Background

When Chip Martin was born, the doctor warned his parents that the drugs they had used to ease his mother's delivery had entered his bloodstream. It is unclear whether these drugs mutated him to cause him to develop superhuman powers, or if they caused a chemical imbalance which resulted in his personality disorder. His parents blamed this event for all of his differences.

These differences first became apparent when, as an infant, Chip levitated his a toy while simultaneously materializing a hammer and smashing it. In his early years in school, simple criticism by a teacher would cause him to materialize snake-like creatures to terrify everyone present. His parents became aware that a second, more hostile personality would seem to possess Chip when he was stressed, and would utilize his powers. His parents consulted numerous doctors, initially trying to control the other personality through medication. As he grew older, his other personality and emotional outbursts became more frequent and more violent. Chip finally made progress at a special school were psychiatric care enabled him to control his emotional states. Chip progressed into college, and continued his education as a graduate student at Empire State University.

One night, at a costume party held by his parents, he encountered the living vampire Morbius, who had crashed the party in search of a victim. The stress of this encounter caused his other personality to surface and go on a rampage. Wearing the costume from the party, he dubbed himself the Schizoid Man and set out to gain revenge on all he felt had wronged him in his life.

Blaming his parents for attempting to imprison him, the Schizoid Man attacked him, a police squad, and a crowd of others present at Empire State University. At this time, Spider-Man was himself suffering from excessive hostility brought on by exposure to energy from an "Enervator" used to drain the energy from the Lizard. After overcoming Chip's demon-like creations, Spider-Man savagely attacked him, beating him senseless, until Curt Connors, realizing the cause of Spider-Man's anger, managed to stop him. Chip was presumably taken away for psychiatric care.

Chip is likely either still under heavy psychiatric care, or has completed it and relocated to somewhere less stressful. There's no reason he couldn't return if anyone had the interest in him.

I am no expert on psychology, so I'm not certain if multiple personality disorder is the correct term, but I'm going with it.

Note: Chip's "other" is has no association to any of the several beings or groups that have used the alias The Other, such as:

I-an agent of Chthon, first in Marvel Chillers I#1.
II-an extra-dimensional sorceror, an enemy of Spellbinder and Zxaxz, first in Spellbound #1
III-the Titanium Man I, as the secret director of Unicorn I, first in Iron Man #113
IV-an extradimensional being encountered by the Silver Surfer and Scrier, first in Silver Surfer Vol.3, #-1

Note: Spider-Man's mentel changes brought on by the Enervator progressed to a temporary physical transformation into the Spider-Lizard.

Chip possesses a multiple personality disorder. One of the personalities is hostile and acts out his subconscious thoughts and desires. This personality is generally controlled via medication and psychiatric training, but can surface in times of stress. It is this personality that control's Chip's superhuman powers.

Chip is able to levitate himself and other objects. In addition, he can materialize solid objects from thin air. He can create weapons, such as knives, or animals, such as snakes, or even demon-like creatures. These creations are not alive or intelligent. They are created from psychic energy, possibly from extra-dimensional mass, and are controlled either directly by him or by his subconscious. These creations dissolve if he is not actively concentrating on them.

Thanks To:

This profile was completed with information used with permission from the Appendix of Marvel Universe website, mantained by Jeff Christiansen (Snood). If you want to find out about that odd-ball character you've only seen once, or even about that character you haven't ever seen, that's the site you're looking for. An impressive amount of obscure characters await you there!

The assistance of the Marvel Chronology Project is gratefully acknowledged.

Some of the above information is extracted from the various versions of the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe and the more recent Marvel Encyclopaedias.