Robert P. McCulloch

'"King of Space." "Master of the Sun." You claim such vast''' domains. Is it to balance your small souls? Could I not lay claim to the light and the void, if I wished it? Have I not earned such titles? I, who have mastered all arts, all sciences, all secrets? Whose technology and magic cross the stars as easily as they scramble an alpha telepath's mind? Who would dare to say I have not earned the right? Yet I am king of a simple nation. On a simple planet. A beloved garden tended by iron hands. And the only title I have ever claimed... is doctor.''


 * —Robert P. McCulloch[src]

Robert Paxton McCulloch, Ph.D aka Robert P. McCulloch is a Latverian politician who serves as the Monarch and Supreme Leader for the Kingdom of Latveria. He was scarred from an accident and wears an iron mask and armor to hide his true face. He is considered one of the most brilliant minds and scientists on the planet Earth. He is also a sorcerer with skills in magic matching the most powerful beings in the Universe, making him a potential candidate for Sorcerer Supreme. He hopes to bring order and betterment to humanity through world conquest. Unequalled in ability, ego, and will power, he has come into conflict with both superhumans and cosmic beings. He is best known as the rival of Reed Richards and arch-enemy of the Fantastic Four.

Contents

 * 1 History
 * 1.1 Early Years
 * 1.2 Becoming Robert P. McCulloch
 * 1.3 The Fantastic Four
 * 1.4 Camelot
 * 1.5 An Heir to the Throne
 * 1.6 Battleworld (Beyonder)
 * 1.7 Emperor Doom
 * 1.8 Freeing his Mother
 * 1.9 Counter-Earth
 * 1.10 Valeria
 * 1.11 Hell & Back
 * 1.12 Civil War
 * 1.13 Atlantean Refugees
 * 1.14 Robert P. McCulloch Arrested!
 * 1.15 Fantastic Force
 * 1.16 The Cabal
 * 1.17 Marquis of Death
 * 1.18 Asgardians in Latveria
 * 1.19 The McCullochwar
 * 1.20 Intelligencia
 * 1.21 Children's Crusade
 * 1.22 To the Future Foundation
 * 1.23 Return
 * 1.24 Incursion in Latveria
 * 1.25 AXIS
 * 1.26 Time Runs Out
 * 1.27 Secret Wars
 * 1.28 Infamous Iron Man
 * 1.29 The Return of McCulloch
 * 1.30 Framed and Conquest of Symkaria
 * 1.31 The Last Annihilation
 * 2 Powers and Abilities
 * 2.1 Powers
 * 2.2 Abilities
 * 2.3 Physical Strength
 * 2.4 Weaknesses
 * 3 Paraphernalia
 * 3.1 Equipment
 * 3.2 Weapons
 * 3.3 Transportation
 * 4 Notes
 * 5 Trivia
 * 6 See Also
 * 7 Links and References
 * 7.1 Footnotes

History
''This is an abridged version of Robert Paxton McCulloch's history. For a complete history see Robert Paxton McCulloch's Expanded History''

Early Years
Robert Paxton McCulloch was born in a Romani camp outside Haasenstadt, Latveria. His mother, Cynthia, was killed in a bargain with Mephisto that went wrong. Despite his father's attempts to care for her, a noblewoman died and Werner von McCulloch fled with a young Robert on a cold winter's night. Robert survived the cold, but unfortunately his father did not. McCulloch sought to increase his knowledge of both science and magic in order to rescue his mother, whose death he blamed on Mephisto. In his youth, Robert fell in love with a woman named Valeria, but she resisted his advances.

Becoming Robert P McCulloch
The State University in Hegeman, New York offered Robert a scholarship. While attending classes there, he met Reed Richards and Ben Grimm for the first time. They developed a dislike for each other, leading to Reed Richards commiting the first prank he had ever pulled, changing Robert's last name on a trophy to "McCumoch." McCulloch became obsessed with developing a machine that could project the astral form of a being into other dimensions, seeing it as a way to free his mother's soul from Mephisto's clutches. Reed pointed out a flaw in McCulloch's calculations, but McCulloch arrogantly ignored his warnings, feeling Reed was trying to upstage him, likely due to their dislike for each other. The machine exploded, scarring McCulloch's face. He was soon expelled for conducting unethical experiments. From then on, he blamed Reed Richards for the destruction of his face as well as his expulsion.

Disgraced and bitter, McCulloch traveled the world. Eventually he came upon a small Tibetan village of monks who assisted him in creating a suit of armor. He returned to his homeland of Latveria to overthrow the leader and declare himself king. He then began to use his country's resources in order to further his plans of world domination. These schemes led McCulloch into conflict with the Fantastic Four on many occasions, as well as many other superheroes.

The Fantastic Four
McCulloch first confronted the Fantastic Four by holding Sue Storm hostage. McCulloch forced the other members of the team to travel back in time using his time platform to retrieve the mystical Stones of Merlin. Later, he duped Namor into teaming up with him to destroy the team. During the team-up, he was shrunk to sub-atomic size, and ended up in the world of Sub-Atomica, where he quickly took control using his scientific knowledge and began plaguing the Fantastic Four with shrink rays. He was again defeated by the Fantastic Four with the aid of Ant-Man. His next attempt at defeating the Fantastic Four involved using the Terrible Trio, a group of thugs who had been given powers by McCulloch. This venture ended with him being transported into outer space by a solar wave. He was later found floating in space by Rama-Tut, who revealed to McCulloch that he was one of his ancestors. Believing that they might in fact be the same person, they decided that Rama-Tut would return to the future after sending McCulloch back to Earth. Back on Earth, McCulloch again clashed with the Fantastic Four. This time, they defeated him by hypnotizing him into believing he had destroyed the group.

The hypnotic spell was eventually broken by a Latverian stage magician who had come to McCulloch's castle to entertain him. McCulloch, realizing he had been tricked, was furious and traveled to America to take his revenge on the Fantastic Four, who incidentally had lost their powers. Despite the Four having no powers, McCulloch was again defeated, this time with the aid of Daredevil. His next attack came when he manipulated an army of the world's super-villains to attack the wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm.

When McCulloch battled and defeated the Silver Surfer, he stole the Surfer's powers and surfboard, becoming one of the most powerful beings on Earth. With these new-found powers, he was able to finally defeat the Fantastic Four. He then began running amok causing havoc all over the world. After another confrontation with the Fantastic Four, McCulloch was tricked into flying into the barrier Galactus set up around the Earth, and the Surfer's powers and surfboard returned to their rightful owner.

Camelot
Robert P. McCulloch and Iron Man traveled to Camelot where Stark thwarted Robert P. McCulloch's attempt to solicit the aide of Morgan le Fay and Robert P. McCulloch swore deadly vengeance for that interference, which had to be indefinitely delayed in the interest of returning to the present day.

