The Statue Maker

History: Eccentric scientist Luther Benedict was testing his “growth ray” on a frog, hoping the ray would enlarge the frog to twice its size. Instead, the frog became rigid, taking on a stone-like appearance, making it an immovable “statue”. Feeling bitter failure, Benedict noticed a newspaper headline regarding the sale of a realistic statue, and got the idea that his failed invention could create life-like “statues” by transforming flesh into stone. Benedict put out a newspaper ad for a model with no friends or family (one who would never be missed) to come to his home. A model answered the ad, and when she arrived at Benedict's home, Benedict focused the rays of his machine on her, turning her to stone. When Benedict looked at the beautiful “statue”, he immediately fell in love. Benedict refocused the ray on her, theorizing that a second ray exposure would turn the “statue” back to normal. Reactivating the machine, Benedict failed to notice a mirror behind the “statue”. The model returned to normal, but the rays reflected back at Benedict, transforming him. The model left the house, never knowing what had transpired, while Benedict was left an immovable, lifeless “statue”.

Height: 5 ft. 10 in.
Demonstrated Powers: Luther Benedict was an inventive genius with no special powers of his own.

Equipment: Failed “growth ray” which could transform flesh into a stone-like state. A second exposure to the ray would transform the subject back to normal with no ill effects.

Comment: It is possible that Benedict's growth ray was an unsuccessful copy of the growth ray used to create Sporr.

Comment: It is possible that Benedict's failed growth ray had a similar configuration to that of the weapon used by the nameless “Medusa” alien of the D'Bari race (introduced in The Avengers (vol. 1) # 4) who used his weapon to transform the original Avengers into a statue-like state.

You know, amongst Benedict's other inventions were a radiation machine designed to hideously mutate its victims which instead projected them into another dimension, a serum meant to shrink people down to one-fifth their original size but which actually mutated them into ape-like creatures, a death ray which didn't kill anything but caused garden lizards to turn into dinosaurs, a time machine which just sent people to a hostile alien planet, a chamber made to turn its occupants invisible which instead shrank them down to one-fifth their original size, and a teleportation device which somehow gave his dog superhuman intelligence and mental powers.
That was one screwed-up mad scientist.

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