BIOGRAPHY - Page 5
The High Evolutionary remained with Sphinxor to meet the Beyonders and confer with them god-to-god about their interest in his work. If he expected to be regarding as an equal, he was wrong. The Beyonders did nothing to directly address Sphinxor or the Evolutionary when they arrived. Instead, a spectral hand manifested out of star-stuff, large enough to pluck Counter-Earth from its stasis cage and place it inside a more permanent stasis sphere alongside other, strangely similar worlds. Wyndham soon recognized the context and saw that his greatest creation had been added to a Beyonder “museum of curiosities” alongside similar attempts by other amateurs. The High Evolutionary saw himself as a god, and Counter-Earth was his proof, yet the Beyonders effectively just placed it on their fridge with a gold star and a condescending smile.
This clear statement of his utter insignificance on the cosmic scale tipped the High Evolutionary back towards madness. He threw a suicidal tantrum and tried to destroy himself, causing enough damage to the museum that the Beyonders casually dismissed him back to Earth, reversing the trek of months in a mere instant. Wyndham bitterly realized he was incapable of suicide – the genetic accelerator in his armor automatically evolved him in defense from any harm, and its programming could not be overridden. At his current level of evolved intelligence, Wyndham wasn’t smart enough to disable his own creation. Unable to live as a god or die as a human, the Evolutionary began to unravel further psychologically. He tried to devolve himself psionically only for his armor to divert the effect and begin devolving other creatures in his vicinity instead.
Wyndham witnessed Bruce Banner driving by in the desert near where he landed and conspired to enlist the Hulk’s rage in destroying his armor. He provoked Banner’s curiosity and anger by ensuring his friends Rick Jones and Betty Ross were caught up in the next devolution wave. Once the Hulk emerged, the High Evolutionary continued to provoke him in order to make the Hulk damage his armor sufficiently enough to disable the over-protective accelerator. The self-preservation protocols in the armor were so intense as to force the Evolutionary to fight back against the Hulk, even as he pled with the behemoth to do him further harm. Up and down the evolutionary scale, Wyndham’s armor tried to transform the environment as a weapon against the Hulk. Once the armor was damaged enough, though, the High Evolutionary was free to act as he 
chose. As a show of gratitude, he first restored the Hulk’s friends and environment to their natural state before turning his powers on himself and devolving into nothing more than a single-celled protoplasmic ooze. The Hulk watched as the effect continued even past the point where the Evolutionary could be considered sentient, or even considered life. The geneticist had willed himself out of existence, on his own terms. [Incredible Hulk (2nd series) #266]
Long after the Hulk departed, however, the High Evolutionary’s efforts proved to be for naught. Broken and fragmented, the armor still rebuilt itself over time, becoming functional again and then re-evolving Herbert Wyndham from proemial matter back into his previous state. Having traveled the evolutionary scale from the end of mankind to the beginning and back again, the High Evolutionary rededicated himself to the mission of overseeing the evolution of humanity. He feared that mankind would not be able to ascend to true greatness without his noble hand aiding them along the way. Even in his ultimate state at the end of humanity’s evolution, the High Evolutionary had still felt small next to the Beyonders. Wyndham feared that humanity's potential was ultimately finite if they reached this evolutionary dead end. Consequently, he felt it was necessary to alter the evolutionary destiny of humanity, adding new catalysts to ensure mankind could one day ascend even further up the evolutionary ladder.
The Evolutionary prepared for his mighty works by recruiting from among humanity those willing to make sacrifices for the greater good. He instructed his New Men to act as priests for a quasi-religious order indoctrinating hundreds to his vision of Earth’s future. From there, he established a ranked system of Gatherers to accumulate information, Technicians to assemble his devices, armored Purifiers to sterilize the unfit and finally Exterminators to execute those deemed too unstable or toxic to the gene pool to remain alive. He commanded many high-ranking human intellectuals and field leaders like Stack, Purge and Quint, but also incorporated more highly-evolved New Men in their numbers able to pass as human, like Tagar and Porga did in years past.