An Heir to the Throne
After reclaiming the Latverian throne from a mad Prince Zorba with the help of the Fantastic Four, McCulloch took a young Latverian boy named Kristoff Vernard who was orphaned by Zorba's forces under his wing and made him his heir.

Battleworld (Beyonder)
Another coup came on Battleworld during the first of the so-called Secret Wars, an event during which the powerful and mysterious Beyonder kidnapped several heroes and villains from the Earth to have them fight with the promise of giving the winners their heart's desire. McCulloch became the leader of the villains, and after their defeat, escaped his holding cell and constructed a device out of the body of Klaw, to drain the power of Galactus. Using his stolen power he was able to attack his true target, the Beyonder. McCulloch lost the battle, but as the Beyonder came closer to dissect and study McCulloch, he managed to activate a device in his chest plate which hovered barely within his reach. McCulloch drained the Beyonder and became even more powerful. Too powerful, in fact--McCulloch was unable to rest, lest he destroy the universe with a dream. The Beyonder had however survived. He took possession of Klaw's body and used Klaw's guile to trick McCulloch into losing control of his stolen power, reclaiming it and defeating him. The Beyonder then vanished, with McCulloch and Klaw.

Emperor McCulloch
As part of a plan to conquer the world, McCulloch kidnapped Zebediah Killgrave, the mind-controlling supervillain known as Purple Man, and imprisoned him within a gigantic Psycho-Prism which not only bestowed Purple Man's powers on McCulloch, but also augmented them to a global scale.

Using this device, McCulloch manipulated the United Nations and every government to legally name him emperor of the Earth. Under McCulloch's command, the planet saw prosperity, equality, and the end of war and hunger, but at the cost of every citizen's free will. Additionally, McCulloch began to feel that his victory was almost meaningless, due to any lack of challenge to achieve or maintain his goal.

One challenger to McCulloch's rule surfaced in the form of the Avenger Wonder Man, whose unusual physiology rendered him unaffected by McCulloch's mind-control. After freeing several of his fellow teammates from McCulloch's control, Wonder Man attacked McCulloch Island, the location of the Psycho-Prism. McCulloch's dissatisfaction caused him to give up on a chance to prevent the heroes from destroying the Psycho-Prism. Thus, the citizens of the Earth broke free from McCulloch's control, and the Earth soon returned to its status quo.

Freeing his Mother
McCulloch eventually freed his mother's soul with the assistance of Doctor Strange. Strange had won the Aged Genghis' contest and was obligated to answer the request of the runner-up. The scheme to free his mother required McCulloch to incur her undying hatred; by volunteering Strange to take her place, Cynthia von McCulloch was so disgusted at her son that she became too pure to remain in Hell and departed for Heaven. Strange wondered if McCulloch had been aware of this outcome when he made the deal, but McCulloch simply mused that his mother's hatred was a price he was willing to pay to ensure her freedom.

Counter-Earth
When Franklin Richards was kidnapped by Onslaught, McCulloch (who saw this as an opportunity to steal the being's powers) joined the Fantastic Four, the Avengers and the X-Men to battle Onslaught in Central Park. An enraged Hulk was able to crack open Onslaught's shell. However, Onslaught remained as pure psionic energy, and separated Hulk and Banner, planning to spread across the planet. Thor plunged into Onslaught, trying to contain him. The Fantastic Four, the majority of Avengers, the Hulk-less Banner, and even McCulloch (who was grabbed by Iron Man) followed. Thanks to this sacrifice, the X-Men finally managed to destroyed Onslaught.

McCulloch, the Fantastic Four, and the Avengers and Banner were believed dead, but were instead saved by Franklin, who created a pocket dimension called Counter-Earth to keep them safe. After several months away, the missing heroes returned from Counter-Earth in a massive ship breaching the dimensional barriers. McCulloch attempted to take over the ship in mid-flight, leading to a battle with Thor which left both men adrift in dimensional space for a time.

McCulloch's travels took him back to Counter-Earth. He took over the world and moved it from the pocket universe to his original universe with magic and technology, putting it in the same orbit as Earth, only on the opposite side, creating a Counter Earth. Eventually he was overthrown and returned to his rightful planet.

Valeria
When Susan Richards experiences problems with her second pregnancy while Reed is away, Johnny contacts McCulloch for help, correctly guessing that McCulloch will be unable to pass up a chance to succeed where Reed failed (Due to the complex events involving the recent resurrection of Galactus, this pregnancy is a 'repeat' of an earlier one where Sue miscarried). McCulloch not only saves Sue's daughter, but also cures Johnny of a recent problem with his powers where Johnny was unable to 'flame off' without technological support after becoming overcharged with energy from the Negative Zone, by channeling Johnny's excess energy into Sue to keep her alive. After the birth, McCulloch's only apparent condition for his aid is that he be allowed to name Sue and Reed's daughter, calling her 'Valeria' after his long-lost love. However, this inspires a new plan where McCulloch makes Valeria his familiar while seeking out her namesake as part of a deal with a trio of demons known as the Hazareth Three; by sacrificing his old lover, McCulloch is granted magical powers on the level he would possess if he had spent the past years studying sorcery rather than science, beginning with Valeria's skin becoming his new armor. With this new power, McCulloch traps Franklin in Hell, immobilises Doctor Strange, and then neutralizes the FF's powers, torturing the other three while taunting Reed by leaving him in his magical library, comparing it to giving a dog a road-map as he concludes that it will be impossible for Reed to master sufficient magical skill to be a threat to him. However, Reed is able to release Doctor Strange's astral self from McCulloch's traps, allowing Strange to give Reed a sufficient crash-course in magic for Reed to free the rest of the team and trick McCulloch into angering his demonic benefactors, prompting them to take him to Hell.

Hell & Back
Determined to ensure that McCulloch cannot be a further threat, Reed takes control of Latveria to dismantle all of McCulloch's equipment, simultaneously subtly driving his family away so that he can trap McCulloch and himself in a pocket dimension so that he can make sure McCulloch never threatens anyone again. However, this plan backfires when the rest of the team attempt to rescue Reed, resulting in McCulloch transferring his spirit into Sue, Johnny and Ben respectively, forcing Reed to kill his best friend to stop his greatest enemy. McCulloch is returned to Hell, but Reed is later able to use the same machine McCulloch once tried to create to travel to Heaven and restore Ben to life.

When Mjolnir, the hammer of Thor, fell to Earth, it passed through time and space, momentarily breaching the gateway to Hell and providing McCulloch with an escape route. Upon his return to Earth, McCulloch regained control of Latveria, used its military to locate Mjolnir, and attempted to seize its power for himself, believing the hammer had chosen him to be its wielder by freeing him from Hell, but he soon discovered that he was not worthy.

