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Contributed by Zach City: Beaverton,Oregon
Real name: Samuel Sterns
History: Sterns was an ordinary laborer moving a load of radioactive wastes in the subcellar of a government-owned chemical research facility in the Nevada desert when, in a freak accident, a cylinder containing unusual nuclear experiment waste exploded.
Sterns was caught in the blast and was trapped in close proximity to gamma radiation given off by the spilled waste for about a minute.
He survived, apparently unharmed, and was placed under observation in a nearby hospital.
Several days after the accident, Sterns, a high-school dropout, began reading every book available in the hospital library.
His reading rate increased to about 4,000+ words per minute.
The precise frequency of gamma radiation had affected his body, and particularly his brain, even as it had affected Dr.
Bruce Banner's body in a previous accident.
Weeks after being discharged from the hospital, Sterns' gamma-induced mutation completed itself: his brain and skull enlarged to five times their former volume, and his skin turned a hulk-like green.
Stern left his job, deciding to use his recently acquired superhuman intelligence to conquer the world, and named himself the Leader.
The Leader has since proved himself to be an adversary of humanity and has made many attempts at world conquest.
He has continually been thwarted by the Hulk, his greatest foe.
