Mister Hyde

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Given this history, our coverage has to be a chronological series of profile. This profile covers the 1960s and the 1970s. Some data that was revealed much later (such as his daughter) is worked in but his capabilities, personality, etc. are strictly based on this time period.

Mr. Hyde is a wonderful villain for GMs  :

• He’s well-known.
• He’s straightforward.
• he has a flexible power level.
• He is easy and fun to roleplay.
• He is credible both as a schemer and as a thug.
• He is really really evil and despicable (yet he has an excellent excuse for being such a caricature black hat).
• Etc..

Background

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Powers and Abilities

Under the effect of his potion, Zabo becomes Mr. Hyde. Hyde supposedly possesses the “strength of a dozen men”. These must be pretty strong guys, since Hyde immediately demonstrated the ability to lift city busses and tear open bank vault doors.

Later material will demonstrate that Hyde’s levels of superhuman strength and durability vary a fair bit from appearance to appearance. This is explored in our game stats.

Though he’s an enemy of Thor and his most visible ability is superstrength, it should not be assumed that he’s ”class 100”. Hyde does not normally stand a chance in close combat against the godly might of the thunderer.

Hyde is a savage hand-to-hand combatant. Howbeit, this is not always apparent since he has fought many extraordinarily agile opponents (Daredevil, Captain America, etc.) who were focusing on dodging his superhuman blows.

Still, while Hyde does not evidence any special technique and lacks finesse, his killer instinct and raw viciousness are extraordinary. He’s relentlessly, maniacally aggressive, attacking without inhibition and with astounding ferocity.

Hyde is also occasionally capable of remarkable bursts of speed that, as is traditional, belies his Brobdingnagian bulk.

Other notes

The transformation from Zabo to Hyde usually takes seconds (less than one Phase, in DC Heroes RPG terms, though he cannot perform any Action during that Phase). Some secondary sources  have noted that some forms of the potion meant slower transformations, taking up to 30 seconds.

Somehow, despite the huge difference in height and bulk — nearly 250 lbs. of additional muscle — the clothing stays intact and correctly-sized in either identity. Presumably Zabo designed or bought a special fabric to allow for that.

If Hyde turns into Zabo and turns his trick coat inside out, he seems to be wearing an ordinary (albeit pine green and dated) business suit with a white shirt and a green bow tie.

In his early appearances, Hyde could disguise himself as Thor, occasionally wielded a handgun, and was a genius-level inventor. He also displayed such unexpected talents as cracking tumbler-operated safes and piloting power boats. Some of these aspects gradually washed away to focus on his core.

Science without conscience

Though he’s savage and brutal, Hyde still has Zabo’s command of science and engineering. His expertise range from chemistry to electronics to robotics to high-end physics and the like – he’s a comic book scientist. During this period of his career he builds and uses the following :

• Time Reversal Ray. This energy cannon (looking vaguely rocket launcher-like) is aimed at a subject for about 8-10 seconds, and will then somehow be able to project a small yellow hologram of the subject and its surrounding, going backward in time.
  Hyde boasted that it could have shown Cobra’s life back until his birth, but it failed to reveal Thor’s secret ID (since Don Blake is not the same subject a Thor, the hologram stopped playing when it got back to the point where Blake turned into Thor). Despite its remarkable usefulness, this Gadget, built and used by Hyde in his second documented story arc, was never seen again.
• Chemical Irritant Spray. This device (which our game stats assume had a limited range and ammunition) was hidden under Hyde’s shirt and shot multiple streams of orange irritant chemicals with a very high pressure. Those fierce streams are pretty hard to dodge. This Gadget was never seen again.
• Ultra-Wave Transmitter. What the Transmitter did was not terribly clear, really. It looks vaguely like a 1970s video projector (with something looking like a reel of film on its side) and could attract metals. Hyde used it to “tug” on Thor’s hammer and lead the God of Thunder into chasing him. Never seen again after that one use.
• Booby-trapped house. Hyde once tricked out a whole house to kill Thor. The traps he designed and built included :
  • Reversing walls. The walls and ceiling in the hallway of a booby-trapped house would flip to reveal a metallic surface studded with cone-like protrusions, then close in to crush the person in the hallway.
  • Metallic tentacles coming from the floor
  • Deadfall made of some kind of super-dense concrete and triggered by an electric eye
  • And the most powerful system of all – the Hidden Blast Ray shot across a room and paralyzing anybody crossing it.
• Special tear gas grenade and a custom gas mask. Hyde once used this combo to dominate Thor in hand-to-hand combat. Apparently the chemical irritant was so potent that it could affect even a god !
• Blinding chemical – this liquid could permanently blind a person (or rob them of all their remaining senses if already blind), though there is an antidote.