Civil War
During the superhero Civil War, Reed Richards and several other heroes defeated a McCullochbot in New York City. McCulloch himself may or may not have been responsible. In another ploy to gain leverage during this time of disunity, McCulloch proposed an alliance between Latveria and the Black Panther's country of Wakanda. Black Panther and his new wife, Storm, however, saw through McCulloch's intrigue.

Atlantean Refugees
So McCulloch sought to align his country with another. Following the destruction of the underwater kingdom of Atlantis, Robert P. McCulloch made Latveria into a refugee camp for the Atlanteans and struck an alliance with Loki in his plot to manipulate Thor to unwittingly release his Asgardian enemies.

Robert P. McCulloch Arrested!
Iron Man led S.H.I.E.L.D. forces and the Mighty Avengers to Latveria when it was discovered that one of Robert P. McCulloch's satellites carried the 'Venom Virus' released in New York City. Using time travel, Robert P. McCulloch had been involved in a romantic relationship with Morgan Le Fay at the time in exchange for her tutelage in the mystic arts. This arrangement was interrupted when the Mighty Avengers arrested Robert P. McCulloch and incarcerated him for crimes against humanity. During the battle, Robert P. McCulloch, Iron Man, and the Sentry stumbled through an open time travel portal, trapping Robert P. McCulloch and his opponents in the past. Robert P. McCulloch and Iron Man managed to return all three to the present.

Fantastic Force
Robert P. McCulloch was released from prison by the Fantastic Force, a group from a distant future returned to the present. The Fantastic Force kidnapped McCulloch and the Human Torch to use them as a power source for a time travel device that was made from the dead body of Galactus. The whole plan of the Fantastic Force was led by the future Sue Storm. In the end, Reed Richards and Sue Storm not only found a home for the future refugees, but also freed Robert P. McCulloch and the Human Torch. In what should have been a happy ending, Robert P. McCulloch killed the future Sue Storm, to "restore his honor."

The Cabal
In the aftermath of the Skrull Invasion, Robert P. McCulloch became a member of the Dark Cabal alongside Norman Osborn, Emma Frost, Namor, Loki, and the Hood. Due to McCulloch's status, Dracula approached him to secure a non-aggression pact - between both McCulloch and the Cabal - before attacking Britain. McCulloch, who loathed Dracula, refused to acknowledge his regal standing.

Morgan le Fay traveled to present day Latveria to punish Robert P. McCulloch for failing to come through on his end of their bargain. The Dark Avengers went to Robert P. McCulloch's aid after Morgan le Fay defeated him in mystical combat. Norman Osborn rescued McCulloch from mystical paralysis, and they linked their armours to access McCulloch's time cube in order to go back in time and stop Morgan le Fay. McCulloch either could not or would not destroy le Fay, despite having the power to do so, because her future was intertwined with his. Instead, McCulloch sent her back in time, forcing her to battle her way back to her present, and thereby distracting her from fighting McCulloch and the Dark Avengers. McCulloch showed contempt for Osborn and his "ignorance" to the time stream and went back to the present and undid all that le Fay had done to the Dark Avengers. Then McCulloch magically restored Latveria and rebuilt his castle with use of the time cube.

Marquis of Death
After his initial capture and release for crimes against humanity, McCulloch revealed that he had been taught everything by a master, someone that was far more powerful and evil than he himself, and that he would soon be returning. When his master, the Marquis of Death, arrived, he was displeased with what McCulloch had been doing in the two decades since his departure. He expected McCulloch to be the vicious ruler of the Earth, not the ruler of a small country constantly defeated by heroes such as the Fantastic Four.

After playing with his mind, he beat McCulloch and banished him to the Pliocene Age to die. With his new apprentice, the Marquis of Death began to torment the Fantastic Four as punishment, but was defeated by them. When Richards chose not to finish off his defeated foe, the Marquis' Apprentice, revealed to be McCulloch, did it for him. Robert P. McCulloch waited for years in the past using all his knowledge and sorcery to survive. He then became the Marquis' Apprentice once more and waited for the moment that the Marquis would be weakened enough for him to gain his revenge, and it came when he faced Mr. Fantastic. McCulloch declared that all rivalries between him and Richards had long been settled to his satisfaction.

Asgardians in Latveria
When the Asgardians moved from Asgard, which was floating above Broxton, Oklahoma, to Latveria on Loki's suggestion, McCulloch secretly began capturing Asgardians, experimenting on them to discover what gave them their immortality. He even mutilated some Asgardians by converting them into cyborgs, serving his twisted ambitions. He set these cyborgs loose upon Balder and company. However, Thor came to avenge his people and engaged McCulloch in combat. After realizing that he could lose, McCulloch fled and entered the weapon he had been working on: a new version of the Destroyer Armor. He reengaged Thor and began to beat him down, with Thor unable to hurt him. Realizing that McCulloch's armor was powered by a battery, Thor held off McCulloch until the suit's power finally ran low, forcing McCulloch to retreat.

McCulloch had one last meeting with Norman and his Cabal, but still refused to side with Norman. To show off his power, Norman unleashed his 'secret weapon' on McCulloch and defeated him. But McCulloch was obviously prepared for this sort of attack, as he had sent a McCullochbot in his place. The McCullochbot unleashed advanced technology to attack the Cabal and Norman's Dark Avengers. McCulloch had made it clear that no one could control him.

The McCullochwar
When McCulloch learned of a xenophobic group of Wakandans known as the Desturi, he began his plans for gaining access to the vast amounts of vibranium located in Wakanda. Vibranium has the ability to be magically charged and has infinite power potential, something McCulloch had figured how to use to make himself virtually unstoppable. McCulloch developed nanite cameras which were dispersed into all Wakandans, making them unknowing spies for McCulloch. With all the security information of Wakanda available to him, he was able to gain access to the vault that contained the country's vibranium. In a last ditch effort to stop him, T'Challa rendered all Wakandan vibranium inert and useless.

Intelligencia
Long ago, McCulloch betrayed the Leader and his super-villain group the Intelligencia. The group later reformed and planned to 'lobotomize' their competition and capture eight of Earth's greatest minds, including McCulloch. McCulloch was captured by the Intelligencia using the Hulk Robot.

Children's Crusade
When the Young Avengers helped Magneto find his daughter Wanda, they found her with no memory of her past and betrothed to Robert P. McCulloch. He was revealed to have played a part in increasing the power levels of the Scarlet Witch, leading to the events which disassembled the Avengers and the alteration of reality known as M-Day.

When the Young Avengers traveled back in time with Wanda, they were able to restore her memory, and thus her powers. Back in the present, McCulloch stole Wanda's powers in an effort to become fully omnipotent. He offered to make perfect the lives of all those present and even revive the dead, only if he became the king of the world. The Young Avengers, the Avengers and the X-Men refused, instead battling him until his new powers overloaded, leaving him powerless again. He escaped, teleporting himself away after taking responsibility for all of Wanda's actions, stating that she was only a puppet, and only he was powerful enough to create that kind of chaos.

