BIOGRAPHY - Page 4
As time passed on, Stranger’s interest in mutations led him to abduct a multitude of specimens and test subjects to hold on his Laboratory World. Some were physically probed and underwent vivisection, while others roamed “freely” in controlled behavioral testing. Habitats were constructed on his Laboratory World which represented different environments with natural or urban characteristics. The Stranger’s test subjects were bound to their individual habitats by programmable force fields which prevented free travel between sections. They awaited his pleasure, their physical needs cared for by autonomic systems, but were often forgotten by the Stranger for years after his initial interest in capturing them. His particular focus on Earth led the Stranger to acquire a number of specimens from that world, both from the planet itself and those that journeyed out into the stars on their volition.
During his wanderings, the Stranger uncovered a curious phenomenon when he found the Watcher of a distant galaxy dead in his observation citadel. Unable to determine the cause of death for such a powerful entity, the Stranger brought the Watcher’s body to the next sector, only to find a second Watcher dead from unknown causes. He moved on to find nearly a dozen dead Watchers, and the mystery compelled him to ignore an alert signal from his lightship that 
something had gone wrong on his Laboratory World. In fact, the Over-Mind had returned to seek revenge on the last Gigantian, and telepathically enslaved the Squadron Supreme of Earth to invade the Laboratory World for him. Quasar, the Protector of the Universe as declared by Eternity’s child Eon, could not free the Squadron from Over-Mind’s control and was bade to seek out the Stranger so Over-Mind could have his rematch. Quasar honestly explained the crisis, but the Stranger would not abandon his current investigation to satisfy the Over-Mind’s ego.
Together, the Stranger and Quasar discovered a rogue Watcher named Otmu spreading a new philosophy for the Watcher’s oath of non-interference. Otmu argued that the very act of observation affected the observed, meaning the Watchers interfered with their mission whether 
they meant to or not. The only way to not observe was to die, and Otmu’s philosophy was telepathically spreading through the Watcher race, an infectious idea which led the cosmic-level beings to actually will themselves to death in order to preserve the purity of their non-interference. Otmu himself chose to die after his actions drew the attention of the Stranger and Quasar, but his philosophy lived on as an idea plague.
Momentarily satisfied the mystery was solved, the Stranger agreed to return to his Laboratory World with Quasar. Unfortunately for him, the Over-Mind was far better prepared this time than he was for their last encounter. His long pursuit of answers regarding the Watchers left the Stranger vulnerable to a telepathic sneak attack by Over-Mind when he arrived. At Over-Mind’s direction, the Squadron Supreme had also freed many of the Stranger’s specimens, recruiting them as cannon fodder eager to strike out at their jailer. The pawns were meant as a distraction for the 
Stranger, but Quasar then used the same logic against Over-Mind. He convinced Grom to release his dominion over the Squadron, to better marshal his energies against the Stranger. It was here that the Stranger tried to denounce any connection to Gigantus, though Over-Mind thought his last defeat at the Stranger’s hands was suitable reason for revenge, regardless of the scientist’s origins.
Many Watchers were still dying from Otmu’s idea plague and those who resisted its logic came to the Stranger for aid in dissecting their problem. As it happened, their appearance patiently observing the battle between the Stranger and Over-Mind fed Grom’s paranoia. Unable to explain 
the Watchers’ looming presence, Over-Mind began coming up with explanations of his own. He actually drove himself to psychosis over fear that the Watcher’s would act against him. With the Over-Mind incapacitated, the Watchers addressed the Stranger over their predicament. The Stranger’s advice was predictable – abandon all pretense of neutrality from their oath of non-interference and become active experimenters like him.
