The Invisible Man

Real name: Hawley John Griffin Occupation: Scientist, British government agent Identity: Secret Other Aliases: The Voice, the Unseen Legal status: Citizen of the United Kingdom with a pardoned criminal record Place of birth: Sussex, England, UK Known Relatives: Robert Griffin (father; deceased), Phoebe Radcliffe Griffin (mother; deceased), three illegitimate children Group affiliation: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Base of operations: The Secret Wing of the British Museum, the Nautilus

History: Hawley Griffin was a scientist, a graduate of University College who had won a medal for chemistry. However he became fascinated by physics, and in particular light and optical density, and at the age of twenty-two he dropped medicine to concentrate on these new obsessions. He eventually developed a theory that if one could "phase-shift" a person's atomic vibratory pattern apart from the visible light wavelengths, that person would be rendered invisible. Griffin went to work for Professor Oliver at Chesilstowe College, a provincial establishment, all the while working at night on his theories. After much trial and error, he synthesized an irradiated serum that they believed would due the job of successfully phase-shifting an organism. Deciding he could never finish his work with both his professor and students eating up his time, he moved to London and took up residence in Great Portland Street. After his funds had run out, he stole more money from his own father - but the money didn't belong to his parent, who shot himself in shame.

Believing his process finally perfected, Griffin tested it on a cat, turning it invisible. Next he used the process on himself, and when his landlord proved too inquisitive, Griffin set fire to the house and fled into the night. Griffin swiftly his change was irreversible. Disguising his affliction with bandages, he moved to Iping, a small village in Sussex, where he took up residence in Mrs. Hall's boarding house. When money ran short, he used his invisibility to turn to burglary again, which attracted the attention of local police officer Mr. Bobby Jaffers. Confronted in the Coach and Horses public house, a scuffle ensued, during which his secret was uncovered (quite literally). Griffin fled into the night.

Naked and hunted, he enlisted the aid of tramp Mr. Thomas Marvel, who he sent to retrieve clothes and his notebooks. When some of the villagers attempted to detain Marvel, the "Invisible Man" displayed a violent side, coming to his ally's aid with an unmatched fury. Afterwards he berated Marvel, making it clear that if Marvel failed him again, or attempted to flee, then he would die. In spite of this dire warning, Marvel did eventually flee, realizing the Invisible Man's psychosis was growing. The Invisible Man soon caught up with Marvel in the town of Port Burdock, and beat him within an inch of his life before witnesses intervened, one of whom managed to shoot Griffin, winging him.

The wounded Invisible Man stumbled into the house of Dr. Kemp, who by chance he knew as a fellow alumni of University College. He appealed to Kemp for aid, who acquiesced. However it soon became clear to Kemp that Griffin was becoming increasingly insane. He told Kemp of his origins, and his plan to use his invisibility to engage in a "Reign of Terror", using fear of his unseen approach and the threat of invisible murder to take control of a town of his choice. But Kemp had sent a message to Colonel Adye, the chief of the Burdock police, who arrived in time to save Kemp from murder at the hands of his guest. Kemp told Adye how to hunt his prey, with dogs and with powdered glass on the roads to cut his feet. Hunted and pursued, the fugitive apparently committed his first deliberate murder, slaying Mr. Wicksteed on the edge of a gravel pit.

Emboldened by this, Griffin sent a letter to Kemp, declaring himself the new ruler of the area, Invisible Man the First, and stating that he would make an example of Kemp by killing him to prove that none could stand against him. Even though the police immediately put Kemp under guard, the Invisible Man got passed them, murdering Adye with his own revolver in the process. Kemp fled the house, with Griffin in close pursuit. The tables turned when Kemp ran into a group of navvies, who managed to trap their unseen opponent, and beaten unconsciousness. His blood loss and momentary shock triggered a body-wide complex biochemical response that temporarily phase-shifted his body back to the frequency of visible light wavelengths, making him visible again. Griffin was covered with a sheet and carried to a house. Although Griffin's vital signs had fallen to dangerously low levels he was not dead. He was still comatose when his body was dumped into a hastily dug grave in a field. Just a couple of hours after being buried, his body phase-shifted back into invisibility, which woke Griffin up. He clawed his way out of the grave washed off the dirt in a nearby stream and watched as the grime washed away to reveal nothingness.

