[ESTE ARTÍCULO CONTIENE SPOILERS DE GUARDIANES DE LA GALAXIA: VOLUMEN 3]
In it MCU, villains haven’t always measured up to heroes. The hello of cate blanchett It didn’t live up to the best Asgardian god movie, Thor: Ragnarok; nor the Mandarin of Ben Kingsley in iron Man 3 or the kaecilius of Mads Mikkelsen in Dr. Strange (Doctor Strange), just to mention a few examples.
Fortunately, the universe of capes and meshes led by Kevin Feige has managed to surprise us with more than one well-constructed enemy, such as Loki (Tom Hiddleston) the deceitful and charismatic brother of Thor; or that Thanos (Josh Brolin) on the hunt for infinity gems to combat overpopulation.
Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3, third installment of the saga of James Gunn and the blockbuster with which the filmmaker says goodbye to Marvel, brings, in the absence of one, two threats to the protagonists. Let us remember that, as useless as they may seem at certain times, the guardians have faced the most dangerous adversaries such as the fundamentalist Kee Ronan (Lee Pace), Ego, a Celestial (Kurt Russell), or the aforementioned Thanos.
This time, they have to measure themselves to the golden Adam Warlock (Will Poulter), capable of absorbing cosmic energy and created by High Priestess Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki), leader of the Sovereigns, to finish off Peter and co. However, Gunn himself has warned that, despite starting out as the guardians’ nemesis, Warlock is not a villain.
That role has fallen to High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), a scientist obsessed with genetic manipulation who made Rocket the killing machine we know. The director has recognized that this is one of his favorite villains in the comics and does not hesitate to define him as someone “detestable”. Thus, the High Evolutionary and his experiments will lead us to Rocket’s past. But where does this character come from?
In the comics: the obsessive scientist
Geneticist and ‘mad’ scientist, the British supervillain Herbert Edgar Wyndham was created by the duo Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and debuted in The Mighty Thor #134 (November 1966). It is about a character obsessed with the study of the evolution of species and the search for perfection, who experiments with animals until they become humanoid creatures to their fullest potential, regardless of unethical methods.
It should be noted that, in his head, the High Evolutionary is a hero who only wants to maximize the potential of organisms by accelerating their evolution, but does not measure the consequences, something that makes him tremendously dangerous. His determination has led him to experiment even with himself, developing his brain to the point that he can manipulate matter with it.
Among his most outstanding plots, is the one in which he was expelled from the University of Oxford. The character allies with jonathan drew and settles in Mount Wundagore, an ancient mountain surrounded by black magic that will sound familiar to MCU fans as it is the place where Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) access the magic of the Darkhold at the end of Doctor Strange in the multiverse of madness.
That is where, using the power that space hides, Wyndham creates its “New Men”, those evolved animals that the villain educates and trains to serve him and that soon become the Wundagore Knights. So, the mount Wundagore is central to the scientist’s story, but it’s not the only place he has called home.
In the cartoons, he evolves so much that, with the help of the soul gem, he manages to create his own planet: Counter-Earth in English). It has the same attributes as Earth, and that is where its “New Men” can grow and evolve rapidly. It is about a utopian society that should become a paradise when the population has reached absolute evolution, but one of his experiments, Man Beast, it avoids this end when it corrupts the work of the scientist.
enemies and allies
The character has been in contact with the x-men and the avengers in the cartoons, sometimes as an enemy, other times as an ally. Among the usual suspects of him, in addition to the aforementioned Jonathan Drew, this Nathaniel Essex, the villain of the X-men Mr. Sinister, whose work catches the eye of the High Evolutionary. After all, like Essex, Wyndham wants to perfect human genetics through experimentation.
In addition, the villain is linked to two old acquaintances from the MCU. The already mentioned Mount Wundagore is the scene of the High Evolutionary’s investigations and there he met Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). The twins were born as normal babies and it was the scientist’s genetic experiments that gave them powers.
Another Marvel hero with whom the High Evolutionary shares one of the most remembered subplots in comics is Adam Warlock, with whom he coincides on the big screen in Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3. In the cartoons, the almighty Adam is an ally of the High Evolutionary and he entrusts him with the soul gem. Also, when the Man-Beast corrupts Counter-Earth, the villain turns to Warlock to hunt down the animal that has rebelled against him.
This alliance between the two characters has no place in the volume 3 from James Gunn’s galactic saga, but it is still striking that both coincide in their jump to theaters.
The High Evolutionary in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 3’
As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, James Gunn has insisted on several occasions that the High Evolutionary is one of his favorite villains and, therefore, he wanted to add him to his latest adventure for Marvel. He is the main antagonist of this story, the man who created (and tortured in the process) Rocket.
Interestingly, in the comics, the character doesn’t cross paths with the raccoon, but it’s not unreasonable that Gunn thought of him (someone who experiments on animals and gives them human intelligence) to make him responsible for Rocket’s transformation.
Thus, in the film, the High Evolutionary is part of the hairy guardian’s past, experimenting with him and turning him into the cunning and skilled character we know. This villain, with the same lack of scruples as in the comics and his own determination to create a utopian society, experiments with animals such as Rocket, Lylla the otter or Floor. Rocket is his most successful work, a very intelligent mutation.
Thus, Gunn recovers this villain, as well as creations of the character such as the “New Men” or Counter-Earth, to delve into Rocket’s origin story in the last mission of the guardians of the galaxy. Without a doubt, a villain with the potential to live up to these heroes.
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