Hyde tends to employ those technological marvels if he thinks that he’s going to clash with a top-tier superhuman opponent such as Thor. The rest of the time he’s certain his strength alone will be enough.

History

From what we can piece together from a few flashbacks, Calvin Zabo was a medical chemist or hospital pharmacologist. His behaviour eventually got him blacklisted throughout the US healthcare industry.

A textbook sociopath, Zabo simply did not care about his employer and colleagues. He was forever on the lookout for an opportunity to rob them blind then move on. Obsessed by his own theories, he also regularly stole gear and chemicals to conduct his private experiments.

Inevitably, his employment prospects dwindled as his reputation spread. Characteristically, Zabo came to consider that he was the victim of an unjust, despicable system out to humiliate and ruin him. He also grew jealous of successful healthcare professionals, considering that he was entitled to a similar professional success.

Fascinated by evil, Zabo had always been obsessed by the classic tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He became certain that there was some way to actually synthesise a compound that could revert a man to an uninhibited, brutal state of nature. Thus inspired by Stevenson, he worked for years, brewing and drinking a number of potions in his lab.

It apparently took months if not years to mutate himself as he intended. It is a testament to his skill that he did not kill or permanently damage himself in the process.

A quake is coming

During this phase of experimentation, Zabo regularly had sex with a New Orleans prostitute named Kim Johnson. Johnson eventually became pregnant, and gave birth to a little Daisy. She abandoned her daughter shortly after birth, and Daisy was adopted by Greggory and Janet Sutter to become Cory Sutter.

She was never told she was an adoptee until her late teens, when S.H.I.E.L.D. contacted her after it became obvious that she had developed superhuman powers. According to S.H.I.E.L.D. techs, Daisy Johnson’s abilities are almost certainly derived from the hormones and complex chemicals Zabo had been experimenting with on himself.

Personally recruited by Nick Fury, Zabo’s daughter would become an elite agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. under the code name Quake. It is unknown whether Hyde even knew he had a daughter ; in any case, it is probably safe to assume that he did not care.

Chemically altered

Eventually, Zabo found his Grail – the compound he had dreamt of. The elixir was an incredible success. Not only did he become a person without inhibitions and possessed of great savagery and cruelty, but he also had what he described as the “strength of a dozen men”.

His reinforced body also had very different, distorted fingerprints. In his opinion that meant that no crime committed in his superhuman form could be traced back to Calvin Zabo. He was now without pity, unstoppable and above the law !

Days if not mere hours before this successful experiment, Zabo’s in-person application for employment with Dr. Don Blake had been rejected. That rejection made the physician the latest target for Zabo’s resentment, jealousy and other issues – especially as Blake’s crippled leg made him an easy target.

Raging at thunder

As Hyde, he just went to Blake’s office, smashed the door to bits, and defenestrated the famous doctor. Hyde then torn open Blake’s private vault to appropriate everything in it. Of course, Dr. Blake secretly being Thor, he managed to survive the fall. Television announced that the reputed neuro-surgeon had been saved by Thor.

Hyde was angered by this rescue. He was also concerned over Thor being back in town – suspecting the thunder god might be the only person with a strength greater than his own. He viciously counter-attacked by impersonating Thor and committing a number of crimes whilst thus garbed.

Soon, however, the real god of thunder exposed the deception and defeated Hyde, despite the villains attempt to take Jane Foster hostage and to steal a nuclear submarine to get away.

