Origin
After
Dr. Doom killed
Gustav Hauptmann, one of his top scientists, he replaced him with Gert Hauptmann, Gustav's brother. Gert designed many weapons for Dr. Doom and assisted him in several of his plans, but he secretly plotted against Dr. Doom and assisted his enemies at times as revenge for the death of his brother. Typically though, Hauptmannt's fear of Dr. Doom won out over his hate of him, and so he usually did as Dr. Doom ordered.
Creation
Gert Hauptmann was created by
Marv Wolfman,
Keith Pollard, and
Pablo Marcos.
Major Story Arcs
When former prince of
Latveria,
Zorba, and
Mr. Fantastic stormed
Dr. Doom's Castle with an army of freedom fighters bent on overthrowing Dr. Doom, they came across Hauptmann. Zorba was furious at Hauptmann for his brother having cost him his eye, but Mr. Fantastic was able to convince them to work together against Dr. Doom. Despite the fact that Hauptmann was now helping to overthrow Dr. Doom, he still feared his master and so alerted him to some of the rebels army's actions. Eventually though, Dr. Doom was overthrown, Zorba became the new ruler of Latveria, and Hauptmann went to work for him.
Unfortunately, even though Dr. Doom had been defeated, Hauptmann was still fearful of him and therefore secretly assisted an underground movement that sought to restore Dr. Doom to the throne. When Dr. Doom was stolen from his prison cell, Zorba fired his entire staff for fear of traitors in his midst. Hauptmann then joined the underground movement at their secret base and restored Dr. Doom to his former self, allowing him to take back his throne.
When Dr. Doom used his
time platform to go back in time and learn sorcery from
Cagliostro, it was Hauptmann whom he tasked with operating the platform. After learning all he could from Cagliostro, Dr. Doom returned to the present and ordered Hauptmann to send him even further back in time. As it turned out however, the shipment of
Stark International components that were needed for this had been withdrawn under the order of
Tony Stark. Due to the importance of these components, Dr. Doom sent some men to steal the components back, but they were stopped by Iron Man (secretly Tony Stark). Iron Man then went to Lateveria and confronted Dr. Doom. While they were fighting, Hauptmann's hate of Dr. Doom finally won out over his fear, and he used the time plaform to send the two combatents into the past. He then destroyed the platform in order to trap them there forever. Eventually though, Dr. Doom and Iron Man managed to work together long enough to get back to the present. They then parted ways, leaving Hauptmann to face Dr. Doom's punishment.
Surprisingly, Hauptmann survived Dr. Doom's wrath, and ended up being tasked with creating a way to transfer the
Silver Surfer's Power Cosmic into another living being. When Hauptmann had completed the machine, he notified Dr. Doom and welcomed him to try it out. Instead, Dr. Doom grabbed Hauptmann, locked him in the machine, and activated it. The machine bombarded Hauptmann with more energy that any human being could absorb, and he screamed in agony until he died and was reduced to nothing but ash. Dr. Doom then remarked that he'd suspected the energies of the Power Cosmic were too much for a human being to survive and believed Hauptmann had known this as well. He was certain that if the machine had actually worked, Hauptmann would have already used it on himself.
Powers and Abilities
Gert Hauptmann was a scientific genius, capable of both creating and operating the highly advanced technology that Dr. Doom used.
Unlike his brother, Gustav, Gert Huaptmann wasn't as ruthless and typically obeyed those in power out of sheer fear, rather than respect or loyalty.
It's uncertain, although likely, that Gert Huaptmann had been a member of the
Third Reich like his brother.
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