Klaw

Origin

Ulysses Klaw comes from a military family. His father was Fritz Klaue, an operative for Nazi Germany during World War II. Fritz crashed landed in Wakanda and sought to murder his way to obtaining the rare metal Vibranium from the people of that nation, but his deadly mission failed.

Ulysses grew up and became a physicist working on applied sonics in Rotterdam and the Belgium city of Antwerpen, which eventually led to him developing a sound converter. Discovering this technology needed vibranium to work, Ulysses traveled to Wakanda, following in his father's footsteps in killing their people when they refused to hand over the precious ore. During the battle, T'Challa blasted off Klaw's right hand with one of Klaw's sound weapons. Years later, Klaw returned to Wakanda again, and hooked up his new sound converter machine to the vibranium. This machine was able to create solid creatures from sound, and he used them to battle the Fantastic Four and T'Challa (now the Black Panther). Things went badly for Klaw and his machinery is overloaded by Black Panther. Trapped in a cave, Klaw jumped into his machine and became a being of solidified sound.

Creation

Klaw first appeared in Fantastic Four #53 in August 1966 and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Character Evolution

Klaw's origin has recently been ret-conned by Reggie Hudlin in the Black Panther series. In this version, his great-great-great grandfather was one of the founders of South Africa, whom T'Chaka killed in a fight. Klaw is now an assassin, hired to kill him. Ulysses Klaw, a Dutch scientist, had developed a weapon that could turn sound into solid objects - as before, it needed only Vibranium to work finally. Klaw makes his move at a global economic conference where plenty of 'potential employers' gathered. When Klaw realizes no deal is going to be made, he takes action, managing to kill the Panther. During his escape, Black Panther's son T'Challa blasts Klaw's hand off and severely injures Ulysses. After having his half-dead body experimented on for close to a decade, Klaw returns to being an assassin. With a gun attached to his hand, and Vibranium from the black market, he returns to Wakanda ten years later, as before, attacking Black Panther and the Fantastic Four.

Major Story Arcs

Fantastic Four and Avengers

Seeking revenge for his defeat in Wakanda, Klaw travels to New York to the Baxter Building and attacks the Fantastic Four, but is beaten and put in prison. Klaw is then rescued by Crimson Cowl, and joins the Masters of Evil in a plot to capture the Avengers. They are successful, although the Avengers later escape with the help of the Black Knight, and defeat Klaw and his allies.

Klaw then escapes and attempts to reform a small band of the Masters of Evil, who try to kidnap a famous scientist, but they are foiled by the Avengers and Lady Liberators.

Klaw would continue to battle the Black Panther in several different clashes - first in trying to steal the Vibrotron device from Wakanda, and then with the help of Solarr trying to con Black Panther and the Avengers into handing control of Wakanda to him. His hatred for T'Challa has grown during each battle that has ended with his defeat.

Savage Land

Klaw reemerges when an alien Sheenarian named Shauran asks for his help in opening a portal for an invasion of Earth. Klaw starts by attacking Ka-Zar in London, England, but is driven off and then goes to the Savage Land where he helps the aliens begin their invasion. Ka-Zar and his tiger Zabu are able to turn the tables on Klaw and force him to return through the portal with the aliens. Klaw eventually finds a way to transport himself back to Earth.

Molecule Man and Mad Thinker

Klaw then finds Molecule Man’s wand in Florida after Man-Thing drops it. Molecule Man and Klaw fight, then team up to battle the Impossible Man and Fantastic Four in New York. The Impossible Man and Klaw create constructs that explode when they battle, knocking out Klaw.

Klaw returns with the Mad Thinker with a scheme to trick Vision into beating the Fantastic Four with a set of sound construct FF members and a construct Scarlet Witch that is apparently kidnapped. Vision breaks free of the villains’ programming and together with the real Fantastic Four defeats Klaw.

Project: PEGASUS

Klaw ends up in Project Pegasus, where fellow inmate Solarr freed him, but both villains are defeated by a band of heroes including Giant Man, the Thing and Quasar.

Klaw’s next scheme, when revived by an unsuspecting cleaning lady, is to start mining on a Native American reservation, where a confrontation with Ward and Jason Strongbow results in them gaining powers from the radioactive rocks and Klaw’s sonic blasts. Klaw flees to the Savage Land to go after Vibranium again, but despite some dinosaurs used for protection, the Thing, Wyatt Wingfoot and Ka-Zar are able to knock him out and he is put back in Project: PEGASUS.

Soon after, Klaw found a way to escape by tricking Dazzler, but is trounced by the new superhero and he is dissipated once again .

Secret Wars

In the series " Secret Wars" Klaw is resurrected by Doctor Doom after being brought to Battleworld on board Galactus' ship and is given the power to make real things out of sound, not just images. At the end of that series, he was presumed dead after being used by Doom and battling all the assembled heroes and then disappearing in an energy blast.