The god and the cobra

Later, as Zabo was working to refine his formula, the Cobra had a brief clash in Thor, and randomly found refuge in the evil scientist’s apartment. As the Cobra prepared to mug the researcher, Zabo became Hyde and started manhandling the Cobra.

The two villains soon realised that they both hated Thor, however, and decided to team up to vanquish the God of Thunder – as was the style of the day.

The shrewd Hyde came up with a plan relying on his technology. He provoked Thor as Hyde then disappeared by becoming Zabo. Menawhile, Cobra flashed Thor with Hyde’s time reversal ray. Watching the images from the ray, the dastardly duo discovered Thor was apparently hiding in the office of Dr. Don Blake.

Hyde and the Cobra thus clashed anew with Thor, and led into an ingenious trap. Hyde played decoy long enough for the Cobra to have a robot suddenly grasp Thor’s hammer from behind. However, Thor bluffed, using his inevitable transformation into Blake to trick the villains and recover his weapon.

The Asgardian defeated the Cobra, but Hyde escaped – by also discreetly turning into his alter-ego, whom no-one noticed. He then promptly turned into Hyde again, ambushing Thor and knocking the mallet out of the god’s hand, but Thor defeated him mano a mano before the 60 seconds to his Alter Ego elapsed. Hyde was carted away by the police.

Reign of evil

Both Hyde’s and the Cobra’s incarceration lasted for but a very short time, though. Loki came to New York City and paid the bail so as to recruit the villainous pair for another attempt at revenge against Thor.

For good measure he also mystically doubled their abilities (giving Hyde something like DEX 08, STR 18 and BODY 13) and sent them (again !) to kidnap Jane Foster.

The pair briefly prevailed against Thor thanks to a booby-trapped house and special gas grenades, all built by Hyde. But the God of Thunder managed to turn the tables on them. He also saved Foster, who had been nearly killed by an accidental explosion during the fight. Hyde was felled when Thor threw him into his own, powerful paralysis ray.

In 1965, Hyde and the Cobra were among the multitudinous rogues and criminals hypnotised and summoned by Doctor Doom’s technology. The slight but pervasive mind control had them progress toward Reed Richards and Sue Storm’s marriage ceremony, in order to ruin it.

The numerous assaults were foiled by Richards with the Watcher’s help and the villains were displaced away in time.

Devil in the dark

Under unrevealed circumstances, Hyde was arrested and imprisoned. But the Cobra found Zabo and sneaked into the prison with the Hyde chemicals. Hyde immediately burst free.

The pair then launched a two-men crime wave throughout Manhattan, which attracted Daredevil’s attention. Daredevil was overpowered by the duo. Deciding to toy with him, the cruel Hyde led him to his lab. There, he splashed a chemical into Daredevil’s eyes, designed to blind him forever.

DD being already blind, the chemical had unexpected effects and deadened all of the Man Without Fear’s senses. Hyde and the Cobra easily recaptured DD a short while later and took him to another of Hyde’s lab, on top of an abandoned lighthouse, to execute him.

However, as the villains had yet another loud spat, ol‘ hornhead discreetly cut off their electrical generator. Daredevil eventually found the antidote and defeated his opponents, still hurling verbal and physical jabs at each other, under cover of darkness.

Revenges

The Cobra was arrested, but DD only managed to beat Hyde by luring him into charging through a wall. Thus, the villain simply swam away when the police arrived.

Hyde soon wound up needing Cobra’s talents, and busted him out of prison. The pair allied with the Jester (Jonathan Powers) and they attempted to kill Daredevil in a booby-trapped amusement park. The trio was defeated and arrested.

While Hyde was in prison, the Assassin (aka Mister Kline) used a robot in the likeness of Mr. Hyde as a servant. The robot being very realistic, most onlookers assumed it was the real Hyde. Thus, after the robot blew itself up in a morgue to destroy a similar robot double of the Scorpion, most assumed that Hyde was dead.

Escape from the Assassin

The real Hyde and the real Scorpion were actually alive. They had been discreetly kidnapped from their prison and placed in hibernation, presumably to keep them out of the way while their robot doubles took their place. Months after the duplicate Hyde and the duplicate Scorpion had been destroyed, a material failure allowed the two prisoners to awaken and flee.

