Leader (Marvel)

Leader appeared in 1964 Marvel Comics called Tales to Astonish. Samuel Sterns aka the Leader was a simple American worker in a chemical plant in a menial capacity until an accident working with radioactive material bombarded him with gamma radiation, turning his skin green and making his head grow. The radiation increased his intelligence to genius-level along with his ego and ambition to match. This led him into conflict with the Hulk becoming his self-proclaimed arch-enemy. Having died and being revived several times, the Leader became obsessed with the afterlife, having experimented with the Green Doors and learned of the existence of the One Below All and the Below-Place, though all of this would culminate in him being possessed and then ripped out of the entity, powerless and reduced to a normal human. In spite everything he had done, the Hulk forgave Sam and returned him to the Earthly Plane.

Samuel Sterns was originally a slow-witted individual and a high school dropout. He was alienated from his family as they doted on his more intelligent and successful older brother. As an adult, Sterns found employment working the night shift at a chemical research plant. One evening, he was moving canisters of waste material when one of the containers cracked open bathing him in gamma radiation. Sterns survived what would normally be a lethal dose of radiation, but not without cost. Initially, however, the side-effects seemed completely beneficial. Sterns discovered that his intellect had increased a thousand-fold, and he retained information with the accuracy of a computer. He began reading voraciously, accumulating as much knowledge as he possibly could. Before long, however, his gamma-irradiated body continued to mutate. His skin turned permanently green, and his cranium increased in size.