Dead Man Walking

Can YOU

Name This Marvel Villain??

The abilities of Milos Masaryk, the Unicorn, were partly borrowed from the armored Crimson Dynamo to outfit yet another foreign saboteur who would inevitably cross paths with Iron Man, in an attempt to match the forces behind the Iron Curtain against the forces of freedom. We know how that turned out with similar match-ups with the Dynamo and the Titanium Man, and indeed the Unicorn's first battle with Iron Man resulted in the newcomer's defeat.

Regrettably, the Unicorn didn't make much of an impression either on his foes or with us, thanks to the costume he was first given by his Soviet masters:

Not to mention the fact that you're not exactly going to cringe in terror at being approoached by some guy who calls himself "the Unicorn." Which was unfortunate, given that this guy really was a powerhouse. Look at all the things he could do:

Everything but the kitchen sink--jeez, was anything left out? You'd think he could have given Iron Man a damn good fight. In fact, he managed to triumph over Iron Man before the Avenger turned the tables on him on a technicality. It it wasn't for his costume making it look like he was dressed in hand-me-downs that the Soviet scientists found lying around, he might have made more of an impact on us. Even Marvel didn't end up showing him much respect, shoe-horning him into this little group of Count Nefaria's with his next appearance:

You know you've reached bottom when you're teamed with the likes of the Eel and the Scarecrow.

When it was time to have the Unicorn face off against Iron Man again, some changes were in order. First, he returned to his Soviet masters, who amped up his power. Yeah, I agree, he was pretty powerful to begin with. But this time he was also given super-strength, which, thank goodness, meant some practical upgrades to his costume:

Unfortunately, his new super-strength didn't cut any ice with Iron Man, once the Avenger disabled the Unicorn's horn:

I'm afraid it went downhill from here for the Unicorn's career. The "accelerator," the device which augmented his powers, had the fatal side-effect of causing his mind to steadily degenerate--so the Unicorn, rather than capitalizing on his newfound might, spent his time trying to find a cure for his condition. Eventually, that search brought him into contact with the Mandarin--but by then, Masaryk's mind was so far gone that no cure was possible, and his new ruthless partner was able to control him and use him as an additional weapon against Iron Man. Things didn't go so well for the Mandarin, in that respect; but they went even worse for Masaryk, who eventually slumped to his death.