BIOGRAPHY - Page 12
The Incursions crisis came and went, and the Avengers were occupied by other matters rather than securing freedom for Counter-Earth permanently. Despite one source suggesting otherwise, [Secret Empire #5] the High Evolutionary had returned to Counter-Earth by the time Hydra’s planetary shield blocked off Earth-Prime from the rest of the system. He was approached by the Maker, an alternate Reed Richards from the previous Seventh Cosmos. The Eternity War was raging behind the scenes of this reality, the reincarnated Eighth Cosmos, as abstract entities adjusted to the restored nature of reality. Eternity, the sapient embodiment of the cosmos, was being challenged by the First Firmament, the lingering consciousness of the original cosmos who existed outside of all that is and wished to reclaim… everything. The Maker believed he had a plan to reinforce Eternity’s existence against the First Firmament, and he needed the High Evolutionary’s higher order technology to achieve it. Wyndham was fascinated by the concept of “evolving the multiverse” and allowed Richards to commandeer his equipment.
The Maker’s idea was to break down the Superflow of the Eighth Cosmos which kept different realities of the multiverse separate from each other. By coming together, the separate aspects of Eternity would be stronger as one. However, the Maker’s arrogance failed to comprehend that the First Firmament had been a singular universe as well. Breaking down the walls within the Cosmos also broke down the walls between cosmoses, and the First Firmament began digesting Eternity into itself. Initially dazzled by the Maker’s ideas, the High Evolutionary recognized the stagnation in Richards’ plan, and retracted his support. [Ultimates 2 (2nd series) #8-9] He sided with Galactus and his Heralds, the Ultimates, against the Ultimates constructed from the Maker’s memories of his own reality. Once the Maker was disposed of, the High Evolutionary explained what Richards had done to the Ultimates. They restored the Superflow, allowing Eternity to reclaim his independence and summon the other surviving Cosmoses so that the seven All-Encompassing beings could bind and contain the First Firmament. [Ultimates 2 (2nd series) #100]
This moment of rationality was fleeting for Wyndham, however. He got the idea to build a super-planet by crashing Earth and Counter-Earth together by accelerating his world’s movement through their shared orbit. As an immortal madman, the catastrophic loss of life and epochs of time necessary before the remnants of the two planets re-collected as a single whole were immaterial to him. Still, Counter-Earth remained on a different vibratory frequency than Earth to keep it undetected and prevent the destabilization of the rest of the solar system with its mass. The orbit-engine which could reset that vibratory frequency was in the lower levels of Counter-Earth, the domain of his prodigal son, the Higher Evolutionary, and facing that particular failure was something Wyndham refused to do.
Instead, he planned to trigger the “Ascension” by firing a meteor at Earth-Prime, keyed to a particular vibratory frequency. This meteor was actually a craft defended by his New Men and filled with advanced equipment to conduct this vibration. The world’s largest buildings began to act like tuning forks as Earth-Prime was artificially converted to the same altered vibratory pattern as Counter-Earth. By this point, the accelerated orbit of Counter-Earth was bringing it through Earth-
Prime every twenty minutes, causing people and objects to randomly begin shifting between the two worlds as they passed between one another. The Avengers and the younger heroes called the Champions were alerted to the meteor and stabilized the buildings, but were unable to stop the vibratory pattern from taking hold. Falcon and Vivian Vision were soon swept up in a shift and wound up on Counter-Earth.
As final Ascension neared, the High Evolutionary entertained himself with his captives. On a whim, he decided to re-engineer Viv over the threshold from synthezoid human to fully organic human. While prepping to mutate the Falcon into a genuine animal hybrid, the High Evolutionary was assaulted by Falcon’s arriving teammates. The Avengers and Champions had determined the 
mad extent of his Ascension plan, but also deduced the existence of the orbit-engine meant the Ascension had an “off” switch. The High Evolutionary refused to disclose the engine’s location out of fear (or regret) of seeing the Higher Evolutionary again. He had planned to teleport to safety before the Ascension climaxed, but the heroes’ attack threw him into the teleport matrix imprecisely, leaving his fate uncertain. It was Vivian who discovered the Higher Evolutionary’s perch, chained in front of the orbit-engine to prevent his father from using it for ill intent. His paranoid mistrust of the intruders wasted precious time as the twenty-minute window until Ascension impact ticked down. Vivian leapt into the orbit-engine and reset the vibratory frequency in time to save both Earths, but she seemingly disintegrated in the process.