Frightful Four

Back on Earth somehow, Klaw seeks out Daredevil’s help but ends up fighting him and is disrupted when led into a tone generator. He then joins the Frightful Four, led by the Wizard. The villains fight the Fantastic Four but are driven off back to their base. The Fantastic Four surprisingly pursue them there and the fight is rejoined. Aron the Watcher and Dragon Man enter the fray and the Fantastic Four are beaten. At that time, Sharon Ventura had taken Thing's place on the Fantastic Four, and Ben Grimm had just been returned to his human form. Ben manages to help free the heroes and they beat the Frightful Four, only for Aron to transport both teams to another dimension, with clones taking their place. When the original characters eventually return, the Frightful Four are beaten again and sent to the Vault by Aron.

Klaw then struggled for a while, fighting Quasar, Iron Man and the Avengers in successive breakouts, but is sent back to the Vault. He is briefly used by AIM to apprehend the Molecule Man and Volcana but manages to free himself from AIM's control. He also popped up again when Captain America investigated an AIM Weapons Expo on Boca Caliente Island. When he returns to attack Wakanda again with a new army of mercenaries, Black Panther calls in the help of the Fantastic Four and he is returned to jail again.

West Coast Avengers and Doctor Demonicus

When Dr. Demonicus raises an island called Demonica, he enlists Klaw, freeing him from Wakanda. The West Coast Avengers battle Klaw and Zvezda and are imprisoned by Klaw. A battle then breaks out between Raksasa - the demon who was actually controlling the other villains - and the Avengers and the Pacific Overlords. Klaw and Zvezda decide to join the heroes, and help them win through but Klaw is swept away in a rockslide when the island sinks.

A New Frightful Four

Reappearing once again, Klaw, Huntara, Paibok and Devos coincidentally attack the Fantastic Four at the same time, with the group already undergoing some internal strife. The fight grows to involve Daredevil, Spider-Man, Sandman and Silver Sable as well as a group of Avengers, forcing the villains back to Paibok’s ship. Later, when the four villains return, Paibok and Devos abscond with the Fantastic Four to space, while Klaw encounters Sharon Ventura in her Thing form held in stasis. Klaw later returns and kidnaps Sharon and enlists her into a new Frightful Four led by the Wizard. But when Klaw is sent to the Baxter Building to attack Ant-Man he is defeated and runs away.

Klaw attacks Black Panther again when the hero comes to New York but is beaten by Vibraxas, Huntara, Devlor and an adult Franklin Richards as Psi-Lord. He tries to beat Black Panther again with the help of Killmonger, but this time Daredevil helps knock him out. He even tried teaming up with Black Panther's cousin Joshua Itobo to get to Wakanda's Vibranium again, but was stopped by Cable who was visiting Black Panther at the time.

Masters of Evil and Thunderbolts

Klaw joins a Masters of Evil team led by Crimson Cowl, along with Man-Killer, Flying Tiger, Tiger Shark, and Cyclone. A first meeting with the Thunderbolts and Black Widow sees them retreat for a time. In their next encounter, Klaw traps the Thunderbolts in a sonic bubble and knocks out Songbird with a sonic blast. This time the Masters win and offer the Thunderbolts a place on their team. The Thunderbolts eventually decline, leading to a fight where Klaw defeats them all at once with a huge blast. Hawkeye (as Dreadknight) helps the Thunderbolts escape death and takes over leadership of that team. The Thunderbolts pursue the Masters of Evil to Mt Charteris and defeat them, despite a greatly enlarged roster of villains on their team. The Masters of Evil are effectively disbanded.

Vibranium Cancer

When Klaw found that his Vibranium cell had dissipated, he traveled to Wakanda. There he somehow absorbs the 'Vibranium cancer' that had destabilized the world's Vibranium and tries to destroy the Vibranium mound. Captain America manages to stop him and shatters Klaw into fragments with his shield. A fight between White Wolf and Vibraxas somehow restores Klaw, who attacks White Wolf but then teams up with him to go after Black Panther. Klaw frames Black Panther for sinking the US ship 'Roussos' and tricks the country of Lemuria into attacking Wakanda. Klaw goes to New York to personally fight Black Panther. With the help of Namor, Black Panther believes he has killed Klaw.

Negative Zone

After some brief encounters with his counterpart from Earth-5127 and a fight with Songbird, Klaw joins a group of villains assembled by Puppet Master. Although he is then imprisoned in the Negative Zone he manages to escape, evading even the efforts of the Fantastic Four, She-Hulk and Hercules and getting back to Earth.