Impressed by the extremely advanced technology they encountered whilst fleeing, they thought they had been captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. as part of some kind of experimental prison project. They decided to band together to obtain their mistaken revenge against the law-enforcement organisation.

This revenge scheme led to a clash with S.H.I.E.L.D. associates Captain America and the Falcon, and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Sharon Carter. Predictably, Hyde took Carter hostage and absconded with her. But with the Scorpion being exhausted and Hyde being at a low ebb in power, the heroes rescued Carter and won.

Hyde was left tied with the Scorpion but regained consciousness before the cops came. He switched back to his human form and fled. Needing chemicals to work with, he broke into a pharmacy as Zabo, only to be caught by a random beat cop and sent into prison.

The Cagliostro plot

Since this crime was rather minor, Zabo was soon released from prison. On his end the Cobra escaped as soon as Zabo was released. Though they despised each other, the considered that they were too vulnerable when operating solo, and needed to band together against interfering super-heroes.

Together they stole a specific emerald Hyde needed for a new version of his potions, which allegedly would make him twice as strong. The villainous duo then attacked an eccentric millionaire in Manhattan, to steal his rare book collection. An interfering Daredevil was soon defeated, tied to stakes and left at the mercy of the millionaire’s pet lion.

Hyde eventually found the book he was after. It was a manuscript penned by Cagliostro , with a formula for a potion that would allegedly give godly powers to the imbiber.

After perusing the book, Hyde broke into a vault holding the needed chemicals, and started preparing his concoction right on site. Daredevil intervened and knocked the Cobra out, but Hyde nailed the crimson-clad hero. He wrapped him up with the Cobra’s unconscious body, wanting to kill his foe with the power of a god and not as plain old Hyde.

In a desperate effort, Daredevil freed himself and smashed the potion before Zabo could ingest it. He then knocked the villain out – presumably Hyde had started reverting to Zabo at that point.

Returns to Ryker’s

Two years later, in 1978, the Purple Man took over the Ryker Island prison, where he assembled a group of Daredevil foes. He sent two of them, Hyde and the Cobra, out to ambush and capture Daredevil in Heather Glenn’s Manhattan apartment.

The two villains succeeded, and brought the hero back to the prison. There, the Purple Man also released the Jester and the Gladiator (Melvin Potter), and pitted the four villains against Daredevil.

The situation was dire, but Daredevil was energised by seeing Heather Gless held hostage by the Purple Man. He also received the unexpected backing of the mercenary Paladin. Paladin shot Hyde in the back by complete surprise, knocking the villain out.

This time around, though, when the Cobra escaped he refused to break Hyde free. Kept under heavy sedation (presumably because he had chanced upon a serum that allowed him to remain in his Hyde state for several months), Mister Hyde even begged the Cobra to set him free, to no avail. The infamous partnership of the Cobra and Mister Hyde was over.

Seething with anger, Hyde stayed six more months in his cell. But during this time, Hyde was scheming… and planning an apocalyptic revenge against the Cobra, Daredevil, Thor and the whole of New York City !

Description

Hyde does not share any physical characteristic with Zabo, down to fingerprints. His skin is distorted by the extra mass he gains as Hyde, leaving him with a strange facial expression, as if perpetually sneering. Hyde is often depicted as a sort of brutal Neanderthal with glowing red eyes and long hair.

Early on, he was a smoker.

Personality

Hyde is convinced that he is intrinsically superior to the teeming masses. It is obvious to him that his greater strength, intelligence and ruthlessness mean he should be free of the constraints of society so he can just take and do whatever he wants.

He’s a savage but cunning barbarian, acting on his every base impulse and seething with lust for riches, fame, respect, women, etc. – plus violent jealousy and a love of “evil”. Hyde wants many things, and rejects all rules.

Zabo is not really a different person than Hyde – he’s already a sociopath on his own. The serum simply makes him more powerful and further lifts his inhibitions… in part, of course, because he’s superhumanly powerful after he imbibes.

