BIOGRAPHY - Page 8
The Acolytes had experienced setbacks, but Exodus eventually reformed the mutant fanatics and continued to declare the High Evolutionary a heretic and his work blasphemous to sacred, natural evolution. Wyndham knew a siege was inevitable and he developed his strongest genetic power source yet, Isotope E, to begin evolving more New Men and possibly increase his own powers. The High Evolutionary evolved a new Sir Ram to oversee the training of the next generation of Knights of Wundagore. Among his Knights were Lord Gator, Lady Ursula, Lord Churchill, Lady 
Vermin, Sir Steed, Sir Tyger and Sir Delphis, joining Ram and others. He also served as host to Pietro Maximoff and his daughter, Luna. In the recent Onslaught crisis, Quicksilver had lost his wife, his sister and most of his fellow Avengers. He needed a place to grieve and a home for his daughter, and had always had a close relationship with Bova, the midwife who (allegedly) delivered him. However, harboring the human granddaughter of Magneto only made Exodus and the Acolytes more aggressive towards Wundagore. [Excalibur (1st series) #113, Quicksilver #1, 7]
In addition to Exodus, the High Evolutionary was also concerned that his original failure, the Man-Beast, was unaccounted for. He evolved two New Men specifically to counter the Man-Beast – Sir Wulf was his first evolved wolf-man since the Man-Beast, while White Tiger was specially 
engineered by Isotope E to stalk the Man-Beast and counter his psychic powers. White Tiger was released into the world to hunt down her prey, while Sir Wulf was presented to his fellow New Men as Lord Anon, his identity concealed beneath a suit of armor. The High Evolutionary feared the Knights of Wundagore would be suspicious of Wulf for his pedigree unless he proved himself to them first. [Heroes for Hire (1st series) #1, Quicksilver #11]
The attack on Wundagore soon came, with Exodus and his Acolytes supplemented by Genoshan Mutates for added forces against the Citadel of Science. Exodus showed his hypocrisy by not only seeking the Evolutionary’s destruction but also coveting the same power of Isotope E, which he termed blasphemous. Unfortunately, the High Evolutionary’s experiments with Isotope E had thrown his personal evolution into flux, and so his own powers were at their lowest ebb when the Acolytes chose to strike. Fabian Cortez and his ilk assaulted the Evolutionary personally, but 
Quicksilver fought valiantly to defend Wyndham and Wundagore. Sir Steed gave his life in defense of Luna, and the Evolutionary teleported his loyal Knights away, sacrificing Wundagore until such a point as he was ready to reclaim it. The High Evolutionary needed time to complete his work on Isotope E, and so he knighted Sir Pietro and charged him with stewarding his Knights of Wundagore in the meantime. [Quicksilver #1]
The High Evolutionary retreated to hidden chambers in the Savage Land beneath the Valley of the Flame, where he hoped to perform his experiments on Isotope E in isolation. His unstable condition worsened as Wyndham fluctuated between god-like power, normal human status and even ape-like evolutionary regression. The Evolutionary’s fixation even led him to ignore an attack by Thanos on the Nuwali terraformer equipment preserving the Savage Land around him. Lord Kevin “Ka-Zar” Plunder and his wife Shanna the She-Devil defeated Thanos, but Shanna absorbed the power of the terraformer into herself, becoming a living conduit for the Savage Land’s ecosystem. Ka-Zar feared the long-term effects of the terraformer energy on his wife, and sought out Wyndham to see if he could repair the Nuwali tech and draw the energies back into the equipment from Shanna.
Wyndham was interested in the situation as Ka-Zar described it, but he preferred to teach Shanna how to embrace her powers rather than remove them. He encouraged Shanna to dismiss Ka-Zar’s concerns as jealousy and explore her new power to its fullest. The High Evolutionary secretly hoped that, with the proper training, Shanna could alleviate the problems he was experiencing with Isotope E. When Shanna became concerned over how she was circumventing the natural ecosystem, the Evolutionary had to sway her with a new dream. He told her about 
Counter-Earth and his vision of recreating it from scratch. Shanna’s power would not alter the ecosystem there, it would BE the ecosystem. Shanna wouldn’t leave without speaking to Ka-Zar, even after their fighting, so the High Evolutionary went to fetch him. However, Wyndham deliberated provoked Ka-Zar into not accepting the invitation, even evolving his son Matthew against his will to make the boy better suited for the new world. He wanted to paint Ka-Zar as a caveman unworthy as a mate for the goddess Shanna had become.
Wyndham rebuilt the terraformer technology, consoling Shanna that the Savage Land would live on even as she left it behind for the new Counter-Earth they would build together. His Matter Matrix would harness the power within Shanna, guiding them towards becoming the gods of a new world. Shanna was intoxicated by the terraformer energy and the power it gave her, and Wyndham was sure he could overcome her hesitations. The High Evolutionary underestimated Ka-Zar, though. Not only did he steal Isotope E from the Evolutionary’s lab in the Valley of Flame, he also assembled a coalition of tribes from the Savage Land to march against Wyndham for stealing their “goddess.” The armies of the valley stormed the Matter Matrix and Wyndham’s 
animal servlings were evolved for construction, not battle. The High Evolutionary was nearly overcome, but he recovered quickly and began evolving new creatures with his touch, specifically engineered to fight back. He evolved a dragonfly into a winged steed to dogfight with Ka-Zar riding atop a pteranodon. Still, as many times as he evolved its abilities to counter Ka-Zar’s skill and experience, the jungle lord adapted each time to the new adversity. Wyndham realized that Ka-Zar, in his own way, could evolve.
