MULTI-MAN (Duncan Pramble)	BIOGRAPHY
Created by Ed Herron and Bob Brown

PERSONAL DATA

Real Name: Duncan Pramble
Aliases: Mister Voodoo.
Occupation: Professional criminal, would-be world conqueror, formerly archeaological assistant, butler
Base of Operation: Mobile
Group Affiliation(s): Former member of the League of Challenger-Haters, the Injustice League II, Justice League Antarctica, and the brief grouping called "the Color Queens".
Gender: Male
Height: Variable
Weight: Variable
Eyes: Black
Hair: Alternates between black with gray temples, and baldness
First Appearance: Challengers of the Unknown Vol. 1 #14 (June-July 1960)
Creators: Ed Herron and Bob Brown

HISTORY

Several years ago, the team of adventurers known as the Challengers of the Unknown accompanied renowned archeaologist Dr. Charles Ferris on an expedition to the remote Island of Ruins. Here, the doctor's assistant Duncan Pramble stole an ancient chemical called "Liquid Light". Intrigued by mysterious hieroglyphs, which stated that the chemical gave "extra lives and with each life a different power", Pramble drank it. Immediately his body was engulfed with a bright aura from which powerful rays, able to attract and repell objects, emanated.

Already intent on embarking on a criminal career, Pramble battled the Challengers, effortlessly holding them at bay with his newfound abilities. However, Dr. Ferris had found that another recovered set of ancient chemicals contained the antidote to the Liquid Light. With it, the Challengers were able to nullify Pramble's powers. Rather than being captured, Pramble then jumped from a towering cliff into the pounding surf below, testing the drug's promise of renewed life.

Pramble did indeed get a second life, and with it, a new set of powers, endowing him with aquatic abilities which allowed him to escape. Soon after, he died again, and was reborn as a feathered, flying "bird-man". Dubbed "Multi-Man" by the Challengers (due to him being "many men in one"), Pramble now became a master criminal.

During his first imprisonment, the Liquid Light serum had a peculiar effect on Duncan Pramble, causing his body to shrink, and his limbs to reduce to a weak, spindly appearance, at the same time as his head enlarged to make room for an oversized brain. With his new brilliance, Multi-Man easily escaped his prison. The next time he was captured, he was placed in a special "escape-proof" cell in the group's Headquarters of Challengers Mountain. However, it soon proved to be anything but inescapable for the Multi-Man.

In a subsequent clash with the Challengers, Multi-Man had succeeded in isolating the substance that caused his changes, and created pellets that, when taken, allowed him to change at will. A red pellet changed him into a being of pure energy, a green pellet into what was referred to as his "anti-gravity form", and a black one changed him back to his "normal" tiny, big-brained form. Using a certain mineral, he could also combine these three forms.

Multi-Man's criminal career continued, and in the process he showed a variety of amazing and imaginative powers. Had it not been for him seeking revenge on the Challengers time and again, Multi-Man's career might have been very successful. Now, he inevitably ended up in prison.

Multi-Man briefly posed as "Mister Voodoo", leader of an army of robotic insects. Later, he went even further into robot-contstructing when he created the giant female android called Multi-Woman, who had the power to change her form just as he. Using his new powers to become a giant her size, he threatened the United Nations, attempting to force them to accept them as king and queen of the world. Not attracted by his scrawny form, Multi-Woman soon turned against his creator, and Multi-Man had to destroy his "queen".

Another foe of the Challengers, Kra, King of the Living Robots, later recruited Pramble into his "League of Challenger-Haters", which also included Volcano Man, Drabny, and a rebuilt Multi-Woman. Multi-Man was not too fond of being second-in-command under Kra, and later became the leader of the group. During this time, Multi-Man often changed into monstrous forms of great power. The League of Challenger-Haters repeatedly fought the Challengers, once together with the Doom Patrol, before disbanding.

Some time later, a temporarily amnesiac Red Ryan of the Challengers accidentally drank the Liquid Light himself, being transformed into the super-villain Neutro - the human atom-smasher, before being restored to his former self.

