Marvel Boy (Robert Grayson)

Marvel Boy
Atlas Comics' Marvel Boy #1 (Dec. 1950): Cover artist uncertain; possibly Sol Brodsky
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Marvel Boy #1 (Dec 1950)
Created by	Stan Lee and Russ Heath
In-story information
Alter ego	Robert Grayson
Abilities	Telepathy Light blasts

Marvel Boy is a fictional character in the Marvel Universe.

Publication history

Robert Grayson is the 1950s Marvel Boy, debuting in Marvel Boy #1 (Dec. 1950), from Marvel 1950s forerunner, Atlas Comics. He continued to appear when the series title was changed to Astonishing with issue #3. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Russ Heath, with writer-artist Bill Everett taking over with issue #2, His final Atlas story was in Astonishing #7 (Dec. 1951).

The Crusader

Robert Grayson, purportedly, returned much later as an antagonist in Fantastic Four #164-165 (Nov.-Dec.1975), having been driven by grief into insanity and calling himself The Crusader (no relation to the medieval character from the Atlas Comics title The Black Knight). When his power bracelets — which writer-editor Roy Thomas here dubbed "Quantum Bands" — overloaded, he was vaporized.

The 2006 Marvel miniseries Agents of Atlas explained his survival by stating that The Crusader had actually been a different person — a confused and surgically altered Uranian Eternal who had been using the Quantum Bands as a replacement for Marvel Boy's own power bracelets. This replacement was intended as an unquestioningly loyal servant of the Uranian Eternals, conditioned to obey and to believe he was actually the original Marvel Boy. However, the plan went awry when a disaster destroyed his creators midway through the project, leaving the Crusader in a deranged and delusional state.

Fictional character biography

Robert Grayson was born in Trenton, New Jersey, the son of Dr. Horace Grabshield (later Anglicized as Grayson). Robert’s father was a Jewish scientist who fled Earth with his infant son during the rise of Nazi Germany. The Graysons landed on Uranus, where they were greeted by the native Eternals. Robert was given a costume and a pair of powerful bracelets, and returned to Earth to battle crime.

Alternate versions

The manipulative mastermind Thanos created a duplicate of Marvel Boy via the Infinity Gauntlet; this double was later renamed the Blue Marvel and attempted to become the Punisher's sidekick, but was rejected and was later exiled to a limbo dimension.

The parallel universe anthology What If Vol. 1, #9 (June 1978) showed a world where Marvel Boy was a member of a team of 1950s Avengers; this alternate timeline was destroyed in the 1998-2000 limited series Avengers Forever.