The coup-de-grace came when Ka-Zar revealed he had Isotope E while high up in the sky, forcing the Evolutionary to back down. The mere presence of Isotope E evolved Ka-Zar’s pteranodon enough to throw him off its back, though, leaving Ka-Zar to fall. The High Evolutionary was willing to help save Ka-Zar, perhaps evolve him into something that could survive his injuries, but Shanna drove the madman away from her husband. She used the natural medicines of the Savage Land and her own knowledge as a doctor – and only this – to save Ka-Zar’s life. She rejected the High 
Evolutionary’s dreams and demanded he return her power to the Savage Land. Wyndham recognized the personal evolution, survival instincts and sheer will this couple emanated, and was ashamed. He gave up hope that the terraformer energy could stabilize his own struggles with Isotope E, and left Ka-Zar and Shanna in peace. [Ka-Zar (3rd series) #12-14]
Eventually, the High Evolutionary’s absence could no longer be sustained. Exodus recruited other mutants like Pyro’s Strikeforce to his banner by claiming Isotope E could potentially cure the Legacy virus raging through the mutant community. He ordered them to kidnap and torture the Knights of Wundagore for information about their lord. When Isotope E was detected in the Savage Land, Exodus ordered his mutants to retrieve it, but the Knights freed themselves and raced to beat the villains to the High Evolutionary first. Wyndham greeted Quicksilver and his Knights favorably, but his condition had taken a turn for the worse. Wyndham’s personal evolution / devolution was happening more frequently, and he had become like an addict relying upon 
Isotope E to stabilize him for briefer and briefer segments of time. His mind was being affected as well, experiencing spells of animal savagery and godlike egomania (beyond even his normal ego). Chaos reigned as the Acolytes and Strikeforce attacked the Valley of the Flame. The High Evolutionary secured transport and Isotope E with most of his Knights, but Lord Anon reported Lord Churchill was a casualty of the battle. [Quicksilver #8-9]
As he returned to supervising the Knights of Wundagore, the High Evolutionary entered another period of mania. He was eager to retake the Citadel of Science and was ready to rush into a counter-siege with little advance planning. Like Thor before him, Wyndham bristled at the notion that Quicksilver had other responsibilities and was not always at his beck and call. He instructed Bova and Sir Ram to call in White Tiger so that all were ready for the coming battle. [Quicksilver #10]
The White Tiger was a loyal but independent soul and she had recruited allies in the form of the Heroes for Hire when she could not readily locate Man-Beast alone. The reason why became clear when she first encountered Lord Anon. The real Sir Wulf had been killed and replaced by the Man-Beast months ago, hiding in plain sight among the Knights. White Tiger’s enhanced senses 
immediately recognized the Man-Beast, but her instincts led her to strike before explaining herself. When he found the Heroes for Hire and his Knights fighting, the Evolutionary devolved the Heroes using the scepter he built for channeling Isotope E’s power. In his manic, unstable state, Wyndham was easily manipulated by “Lord Anon” into accepting his version of the attack and placing blame on White Tiger.
When his mania subsided on the flight to Wundagore, the High Evolutionary began to have doubts about his plans, but Anon urged him to press forward. The Man-Beast revealed himself to the Knights as he struck down the High Evolutionary at the Wundagore armory, securing the Isotope 
E scepter for himself. Bova pulled the Evolutionary to safety in the hopes he could recover as the Acolytes descended on the Man-Beast and Knights of Wundagore. The Man-Beast used the confusion to convince the Knights that he held the High Evolutionary hostage, forcing them to serve him as he formed an alliance with Exodus against the arriving Quicksilver and Heroes for Hire. These factions vied for control of Wundagore and Isotope E until the High Evolutionary’s cycle of power restored his god-like abilities and he struck against Wundagore’s trespassers once more.
With the attitude of an imperious lord, the High Evolutionary saw no allies on Wundagore, only servants and invaders. He attacked the Man-Beast, the Acolytes and the Heroes in equal measure, demanding the same from his Knights. Man-Beast, Exodus and Thena the Eternal were forced to join their psionic powers to strike down the High Evolutionary before he killed them all. The scientist Sir Delphis provided Wyndham with his refined version of Isotope E. The new version of the isotope was fully functional but would soon break down and be completely useless. The High Evolutionary reached a stable point mentally and accepted that his personal powers had become a burden. He willed himself to be a normal human again to avoid his manic and sub-
human phases in the future. He removed the unstable evolution forced upon the Heroes for Hire and reverted the Man-Beast to nothing but a wolf. However, White Tiger also asked her lord to make her an animal again, for the complicated emotions of humans had caused her grief and harm. The remaining Acolytes were driven off and Herbert Wyndham discarded the expended shell of Isotope E to begin rebuilding his Citadel. [Siege of Wundagore crossover]
Exodus had been captured in the final moments of the siege. The Evolutionary and his Knights arranged for the former Crusader to be entombed in stasis as he once lay for centuries before Magneto released him. Wyndham asked Dane Whitman, the Black Knight, to leave the Heroes and remain at Wundagore to teach chivalry and the tenets of knighthood to his New Men, now that Quicksilver had departed. Whitman agreed to watch over both Exodus and the Knights. [Heroes for Hire (1st series) #17] He moved on eventually, however, and Exodus also returned to the realm of the living to assert his faith on mutantkind once again. [Uncanny X-Men Annual ‘99]