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The Titanium Man is the name of two supervillains appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The original Titanium Man, Boris Bullski, first appeared in Tales of Suspense #69 (September 1965) and was created by Stan Lee and Don Heck. (2025). 9781465478900, DK Publishing. ISBN 9781465478900
While working as an administrator of a labor camp, he commissioned the imprisoned scientists at the camp to build a suit of armor using the lab of Anton Vanko, the creator of the original Crimson Dynamo armor. Seeking to win back the Party's favor, Bullski conceived the idea of winning a propaganda victory against the First World by defeating the United States superhero Iron Man. He assigned the scientists to create a powerful suit of titanium armor based on Iron Man's technology, though the inferior resources available to the scientists meant that the armor was twice the size of Iron Man's. Bullski received permission to issue his challenge, and Iron Man accepted, defeating Titanium Man in a battle before a worldwide television audience.
Undaunted, Bullski prepared for a rematch. The suit was redesigned, and he underwent medical treatments that increased his size and strength. Traveling to the US, Bullski fought Iron Man in the skies above Washington, D.C., but was defeated. Withdrawing for retrieval by a Soviet submarine, he discovered that he had been abandoned on orders from Moscow.
Bullski worked for the North Vietnam scientist Half-Face (who increased his power yet again). Then, he returned to the service of the Government of the Soviet Union and was dispatched to the US to retrieve the third Crimson Dynamo, whom he found at Cord Industries. A three-way battle between Titanium Man, Crimson Dynamo, and Iron Man began, during which Titanium Man killed Janice Cord with an electronic beam. Enraged, Iron Man soundly defeated Titanium Man and left him in the murky depths of the Hudson River.
After the defeat, the two disgraced Soviet agents fled to Communist-controlled Vietnam, where they joined with Radioactive Man to form the Titanic Three. Though Bullski enjoyed working as a sanctioned agent once again, he longed to return to the Soviet Union, and devised a new plan to win his superiors' favor. Adopting the alias The Other, he dispatched another former Soviet agent, Unicorn, to destroy Iron Man. When Unicorn failed, Titanium Man attempted to destroy Iron Man, but he failed again.
Despite his failures, Bullski was in favor with the Soviet government, and he returned to the US on a mission for the KGB. By threatening the parents of a Soviet defector named Sergei, he forced the man to design technologically advanced armored suits that could be transformed into small card-like objects. Posing as "the Commander", Bullski used the suits to equip members of the Green Liberation Front (G.L.F.), an organization of disaffected Vietnam War veterans who felt ignored by their country. With the suits, the G.L.F. robbed a New York City bank and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Thor #357 (July 1985) though the members believed that they were simply acting as thieves, Bullski used the robberies as a cover for implanting a computer virus that would destroy American financial records, causing chaos in the economy of the United States. Beta Ray Bill and Sif opposed the G.L.F. and the Commander, but when Sergei discovered that his parents were dead he exposed Bullski's true identity and the angry members of the G.L.F. turned on the Titanium Man. Teleporting away, he rematerialized in card form, which Sergei then simply tore and threw away. Thor #358 (August 1985)
Sometime later, the new Crimson Dynamo was sent to the US by the Soviet government to retrieve the remnants for reintegration. Soviet Super Soldiers #1 (November 1992) The G.L.F. discovered the Crimson Dynamo's mission and attacked him, forcing him to seek assistance by reactivating the Titanium Man, who due to the incomplete nature of his reassembly was still missing body parts. Enraged, Bullski slaughtered the members of the G.L.F., and was only stopped when the Dynamo lured him over the Atlantic Ocean and returned him to card form. Bullski was later restored and continued to serve as Titanium Man, as a member of the Soviet Super-Soldiers and later Remont-4, but felt increasingly despondent as the Soviet Union declined. After an attack on a Stark Enterprises factory in Russia, he was believed killed while battling Tony Stark who was wearing Crimson Dynamo armor that was being controlled by Colonel General Valentin Shatalov, a former friend of Bullski.
Sometime later, during a space mission to destroy an enormous asteroid that threatened to impact on Earth, a Titanium Man initially claimed his name was Andy Stockwell and had never had a connection with the USSR. (The name was an alias for Bullski.) Moments later, it was revealed he was a member of The Hammer, an international network of communist who wanted to destroy the US. He was lost in space, but being relatively close to Earth, may have returned under his own power.
Later, as a mercenary, Bullski was hired by Tony Stark to fake an attack on Congress trying to show reasons to stop the Superhuman Registration Act. He battled Spider-Man there and made a withdrawal after Spider-Man damaged his helmet with his cybernetic claws, but not without saying to a camera in Spider-Man's Iron Spider suit a planned talk which Stark used in the Congress in rejection of the SRA.
Titanium Man reappeared subsequently in Russia as a member of the rogue Soviet super-rebel group called Remont Six. He was knocked out by Darkstar but was apparently not captured. Later, Titanium Man was seen being beaten down by Noh-Varr. The identity of this Titanium Man or the circumstances of the battle remain undisclosed, but he is presumably Bullski, because he was wearing that version of the armor. The Avengers (vol. 4) #2
Doctor Octopus's scheme during Ends of the Earth, included contacting Titanium Man as one of several villains to assist in his plans after two of the Sinister Six were defeated, but this backfired when the Titanium Man contacted the Black Widow to warn her about the scheme. He characterized himself as a Russian patriot rather than an American villain, and he answered Spider-Man's call to rally others against Doctor Octopus. The Amazing Spider-Man #685 When Titanium Man entered one of Doctor Octopus' facilities, he was defeated by Mac Gargan despite his best efforts. The Amazing Spider-Man: Ends of the Earth #1
Sometime later, during a space mission to destroy an enormous asteroid that threatened to impact on Earth, a Titanium Man, claiming to be this same person, stated his name was Andy Stockwell, and had never had a connection with the USSR. However, moments later it was revealed he was actually a member of "The Hammer", an international network of communist who wanted to destroy the United States. He was lost in space, but being relatively close to Earth, may have returned under his own power.
The Titanium Man armor increases the wearer's physical strength to superhuman levels, and is in fact stronger than Iron Man. It was also able to fly at supersonic speeds (it can even reach escape velocity), shoot concussive force blasts from the hands, project constrictive force "rings", fire an electromagnetically paralytic beam from the helmet, and was resistant to conventional artillery.
Boris Bullski, the original Titanium Man, also possessed enhanced strength due to treatments given to him by the Soviet government to augment his physiology, making him grow into an -tall giant. The Gremlin, being a dwarf who seldom exercised, was weaker than most people, but he possessed superhuman intelligence, was capable of creating advanced devices and weapons, and was an accomplished genetic engineer.
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