Finally, Multi-Man got rid of his withered and dwarfish appearance, becoming the all-human Duncan Pramble once again. For a while he was powerless, but later on he gained strong telepathic powers allowing him to control the minds of others. In this form, big-brained, but with a normal human body, he fought not only the Challengers, but also Deadman and the Swamp Thing, the latter of which he was able to take control of. At the end of this battle, however, Deadman effectively shut down Multi-Mans's mind, leaving him in a state of catatonia.

Years later, Multi-Man reappeared again, this time as a member of the Injustice League (which also included Major Disaster, Big Sir, Cluemaster, Clock King, and the self-named "Mighty Bruce"). Though most of the members had previously been quite prominent criminals, all of their careers had diminished at the time. Frankly, this was one of the most incapable villain teams ever, often being defeated by the Justice League International, but just as often by their own shortcomings, making fools of themselves time and again. Multi-Man himself now had his "big-brain form" again and some minor telepathic powers. More outstanding, however, was his "mood swings". Apparently, the many lives he had lived had now made him a maniac depressive, with next to no control of his feelings which quickly changed from deep bitterness through sheer joy to heart-breaking sadness or furious rage.

Numerous failed attempts to rob banks and conquer the world made the Injustice Leaguers go legit. After a time of unemployment, and a failed attempt by Multi-Man to work as a butler for an old lady, they all applied for membership in Justice League International. Maxwell Lord, at the time administrator of the JLI, reasoned that they should be placed where they could do the least harm.

Duncan Pramble briefly reappeared in his human form, fought the aged Challengers of the Unknown, and died in the battle. As always gaining a new life, he later ended up in Belle Reve, America's number one prison for criminal meta-humans. During a riot started by Mageddon the Anti-Sun, all the Belle Reve prisoners seemingly got mad, broke out from their cells and killed half of the prison staff. By now, Pramble had his "big brain" again, and had gained the power to divide himself into multiple beings, becoming a real "Multi-Man" in every sense of the word. Pramble allied himself with other criminals whose powers derived from light in one form or another ( Doctor Light, the Rainbow Raider, Doctor Spectro, and Crazy-Quilt). Scornfully referred to as "the Color Queens" by other inmates, this gang almost killed Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner) before being defeated by Aquaman. The Justice League stopped the riot and Multi-Man was imprisoned again.

POWERS AND WEAPONS

The Liquid Light serum gave Duncan Pramble the power to be instantly resurrected to life after dying, each time with a new set of super-powers. This ability is next-to identical to the power of Mitch Shelley, the Resurrection Man, and it's possible that the Liquid Light is somehow connected to the microscopical biological robot devices called "tektites" - the secret behind Shelley's power as well as the rebirths of the Immortal Man and the prolonged life of Vandal Savage.

Multi-Man's different forms have included, among others: an aura able to repell or attract objects, an "aquatic" being with power over the sea, a feathered bird-man, a living sponge, a scrawny super-genius, an insect form that had control over a swarm of robot insects, a pure energy form, a balloony "anti-gravity" form, various giant sea creatures, a shoal of fish shaped as his own head, an ice being existing at absolute zero, a virtually invulnerable giant, a teleporter, a mind-controller, a mind-reader, and a multiple man.

Though he relies primarily on his own physical abilities, Multi-Man was also a scientific genius who resorted to the use of a wide variety of scientific devices, among them a device that could increase the power of his energy blasts, a rocket able to bathe Earth in iron-disintegrating rays, a ray-gun which emitted blinding light, and of course, the robotic Multi-Woman who could change her shape just as he.

In his most fully realized form, Multi-Man was effectively immortal, gaining a more powerful form each time he "died".

CHRONOLOGY

For a definitive list of appearances of Multi-Man in chronological order click here

PROFILE REFERENCES

Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #16 (June 1986)

Joker: Last Laugh Secret Files #1 (December 2001)