The High Evolutionary launched a major campaign touching upon every corner of Earth’s species and environment that might contribute to mankind’s development or detriment. He evaluated the Young Gods previously presented by Earth’s Pantheons for the Celestials as a symbol of mankind’s potential. He convinced the Eternals to try to acquire a sample of the Silver Surfer’s DNA for study. He attempted to raid Attilan for a sample of the Terrigen Mists and targeted the Nexus of All Realities in the Florida Everglades for introducing “x-factors” into the environment. Wyndham also took more decisive actions, such as wiping out the drug trade for poisoning humanity, sterilizing “unfit” species like Atlanteans, Deviants and the subterranean Moloids, hunting down potentially hazardous mutants to safely depower them, etc. His men attempted a failed plan to put all of Manhattan to sleep before systematically testing the genes of the unconscious city and sterilizing anyone who would contribute poorly to the gene pool. [Evolutionary War crossover, et al]
The Evolutionary’s works continually straddled the line between well-intentioned meddling and amoral eugenics. One of his more magnanimous acts was the restoration of the Savage Land. The alien conqueror known as Terminus struck the Savage Land months earlier, devastating the Nuwali technology which maintained that tropical preserve in the valley of Antarctica. In the end, it was cleansed to the bedrock and laid bare to the natural elements of the South Pole. Like the Pegasusians, the Nuwali’s original efforts were encouraged by the Beyonders, piquing the High Evolutionary’s interest in the Savage Land. He traveled to Antarctica and made contact with a few survivors, such as Zaladane and the Mutates, as well as the visiting X-Men. He became acquainted with Garokk, the living avatar of the Savage Land, who agreed to serve as a catalyst 
for the restoration of the prehistoric jungle. As Garokk’s essence dispersed throughout the valley thanks to the Evolutionary’s biogenetics machinery, the land and its creatures were restored to their previous state, and life flourished once more in the Savage Land. [Uncanny X-Men Annual #12] As was often the case with Wyndham, however, he left plenty of his work behind as he moved on to other projects. Others would attempt to exploit his abandoned technology in the Savage Land from time-to-time for years to come. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #249-250, Fantastic Four: Prodigal Sun #1]
The High Evolutionary’s more inhumane acts did not go uncontested. The Purifiers’ assault on Subterranea uncovered a mutant Moloid named Val-Or, whose psychic cry rallied the Subterraneans to fight back and drew other attention from sensitive beings. X-Factor came to fight alongside Val-Or while Apocalypse confronted the High Evolutionary directly about their differing views on evolution. The Evolutionary would treat mankind like a lab experiment under his control, 
while Apocalypse treated it as a proving ground where the strong would emerge when properly tested. An immortal, Apocalypse had the patience to play the long game, while the High Evolutionary sought to press forward to the final state of humanity now. The two plotters fought briefly, before teleporting to Subterranea to observe the Purifiers’ attempted purge. They saw Val-Or tempered by the conflict and rising to lead his people in defense against the High Evolutionary. Apocalypse departed, content that the High Evolutionary would fail, serving only as a crucible wherein the strong would reveal themselves. For his part, Wyndham relented, teleporting his men away rather than continuing to struggle against the Subterraneans. [X-Factor Annual #3]
Wyndham also sought out the Cult of the Jackal, the remnants of Miles Warren’s New Men followers in Transia. Years earlier, Warren had developed a genetic virus to reprogram DNA and make the New Men appear human, but it became unstable and created walking corpses before killing them. Next, he tried cloning technology in the hopes of growing human bodies as a tabula rasa to imprint the New Men’s consciousness on, allowing them to live as humans. Warren had died fighting Spider-Man in his own alternate identity as the insane criminal the Jackal, but the Cult still venerated his efforts. The High Evolutionary saw cloning as the stagnation of true evolution and swore to disprove Warren’s work to the Cult and their high priestess, Anubia. [Scarlet Spider Unlimited #1]
The Evolutionary aggressively kidnapped the surviving clone of Gwen Stacy in an attempt to analyze Warren’s work firsthand. Although he confirmed Warren had successfully created an adult human clone, Wyndham sought to hide the evidence. As a result, he misled Spider-Man and his own subjects into believing “Gwen Stacy” was a woman infused with a recombinant DNA virus – similar to Warren’s earlier work – that altered her memories and appearance to create a duplicate of Stacy. Daydreamer of the Young Gods inadvertently helped the High Evolutionary’s lies along by using her mental powers to give “Joyce Delaney” her identity back, creating a false set of memories in Gwen’s mind instead of restoring real ones. [Spectacular Spider-Man (2nd series) Annual #8] Wyndham went so far as to plant falsified journals in Warren’s handwriting for Spider-Man and Anubia’s spies to find, “proving” that his clones were a lie. [Spectacular Spider-Man (2nd series) #149] If cloning was impossible, then the New Men could not hope to leave behind the bodies he designed for them.
At his newly-forged Citadel in the Savage Land, the High Evolutionary employed Technicians to assemble materials for his genetic bomb. This device would be the fulfillment of his dreams, mutating everyone on Earth to his personal specifications of evolution. Mankind would be able to 
evolve even beyond the ultimate form Wyndham once achieved. He drew the attention of the Avengers after sending Gatherers and Sensors to Wakanda for a sample of Vibranium, but the ore was recovered, regardless. However, one of his Technicians was revealed as Bill Foster, Giant-Man, who helped battle the Evolutionary alongside the Avengers who found his Citadel. Wyndham abandoned his Citadel in the Savage Land, destroying it behind him so that his bomb could be assembled without further interruptions. [West Coast Avengers Annual #3]
The final stage of the Evolutionary War began as the genetic bomb was brought to readiness. However, an attempt to learn more about the potential threat of the Avengers through their deactivated member Jocasta backfired when she alerted the team to her location. The Avengers learned of the Evolutionary’s plans from the Gatherers holding Jocasta and tracked his undersea base to the Sunda Strait in the Pacific Ocean. The High Evolutionary intended to reactivate the submerged Krakatoa volcano to spread the fallout of his genetic bomb across the entire world. After infiltrating the Evolutionary’s submarine base, the Avengers managed to stir chaos by turning the Purifiers and New Men priests against one another.
Though his minions were occupied, the High Evolutionary himself appeared to prevent the Avengers from accessing the genesis chamber. Thinking quickly, Captain America directed the Beast to master the genetic accelerator on board and use it on Hercules, expecting an evolved god to be more than a match for an evolved man like Wyndham. The evolved Hercules quickly gained the power necessary to face the High Evolutionary one-on-one. They battled one another 
with sub-atomic forces, evolving and discorporating each other while resisting the other combatant’s attempts to do the same to them. Eventually, both Olympian God and would-be god became unstable, unable to stop themselves as they ascended “beyond godhood” and evolved to a point where they became one with the cosmos, leaving humanity behind. Jocasta seized control of the High Evolutionary’s vessel and destroyed it before it reached Krakatoa, ensuring the genetic bomb failed to detonate as intended. [Avengers Annual #17]