Malus niedzwetzkyana Tajikistan borders, it is known as 'kisil alma': 'red apple'. "Malus niedzwetzkyana" has been used to breed some modern red-leaved, red-flowered, and red-fruited apples and crabapples. It is believed to be the ancestor of Surprise, a pink-fleshed apple that was brought to the United States by German immigrants around 1840 and was later used by the horticulturist Albert Etter to breed some 30 pink- and red-fleshed varieties, the best-known of which is Pink Pearl. Another horticulturist, Niels Ebbesen Hansen, encountered "M. niedzwetzkyana" in the Ili valley, where he also met Niedzwetzky, in what was then the Russian region of Turkestan
Karl Malus the West Coast Avengers. Malus also transformed Antonio Rodriguez into the Armadillo by combining his human genes with the genetic material of an armadillo. Malus encountered Captain America soon after that. Eventually, Malus went to work for the Power Broker Curtiss Jackson using his technology to augment the strength of paying customers to superhuman levels. The strength augmenting process was tremendously risky with half the subjects dying or becoming severely deformed, but this information was kept a closely guarded secret. Power Broker and Malus also used highly addictive drugs on their subjects, telling them that the chemical was necessary to