Background

The third man to wear the Vulture's costume was Dr. Clifton Shallot. A professor at ESU, he was an expert in bio-mutation. He initiation a project which involved the Vultures wings and costume, which he requesitioned from the State Prison Authority.

When one of his courses was cancelled by the university trustees, something snapped in the doctor's head, and so he underwent the final stage of the mutation himself. The result was a change in himself which no amount of expertise and practice could do for the original vulture... his face, teeth, and fingernails mutated, and for a short time, the wings became part of his body.

He then went on a mission to destroy the two people who knew of his secret - his lab assistant, and her room-mate. Mary Jane was a witness to the murder of the latter, and also became a target.

Shallot discovered that the mutation was reversible, with the appropriate chemicals, but when he ran out, he took to stealing them. This link provided the clue for Spider-Man to determine his true identity, and eventually track him down and defeat him, by force-feeding him the antidote.

Dr. Shallot is presumably still serving his sentence for murder.

Thanks To:

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.