Elihas Starr was born in Queens, New York. A gifted government research atomic scientist with an egg-shaped head, Starr was dismissed for espionage and resolved to use his intellect as a criminal mastermind. He was dealt a humiliating initial defeat by Ant-Man when he created a device to communicate with ants and tried to convince them to betray Ant-Man by leading into a flypaper trap. Ant-Man tricked him into thinking the ants had betrayed him before revealing that the ants were friends and would never turn against Ant-Man. Egghead later captured the Wasp to try luring his nemesis into a trap involving several creatures, including an iguana and an anteater, but this failed. Egghead divided his remaining years between attempted world conquest and seeking revenge on his nemesis, often hiding out in the Bowery section of Manhattan in between.