Madman (Marvel Comics)

Madman
Madman runs amok in London, from The Incredible Hulk, vol. 2, #409. Sept. 1993. Pencils by Gary Frank, inks by Cam Smith. Glynis Oliver, colorist.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	(As Phil Sterns): The Incredible Hulk #363 (December 1989) (As Madman): The Incredible Hulk #364 (mid-December 1989)
Created by	Peter David (writer) Jeff Purves (artist)
In-story information
Alter ego	Phillip Sterns
Partnerships	The Leader
Abilities	Vast superhuman strength Density control Size manipulation Shapeshifting

Madman (Philip Sterns) is a supervillain within the fictional Marvel Comics universe. The character is portrayed as one of the Hulk's enemies and as the brother of Leader.

He first appeared as Philip Sterns in The Incredible Hulk #363 (December 1989) and as Madman in The Incredible Hulk #364 where they were created by Peter David and Jeff Purves.

A former schoolmate of Bruce Banner, Sterns develops a deranged love/obsession with Banner's "career" as the Hulk. Sterns subjects himself to a multitude of experiments involving gamma-radiation to emulate his "hero." This results in Sterns turning into a distorted monstrosity with vast superhuman strength, and develops multiple personality disorder. From this point, a much stronger, arguably deranged, personality gives him ‘orders’ to carry out.

Calling himself Madman, Sterns hatches a plot to kill the Hulk, giving him a poison injection that rapidly deteriorates his physical state. This puts the Hulk in conflict with various members of his rogues’ gallery, most notably the Abomination, turning weaker and more emaciated for every battle. Samuel Sterns, the Leader and Phillip's brother, comes to the Hulk's aid and helps him track down Madman to find the antidote. He explains that Madman "scares him," but can’t force himself to kill his brother. During the ensuing battle, Madman suffers a psychological breakdown, completely submerging his original personality, and Hulk manages to cure himself, as well as poison Madman, leaving the latter on the verge of death, with the remedy dropped barely out of reach.

Later Madman reveals that he simply increased his mass to grab it, and used the time to masquerade as a researcher in the Red Skull's "New World Order" organization. Here he helped to engineer the transformation of a captured S.H.I.E.L.D. agent into the power-mimicking creature known as Piecemeal, and installed a safety override, making it answerable only to himself.