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Background
Professor Mendel Stromm is a brilliant but unscrupulous scientist who was once
Norman Osborn's partner in Osborn Industries. While there, Stromm invented a
formula that granted increased strength and a powerful healing factor but he
also made the mistake of embezzling from the company. Discovering this and
wishing to get a hold of Stromm's notes for himself, Osborn had his partner
arrested. Much later, in trying to analyze the formula, Osborn created a
chemical explosion which gave him power and led him to become the Green
Goblin.
Stromm remained in prison for ten years. During part of that time, he was the
cellmate of Frederick Foswell. Outwardly a model prisoner, Stromm planned
revenge against Osborn all along. Upon his release, Stromm aided by his
hoodlum assistant Max Young, created two robots, both of which he could control
with a headpiece which covered his right eye with a device that looked like a
camera lens cap. One robot was a green blob with tentacles, the other a
walking stove pipe with a destructive laser beam. Stromm sicced both robots on
Norman Osborn but his plans were foiled by Spider-Man. Realizing that Stromm
was behind the attacks, Osborn, using his Goblin Glider to reach a second story
window, attempted to kill his former partner with a rifle. Although the shot
missed thanks to Spider-Man's intervention, Stromm suffered a heart attack and
seemingly died.
Stromm was buried in the family crypt where a "prearranged signal" lowered his
coffin into a hidden laboratory underneath. There his memories and knowledge
were downloaded into an android that looked exactly like him. Calling itself
the Robot-Master, the android began creating robots and selling them to
terrorist organizations. Spider-Man intervened and destroyed the android
Robot-
Master, capping off the fight by writing "Died Again" in webbing on Stromm's
mausoleum. Not one of the web-slinger's more tasteful moments.
In the meantime Norman Osborn, believed dead and hiding out in Europe, received
word of the android Robot-Master and thought this meant that Stromm was still
alive. Recalling that Stromm created the Goblin formula that allowed him to
cheat death and learning that Stromm had tested an earlier version of the
formula on himself, Osborn sent his Scriers to determine if Stromm had cheated
death as well. The Scriers stole Stromm's body and brought it to Europe where
Osborn discovered that Stromm was in suspended animation, though withered and
decayed over the years. Osborn used his scientific knowledge to revive his old
partner but Stromm was left in a weakened state; his body useless, like a
living corpse. Osborn promised to restore Stromm and provide him with "a
special life-support suit of armor that gave him back his mobility" in exchange
for services rendered. In this new guise, Stromm became known as Gaunt. Doing
Osborn's bidding, Gaunt went to co-opted scientist Seward Trainer and coerced
him into rigging a test so that clone Ben Reilly would come out as the real
Spider-Man and Peter Parker would come out as a clone, prompting Reilly to take
over the role of the web-slinger.
Overseeing Multivex, a "pet corporation set up through Osborn Industries",
Gaunt kept Seward Trainer by his side, forcing the scientist to investigate
ways to restore his withered body. At the behest of Norman Osborn, Gaunt hired
the cybernetically-enhanced Hobgoblin (Jason Macendale) and the
cybernetically-enhanced group known as Cell-12 in an attempt to destroy the
lives of Peter Parker and Ben Reilly. Later, Seward's attempt to
restore Gaunt was broken up by Spider-Ben, Peter, Mary Jane and the Molten Man,
destroying Multivex in the process.
Gaunt severed his connections with the Hobgoblin, telling him that killing
Spider-Man was forbidden. He tried to kill the new Green Goblin (Phil
Urich),
however, following the wishes of Norman Osborn who was insulted by the
unauthorized use of his equipment. Gaunt hired Arcade to do the killing but
the Goblin escaped the trap.
Within the ruins of Multivex, Seward Trainer finally succeeded in revitalizing
Gaunt. When Seward decided to warn Ben and Peter about Norman Osborn, Stromm
placed himself in a powerful robotic armor and pursued Seward literally right
into Osborn's hands. Osborn strangled Seward and ordered Gaunt to murder Ben
Reilly. When Gaunt failed, Osborn appeared to murder him using a Goblin finger
blast. Whether through the Goblin formula in his veins or Osborn's intent,
Stromm did not die but lost his memory instead. Unaware of the last nine years
(including Ben and Peter's secrets), Stromm instinctively made his way to his
old lab where he began making toys and anonymously delivered them to children's
hospitals. Spider-Man (Peter again) tracked him down and inadvertently
triggered his wrath by mentioning the name of Norman Osborn. Stromm donned a
spare suit of armor and unleashed his original robots on Spider-Man but was
subdued and put into the care of psychiatrist Ashley Kafka.
Retaining his hatred of Spider-Man, Stromm tried to create a new computer to
directly interface with his robots but the computer consumed him instead,
destroying all but his head and extending itself under the streets of New
York. Stromm managed to contact Spider-Man and begged the web-slinger for
death to stop the machine from taking over everything. Spider-Man could not
bring himself to kill Stromm. Instead Peter Parker had his hacker friend Shea
Tinker create a loop program that put Stromm and the machine into suspended
animation where Stromm remains today.
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