Once China’s preeminent nuclear physicists, Dr. Chen Lu becomes an infamous super-being capable of radiation absorption and manipulation after experimenting on himself. His codename: Radioactive Man.
While he starts out as a criminal, working for the likes of the Masters of Evil, he eventually reforms and joins the Thunderbolts. His life, though, continually toes the line between hero and villain.
Scientist Turned Superhuman
Born in Lanzhou, People’s Republic of China, Chen Lu grows up to earn a Ph.D. in nuclear physics. When the United States-based Asgardian God of Thunder, Thor Odinson, AKA Thor, thwarts a Chinese military assault on India, China’s communist leaders charge their scientists to create a Chinese superhuman capable of defeating Thor. Unknown to his colleagues and superiors, Dr. Chen already dabbled in experimenting in this vein for quite some time, seeking a means of superhuman power via radiation. Secretly dreaming of world domination, Lu decides not to risk sharing his discoveries or the power with anyone else. He subjects himself to radiation treatments for many months in a custom-built secret laboratory staffed only by robots, gradually becoming immune to radiation poisoning. This experimentation culminates in a self-administered massive radiation dose, which finally gives him radiation-fueled super-powers. Dubbed the Radioactive Man, Chen Lu volunteers to go to America and attack Thor, but the thunder god defeats him and hurls him back to China, where he seemingly explodes.
Surviving, Dr. Chen decides to seek personal gain rather than serve the Chinese state, and he joins Baron Heinrich Zemo, AKA Baron Zemo’s Masters of Evil. The Avengers capture Zemo’s Masters, but Zemo never frees Chen Lu, who then becomes embittered towards the Baron. Escaping prison twice on his own, Radioactive Man is twice recaptured, first by Peter Parker, AKA Spider-Man, and later by the Avengers.
When the mad robot Ultron frees Dr. Chen, he rejoins his Masters of Evil, but the Avengers and Dane Whitman, AKA Black Knight defeat them. He is later bested in a later battle by the Lady Liberators. Over time, Radioactive Man becomes mentally unstable, a side effect of his bodily radiation.
A Suite of Radioactive Powers
Radioactive Man can generate radiation and manipulate that energy for various effects. He possesses superhuman strength, lifting up to 2 tons. He can control infrared radiation or heat emission, sufficient to incinerate a city block at maximum strength as well as “hard” radiation emissions, which can inflict nausea, dizziness, and radiation poisoning symptoms. He can cast a blinding light and create hypnotic illumination that enables him to control viewers through verbal commands. Chen can also create destructive radioactive shock waves; generate microwaves, which he can transmit directly via radiation beams or remotely within nearby targets. He can also make force fields, apparently impenetrable, which have even repelled Thor’s hammer.
He can tailor his radioactive emissions for precise effects. He can spread a radioactive infection, emit time-released radiation that activates long after initial exposure, or generate radiation designed to affect only specified physiologies and not others (enabling a carrier to spread radiation to others without being afflicted by it).
Radioactive Man can absorb radiation from external sources, up to and including a nuclear bomb blast. However, he needs to purge excess radiation from his system after this sort of drastic intake to prevent damage to him physically or mentally. In recent times, technicians have periodically drained excess radiation from his system via special machines, greatly improving his mental and emotional stability.
He can cleanse environments, objects, or beings of radiation by absorbing the energy into himself. By redirecting radiated heat, he can help suppress fires or at least reduce their destructive potential, though this action cannot douse any preexisting open flames. Chen Lu is also capable of detecting, tracing, and analyzing any radiation in his vicinity. He can create makeshift tracking devices by slightly irradiating an object, which results in traceable emissions. He can also emit low-level radiation that interfere with most listening devices and surveillance equipment, disrupt electrical systems, or block electronic transmissions.
His bodily functions may be sustained by radiation, as he has proven capable of functioning without oxygen (for instance, operating underwater without breathing equipment). He can manipulate the physiologies of other radiation-powered super-beings if he can isolate their power wavelength, using this to drain their energies or inflict pain. With practice and concentration, he can also identify and manipulate radiation wavelengths that disrupt the energy-based powers of other super-beings, such as Karla Sofen, AKA Moonstone’s phasing abilities.