Both forms share the same consciousness and there is no interruption of the flow of consciousness, memory, etc. between forms. Hyde is just an “enhanced” Zabo.

Strategies

Hyde should use all sorts of despicable, ruthless, damn-the-consequences-for-anybody-but-me ruses and tactics. He’s big on hostages-taking and fighting in the middle of crowds of innocent bystanders. He should also make thunderous statements about how remorseless, superior and brutal he is. He’s very proud of that, and thinks that it justifies everything.

A sadist, Hyde likes to hit where it hurts. He’s is thus a fan of attacking and/or kidnapping loved ones — preferably female romantic interests. He also sets or improvises booby traps and the like. All these underhanded tactics help Hyde fight above his nominal weight class.

Hyde does not always use such planning and gadgetry work. He’s also very much prone to rash, moody actions done out of a mixture of impulsiveness, pride, anger and ego. Just like his strength and durability fluctuate, encounters with Hyde can thus involve well-planned schemes or half-cocked, unprepared, foul-tempered rampages.

It is also possible for Hyde to start with a well-crafted plan and just flip out for some trivial reason, as per his Irrational Attractions.

The psycho and the cobra

As can be guessed, Hyde is a terrible, terrible team player. His association with the Cobra was rocky from day one, with Hyde being rude, bossy, domineering and scornful toward his partner. However, both were aware of how complementary their powers and abilities were, and stuck together for years.

They kept quarrelling over who was the most competent and whose power were the most useful, though. This often escalated to loud spats or even brawls. Those internecine conflicts proved to be precious asset for their opponents, occasionally allowing much weaker opponents to beat Hyde and the Cobra as they were at each other’s throat.

The Evil League of Evil

Being an old school villain and an evil sadist, Hyde dislikes killing his opponents outright. He’d much rather make them suffer, cripple them with chemicals, throw them into deathtraps and the like. Hyde doesn’t want to just win – he wants to utterly destroy his opponents and make them suffer. Mwahahahahaha !

Hyde occasionally shows a taste for Gothic Horror trappings, such as establishing a lab in a supposedly haunted, deserted manor on a forsaken hill. Presumably he just likes how it matches his literary roots.

Quotes

“What could be more fitting then for the one who vanquished him to take Blake’s money, his papers, and the results of his lifetime of research and study ! It is only fitting that Mr. Hyde should gain by Blake’s death ! And now, my revenge is complete !”

“No area can be closed to… Mister Hyde !”

“Quiet, all of you !! The next one to speak will feel the anger of Mr. Hyde !!”

“And so, farewell once again to the unsuccessful, second-rate scientist named Calvin Zabo… the identity of Zabo serves only one purpose — as the perfect hiding place for the greatest criminal of all time — the man without a conscience — without mercy ! The night prowler with the strength of a dozen normal humans — the mysterious Mr. Hyde !!!”

“I’ve waited a long time for this victory over you — and I don’t want it to end too soon ! I want to enjoy it !”

“’Mister Hyde dares many things.”

“So let them try to stop Mister Hyde… let them all suffer the consequences !”

“I’ve become weak Calvin Zabo again — only for my body to begin another, more incredible metamorphosis. And it’s working… I can feel the change inching over my body. I… I feel my skin stretching, tightening… ohhh, the pain, the pain !”

“You watchin’, Daredevil ? I want you to watch me, creep. I demand it !”

“Bah ! I’m sick of your ridiculous repartee — sick of your insufferable taunts ! This time I’m going to ram your words right back down your throat !” (spends HPs on AV, Flails, body-blocks Daredevil and defenestrates them both)

DC Universe History

Hyde is openly based on a literary archetype, and is thus a character who could exist in virtually any campaign without any modification.

This is doubly true since in his Marvel history he has clashed with practically every classic hero, so one doesn’t even have to decide on who his designated enemies would be in the DCU.

By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: Marvel Universe.

Helper(s): For the previous versions of the generic Hyde entry – Dr Piispanen, John Colagioia, Jackson, Paul Ewande, David Johnston, Nick Yankovec.