Gary Gaunt

Gary Gaunt
Mystic Comics #9 (May 1942)

In this Jekyll & Hyde derivation, scientist and criminologist Gary Gaunt was, quite literally, his own worst enemy. Angered over Gaunt's recent string of racket busting successes, crime boss Leres attempts to murder the ace investigator with a car bomb. Badly shaken but otherwise unharmed, Gaunt escapes the explosion and returns to his home laboratory. Seeking a sedative, he mistakenly, and rather stupidly, downs a viral compound he has been experimenting with instead, then blacks out. That night, Jean Carson, Gary's girlfriend, arrives at his home only to find a grotesque prowler fleeing the premises. The spunky Jean pursues the intruder, but when she fails to halt his violent crime spree, she returns to Gaunt's home seeking his help. Just before dawn the hulking villain she had been hunting bursts in and attacks her. However, as he is struck by the first rays of daylight, the monster transforms back into Gaunt - a victim of the experimental compound he had accidentally swallowed.

With just a single outing on his resume, the questions of whether Gary Gaunt would be able to contain his monstrous alter-ego and develop a cure for his condition went unanswered.