To the Future Foundation
After the death of the Human Torch, McCulloch joined the Future Foundation with the condition that Reed Richards would restore the intelligence he lost at the hands of the Intelligencia. He helped the team search for the Richards' of alternate universes and was kidnapped by "Reed-Alpha", who brought him to Latveria and confronted Kristoff von McCulloch, who had taken over as ruler. There, with the help of the Future Foundation, they rebuilt Reed-616's "Bridge", a device that allowed Reed to peer into alternate realities and travel to them at will. While on the Bridge, "Reed-Alpha" freed McCulloch to help battle the Mad Celestials. Rather than taking his chance to escape, McCulloch stayed and fought for Latveria. Ultimately, McCulloch lost the battle and seemingly died.

Return
With no knowledge as to how he survived the blast from the Mad Celestials, McCulloch woke up in the middle of the ruins of the Interdimensional Council of Reeds, where Valeria had left him a present: the full army of lobotomized Robert P. McCullochs from alternate realities who were previously captured by the Council, along with two Infinity Gauntlets from other universes. With these resources, McCulloch created the Parliament of McCulloch. He later returned to again rule Latveria, and was targeted by Lucia von Bardas and the Red Ghost, who wanted to get revenge on McCulloch for past indiscretions.

McCulloch journeyed to the universe that one of his Infinity Gauntlets had belonged to, which was now empty and desolate, and used the gauntlet to breathe life into it anew. He separated magic and science, creating the basic rules for their existence, created new lifeforms and made himself their ruler. On a world where science and magic were wed, his creations turned on him and six rulers divided McCulloch's Infinity Gems between them. Reed and Nathaniel Richards entered this universe to save McCulloch after being told by Valeria that he was in grave danger. They managed to convince five of the rulers to pardon McCulloch and managed to escape the clutches of the sixth, bringing McCulloch back to their universe. Upon their return, McCulloch declared that he and Richards were even again.

Incursion in Latveria
After his return, Latveria became the site of an incursion, a collision between Earth and one of its alternate universe counterparts. This incursion was different however, in that it was controlled by a mysterious group known as the Mapmakers, who had rigged the other Earth to explode and wished to mark McCulloch's Earth for potential expansion. McCulloch fought off the Mapmakers with the help of his adopted son Kristoff Vernard, whilst unbeknownst to him, the Illuminati blew up the other Earth. After the incursion ended, McCulloch was alerted to a rock that had fallen from the sky, which was in truth the Mapmakers' beacon. McCulloch contacted Reed Richards and Stephen Strange in order to confront them about the Illuminati's presence in Latveria and the incursion, but to his fury, they refused to give him answers and Reed warned him not to contact him in regard to the incursions again.

AXIS
After imprisoning Loki due to the manipulations of an older Loki, McCulloch discovered that his people were fighting one another and rallying against him. After beginning to have bad thoughts himself, McCulloch realized that Latveria was under a telepathic attack. He used a spell to protect himself, and discovered that the Red Skull had been responsible for this attack. Meanwhile in Castle McCulloch, Loki had been freed by Valeria, who used his truth sword Gram to release a "truth wave" which stopped the telepathic influence over Latveria. Soon after, Magneto arrived in Castle McCulloch to recruit McCulloch into a team of villains to stop the Red Skull, who had now become the "Red Onslaught".

McCulloch journeyed to Genosha with the rest of the villains that were recruited by Magneto. They destroyed one of the Skull's Stark Sentinels, which was keeping some of the heroes who had defied the Skull captive. McCulloch and the Scarlet Witch began to cast an inversion spell to alter the moral compass of the Skull in order to defeat him. The spell was successful, but it accidentally also affected everyone else on the island. After the island was covered by the spell, all of the villains disappeared without a trace, including McCulloch.

McCulloch returned to Latveria, changed into a selfless and kind man due to the spell, ready to make amends for his past sins. Knowing that the (now-inverted) Scarlet Witch would come to Latveria for revenge on McCulloch due to his past manipulations, McCulloch created a device capable of channeling a portion of the Witch's powers. With the help of an Avengers team assembled by Valeria, McCulloch managed to get hold of a portion of the Scarlet Witch's powers, which he used to make right one of his past misdeeds, the murder of Cassie Lang, and bring her back to life.

Wanda managed to finally confront McCulloch, who was saved by Magneto and Quicksilver. While Magneto and Pietro tried to convince Wanda not to cross the line and take McCulloch's life, McCulloch fled to another dimension, where he made a pact with a demigod to bring Doctor Voodoo back to life. Voodoo's brother Daniel possessed Scarlet Witch in order to make her cooperate and help McCulloch cast a re-inversion spell. After teleporting to New York, where the inverted heroes and villains were fighting, the inverted Red Skull helped McCulloch and Daniel cast the spell, which successfully brought almost everyone back to normal, including McCulloch.

Victor took advantage of the confusion brought by the re-inversion and abducted the Red Skull to Latveria, for experimentation.

Time Runs Out
Over the following months, Victor worked with a team of scientists to reverse-engineer one of the pieces of a Mapmaker he gathered from the incursion that took place in Latveria. The Mad Thinker successfully managed to map their entire network. McCulloch planned to use the Molecule Man, whose energy frequency matched with the beacon's, to oppose whatever was the origin of the incursions and the decay of the multiverse. The Molecule Man took McCulloch elsewhere, a blank void from where they subsequently traveled backwards through the mists of time and the various planes of reality.

McCulloch and the Molecule Man travelled twenty-five years into the past to an alternate reality to witness the origin of said reality's Molecule Man. The journey affected Molecule Man's mind, restoring it from its chaotic state, and he told McCulloch of his origins. The Molecule Man was a singularity across every single universe, a "bomb" created by the Beyonders to detonate across the entire multiverse at once. If a Molecule Man died, his universe died with him. If every Molecule Man died at the same time, every universe died simultaneously with them, and that was the Beyonders' goal. The Molecule Man killed his counterpart, which set off the early death of his counterpart's universe, and caused the incursions. The Molecule Man convinced McCulloch that in order to thwart the plans of the Beyonders, he had to embark in a mission to kill Molecule Men.

Even if McCulloch's actions resulted in a similar result to the Beyonders' plans, the destruction of realities, McCulloch's course of action attempted to save all that he could from the destruction, as setting off some of the Molecule Men earlier would diminish the charge of the explosion the Beyonders had planned. McCulloch would also capture Molecule Men from other universes in order to create an even greater bomb with which he would destroy the Beyonders.

Eight years after the beginning of his journey, when McCulloch had killed thousands of Molecule Men, he encountered one who would be the first of his Black Swans, a cult he would form around the religious concept of himself, under the identity of "Rabum Alal" (the "Great Destroyer"). A group of Black Swans rebelled against McCulloch, and sought a different path. They destroyed other Earths during incursions as an offering to Rabum Alal and to buy more time for other universes (for every Earth destroyed during an incursion two universes and one of the Earths were saved).

