If Looks Could Kill

Can YOU

Name This Marvel Villain??

I don't know how many villains start out as petty thieves, but count the Basilisk among them. He's also one of those villains whose real name could be played around with to form his more notorious villain name. And boy, is he bitter about it:

Elks was prowling a museum after-hours in order to steal the Alpha Stone, an emerald of unknown origin (in actuality, its origin was in distant space). But Elks, not exactly renowned in the criminal brains department, runs into the museum security guard after he grabs the gem. And thanks to a shot with unintended consequences, a new super-villain makes his debut:

The power of the destroyed Alpha Stone changes Elks into a creature whose eyes can now discharge energy and make his thoughts become reality. In this case, telling the unfortunate guard to "freeze" and watching as he literally does so:

The now appropriately named "Basilisk" soon senses a sister gem to the Alpha Stone--the "Omega Stone," which he sniffs out at a construction site in hopes that it will increase his power to greater levels. To make a long story short, after a series of battles with a number of heroes, the Basilisk finally succeeded in adding the stone's power to what he'd absorbed from the Alpha Stone.  And what does one do when one acquires ultimate power? Why, you set off to destroy civilization, by raising and igniting volcanoes on the Earth's axis. (Quite a step up for a museum thief, eh?) But this villain ended up being trapped and defeated by his own plan.

The Basilisk eventually met a rather ignominious end at the hand of Scourge--though this being Marvel, he was resurrected to cause more trouble, this time with the Punisher.  But since Scourge developed kind of a reputation for putting an end to villains that really needed to be retired, though, I prefer to think of the Basilisk with his eyes forever closed.