Mercurio the 4-D Man

Mercurio the 4-D Man
Mercurio battles Captain Marvel in Captain Marvel #51 (vol. 1, Jul. 1977) Art by George Pérez.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Thor #208 (vol. 1, Feb. 1973)
Created by	Gerry Conway (Writer) John Buscema (Artist)
In-story information
Species	Gramosian
Place of origin	Gramos
Partnerships	Thor
Notable aliases	The Fourth-Dimensional Man, Karl Sarron
Abilities	Enhanced strength and durability Flight Intense heat and cold generation Interplanetary teleportation through his mind

Mercurio the 4-D Man (abbreviation of four dimensional - a feature of Mercurio's home world) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Mercurio first appears in Thor #208 (vol. 1, Feb. 1973) and was created by Gerry Conway and John Buscema.

Mercurio is a native of the planet Gramos, a world threatened with extinction when a gravitational distortion blocks out all sunlight. In a bid to save Gramos, Mercurio was chosen as a government psycho-explorer to project his consciousness across the galaxy to Earth, where he takes control of a wealthy landlord and uses his resources to build a device to siphon off Earth's electro-magnetic field. Mercurio also detects strange energies coming from the offices of Dr. Donald Blake, the alter-ego of the Thunder God Thor. Witnessing a transformation from Blake to Thor, Mercurio siphons off some of the magical energy in an attempt to transport his body across space to Earth. The process is only partially successful as the right side of Mercurio's body is turned red and his normal fire-generating ability is changed to ice (on the left side only). Mercurio then battles Thor and the Warriors Three in an attempt to complete his transformation, but is quickly defeated and encased in molten iron by Thor.

Several weeks after returning to Gramos, Mercurio leads an army to find the God Jewel, a gem containing enough energy to sustain Gramos forever. The God Jewel, however, proves to be sentient and evolves into a humanoid form called Xorr, and is capable of sucking the life energy from any source. Coincidentally, Thor and several allies are also seeking the God Jewel as it has imprisoned two Asgardian goddesses, Sif and Karnilla. With Thor's help Xorr is defeated, and Mercurio retrieves several fragments of the God Jewel for use on Gramos.

Although Gramos is saved, Mercurio develops a desire to conquer, and attempts to trick Captain Marvel into visiting Gramos and building the Omni-Wave Projector - a device capable of emitting energies on a galaxy-wide scale. Captain Marvel's cosmic awareness, however, warns him of the trap and after defeating Mercurio he returns to Earth.