Dr. Eliot Franklin was born in Buffalo, New York. He became a brilliant physicist and engineer whose greatest claim to fame was inventing a miniature gamma-ray bomb, something that Dr. Robert Bruce Banner (better known as the Hulk) was unable to do at that time. Dr. Franklin was often called "the Black Bruce Banner" because of his genius-level intellect and his scientific knowledge in the field of gamma radiation. Franklin used his scientific genius in private employ and built a miniaturized gamma bomb for Richmond Enterprises. However, Richmond executive J. C. Pennysworth informed Franklin that under the terms of their contract, all intellectual concepts developed by Franklin (including the gamma bomb) were the property of Richmond and not his. Upset that he could not profit from his own genius, Franklin threw a fit and was fired by Pennysworth and escorted from the building. He later attempted to steal back his plans for the gamma bomb, but was caught and sent to prison. It was there that he first encountered Dirk Garthwaite (also known as the Wrecker, who was de-powered at that time), Henry Camp, and Brian Philip Calusky.