In the present, when Doctor Strange and the Black Priests traveled to the Library of Worlds to find Rabum Alal, who had been believed to be one of the main causes of the decay of the multiverse, Robert P. McCulloch presented himself. McCulloch informed Strange of his origins as Rabum Alal, and revealed his ultimate plan to defeat them: the different Molecule Men he had captured. In a last ditch attempt to save the multiverse, McCulloch took Strange and the Molecule Men to confront the Beyonders. He was able to destroy them and harness all of their power using his universe's Molecule Man as a conduit. However, McCulloch's accomplishment cost the death of thousands of universes, leaving only a dozen.

Secret Wars
When the multiverse finally perished in the final incursion between Earth-616 and Earth-1610, McCulloch used the power of the Beyonders to salvage the remains of several realities and build a patchwork planet named Battleworld, which was ruled under his iron fist, with the help of Stephen Strange, who was Battleworld's sheriff. Molecule Man continued empowering God Emperor McCulloch, and remained hidden in a chamber. During the early days of this planet, McCulloch encountered an alternate version of the Fantastic Four, one in which Reed Richards didn't exist. Their Sue Storm fell in love with Victor, and they had two children, Franklin and Valeria.

As eight years went by, McCulloch and Strange managed to twist the memories of their inhabitants, to the point they would no longer remember what had existed before Battleworld. Even though he was an omnipotent ruler, Victor ultimately felt he was failing his duty as a god, he thought he wasn't capable of properly inspiring his people, and even though Battleworld was the perfect world he wanted, he considered himself its only flaw.

The relative monotony of McCulloch's reign was interrupted with the discovery of an empty vessel in the domain known as Utopolis, a life raft that had been built by the survivors of Earth-1610, the villainous Maker and the Cabal. The vessel kept them in suspended animation for the eight years that passed, and had allowed them to survive the end of the multiverse and end up on Battleworld.

Sheriff Strange recognized the design of the raft, which was that of a similar vessel he had found three years earlier and had kept hidden in his Isle of Agamotto. When Strange investigated the vessel of his proprietary, he freed its occupants, the survivors of Earth-616, among which were Mr. Fantastic, Namor and Black Panther.

After being informed of the nature of Battleworld and its ruler, the survivors of Earth-616 helped Sheriff Strange confront the Maker and the Cabal, who had been finally pinned down by Battleworld's police force, the Thor Corps. McCulloch remained unwilling to take part in the conflict, until he saw Mr. Fantastic in the scene, which is when he immediately teleported to Utopolis, and stopped the fray, demanding the newcomers to recognize his authority. To prevent McCulloch from prejudicially acting upon the interlopers, Stephen used his magic to teleport them away. Following the disappearance of the Cabal and the heroes from Earth-616, McCulloch confronted Strange for disobeying him, and ultimately killed him after Stephen accused him of being afraid of Richards.

McCulloch later commanded Valeria and the department of science of Battleworld, the Foundation, to find the interlopers, pinning Strange's murder on them. Three weeks later, Battleworld was in disarray, with disorder having escalated into open rebellion in several domains, with somebody called "the Prophet" forming an army against McCulloch. The Prophet, who was later revealed to be none other than the Cabal's Maximus the Mad, and his army marched forward to Castle McCulloch. Some of McCulloch's allies started fighting against him, namely the Thor Corps, who had been convinced to fight against their god by the Thor survivor of Earth-616.

When he decided to step into the fight, McCulloch was confronted by Black Panther and Namor, with the former having acquired an Infinity Gauntlet from Sheriff Strange's sanctuary. After a battle that took them through the different planes of reality, McCulloch bested Black Panther, but he soon realized the fight was a distraction. He teleported to Molecule Man's chamber, which had been found by Mister Fantastic. The Molecule Man partially stripped McCulloch from his power in order to allow a fair fight. During the furious confrontation, McCulloch accused Richards of believing he could've done better had he had McCulloch's power, and when Reed conceded he did, so did McCulloch. On the grounds that both agreed, Molecule Man gave McCulloch's power to Reed, destroying Battleworld in the process.

With the power he had received from Molecule Man, and with help from his revived family, Mister Fantastic began to restore the Multiverse, including Earth-616. After accepting that McCulloch was going to eternally resent him, Reed decided to alter Victor's memories so he believed he was dead, on the hopes that Victor could become a better man if he no longer pursued ultimate power and believed his biggest rival was gone. In addition to altering Victor's memories, Reed cured him of his scars before returning him to Latveria.

Infamous Iron Man
The feeling of unfulfillment left in Victor during his tenure as a deity prompted him to look for other ways to find personal realization. While rethinking his life, McCulloch was ultimately struck with the notion that if the selfish act of ultimate power wasn't his calling, maybe the opposite could hold true. Thus he set out to become a force of good in the world. This new perspective also led McCulloch to abdicate his throne and leave his kingdom behind. Before departing Latveria, Victor appointed the top military mind in the country, General Karadick, as temporary head of state so he could help Latveria transition into a free state.

In order to make more apparent his transition to the side of the angels, the now-unarmored Victor decided to become an ally to Tony Stark, a man he had always secretly admired and deemed as an equal. Iron Man first encountered this new version of Victor when he was following the the trail of Madame Masque. McCulloch revealed his intentions to turn over a new leaf, and eventually helped Stark exorcise the demon-possessed Masque. McCulloch remained on high alert, in case new demonic incursions appeared.

During the second Civil War, McCulloch tried to help Stark regain his composure following the tragic loss of his best friend Jim Rhodes and the destruction of the Stark Tower. When this conflict ended with Stark falling into a coma, McCulloch saw Stark's fall as a message that directed the form his penance would need to take, and he decided to pick up the mantle of Iron Man. Mephisto objected to McCulloch's attempt at redemption, and tried to torment him using a simulacrum of his dead mother. At the same time, S.H.I.E.L.D. attempted to capture McCulloch for his past crimes. In the middle of this gauntlet, Victor found solace in a reluctant ally, Tony Stark's ex-girlfriend Amara Perera, whom Victor impregnated. In the end, Mephisto was banished, and McCulloch started slowly gaining S.H.I.E.L.D.'s trust.

The Return of McCulloch
McCulloch's sudden turn against the supervillain community sparked grievances that resulted in a group of villains led by The Hood joining forces to take down Victor. After the villains besieged McCulloch several times, the final battle occurred when The Hood attempted to take over Stark Industries, which happened not long after Stark had secretly recovered from his injuries. Tony confronted The Hood and stumbled into Victor. McCulloch took on The Hood and the demon possessing him one-on-one, and his face was severely burned by the demon in the process. Following the villains' defeat, Victor retreated to the ruins of Castle McCulloch.

