: None.

Current Occupation: Wearing the old ball and chain.

Former Occupation: Mob Enforcer, Criminal scientist, Common crook.

Citizenship: USA

Legal Status: Imprisoned.

Place of Birth: Unknown.

Marital Status: Single.

Known Relatives: Twin brother (Ox III). (Thanks, Howard Mackie!)

Known Confidants: Montana and Fancy Dan (The Enforcers), Dr. Karl Stragg.

Known Allies: Montana, Fancy Dan, The Big Man, The Green Goblin, The Sandman, The Fellowship of Fear (The Eel, Mr. Fear), Norman Osborn, The Headsman, The Kingpin.

Major Enemies: Spider-Man, The Human Torch, Daredevil, Dr. Karl Stragg, Jimmy-6.

Usual Bases: New York City.

Former Bases: New York City.

Current Groups: The Enforcers.

Former Groups: The Fellowship of Fear.

Education: Unknown, but it ain't a graduate degree, I'll tell you that.

Powers & Paraphenalia

Strength Level: Many times normal.

Powers: Tremendous strength, resistance to injury.

Abilities: Punching people.

Equipment: Big fists.

Weapons: Reduced to toting a machine gun.

Limitations: Slow and ponderous, mentally and physically. Likes to refer to his punches as "haymakers".

Background

(A later retcon reveals the Enforcers as employees of Norman Osborn before they ever team up with the Big Man. They also work with the Headsman, an Osborn flunkey, post-Big Man, in yet another retcon.)

Once the Ox and his pals are released they join up with the Green Goblin who promises them revenge on Spider-Man. The Goblin concocts a plan which drags Spidey out to the New Mexico desert where he thinks he is making a film co-starring actors in the roles of the Enforcers. But the Enforcers are real and the battle is in earnest. The Ox gets his licks in but, in the end, he and his buddies are captured. The Goblin, however, escapes.

Next time out, the Enforcers team up with the Sandman to capture the Human Torch. As before, Spider-Man gets involved in the affair. He frees the Torch and the two heroes mop up the Ox and the other Enforcers.

For some reason, the Ox is paroled before his partners and he is subsequently recruited by Mr. Fear to join a new group. Along with the Eel, they become the Fellowship of Fear and start robbing banks by pretending to be a movie crew that is filming fake robberies. (Hey, when you're involved in a great idea like faking a film, it's hard to give it up, you know?) The group knocks heads with Daredevil and the Man Without Fear defeats them all, sending them to jail.

The Ox's cellmate in prison is Dr. Karl Stragg, a crooked scientist who promises to increase the Ox's intelligence once they get out. The Ox uses his great strength to loosen the cell's iron bars and the duo escapes. Once in the laboratory, Stragg betrays the Ox, as he planned all along. He conducts an experiment that switches their minds. The Ox gets stuck in Stragg's puny body while Stragg gets to revel in having the strength of the Ox. But in the ensuing melee with Daredevil, the body of the Ox seems to make Stragg more and more stupid while the Ox in Stragg's body finds himself slowly getting smarter. Ox II (Stragg) ends up charging at Daredevil and falling off a building to his death in the same sort of brainless stunt the original Ox would have performed.

Some time later, Dr. Karl Stragg (or the Ox in Stragg's body) is released from prison. (Even though he appeared to slip away uncaptured the last time we saw him.) He had volunteered to be a guinea pig "for tests of certain pharmaceutical isotopes" and these tests are now killing him. With less than a month to live, the authorities have decided to let him go. But instead of killing him, the isotopes mutate his body so that, guided by a mind that should be in a different body, he grows and takes on the appearance of the Ox. (He even gets the shirt, now orange, and the vest!) Again, he battles with Daredevil. As the fight goes on, the radiation mutation continues until he becomes both the Ox and Stragg warring for the same body. In the end, he reverts back to the body of Stragg, only to explode in a wash of radiation.

Which makes the Ox about as dead as you can get, right? Wrong. The Ox returns years later as an employee of the Kingpin. He is apparently back in his regular body and the only explanation given is that the Kingpin's men found the Ox "barely alive in that alley many months ago". (Thanks, Howard Mackie!) It isn't long before he's back with his old buddies, the Enforcers, only this time he's reduced to lugging a machine gun along. Spider-Man ends up defeating them. Oh well, it's better than being in another guy's body. Or being dead. I guess.

Thanks To:

The assistance of the Marvel Chronology Project is gratefully acknowledged.

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