Although the Stranger initially dismissed Quasar as mortal and irrelevant to the discussion, it was the Earthling who provided the solution. Living or dead, passive or not, the Watchers’ existence had driven the Stranger and Over-Mind’s actions several times that day already. Therefore, if their impact on this universe was already a fixed fact, the only variable was whether they continued to watch. The Watchers’ goal was to inevitably preserve all knowledge of this universe for dissemination into the next one. This campaign was important enough that some subjectivity in their observations could be forgiven, for the greater good. This argument was so compelling that even dead Watchers willed themselves back to life after experiencing it telepathically. The Stranger seemed unmoved by Quasar’s victory and dismissed the Avenger so he could repair the damage to his world and recover what test subjects he could find. [Quasar #14-16]
Whatever his true connection to the Living Tribunal is, the Stranger was acknowledged as one of the cosmic powers of the universe during the Infinity Gauntlet affair with Thanos. He appeared in the Dimension of Manifestations when Adam Warlock called to war the abstract entities like Galactus, the Celestials, Lord Chaos and Master Order. After the heroes of Earth failed to stop Thanos, Warlock deployed the Stranger and the cosmic powers as the second wave. Even they were beaten and imprisoned by Thanos using the power of the Infinity Gauntlet, and they fared no 
better against his grand-daughter Nebula when she stole the Gauntlet. Only once Adam Warlock claimed the Infinity Gauntlet were the Stranger and the other abstract entities released from imprisonment. [Infinity Gauntlet (1st series) #1-6] In the weeks that followed, Eternity brought a petition before the Living Tribunal to declare Adam Warlock unfit for the supreme power of the Infinity Gauntlet. Back in the Dimension of Manifestations, the Stranger served on the Tribunal’s court when he ultimately ruled against Adam. The Infinity Gems were ordered to be dispersed and never used again as one. [Warlock and the Infinity Watch #1]
In another of his many experiments, the Stranger arranged for one of his test subjects named Bi-Beast to learn of a powerful artifact housed on the Laboratory World known as the Family Jewels. The Stranger let Bi-Beast steal the jewels in order to observe what the creature would do with such power. Unfortunately, the Stranger was disappointed to see Bi-Beast merely chose to teleport back to Earth and try to settle an old score with the Hulk. The scientist remotely triggered 
the jewels to become unstable, signaling the build up to a massive explosion, as a new variable for the encounter. The Bi-Beast fled, but Hulk and She-Hulk proved selfless enough to use their own bodies in an effort to contain the explosion and prevent the loss of innocent life. Satisfied with his observations, the Stranger cancelled the explosion at the last moment to avoid needless injury. [Incredible Hulk (2nd series) #412]
The Stranger was approached by Skeletron and the Starblasters for his scientific acumen. An Earth woman named Kayla Ballantine was the host for an extra-dimensional power source known as the Star Brand. Skeletron had captured Kayla and wanted the Stranger’s aid tracing the dimension of origin for the Brand. In exchange for this information, the Stranger could keep the Star Brand itself for his work. The Stranger found the deal curious, but acceptable. However, Ballantine was Quasar’s girlfriend and the Protector of the Universe assembled an array of Earth heroes to rescue her and deal with the Starblasters. The space pirates had made many enemies when they nearly threw Earth’s moon out of orbit as a distraction for kidnapping Kayla and Earth’s Watcher. Quasar also allied his group with the Shi’ar, including three motivated Imperial Guardsmen named Solar Wind, Moondancer and Voyager, who had once been captives of the Stranger’s Laboratory World.
Despite Quasar’s interference, the Stranger managed to extract the Star Brand from Kayla and imprint it on himself. As an unexpected consequence, his energies mingled with the Star Brand and displaced half of his Laboratory World as a bridge into the New Universe where the Star Brand originated. Skeletron was revealed as a techno-purist who despised organic life and wanted to engineer the revival of bio-mechanical races. He siphoned immense levels of residual Star Brand energy from the New Universe’s Earth and intended to wipe out all organic life in that much-less populated universe. The Stranger chose to oppose his former ally, and his cosmically-enhanced Star Brand provided him the means. He enhanced the powers of several of Quasar’s allies and psychically compelled them into serving him against Skeletron.
With his pawns in play, the Stranger confronted Skeletron, who had now merged with his ship the Dark Seed and its energy transmogrifiers. Skeletron was now keyed to absorb all forms of Star 
Brand energy, leaving the Stranger’s attacks against him only fuel for his power. To deprive his foe of more energy, the Stranger teleported the entire planet Earth from the New Universe back into his own dimension near Laboratory World. The Stranger then led an enraged Skeletron on a chase as the mechanoid tried to drain Star Brand energy from the Stranger’s own body. Little did Skeletron realize that this was exactly what the Stranger intended. Once the last of the Star Brand energy left his body, the force holding Lab World in the New Universe evaporated as well. Everything but Skeletron bounced back to Earth-616’s universe, leaving the bio-mechanoid trapped in the New Universe now devoid of sentient life with it’s Earth in orbit around the Stranger’s world. [Starblast crossover]
The Stranger hoped to make use of the New Universe’s Earth and its supply of paranormals for his experiments. Alas, it was not to be. The Living Tribunal detected the egregious anomaly of a 
world with foreign energies invading his space. The Stranger argued the world could not be returned to its point of origin, not with the power available to him nor without risking unleashing a dangerous entity like Skeletron again. Instead, the Tribunal order the New Earth quarantined behind a cosmic barrier, so that none of its exotic energies could infect the universal balance at play. The Stranger was left able to observe this Earth from afar, but he could not physically travel to or interact with his potential test subjects. [Quasar #57]