Doctor Midas
Context
Dr. Midas appeared in 2000, in the iconoclastic Marvel Boy miniseries by Grant Morrison. He’s a global evil mastermind with a weird, surreal edge to him.
Midas made returns in 2014, but that was years after this profile was written.
Background
- Real Name: Unrevealed.
- Marital Status: Widower.
- Known Relatives: Oubliette (Exterminatrix, daughter).
- Group Affiliation: Head of Midas Foundation.
- Base Of Operations: New York.
- Height: Weight: lbs.
- Eyes: Blue Hair: None; formerly unrevealed.
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Powers and Abilities
Following repeated exposure to cosmic rays, Midas had developed the ability to turn substances into gold with a touch.
He had also acquired a version of the original Iron Man armour which he wore at all times. It provided him with protection from damage, enhanced strength, constant monitoring of transmissions, and the ability to project repulsor beams.
Following his exposure to the cosmic ray engine, he gained powers similar to those of the Fantastic Four:
- His body became far stronger and more durable, taking on a rocky skin.
- He could stretch himself at least 40 ft.
- He could merge himself into others, allowing him to read their minds.
- He could also set parts of his body on fire, without harm to himself.
- He could control the air, forcing it to crush his enemies in on themselves.
History
His original name and history are unrevealed.
Developing a drive to mutate himself into a superior being, and a fascination with alien technology, Midas built an empire by salvaging crashed alien technology. He repaired such wreckage into something he could sell. He developed contacts, or rather flunkies, in most areas of authority. This enabled him to act with impunity, and remain unknown to the world at large.
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He took the dying Ho Yinsen from Sun-Tao, but was only able to save his brain. He later sold these remains to Wong Chu. He then sold Chu’s whereabouts to Sons of Yinsen.
After a series of controlled exposures to cosmic radiations he began developing powers, becoming able to turn things to gold with his touch.
Oubliette
When Midas’ wife became pregnant, he slowly converted her entire body into a chemical hothouse of information-rich toxins. It was designed to artificially accelerate their child’s development. He then ripped her open to recover his daughter when the chemicals began to become dangerous to the baby.
He raised his daughter in his own image. But he forced her to always wear a mask, lying to her that she was hideously scarred beneath it.
Noh-Varr
Midas’ sensors detected the SOS signal, broadcast in a few billion languages. It was emitted by a spaceship passing near to Earth on its way to its home dimension. Midas had it shot down, then dispatched his agents to salvage the downed craft. It disappeared before they could complete their plundering. But not before they had recovered the surviving crew member, Noh-Varr.
Midas personally oversaw the examination of his prisoner. He kept him held in a containment bubble packed with virtual sensors which analysed him. Yet Noh-Varr escaped. He then sent the jet plane he broke out back at the building he had come from, aimed directly at Doctor Midas.
Midas was unwilling to let his property escape, especially when he learnt that its craft was powered by a cosmic ray engine. Thus, he sent his daughter and head assassin, Exterminatrix, to find the alien. He arranged for a section of Manhattan streets to be shut off for his use. They set up an ambush there, which Exterminatrix herded Noh-Varr into.
Chasing the alien
When Noh-Varr was worn down by the assault, Midas stepped in to finish him off. But he was prevented from delivering the fatal blow when Exterminatrix shot him, and ran off with Noh-Varr.
Following a tracker secretly included in his daughter’s mask, Midas requisitioned a team of SHIELD telepaths. They were tasked with controlling his captive Mindless One, which he sent after the pair. Following in the Mindless Ones’ wake, Midas reached the unguarded spaceship. He bathed in the energies of its cosmic ray engine, being transformed into Cosmic Man.
Midas tried to drain the mind of Plex, the ship’s highly advanced AI. As a consequence Noh-Varr returned to battle him, but to little avail. But Exterminatrix then returned with the severed head of the Mindless One.
She aimed its blast directly at Midas, eventually flattening him beneath the floorboards of reality. That left him stranded in the Mindless Ones home dimension, where he was set upon by others of its kind.
Personality
Arrogant and domineering, Doctor Midas is obsessed with mutating himself into the most powerful being alive. He sees everyone around him as being merely tools to assist in his endeavours.
The one exception to this was his daughter, whom he may have actually cared for. But he still treated her sternly, forging her into a survivor before she was even born. He quickly abandoned his feelings for her when she betrayed him.
Quotes
“Look at it this way, none of this is real. Your pain is not real. Not officially real. Your fear and confusion are not officially real. This building does not exist. Officially I do not exist. Therefore you do not exist. Logic at work. I can do anything to you. You have no advocate here. No one to bargain for your release.”
“I am a pirate. A scavenger. A multi-trillionaire in this sorry world of predators and profiteers. You are nothing. You are salvage, the flotsam of the void, the property of the Midas Foundation. My property.”
“I can swear in several interstellar languages and sub-dialects : Kree, Badoon, Skrull. It’s so… revealing, what they come out with on the dissection tables. Monsters. Body-snatchers. Things from outer-space… you will be stripped, vivisected, gutted and catalogued. The leftovers will be sold to… connoisseurs of alien anatomy.”
“I changed my name by deed after five years of deliberate exposure to cosmic radiation. Everything I touch turns to gold, after its fashion ; I can turn anything to my advantage.”
“I know you’ve been thinking about him in all the wrong ways. I’m a father, it’s my job to know.”
“I am Midas. I turn everything to my advantage.”
“8:45: Cosmic Man is born. I declare all other forms of life… obsolete.”
DC Universe History
A rival of Lex Luthor’s, he has clashed with Superman a few times, during his attempts to seize Kryptonian technology.
Game Stats — DC Heroes RPG
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Doctor Midas
| Dex: 05 | Str: 12 | Bod: 09 | Motivation: Power Lust |
| Int: 08 | Wil: 08 | Min: 08 | Occupation: Businessman |
| Inf: 09 | Aur: 08 | Spi: 09 | Resources {or Wealth}: 025 |
| Init: 022 | HP: 050 |
Powers:
Flame Being: 06, Force Manipulation: 08, Mind Probe: 15, Skin Armor: 02, Stretching: 02, Transmutation: 08
Bonuses and Limitations:
- Mind Probe has a Range of Touch (-1).
- Transmutation has a Range of Touch (-1), is Always On (-1), and can only convert substances to gold (-1).
Skills:
None demonstrated.
Advantages:
Languages (Badoon, Kree, Skrull), Omni-Connection, Special Credentials (50 pts, see below).
Connections:
None demonstrated.
Drawbacks:
MIA (Anonymity).
Equipment:
He has access to a vast array of alien technology and captive creatures (such as a Mindless One).
Containment Bubble
This is a gold hued energy globe used to restrain and scan alien subjects. Matter can pass into and out of the bubble, but the subject is unable to do much more than spit.
[BODY 08, Acuity (Mental and Physical detection powers only): 08, Paralysis: 12].
Special Credentials
Dr. Midas is so rich and influential that he can arrange pretty much anything. He can get blocks of Manhattan streets shut off to set up an ambush. If he uses the codeword “Priority Midas”, the police will ignore whatever he’s doing.
Previous Stats
Prior to his conversion into Cosmic Man, his only power was Transmutation, his STR was 03, his BOD was 04, and he wore a suit of armour similar to the original Iron Man armour.
IRON MAN ARMOUR [/STR/ 08 /BOD/ 09, Energy Blast (Range of Touch): 09, Radio Communications: 15].
Source of Character: Marvel Comics .
Helper(s): Marvunapp.com , Sébastien Andrivet.