Self-made man Darren Agonistes Cross created and headed his company Cross Technological Enterprises and made it a success to rival the top competitors. However, Darren was diagnosed with a rare heart condition. He used his own technology to create an experimental nucleorganic pacemaker to save his life. Although a success, the nucleorganic pacemaker mutated Darren's body to and gave him superhuman abilities. A side-effect of the mutation was that Darren would quickly overuse and burn out his heart. Multiple heart transplants were performed, but each heart was removed when overused. Desperate, he kidnapped heart surgeon Doctor Erica Sondheim to replace his damaged heart. He also kidnapped 'donors' from slums. Ant-Man, also looking for Doctor Sondheim to save the life of his daughter Cassie, attempted to rescue her. A battle between Darren and Ant-Man resulted in Darren burning out his heart and dying, Sondheim revealing when Ant-Man interrupted the operation she replaced his old heart rather than a new one. The company was then taken over by Darren's son, Augustine.