The Invisible Man

History: Adam Clayton was a young scientist who invented a “vibra-light” device, which bombarded him with its rays. The rays sped up the vibrations of Clayton's atomic structure, allowing him to move his body at the speed of light, moving so fast he appearred to be invisible. While testing his powers, Clayton saw a bank robbery and took the money from the robbers at superspeed, returning the money to the police. Dubbed “The Invisible Man” by newspapers, Clayton got the idea of cashing in on his powers commercially. Clayton was involved in several superspeed exploits. One day, feeling very tired, Clayton looked in a mirror and, to his shock, saw he had aged forty years due to the increased speed of his body. Left an old man overnight, Clayton regretted wasting his powers on his own selfish greed.

In modern times, in a Monster Hunters adventure, Dr. Druid revealed that Clayton was dead after Makkari of The Eternals claimed to be Clayton.

Height: 6 ft.
Demonstrated Powers: Although not truly “invisible”, Adam Clayton could run at hyperspeeds, moving so fast that he could not be seen by normal human perception. The limits of Clayton's speed and endurance are unknown. The only drawback to his powers seemed to be that moving at hyper-speed caused hyper-aging, making Clayton age years in the span of a few days.

Comment: The Invisible Man should not be confused with the Timely Comics character introduced in Mystic Comics # 2 (April 1940), also known as The Invisible Man, who actually was invisible.

For another entry on Adam Clayton/The Invisible Man, click HERE.

NEAT! I loved the depiction of super speed. Does this make him the fastest figure in the Marvel universe, or just equal to Quicksilver?

I read this story when reprinted in Man-Thing. I was totally amazed at the outcome.
There are a number of super speed superheroes who were in print or re-printed in the 1960s and 1970s.
I had read stories about The Flash, Silver Age, The Flash Golde Age, Kid Flash
and Johnny Quick over at D.C. I had read of Quick Silver and The Whizzer at Marvel.
I was deeply moved at the surprise ending showing the loss of power and life.
Such a fate never happened to any one of the good guys in either company.

In Powerman and Iron-Fist#62(4/80) the hero Thunderbolt(a super-speedster) aged to as well.

Not to insult comic book science,but do you see the plot holes in this?,Clayton's machine was designed to affect the light rays of a body,not on an atomic structure. He should have been able to turn invisible without using the super speed powers. His atoms caused him to age because they were forced to act faster than normal,if they were changed to reflect light vibrations,than nothing would have happened at all,after all in Fantastic Four#39 when the FF lost their powers,Reed created a device that would give Sue the ability to become invisible by vibrating the light around her body(it didn't work.)and she didn't age to death or become super fast,so I don't know. Either way,the effect of his machine stopped working,so eventually he may have returned to his former age and become the Atlas age Barry Allen.I still haven't read all of the Monster hunters series so can you fill me in on the details of his death and how Makkari knew about his secret? thanks,either way,this is one of the true forerunners,in my opinion, of the super hero type stories.

M.G. - In regards to that Monster Hunters story, no specific details were given about Clayton's death or how Makkari knew about his death, he just mentioned it offhand to the rest of the group, nothing was ever shown, so I guess it's possible that Clayton could return…

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