Death-Stalker

"Exterminator (comics)" redirects here. For the team of Spider-Man villains, see Exterminators (comics).

Death-Stalker
Death-Stalker
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	(as The Exterminator) Daredevil Vol. 1, #39 (April 1968) (as Death-Stalker) Daredevil Vol. 1, #113 (September 1974)
Created by	(The Exterminator) Stan Lee, Gene Colan; (Death-Stalker), Steve Gerber, Bob Brown
In-story information
Alter ego	Philip Wallace Sterling
Team affiliations	Ani-Men Unholy Three
Notable aliases	Exterminator, Death's-Head
Abilities	Interdimensional travel Death grip gloves grant ability to kill a person upon contact

The Death-Stalker is a fictional character, a super-villain of the professional-criminal type, in the Marvel Comics universe. His real name was Philip Wallace Sterling. An enemy of Daredevil, he first appeared as the Exterminator in Daredevil Vol. 1, #39 (April 1968).

Fictional character biography

Philip Wallace Sterling was born in Riverdale, Bronx, New York. He was a wealthy man prior to embarking on a career as a professional criminal. When he first appeared as the Exterminator, he recruited the Unholy Three. He constructed a "time displacer ray" ("t-ray") which could teleport its target into another dimension (possibly the Limbo from which Immortus hails). The Exterminator led the Unholy Three in a series of criminal activities and battled Daredevil. When Daredevil defeated the Exterminator and his agents, he also destroyed the t-ray, accidentally bombarding the Exterminator with its strange energy, and seemingly killing him.^[1]

Sterling actually found himself trapped between two dimensions, able to return to Earth at will but only for a few hours at a time; furthermore, the mutation caused his skin to become chalk-white. He stole a pair of gloves from AIM that gave him a "death-grip," and began calling himself "The Death-Stalker."^[2] He tried several times to kill Daredevil and build a new t-ray machine, but was each time beaten by Daredevil.

He was allied with Gladiator against Daredevil. The Death-Stalker traveled to the Florida Everglades in search of papers relating to Ted Sallis's experiments, and encountered the Man-Thing.^[3] He stole a set of ancient Lemurian crystal lenses from the Museum of Modern Art, and fought Daredevil.^[4] He masqueraded as Death's-Head (Karen Page's father), and fought Daredevil and the Ghost Rider.^[5] Death-Stalker next assembled a large gathering of criminals to take part in an undisclosed plan, and faced off against Daredevil yet again.^[6] He stole a scientific apparatus from Stark International.^[7]

Finally, the Death-Stalker plotted his ultimate destruction of Daredevil. He attempted to kill Daredevil while the crime-fighter was hospitalized, and he also fought the Avengers. He created a new Unholy Three as a new group of Ani-Men and had them kidnap Matt Murdock, whose secret identity as Daredevil he had learned by observation from between dimensions. Daredevil was taken to St. Stephens Cemetery, and there, the Death-Stalker killed the Ani-Men and attacked Daredevil. As the battle went on and Daredevil kept getting the best of him, the Death-Stalker leaped at Daredevil in irrational rage. He had to materialize from his other dimension in full to use his cybernetic death-grip on Daredevil, but in his fury, he materialized too soon in the course of that leap and solidified while he was passing in part through a gravestone; the trauma killed him instantly.^[8]

Powers and abilities

Accidental exposure to "T-radiation" altered Sterling's physiology, making it so that he normally existed in a dimension congruent to Earth. While in this realm, he could watch and listen to events on Earth without being observed from Earth by any means. By willing himself to do so, he could shift into the Earth dimension to varying degrees. He could become visible, but intangible, or visible and tangible as he desired. He could shift from one state to the other instantaneously. Also, while completely in his interdimensional state, he could cover distances more rapidly, enabling him to disappear from one Earth location and reappear at another far sooner than if he had traversed that same distance on Earth. The Death-Stalker could not continuously manifest in the dimension of Earth for more than several hours at a time.

His "cybernetic death-grip" device, stolen from AIM, was worn in his gloves, which emitted a dose of microwave radiation when activated by mental command, killing any living creature in contact with it. The Death-Stalker had to materialize in full on Earth for the device to be effective. This energy has been described as microwaves, but seems to have properties of both lightning and truly intense cold.

Philip Wallace Sterling was a brilliant criminal mastermind, in addition to being an accomplished inventor and scientist with extensive knowledge of advance scientific apparatus.

References

1. ^ Daredevil #39-41
2. ^ Daredevil #113
3. ^ Daredevil #113-115
4. ^ Daredevil #128
5. ^ Daredevil #138; Ghost Rider Vol. 1 #20
6. ^ Daredevil #148
7. ^ Daredevil #152
8. ^ Daredevil #155-158

External links

• Death-Stalker at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
• Marvel Database entry