Hector Hammond


Hector Hammond

(pop culture)While the world of supervillains has no shortage of swelled heads, the term truly applies to Hector Hammond. Writer John Broome and artist Gil Kane introduce Hammond in Green Lantern (GL) vol. 2 #5 (1961) as smooth-talking shyster who encounters a meteor fragment that triggers evolutionary advancement. He abducts a quartet of scientists and alters them into futuremen, their brains accelerated but their resolve dampened, and coerces them to invent technologically superior gadgets for which he takes credit and gains celebrity. The scientists construct a device that attracts (like a magnet) Green Lantern's power ring, which Hammond does not realize is actually the hero's spare, and with it he wages war against Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Hammond being trounced when his ring loses its twenty-four-hour charge. After a brief prison stint, the spiteful Hammond exposed himself to the meteor's rays, reappearing in Justice League of America #14 (1962) with an enlarged cranium and mind-over-matter powers. His obsession with mental amplification led Hammond to continually self-administer the meteor's radiation, ultimately paying an unexpected price: he now boasts a highly developed mind—and a gigantic, distorted head—with stupefying telekinetic and telepathic abilities, but has become physically inert, applying his machinations from a chair. Hammond's enmity against GL has engulfed those in Jordan's circle. Directing the bestial Shaggy Man to attack the Justice League, spearheading a new version of the Royal Flush Gang, attempting to control GL Guy Gardner, and faking the death of original GL Alan Scott's friend Doiby Dickles are just some of head games Hammond has played. With Jordan's resurrection from the dead in 2005, Hammond has reemerged, determined to return his power-ringed foe to the grave.