The Yellow Claw
AKA: The Celestial One. The Master of Men. He also masqueraded as the holy man Bhagwan Sri Ananda.
First Appearance: Yellow Claw 1
What's His Problem? One hundred and fifty years ago, the Yellow Claw decided the only way to world peace was through his personal domination of the globe. His life artificially extended by herbal concoctions and his power augmented by a combination of scientific mastery and the arcane arts, the Yellow Claw pretended to work for dynasties and communist regimes, all the while furthering his own secret agenda. The Claw revealed himself in the 1950s, but found he was thwarted at every turn by F.B.I. agent Jimmy Woo. Retiring into isolation to consider his options, Claw was considerably startled when he found out that S.H.I.E.L.D. had been turned topsy turvy by a series of attacks led by a robotic version of himself. Deciding to investigate, and realizing that he was not immortal despite his long life, Claw returned to both renew his dreams of world conquest and seek an heir to inherit those dreams.
Powers: The Yellow Claw is so tough, a Doom-built robot of him was able to hold S.H.I.E.L.D. at bay and nearly destroyed Nick Fury. The real Claw is a master hypnotist, a dabbler in black magic, and a genius geneticist who predates the Victorian-era Mr. Sinister. He may even have some inherent psychic abilities; the data's a bit vague on that. He has an impressive arsenal of high-tech gadgets at his command, including armor that greatly increases his strength on those rare occasions when he is forced into hand-to-hand combat. One of his favorite gizmos is a 100-foot holograph of himself, with which he's managed to startle the likes of Nova and the entire assembled Avengers half out of their wits.
Favorite Quote: "Fury, know that I am a man of peace. To achieve peace, I must create a new dynasty, one in which I rule an ever-obedient and contented populace." (Nova 16; the Yellow Claw explains his basic motivation to Nick Fury and Nova before shooting the two of 'em off into space.)
Heroes He Keeps Running Into: F.B.I. agent Jimmy Woo was the first U.S. operative to tackle the menace of the Yellow Claw. However, when the Yellow Claw stopped subverting the U.S. government and began to subvert the whole enchilada, he became a reoccurring problem for S.H.I.E.L.D. Since the Yellow Claw is a match and more for his entire organization, Nick Fury usually ends up asking super-hero types like Nova and Captain America for help. The Claw has also had run-ins with fellow oriental potentate the Mandarin, including a super-villain contest sponsored by the Black Lama that Claw almost won. A bout with the Vision left him presumed dead; the Claw, however, simply refused to die (to hear himself tell it) and soon had yet another world-domination scheme in the works. The Yellow Claw's most humilating run-in with super-powered types involved his own genetically-engineered giant frogs, which he created to mock Frog-Man's delusions of super-hero-dom. Turns out the frogs liked Eugene, and helped him (and a few dozen other New York super heroes) foil the Claw's attempt to leech off the mental energy of a hundred thousand or so religious fanatics.
People Who Think He's Not So Bad: His beloved grand-niece Suwan continually betrayed his plans to Woo, but never could bring herself to betray her grand-uncle--until the day he made the mistake of fusing her spirit with that of a cantankerous long-dead Egyptian princess. Suwan shot him in the back, leaving him with only one chance of survival: the theft of her life force. His best buddy was the German mad scientist Karl von Horstbadden, and one dangling plot line has him being palsy with Baron Von Strucker's son. After the Black Lama affair, the Claw decided that pawns were the way to go, and brainwashed the Sand-Man and other bad guys into doing his bidding.
Most Despicable Act: The Claw attempted to sterilize the entire planet so that his harem of wives would produce the last children born on the planet Earth. The Avengers were a minor annoyance while the scenario was playing out, but the Yellow Claw was intrigued by the Vision and offered him a position as his second in command. Vizh (who ironically enough later had his own children reduced to figments of his wife's imagination) spoiled Claw's zero population growth ploy by increasing his density so much the space-ship carrying the sterilization gas smashed into the ocean.
Return to the Terrorism, Inc. Page