Fall of the Hulks

The Wizard briefly assembles a new Frightful Five to fight the Fantastic Four with Klaw held as a secret weapon in the form of his prosthetic arm from which he re-forms his body during the fight. Although unsuccessful, a new Frightful Four forms afterward with Wizard, Lyra, Trapster and Klaw and they manage to kidnap Mr Fantastic. It is later revealed that the new Frightful Four are operating under the direction of the Intelligencia - a team comprised of the Leader, Wizard, Egghead, Mad Thinker and Red Ghost who sought to capture the 8 greatest minds on Earth (Mr Fantastic being one of them), attack the world's superheroes and bring down the Hulk in the Fall of the Hulks and World War Hulks storylines. During the Frightful Four's attack on the Fantastic Four, Klaw demonstrated some superb intellect. He was able to get the better of the Invisible Woman, by using her childrens' voices to disorient her and frighten her.

Dazzler and She-Hulks

After the failure of the Intelligencia's schemes, Klaw seeks revenge on Dazzler with the help of Mortis, but is defeated, although he manages to escape. Hulk, wanting to tie up the loose ends of the end of the Fall of the Hulks sends out Lyra and She-Hulk to capture escaped villains who are still on the run including Klaw. Klaw had decided to try to become normal again and had traveled to Switzerland. The She-Hulks track him down there and stop him transferring his powers into Byte, and cause an avalanche.

Klaws of the Panther

Returning to action once more, Klaw makes a plan to take control of the world via satellites and a sonic attack in Klaws of the Panther. On board the AIM Space Station, he transforms the daughter of AIM's chief scientist into MUSIC (Multiframe Universal Sonic Integration Codec). He then uses AIM agents to gather Vibranium from the Savage Land. The combined efforts of Spider-Man, Shuri (the new Black Panther) and Black Widow are not enough to stop Klaw, but MUSIC knocks him into space when Shuri shows her compassion by sparing her life.

Daredevil-Sound and Fury

While Daredevil investigates why no one will take the open and shut case of Ahmed Jobrani he learns that someone has been threatening other lawyers, and the trail leads back to Jobrani's electronics store. There Daredevil finds a bunch of Klaws working on a machine. Before Daredevil can react the Klaws explode into deafening sound and knock the hero out. When he wakes up he is in the machine and approached by a man much like Klaw, only hollower. This hollower Klaw is one of Klaw's sound clones who escaped capture. He created Klaw copies from himself to work for him in an attempt to build an antenna to bring the real Klaw back from space. Daredevil escapes the machine, and destroys the antenna before the Klaws can complete it. He then destroys all the copies of Klaw.

Powers/Abilities

Solid Sound Body: Klaw possesses a number of superhuman physical powers stemming from his body's conversion into an extra-physical energy form. In some as yet unknown way, Klaw's body is a stable energy form possessing mass and sentience. This form is not bound by conventional human limitations: Klaw does not need food or sleep, nor can he be harmed by penetration wounds, disease, shock of impact, oxygen deprivation, etc. Klaw's body can in fact be vivisected into many pieces without killing him and these pieces can be fused back together by simply touching them to one another. He can only exist in a medium that allows the propagation of sound waves: he would dissipate in a vacuum. Since his body is quasi-solid, he can be touched by physical objects. Although it would cause no permanent damage, a sufficiently powerful blow may not only stagger him but cause temporary unconsciousness. (This occurs when the impact creates a counter frequency that is disharmonious to that of his body). Klaw can maintain his "sonic state" indefinitely. He cannot transform back into his original organic state. His form is resistant, if not immune, to telepathy.

Sound Generation: Klaw can bodily transform ambient sound for a variety of uses through his prosthetic sound converter. He can' project waves of intense, high-volume sound (maximum loudness: 170 decibels), capable of deafening anyone within a .6 mile radius. He can convert sound into controlled blasts of concussive force with a maximum force equivalent to 3,000 pounds of TNT. He can also create 3-dimensional, mobile sound/mass constructs possessing such complex forms as those of animals. He shapes and animates these constructs by mental command and they only remain in existence for as long as he wills them. Not possessed of the sentient life force that his own sonic form is, the constructs are not nearly as invulnerable. The constructs also can be used to fuse with a human body and be able to survive for a longer period of time and command other sound constructs, though it also causes the host's body to also deteriorate when they do.

Other Media

Klaw was the main villain on the Black Panther show. He wanted to take over Wakanda for revenge on T'Challa because what happened in the past between them.

Ulysses Klaw appeared in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, voiced by Mark Hamill. In the episode "The Man in the Ant Hill," he leads a small band of mercenaries to a S.H.I.E.L.D. research facility in Africa in order to steal a sample of Vibranium. In the episode "Panther's Quest", Klaw helps Man-Ape dethrone Black Panther as the king of Wakanda in exchange for the nation's supply of Vibranium. In both episodes, he is dressed as a regal European explorer instead of his typical comics costume, and he replaced his hand with a vibranium-powered sonic cannon in the latter episode. t the end of "Panther's Quest", the sonic cannon is damaged and transforms Klaw into living sound energy, and Hank Pym traps him in a capsule carved from vibranium.