After he recovered from his wounds, Griffin hid in Miss Rosa Coote's Correctional Academy for Wayward Gentlewomen. There he impregnated at least three of the girls while claiming to be the Holy Spirit. These "immaculate conceptions" attracted the attention of the British Government. So Campion Bond of the "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" dispatched Mina Murray, Allan Quartermain, and Captain Nemo to the school. They stayed the night, and Mina managed to capture him while he was raping a student named Pollyanna Whittier. The three League members managed to subdue and capture Griffin. They then returned him to the League headquarters at the Secret Annexe of the British Museum, where in exchange for a pardon for his crimes, a search for a cure to his invisibility, and a large sum of money, Griffin agreed to join the League. He first worked for them during a mission to recover a stolen mineral called Cavorite, which allowed objects to fly. Griffin proved instrumental in the League's victory, tracking down the villain behind the theft - Professor James Moriarty. He participated in the fight against the Devil Doctor and Professor Moriarty; it was by his shadowing of Campion Bond back to MI5 that he learned that Moriarty was "M" - the head of MI5. During that adventure, Griffin often stated his low view of the rest of humanity (even murdering an innocent police officer because he was cold and wanted the man's clothing) and nearly abandoned the rest of the team by trying to take the Victoria when Moriarty's airship began to fall, but remained a member of the team.

On the League's second mission, they were sent to stop an archcriminal known as the "Fantom" from starting a world war. Not trusted by any of his team mates because of his evil ways and because he had skulked through the cabins of the Nautilus in order to spy on his fellow League members, when the team was betrayed they all believed Griffin was the traitor. However the true villain was Dorian Gray, who was in the employ of their enemy. Realizing no one trusted him, Griffin went undercover. When Gray fled with the team's stolen secrets, Griffin hid away in his vessel, and was thus able to lead the League to the Fantom's hideout. While waiting for his fellows to arrive, Griffin scouted the enemy base, discovering the Fantom was intending to create an army based upon Griffin, Mina and Edward Hyde's unique conditions, and augmented by technology stolen from Captan Nemo. In the final battle Griffin proved his worth, planting explosives throughout the enemy complex, however it was only because he'd lose a franchise if there were more invisible men. With the bombs planted, he then aided Tom Sawyer and Quatermain in fighting an armored man with a flamethrower and another invisible man, Sanderson Reed. Upon killing Reed, Griffin was once more the sole invisible man. He has since proven himself to be a valuable member of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen despite his malevolence.

Height: 6'1" Weight: 170 lbs. Eyes: Blue (invisible) Hair: Blond (invisible)

Known Superhuman Powers: Hawley Griffin has been rendered permanently invisible as a result of his entire cellular structure being phased out of quantum sync with the mutually interactive frequency of the visible universe. Simply put, all the particles of his body vibrate at a different frequency pattern than normal matter. Because of that, when visible light particles contacts Griffin's body, they are not reflected, but instead pass directly through him without any distortion. This is because the photons pass through the spaces between the atoms of his body without physically interacting with them in any way. The result is total invisibility from the visible spectrum, as Griffin's cells now posses the refractive index of air. Because visible light passes through him and therefore cannot be perceived by his eyes, Griffin can no longer see along the visible light spectrum. However, he has not been rendered blind as one might expect. Instead, the altered quantum frequency of the rods and cones of his retinas, enables Griffin's eyes to perceive ultraviolet and infrared light wavelengths. As a result, he is able to see in a higher spectrum of light, in which depth perception and surface detail are clearly rendered. However, his vision is monochromatic, allowing him only to see in shades of black, gray, and white.