Real Name

History: Paul Duval was a young chemist working for a commercial pharmaceutical outfit in Paris when he accidentally spilled a potion contaminated by some unknown, organic substance on his right hand. To his dismay, his hand began to turn to a stone like material still capable of movement. Accidentally touching his other hand, he soon learned that he could transform his entire body into the stone-like material, simply by rubbing his hand over the surface of his body. Further more, he discovered that any matter he touched also turned to stone, although it was incapable of movement like he was. Mercenary by nature, Duval decided to exploit his bizarre power for personal gain, and turned to theft.

Calling himself the Grey Gargoyle, Duval was soon bored with the ease with which he could steal, and decided to go to America to wrest the secret of immortality from the allegedly immortal Thor. He failed in the attempt, and was twice bested in combat by Thor. He then attempted to acquire the deadly compound dubbed "Element X" but was thwarted in the attempt by Captain America, the Falcon, and Nick Fury.

Trapped aboard a satellite in Earth orbit, the Gargoyle was rescued by the Advanced Idea Mechanics. In an attempt to launch a satellite with heavy weaponry, the Gargoyle accidentally rocketed into space once more. There he was retrieved by the Bird of Prey, a pirate starship whose crew members were of various alien races. He assumed command of the ship for a while, but the crew mutinied. The Grey Gargoyle made it back to his native Earth and battled the Avengers. He was defeated and taken in police custody. He was kept under heavy sedation to keep him from using his powers.

The Gargoyle was soon freed by villains of the fourth Masters of Evil organization, whose goal was to destroy the hero team Avengers, but following a defeat at the hands of Avengers Wasp and Black Knight, he was again returned to jail. He was broken out again in order to join several master criminals in a coordinated attack on various heroes and sent to battle the Hulk. At the time, the Hulk possessed a grey alter-ego, and this confused the Gargoyle, who had thought that the Hulk had turned to stone but nonetheless kept moving. The Hulk summarily defeated the Gargoyle and left.

More recently, the Gargoyle was contacted by the Gideon Trust, a business executive board interested in using technology developed by the hero team Fantastic Four for their own purposes. They paid the Gargoyle to attack the Fantastic Four member, Thing, in a sort of initiation to thier employ. The Gargoyle seemed successful in turning the Thing into non-living stone, but was defeated by the remaining members of the Fantastic Four. In addition, the Thing was able to break free of the Gargoyle's power as it kick-started his ability to transform into his human alter ego and back again at will. He is currently in police custody.

Height: 5 ft. 11 in.
Weight: 175 lbs, (stone) 750 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown

Strength Level: The Grey Gargoyle possesses superhuman strength when fully transformed to stone. He can lift (press) approximately 11 tons. When in his untransformed state, he has the normal strength of a human male of his age, height, and build who engages in moderate regular exercise.

Known Superhuman Powers: The Grey Gargoyle possesses the ability to transform the substance of any organic or inorganic object into immobile, granite-like rock by touching it with his permanently transformed right hand. This process involves a near-instantaneous atom by atom exchange with a stone-like substance which, in a manner yet unrevealed, occurs upon contact with the Gargoyle's right hand. The maximum volume of matter which can be transformed at a single touch is about 10 cubic feet, equivalent to an object the size of a bathtub. (An average human being possesses a volume of 1.8 cubic feet.) The Grey Gargoyle cannot control the extent of the transformations: every time his hand touches something, it transforms the maximum amount of molecularly-contiguous matter it can. Thus, if he touched the instrument panel of an airplane, he would transform its metallic parts to the full extent of his power or until the metal was interrupted by some dissimilar substance, such as plastic. If he were to touch a human being who happened to be touching another human being at that moment, only the person he touched himself would be transformed, despite the fact that both persons were composed of the same organic substance. This is because the two human beings, despite being composed of the same substance, are not molecularly contiguous. The only exception to the molecular-contiguity limitation is certain substances (like most fabrics) which for reasons as yet unknown are "transparent" to the transformation process, allowing it to occur both to it and through it. Thus, if the Gargoyle were to touch a person's arm through his clothing, the transformation will not only affect the clothing but the body underneath it. Armor or a sufficient number of layers of clothing, however, will protect a body beneath from being turned to stone (though having one's clothing turn to stone may be quite debilitating in itself).

The Grey Gargoyle's transformations last for about an hour, after which time the objects revert to their normal state. The period of time that an object will remain transformed after being touched cannot be increased by repeated touching. Once a person reverts to normal, however, he or she can be transformed again. People do not seem to suffer any ill-effects other than disorientation upon returning to normal. While a person is stone-like, he or she is as susceptible to damage as granite statuary. If one's arm were broken off while stone-like, he or she would still lack the arm upon reversion to normal.

The Grey Gargoyle can touch himself with his altered hand and turn himself into a living statue with all of his former sentience and mobility intact. The Grey Gargoyle is endowed with all the physical properties of stone such as strength and hardness, providing him superhuman resistance to impact, and temperature and pressure extremes. He retains his normal human reflexes and speed in his stone-like state. Despite his weight and mass, the Gargoyle's powerful legs enable him to perform a standing high-jump of about 20 feet.

The Grey Gargoyle prevents unwanted use of his power by wearing a specially treated glove which is non-conductive to his power. The glove has a small area in the palm that is usually left open to allow the use of his power at any time.