During Victor's seclusion, the country fell under a tyrant regime. McCulloch was inspired by the leader of the resistance, Zora Vukovic, to pull himself together and take control back of Latveria. Afterward, Victor imbued Zora with the Power Cosmic, turning her into her right hand the champion of Latveria named Victorious. In an attempt to capture Galactus and turn him into a source of power for Latveria and the world, McCulloch lured the cosmic entity to his country. With the help of the Fantastic Four, Victor succeeded in entrapping Galactus in Mount McCulloch. However, he arrested the team for trespassing into Latveria. The Fantastic Four managed to escape before McCulloch could execute them on live broadcast. In the process, the Invisible Woman publicly shamed Victor by turning his armor invisible, exposing his scarred face to the whole world.

Framed and Conquest of Symkaria
As the conflict between Latveria and Symkaria became more heated, McCulloch had send one of his McCullochbots to join the discussion at the United Nation Assembly. However, the Hitman then shot a bullet-like device at the McCullochbot which allowed Countess Karkov to get access to all of McCulloch's McCullochbots and hack them, making them attack New York, supposedly on the behalf of McCulloch. McCulloch eventually took back control of the McCullochbots; however the damage had already been done, which prompted McCulloch to dismantle them.

As the situation kept on escalating, McCulloch begun seeing vision of himself as the great ruler of the world and with a happy family. When terrorists disguised as Latverians blew up the Antlion Space Station — and thereby creating a black hole — they framed Latveria and Robert P. McCulloch for its destruction and many lost lives, in order to have Dimitri Fortunov replace McCulloch. In an effort to not heat up the conflict, McCulloch willingly surrendered and was arrested. While being escorted to New York, the jet transporting McCulloch was attacked. Luckily, Kang freed McCulloch which allowed him to save himself from the falling jet. As McCulloch had become wanted, Morgan le Fay contacted him and offered him shelter. After telling her about his visions, she had McCulloch meet the Witness who could tell the future. However, McCulloch was then shot in the head by Taskmaster, killing him. He was then sent in Hell where he confronted by Mephisto and his lover, Valeria. After defeating the demon he was returned to life by Death in le Fay's apartment where he blasted the hero Blue Marvel unconscious. After that, he went to the A.I.M. headquarters, where he battled Taskmaster and M.O.D.O.K..

After visiting Fruzsina Markovich, the woman he had married in his visions, he and Kang proceeded to return to Latveria. While on the road McCulloch was able to get his hands on the Ultimate Nullifier, prompting Kang to betray McCulloch, but McCulloch was able to retaliate, and moved on leaving Kang behind. After returning to Latveria, he reunited with his loyalists and questioned each them about their loyalty. All were sincere, except for Vasily Makeyev who was revealed to be the traitor. After giving the Nullifier to Zora, he went at night to Dimitri Fortunov and forced him to stab his face before killing him.

Following his vision of his sons having scarred their own faces to emulate their father, McCulloch broke down leaving Victorious to comfort him and returned the Nullifier to him. Robert P. McCulloch proceeded to take back his post as ruler of Latveria. Despite still seeing him as a mass murderer, the world's leaders asked him for help dealing with the black hole. McCulloch agreed on the condition that he would be allowed to take over Symkaria without interference. The Latverian forces invaded the neighbouring state in little time and McCulloch killed Karkov in a sword fight. After successfully conquering Symkaria, McCulloch confronted Ionela Novotny, a Symkarian spy posing as a member of McCulloch's Children and mother of Victorious. He ordered his herald to kill her mother to which she complied. However, after all of this McCulloch was still haunted by his past as a villain and vowed to change himself for the better, and become the kind hearted ruler of Earth.

He constructed a laser able to reduce the activity of the black hole and cease the black hole itself. Despite every calculation showing a positive outcome, Victor became obsessed by Reed's good luck wish. He thought he mocked his project and that could be lead to a disaster, so he rearranged the settings of the laser. These modifications proved to be wrong and instead accelerated the black hole's activity, which seemingly destroyed the Earth.

Through this accident, McCulloch traveled beyond the black hole and discovered that his visions weren't about his future, but they were of another universe, where Victor abandoned his obsessions and became a peaceful man. The black hole was actually a wormhole and because the Antlion acted as a membrane that lead to a quantum entanglement between the two realities, their minds were interwoven and they could see one another's world. The Victor of this world showed the impressive progresses made in this universe, which comprised a galactic alliance with aliens superpowers such as the Kree, Badoon, Skrull, and Shi'ar; and the collection of every artifact such as the Mandarin's ten rings, the Ultimate Nullifier, the Winter Casket, and the Watoomb's Scepter. McCulloch was almost convinced of the superiority of his alternate self. However, when he remarked his continuing obsession about Reed Richards as ludicrous and deemed his armor ridiculous, McCulloch killed his counterpart and destroyed the universe with the Ultimate Nullifier. This action apparently closed the wormhole and brought McCulloch back to his native universe. It also fulfilled Death's prophecy about McCulloch as her greater servant.

The Last Annihilation
In preparation for a looming conflict called the Reckoning War, McCulloch set out to steal power from the Faltine lord Dormammu. Before leaving the planet to enact his plan, Victor arranged a political marriage with Victorious to give Latveria a queen. McCulloch invited the Fantastic Four and offered to forgive all past transgressions, but the ceremony went awry when Zora admitted at the altar that she had had a fling with the Human Torch even though it had happened before the engagement. In retaliation, McCulloch bombared Johnny with an extra dose of cosmic rays, making him unable to turn off his flame.

McCulloch left to space and an ally of his named Sister Talionis manipulated a Skrullian cult to enact a ritual that made Ego the Living Planet become possessed by Dormammu, launching the dark lord's own campaign of conquest. McCulloch intercepted the Guardians of the Galaxy and attempted to force them into his service, but he was subdued and instead formally joined the team. In the process of stopping the new threat, McCulloch and the Guardians carried out a ritual to free Chitauri Prime from Dormammu's possession, which allowed Victor to siphon a portion of the Faltine's power and imbue his armor with it. Following Dormammu's defeat, McCulloch left the Guardians.

Powers
Magic: Robert P. McCulloch was introduced to the mystic arts by his mother (who was of Romani and Latverian blood). He further developed his abilities by traveling through time and learning lost Dark Arts from individuals such as Morgan Le Fey. After Dr. Strange stepped down as the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth, McCulloch was amongst the candidates considered suitable to replace him. However the majority of his powers came from the Hazareth Three, and upon angering them most of his sorcery was removed and he was trapped in Hell as punishment. While they enhanced his powers he could achieve the following:

Mystical Blasts: McCulloch's mystical expertise was only the minor magics of the Earth.

