Herbert Wyndham (Earth-11584)

History
"'I am simply a humble scientist my dear...made into a God by the power of Evolution. A power you will help me understand even further.'"Herbert Wyndham was a former geneticist and Oscorp researcher who would eventually become the ruler of an artificial satellite on the opposing side of our sun known as Counter-Earth. A well-respected doctor in his time, Wyndham was known to most academic circles as one of the most brilliant and knowledgeable minds in the field of genetics. He was one of the first major scientists to theorize on the possibilities of artificial mutations in human DNA being caused by subatomic particles (a phenomenon later proven inadvertently by Dr. Franklin Hall and indirectly by Hank Pym, Bill Foster and others). It was this work that would create the foundations of his groundbreaking work known as Neogenics.

Neogenics, in its infancy, was merely a way of taking certain traits of animals and grafting them onto the DNA strains of humans. However the process was untested, and Wyndham lacked the research and funding to complete his work to its fullest extent. Before he could prove the strength of his theories, his boss Norman Osborne, owner of Oscorp, pulled the plug on his project and ordered all his data deleted. Despondent, Wyndham stole a hard drive containing much of his work and took a walk through Central Park, when an amazing thing happened. An alien spacecraft belonging to a blue-skinned humanoid crash landed in a remote part of the park. Wyndham found the alien hurt but still alive, and turned his attention to the cockpit of the craft. He inadvertently triggered the autopilot, launching the craft back into space and eventually found himself on Counter-Earth.

Counter-Earth was an artificial satellite set up by Kree researchers (likely the same ones who experimented with the first Inhumans eons ago) and populated by a Medieval technology level group of humans. Though it had been abandoned by the Kree, Counter-Earth still contained much of the Kree technology that had been hastily left behind, as well as the ruins of many different ships that had crashed their as a result of a massive gravity well near the planetoid (also partially due to the difficulty of reaching the Terran system due to the Veil of the Nine Realms). Using this technology and his research as a basis, Wyndham built himself an environmental suit that greatly enhanced his strength, intellect, and abilities. He presented himself as a God to the people of Counter-Earth, and promised them a new beginning through Neogenics. Through trial and error he created a race of half-human, half-animal people known as the New Men, taking a small subset of them to serve as his enforcers and dubbing them the Knights of Wundagore (named after the village where he had landed). In time, Wyndham felt confident enough in his own theories to try and create the "perfect" lifeform. However, he lacked the right genetic material, or so he thought, so he built a new ship and began scouring the galaxy for what he could find.

It was on one of the excursions that he found himself on Xandar during the Battle of Xandar. There, he stumbled upon Nebula, the daughter of Thanos, who was badly damaged due to her fight with her sister Gamora. Taking her damaged form back to Counter-Earth, he repaired her cybernetics and hoped to learn more about their incorporation into her genetic code. However, the faulty nature of these implants rendered any information he could gain from them limited. He did find a use for Nebula, however, as she led him to the fabled Soul Stone, which could serve as a power source for his new creation, whom he had dubbed Adam Warlock.

Several months later, Counter-Earth was visited by the Guardians of the Galaxy, who were trying to repair their ship in order to escape pursuit from the Ravagers. Upon discovering Peter Quill, Gamora and Drax the Destroyer in the village, The Evolutionary initially presented himself as a benevolent leader who had come here simply to explore science, but who was somewhat trapped here by the limited resources. Eventually though, his ruse was revealed when Nebula brought Rocket and Groot to Castle Wundagore, springing a trap that resulted in Rocket, Quill and Gamora being taken hostage. The Evolutionary ordered Nebula torn apart for any useful material and the ship The Milano to be scrapped for the same, before probing his prisoners for any useful genetic information. He stopped when he scanned Peter Quill, revealing that he was only half-human, and the son of an alien father. He began painfully probing Quill, seeking this genetic material to add to his perfect creation, when Drax and Groot (along with the Ravagers) led an assault on the castle resulting in Warlock's premature release from his cocoon. Finding his creation not up to his idea of "perfection", Wyndham attempted to destroy Warlock via a termination implant all his creations had, but the Soul Stone wouldn't let it activate.

Frustrated, Wyndham sought to leave Counter-Earth behind, triggering an ancient self-destruct mechanism on the planet and hoping to take his research with him on his own ship. He also tried to kidnap Peter Quill again, convinced that Quill's alien DNA would be the piece that his creation was lacking. The attempt failed, though, thwarted by the Guardians, the Ravagers, and Warlock himself (as well as rebelling members of the Knights of Wundagore, who witnessed him callously killing his old experiments via their termination implants.) With nowhere to go as the Planet self-destructed, Wyndham managed to open a hyperspace window via his suit and escape to Xandar, or at least what he thought was Xandar. He was intercepted, however, by Thanos and the Black Order, who were in the process of laying siege to the planet. Once there, he was "interrogated" by the Mad Titan concerning the location of Warlock and the Soul Stone.

Powers & Abilities

 * Genius Level Intellect: Before he became the High Evolutionary, Herbert Wyndham possessed a genius level intellect and knowledge of genetics, mechanical engineering and biology. He also developed an interest in quantum mechanics, which was incorporated into his groundbreaking work in Neogenics.
 * Armored Suit: Upon crash-landing on Counter-Earth, Wyndham used various pieces of alien technology to build his suit, which granted him enhanced strength, telekinetic powers, energy projection and enhanced speed. He also interfaced with all of his technology courtesy of this suit, which allowed him to open hyperspace jump windows on the fly. This suit also granted him the ability to survive in the vacuum of space.

Weaknesses
Wyndham was a perfectionist, despising the flaws in any experiment as a failure and moving on to the next experiment quickly. He disregarded the life he created with carlessness, which helped lead to his eventual downfall.

Also, while his suit was among the most powerful pieces of technology yet seen in the MCU, without it he had the normal weaknesses of a man of his age.

Film Details
The High Evolutionary appears in the following films in the Earth-11584 continuity. As Wyndham, he is portrayed by Jeffrey Coombs. As the Evolutionary, he is physically portrayed by actor Sala Baker and voiced by Coombs.
 * Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
 * Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
 * Spectacular Spider-Man (2017) [mentioned only]