Instead, Vivian awoke in the same alternate dimension the High Evolutionary had arrived in. According to Wyndham, his vibration-based transport altered his evolution state, transhumanizing him into pure information, a living signal sustained inside his constantly adaptive armor. Vivian’s vibratory pattern was altered in a similar way, although she was transported to their new reality as 
matter, not data like him. As Vision began building a new body for his daughter back home, Viv experienced a connection to that body and the High Evolutionary hoped to piggyback on that connection as a carrier signal, transmitting them both back to their original dimension. Vivian was willing to sacrifice herself if necessary to keep the High Evolutionary from returning, and she managed to abandon him and transmit back home alone. [Worlds Collide crossover]
Although he was lost, the High Evolutionary was eventually pulled back to Counter-Earth by his New Men. Despite this, his overall evaluation of them as a failed experiment did not change. He moved on from the New Men and their attempts at worshipping him without a backwards glance. [Spider-Woman (7th series) #6] Wyndham was drawn back into the Drew family drama by a series of events. Jonathan Drew’s process brought about a genetic instability that manifested over time. Miriam had had a son after leaving Jonathan, Michael Marchand, and his daughter Rebecca began experiencing the ill-effects of the illness. Rebecca’s illness led Michael and the Miriam clones to reveal their existence to Jessica Drew. The Miriams had access to Wundagore and its technology, but their instability led them to blame Jessica for joining Hydra and further complicated the situation, as they arranged for Jessica to develop the same illness as Rebecca.
The High Evolutionary became aware of the Drews’ failed attempts at curing the illness, and felt obligated towards Jonathan and Miriam, and their daughter. In order to fashion a cure, he needed certain elements brought together and he compelled Octavia Vermis to assist them. Even Wyndham had grown weary of replacing Octavia’s cloned daughter Ophelia every time her “mother” killed her and said he would not help her anymore if she didn’t aid Spider-Woman. At his volcano lair, the High Evolutionary devised his Wyndham Array to re-write Jessica’s genetic code and “beam” a cure into her system through its laser emitter. Octavia tried to take control of the array by stealing the activation codes from Wyndham. She killed her latest Ophelia for standing up 
for “Uncle Herbert” and tried to turn the Miriam clones on Spider-Woman. Ultimately, though, the High Evolutionary reclaimed his array and the Miriams fell into the volcano’s lava pit. Spider-Woman and her niece were cured, and Herbert Wyndham made an effort to assure Jessica that Miriam, the original Miriam, did love her dearly before she passed. [Spider-Woman (7th series) #8-10]
Wyndham idled for a while, apparently lacking the inspiration for a new scheme of his own. He was pressed into service by Kraven the Hunter some time before this while in the Savage Land. Kraven slaughtered the High Evolutionary’s experiments for days to intimidate him before coming forward with a request for clones of his own. Much as he did with Miriam Drew, Wyndham produced several dozen clones of Kraven to age rapidly into adulthood for his own plans. [Amazing Spider-Man (5th series) #16] When Malekith brought the War of the Ten Realms to Midgard, all manner of creatures descended on New York. The High Evolutionary had created a sapient flying shark cyborg thing and transported it to Earth as a testing exercise. It excelled at mayhem, but the Punisher followed it back to Counter-Earth and killed the creature for its crimes. [Punisher Kill Krew #2]
Traveling the void of space, the High Evolutionary came across the space station, casino and gambling den known as Gameworld. Its proprietor, Cordyceps Jones, took an interest in the Sol System and began encouraging attacks on Earth and taking bets on the outcome. [X-Men (6th series) #1] The High Evolutionary detested the wasteful destruction brought about by Cordyceps’ games and made his own way back to Earth. Wyndham had been watching the impressive achievements of Earth’s mutant population, including the terraforming of Mars into the new untamed wilderness of Arakko. With Luminous and an Evolutionary Guard of New Men at his side, the High Evolutionary presented himself to the X-Men of Krakoa and offered a nihility sphere. The sphere contained a virus which would selectively sterilize the human race, leaving them to die out 
peacefully in a generation and allowing mutantkind the opportunity to alleviate the damage done to the ecosystem by their forebears. Even in the best of circumstances, the Evolutionary’s offer of quiet genocide would have been rejected. He made the offer to an X-Men team that included Rogue, though, who hadn’t forgotten the torture she suffered at the instruments of his scientists. Wyndham made the mistake of addressing her directly and Rogue belted him off his high perch.
As the fighting began, the High Evolutionary conversed with Jean Grey through private telepathy to warn her about Cordyceps Jones and Gameworld, while offering to collaborate in the future with Krakoa. At the same time, he was holding off an attack by Synch. Everett Thomas was a potential Omega-class mutant whose power mimckry surpassed even Rogue’s and he tried to turn Luminous’s gifts against Wyndham. The High Evolutionary revealed he could nullify Luminous’s powers at will, regardless of their host, but was impressed nonetheless. He agreed to leave with 
his virus and troops with no further violence, in exchange for a drop of Everett’s blood. The X-Men may have had the last word, however, for Luminous had been occupied in the battle and didn’t see Synch’s encounter with High Evolutionary. It wasn’t until Rogue and Polaris catcalled after her that she learned her father and master had built in safeguards to shut her down on command. [X-Men (6th series) #3]