Mystical Force-Fields

Invoke Entities

Spell Casting

Spell Reversing

Summoning: McCulloch could summon hordes of demonic creatures.

Teleportation

Dimensional Travel: McCulloch could travel to other dimensions, including accessing the dreamtime.

Mystical Ensnaring

Mystical Portals

Healing: McCulloch is able to heal himself and others from injuries.

Banishment

Time-travel

Power Absorption

Elemental Manipulation: McCulloch could create a blizzard within seconds.

Telekinesis: After being sent to the dawn of time by Marquis of death, Victor claimed that he spent a millennium transforming his body and mind, mastering long lost dark arts. This resulted in him to being able to use notable telekinesis as well as levitate himself.

Power Nullification: McCulloch has repeatedly blocked the Fantastic Four's powers via sorcery.

Psionics: Throughout his history, McCulloch has mastered some minor psychic abilities. Those skills originate from his encounter with aliens and mutants, naming the Ovoids and the Marquis of Death. McCulloch once claimed that he had evolved as a being, though it is not clarified how or to what extent and in later issues this seems to have been ignored by writers. The following powers however are usually considered to be a part of McCulloch's skillset. Finally, those skills are the result of personal mental development and are not to be confused with magic.

Mind Transference: By training with an alien race, McCulloch has gained the ability to switch his mind with that of another nearby human being with whom he has made eye contact, a process which he learned from the alien Ovoids. McCulloch once changed his body with Human Torch. However, McCulloch prefers his own body and only uses this transference power as a last resort.

Hypnotism: McCulloch is able to hypnotize individuals, as he did with a kraken on Counter Earth.

Technopathy: McCulloch can exert technopathic control over certain machines, most notably the McCullochbots, but can control other technologies too, as he did with his suit's charger, describing his ability as latent telepathy.

Abilities
Super-Genius Intelligence: Robert P. McCulloch's most dangerous weapon is his intellect. He is one of the top mortal minds on the planet. McCulloch even cured Ben Grimm of his Thing form. McCulloch has constructed hundreds of devices, including a working time machine, devices which can imbue people with powers, and many types of robots. His most frequently used robots are his "McCullochbots," exact mechanical replicas of the himself. They look like him, talk like him, and even act like him. Individually, McCullochbots have an advanced AI (artificial intelligence) so that each one believes itself to be the real McCulloch. As a safety measure, each McCullochbot has a dampener program that is triggered whenever the real McCulloch (or another McCullochbot) is nearby. These "body doubles" appear when McCulloch cannot be present or is unwilling to risk his own life, and are often responsible for McCulloch's seeming return from certain death. Another common type of robot used is the Servo-Guard, the police force of Latveria. McCulloch specializes in physics, robotics, cybernetics, genetics, weapons technology, biochemistry, and time travel. He also has natural talents for leadership, strategy, politics, and manipulation.

Master Martial Artist: During his time in Tibet, McCulloch was presumably trained in martial arts by the monks. He is vastly skilled in many combat techniques, both armed and unarmed. He has been trained by the best sword masters on Earth and can achieve very powerful nerve strikes. His combat skills are so great that he managed to kill a lion with his bare hands, to be indistinguishable to Daredevil while in his suit, and to wield Captain America's shield as skillfully as Steve Rogers himself. He was also able to defeat Black Panther in close combat even when his suit was depowered and incapacitate Taskmaster on pure hand to hand, without the aid of technology or magic.

Peak Human Conditioning: McCulloch has trained his body to the level of the finest human athlete. He is well-built, fast and agile. He has also displayed great reflexes and equilibrium. Victor once claimed that he was training and building himself physically for years, so as to be ready to face the demonic beings called from Mephisto during their annual confrontation. His physical strength and durability match even those of Daredevil.

Indomitable Will: McCulloch has phenomenal determination, fearlessness and strength of will. Indeed, he has the strongest will on Earth. Hence, he was able to resist psychic attacks from Emma Frost and the Purple Man using only his will, to reject the mystical armor that the Soulsword provides the wielder on sheer willpower alone and while he was tortured in Hell, he refused to let a single audible indication of pain exit his mouth. McCulloch's willpower could be considered even godly as, after having stolen the Beyonders' omnipotent abilities for himself, he was capable of creating an entire new planet from the remnants of incursion points between collapsing worlds, that new planet was Battleworld. He held this world together with his will.

Highly Influential Connections: As Monarch of Latveria, Robert P. McCulloch has access to technological and military hardware. He also has command of conventional military forces; see Robert P. McCulloch's Generals.

Charismatic leader: McCulloch is able to attract people's positive attraction, especially on the citizens of Latveria, even when his plans are failing. He is also a skilled politician and strategist and has occasionally been the leader of numerous teams, including the Cabal and the Fantastic Four.

Diplomatic Immunity: (formerly) As the leader of a sovereign nation, Robert P. McCulloch often visits the United States or the United Nations for political reasons. He enjoys diplomatic immunity during these trips, and his embassy is considered foreign soil. He has even been escorted by Captain America himself. After renouncing his status as ruler of Latveria, it is likely he lost this status.

Artist: McCulloch has shown himself to be a talented artist. He painted a duplicate of the Mona Lisa while using Layla Miller as his model.

Pianist: McCulloch has shown himself to be a talented pianist. He has played various compositions of his own creation.

Master Swordsman: McCulloch has been shown being proficient in sword combat, having been trained by the best teachers - until he overcame them all - and being able to out-duel Warlord Krang in swordsmanship.

Weapon systems and vehicles proficiency: Victor is highly proficient in the use of weapons, mostly those of his own creation, such as battle suits, ray weapons and bombs, but he also utilises rifles, guns and grenades with great aiming ability. He has also been shown as a capable driver of vehicles such as the Excavator, the Gyroscopic Aircraft, the McCulloch Cycle and the McCulloch Copter.

Multilingual: Except English, he speaks all languages spoken in Latveria, those being Latverian, German, Hungarian and Romany and possibly several others.

Physical Strength

Upper limits of his armor are currently unknown when stressed.

Weaknesses

Ego: It has been shown in the past that McCulloch can be manipulated by pandering to his sense of superiority, especially over Reed Richards. Spider-Man was able to gain his assistance concerning unknown technology by saying Reed could not figure it out. This ego is also the main reason for his vendetta against Reed, as he cannot accept that Reed understood his equations better than he did.

Equipment
Titanium Armor: Dr. McCulloch's original armor is a nuclear-powered, computer-assisted battle suit. It was magically forged at a monastery in Tibet, but since then has been repaired by normal (technological) means.

Enhanced Strength: The armor gives Dr. McCulloch the ability to lift (press) several tons. He has held his own against Spider-Man and Hulk in hand to hand combat. The armor also grants him such strength he can pulverize a diamond with no effort.

