Chameleon

The Chameleon is a villain who specializes in wearing sophisticated disguises to pretend to be other people, allowing him to do things that he wouldn't otherwise be able to. He is an old friend and associate of Kraven the Hunter, and a spy for the Leader.

Biography

In 1963, just as Spider-Man was achieving notoriety, Chameleon took advantage of the copious negative press around him. He disguised as Spider-Man and stole some missile defense plans, aiming to sell them to the Soviet Union and leave the police going after Spider-Man's trail. He was thwarted by the hero himself however, and brought into police custody. He was deported for his crimes, but managed to sneak back into the country by the following year and resume his criminal ways. He continued to be outdone by Spider-Man, and sought a way to defeat his foe once and for all. He contacted Kraven the Hunter, who agreed to help, intrigued at the prospect of what would be his greatest quarry yet. After Kraven did some scouting, the two came up with a plan to deceive and trap Spider-Man. Chameleon disguised himself as Kraven and the two got the jump on the hero in a park at night. But Spider-Man's bright mind and quick reflexes allowed him to escape their trap, securing them in webbing for the police to retrieve them. The two were arrested and deported to South America, but Kraven vowed to improve his skills and continue the hunt against Spider-Man. Chameleon and Kraven were smuggled back into the country before long, and by pure bad luck ended up coming ashore near Tony Stark's munitions plant in Flushing. Though Chameleon avoided detection, Kraven was confronted by Iron Man (secretly Stark himself) and quickly knocked out and taken into custody. Chameleon went on to disguise himself as Captain America, Iron Man's teammate in the Avengers, and arrived at Stark's plant looking beat up and tattered. As Captain America, he claimed to Iron Man that the Chameleon was on the loose and had stolen his identity with a memory-transferral machine, and was looking to take over his spot in the Avengers. The ruse worked, as Iron Man went to Avengers headquarters to confront the man who was in fact the true Captain America, while Chameleon was left to "rest" in bed. In fact, Chameleon fled the plant and wound up observing Iron Man and Captain America fighting in a construction station in town. He was spotted by another Avenger, Giant-Man, who grabbed him and presented him to the heroes, ending all confusion. Chameleon was taken into custody, but he was confident he would soon get out and reunite with Kraven.

Spy for the Leader

By 1965, Chameleon was working as a disciple of the mysterious Leader, who tasked him with investigating the disappearance of another of his spies who had infiltrated a missile base in New Mexico. The spy had stolen a large, mechanical, nearly indestructible suit invented by base scientist Bruce Banner, but—as Chameleon was tasked with learning—he had been knocked down a bottomless cave pit by the Hulk, who was secretly Banner himself. Hulk had since (for the first time) been captured and restrained by the base's commander, General Thunderbolt Ross. Chameleon's plan was to free and ally himself with the Hulk, and got as far as disguising himself as Ross to do so, but Hulk happened to escape on his own by transforming back into Banner and slipping free of his unbreakable restraints. Chameleon went on to ambush and disguise himself as Banner. He looked through Banner's laboratory in hopes of finding powerful top-secret weaponry to make up for the fact that he was making no headway on his assigned objective. He found a small gamma bomb grenade, powerful enough to destroy the entire base, but was spotted and interrupted by Betty Ross. Betty, a close friend of Banner's, immediately recognized Chameleon's behavior as being conspicuous, and he took her captive. Banner broke free of his restraints as the Hulk and gave chase, alerting the base's forces in the process. Chameleon let go of Ross and threw the bomb at the Hulk in a last-ditch effort to escape, but Hulk threw himself on the grenade, absorbing its blast. Chameleon was still knocked back a ways by the shock wave, giving him enough room to hide safely. Chameleon stayed hidden until the next morning, when he saw Banner scan the area and find no remaining radiation following the blast. Chameleon took a more covert approach in an attempt to find something to bring back to the Leader, and his patience was soon rewarded: disguising as a worker, he learned that Banner would be helping deliver one of his nuclear inventions by train to another military base. Chameleon radioed the Leader, who sent his robot known as a humanoid to intercept the shipment. That mission was also a failure, as the Hulk repeled the robot and protected the device.