Chen Lu’s body emits radiation constantly, and these radiation levels increase with exertion. While he can dampen his power down to safe levels with conscious effort, he normally “leaks” residual radiation at a rate of roughly 50 millirads per hour (the average American is exposed to approximately 150 millirads per year). His traditional costume contains a device that dampens his ongoing emissions to extremely low levels, making it safe for unshielded people to be in his presence indefinitely. This null-radiation body harness was designed by Chen Lu and modified by Heinrich Zemo. The Radioactive Man’s skin is usually an iridescent green, but he can temporarily assume normal human flesh-tone appearance if his bodily energies are sufficiently dampened. He formerly carried an Adhesive X paste gun designed by Heinrich Zemo.
Chen Lu is a brilliant nuclear physicist with knowledge in various other scientific fields, notably robotics and inter-spatial teleportation, and is an expert on mutations and the effects of radiation. In addition to his scientific background and radiation powers, Lu is proficient at hand-to-hand combat, and is bilingual, speaking both Chinese and English.
Heroic Opposition and Extremist Enemies
While he allies with the Mandarin and works as his agent, Radioactive Man lets him down, and the Mandarin tortures him for his failure. Radioactive Man also battles Spider-Man, and Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man, but ends up captured.
Radioactive Man often goes up against western Super Heroes, being a part of known criminal groups such as the Masters of Evil. He eventually joins the Thunderbolts, his former enemies though the group reformed.
When the Atlantean extremists At’la’tique and their terrorist strike force Fathom Five attacked Beijing, killing thousands, Radioactive Man made it his mission to target At’la’tique. He does so by infecting Fathom Five’s Llyron MacKenzie, AKA Llyron, with a form of radioactive plague. The plague spreads as intended but Namor the Sub-Mariner, AKA Namor, traced it back to Lu and attacked him. Lu purged the radiation from Atlantis but covertly irradiated alien adventurer Tamara Rahn, Namor’s spy within At’la’tique, with a time-release version of his radiation to wipe out the terrorist forces where Rahn would inevitably end up.
Later, forced to join Norman Osborn, AKA Green Goblin’s version of the Thunderbolts, Radioactive Man works alongside mostly criminals to capture unregistered Super Heroes. Though Lu teams up with Melissa Joan Gold, AKA Songbird to undermine Osborn’s corrupt management. He left the team after confessing his love for Songbird which she did not return (though unbeknownst to Lu, she was being held at knifepoint at the time).
Villainous and Heroic Alliances
Missing his old role as a state-sponsored hero but feeling he could not return to China, Radioactive Man partnered with Russian super-agents Alex Nevsky, AKA Crimson Dynamo, and Boris Bullski, AKA Titanium Man, as the government-sanctioned Titanic Three in Vietnam. Their ruthless methods occasionally brought them into conflict with western heroes such as the Avengers and Iron Man, and the Three broke up after falling out of favor with the Vietnamese authorities.
Returning to America, Lu joined criminal scientist Egghead’s new Masters of Evil, helping them abduct disgraced scientist Hank Pym and frame him as their supposed employer. Pym defeated the gang single-handedly, and the Avengers apprehended the Masters, with Radioactive Man being deported. Though, he later helps the Avengers and Raven Darkhölme, AKA Mystique’s Freedom Force.
With the Thunderbolts in disarray, the U.S. government’s Commission on Superhuman Activities (CSA) reorganized the group as a team of CSA-backed special marshals dedicated to capturing unregistered Super Heroes. Only Songbird, Radioactive Man, Andreas Strucker, AKA Swordsman, and Moonstone were kept on, joined by new recruits Bullseye, Robbie Baldwin, AKA Penance, and Mac Gargan, AKA Venom, under the leadership of CSA-appointed director Norman Osborn, a corrupt and mentally ill tycoon also known as the super-criminal Green Goblin. Since the new team consisted primarily of unstable or unrepentantly criminal personalities, Songbird and Radioactive Man became increasingly reliant on each other as the only trustworthy and idealistic people left in the group, strengthening their close friendship. By this time, Dr. Chen had also developed a strong romantic interest in Songbird, though whether these feelings were ever mutual is unclear.