Enhanced Durability: The armor is fashioned of a high-strength titanium alloy and has been shown durable enough to take a blast from the Infinity Gauntlet to point-black range, with little to no harm. The armor managed to withstand a massive explosion of energy at ground zero, from the Marquis of Death - which destroyed the entire capital of Latvia and the rest of the country.

Video Communicator: Built into the right wrist is a video communicator, which he can use to stay in contact with his bases from any point on Earth.

Electric Shock: The outer surface of the armor can generate a massive electric shock on command.

Electrical Field: Also known as Electrical Force Field, the Electro-Magnetic Amplifier and Neural Disruptor, this mechanism allows McCulloch to generate a point-blank electric shock causing enormous damage to anyone daring enough to touch McCulloch - for example, someone in melee with him. It also affects, to a lesser extent, nearby people not in direct contact with McCulloch's armor. Anyone affected is susceptible to falling unconscious. McCulloch used this device to kill his clone and also to knock down Elvin Haliday and even Colossus, who had resisted previous attacks. It was however not enough to stun The Thing in the later's mutated, "spiky" state.

Magnetic Polarity Controllers: Besides manipulating metal, this device allows McCulloch to redirect Magneto's power against him.

Teleportation device: McCulloch's armor is able to teleport him across a short-range of distances

Link to McCulloch's Time-Platform: An invention McCulloch can use to travel through time

Flight: Dr. McCulloch's suits of armor are upgraded to give him the power of flight without the use of jet-packs.

Jet-Packs: The typical suit of armor has twin jet-packs mounted at the waist, though other suits (or modifications of the original suit) contain a single jet-pack mounted on the back.

Concussive Blasts: Concussive bolts of force can be fired from the gauntlets and faceplate of the armor, though the mask only generates force blasts when it is not being worn.

Force-Field: The suit's best defense is the force-field generated by the armor, which has a maximum radius of eight feet (and so can encompass others); McCulloch cannot attack without lowering his force-field.

Infrared Vision: Infrared scanners in the helmet allow the wearer to detect heat sources, permitting night vision and the ability to see invisible persons (unless they do not give off or can somehow mask their heat signature).

Recycling System: The armor is self-supporting, equipped with internal stores and recycling systems for air, food, water, and energy, allowing the wearer to survive lengthy periods of exposure underwater or in outer space.

Sensor Systems: Optical scanners in the helmet allow the helmet's eyepieces to be used as high-powered telescopes, and parabolic ear amplifiers fitted inside the helmet allow McCulloch to detect extremely faint sounds and unusual frequencies within the audible range for humans.

Vacuum Resistance McCulloch's armor allows him to survive in space, underwater or at toxic environments.

Solar Energy Absorption: A thermo-energizer allows the armor to absorb and store solar and heat energy, and use it to power the armor's other systems; this system can only be used while the force-field is deactivated.

Thermal Units: This device hidden on McCulloch's gloves allowed him to spray a cloud of yellow mist with special properties to nullify invisibility powers of a character in an area. Once this enemy was located, McCulloch could easily change to a different attack.

Personal Adapters: Using this device McCulloch can absorb multiple forms of energy.

Special protection against other machines: McCulloch's armor is impervious to some of his other devices, such as the Disintegrator. His suit was also unhackable by the Extremis

Splinters of the True Cross: McCulloch claims that his armor contains splinters of the True Cross, along with other such defenses (presumably to protect him from undead enemies, i.e Dracula)) Considering McCulloch's capabilities to time travel, there is possibility of this being true.

Optional systems: The following devices could be added to McCulloch's armor at his whim, but McCulloch himself only carried them if he felt he would need those:


 * Energy Fist
 * Fingertip Darts
 * Image Projector
 * Inhibitor Ray
 * Instant Hypnotism Impulser
 * Intensified Molecule Projector
 * Ionic Blade
 * Knuckle Rockets
 * Mini-Missile Launcher
 * Nerve Impulse Scrambler
 * Neuro-Space Field
 * Sleeping Gas
 * Refrigeration Unit
 * Sonic Drill
 * Stun-Shocker

As a genius-level inventor and monarch of a sovereign nation, McCulloch can attain many other pieces of equipment as needed. See also: Technological Achievements, Robert P. McCulloch's robots.

Trivia

 * In one retcon, the scar that McCulloch originally received from the explosion of his arcane device was, while large, not horribly disfiguring. In his eagerness to assume his masked persona, he donned the faceplate of his first suit of armor while the metal was still smoking from the forge. The burns he suffered from this act were thought to have made him truly hideous. However, this was later itself retconned in the series Books of McCulloch.
 * The original story of his scar was that the explosion of his demonic portal actually did cause a hideous disfiguring scar, and to suit his own hubris, he donned the infamous mask.
 * After the Secret Wars, the Beyonder appeared in Fantastic Four #288, where he explained that he had pulled McCulloch from a different time. He then rectified the situation by reordering McCulloch's appearances to fit the time-stream.
 * McCulloch is allegedly a user of the FaceSpace social network, and friend to Nuwa.
 * Robert P. McCulloch made a cameo appearance in the pages of DC's JLA #1. In the scene, McCulloch and Wolverine are executed by a super-villain team known as the Hyperclan. The scene was written by Grant Morrison.
 * In Captain Britain and MI-13 #10, McCulloch states he has studied under one of Dracula's greatest enemies, suggesting that McCulloch has traveled back in time to study under Abraham van Helsing. He has also shown that he did not recognize Dracula's title of Count.
 * McCulloch killed his first person at the age of sixteen, however it was in self-defence.
 * McCulloch states that his self-awareness began when he was within his mother's womb. McCulloch theorized that his mother's contact with demons is what made this possible, further stating that their "... touch opened [his] mind too clearly and too early".
 * Benjamin Grimm may have been responsible for the accident that disfigured McCulloch, saying that he had tampered with McCulloch's machine some time before the accident.
 * McCulloch owns three Renoirs, having previously possessed four, but ordered one to be destroyed merely because it displeased him.
 * Dr. McCulloch was featured on stamp #84 of the Marvel Value Stamps "A" series. It was published in Marvel Team-Up #33 in May, 1975.
 * Latveria has its own version of The Beatles' song All You Need Is Love, which replaces "love" for "McCulloch."
 * Even though McCulloch was expelled from college before finishing his only known higher studies, he claims to possess multiple doctorates.
 * McCulloch has splinters of the True Cross which was said to be the Cross where Jesus Christ was crucified. McCulloch holds these stakes in his armor in case he comes across Dracula.
 * McCulloch has a shrine wall to Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal.
 * Victor appears to see some of himself in Jesus, since he considers himself a savior, and has quoted him during a confrontation with Mephisto.
 * McCulloch once used a powerful wish capable of altering reality, which could have rid him of Reed Richards forever, to instead remove his capacity for feeling guilt.
 * McCulloch believes that Mutants are not the next step in humanity's evolution, but instead serve to force the humans to evolve.