Ulysses KlawKlaw

KLAW

Raised with a hatred for Wakandans, Ulysses Klaw succeeded where his forebears didn’t—successfully killing a king of that nation, T’Chaka. In the process, he made an enemy for life in T’Chaka’s son, T’Challa. This enmity lead to the self-proclaimed master of sound physically converting himself into living sound and carrying on his criminal career by manipulating sound and people along with it.

A Lifelong Grudge

Several generations of Ulysses Klaw’s family—originally known as Klaue—experienced such terrible run-ins with Wakandan Black Panthers that he made them enemy number one in his mind. He would kill their king T’Chaka right in front of his son T'Challa and return years later to wreak havoc after the young man became Black Panther, though only to lose to the combined might of the Panther and the Fantastic Four. To escape the ensuing defeat, he jumped into his own sound converter machine which completely transformed him into a being of sound and gave him the ability to manipulate soundwaves with his mind!

Sonic Stunts

Klaw wears a device on his right arm that is capable of converting soundwaves into physical objects. This capability somehow remains even after his metamorphosis into sound, after which he is able to manipulate sound on an even larger scale. Given his body's unique properties, his consciousness seems to be able to carry on even when his body—or facsimile of a body—is destroyed. In fact, Ulysses can also make copies of himself, some of which have the ability to carry out their own tasks or even take over individuals. Clearly, the full extent of his powers have yet to be explored or revealed.

Klaw’s To-Mute List

Having nursed a hatred for Wakandans and what they had done to his family, Ulysses makes a true enemy of T’Challa after killing his father. Since then, Klaw has made an unrelenting effort to kill the Black Panther and take over Wakanda on several occasions.

However, he has also had continued run-ins with the Fantastic Four—who helped Black Panther defeat him just before he turned into sound—and the Avengers, especially.

But, his foes are not limited only to squads that T’Challa is a member of. Klaw is not a fan of Dazzler for nearly killing him, nor is he partial towards Daredevil for defeating him on more than one occasion.

Horrific Harmony

Klaw’s great-great-great-grandfather attempted to invade Wakanda in the 1800s, losing his life in the process. Ulysses’ father, Fritz, nearly followed in those footsteps as he attempted to learn Wakanda's secrets during World War II; although he failed and escaped with his life.

Less than effective on his own, Klaw has joined more than a few villain teams, like Ultron’s Masters of Evil, the Frightful Four, and the Intelligencia. Klaw has worked with The Wizard so many times that he considers the man family.

Symphony in the Key of “Klaw”

In the 19th century, Klaw’s great-great-great-grandfather, a founder of South Africa, lead an insurgence into Wakanda that ended with himself and all his men dead. This instilled a hatred of Wakandans in Ulysses that came to fruition years later when, as a mercenary, he’d been hired to kill T’Chaka. After succeeding in his mission, though, Klaw in turn made a lifelong enemy of his children who would both go on to become Black Panthers, T’Challa and Shuri.

Ulysses Klaw made his first appearance in 1966’s FANTASTIC FOUR #53 as the source behind mysterious red creatures running rampant in Wakanda. So perplexed was T’Challa that he made his first contact with the outside Super Hero world and invited the Fantastic Four to help. At that point, the sound-obsessed Klaw wanted to get his hands on the Vibranium in the Great Mound.

While the Fantastic Four took on the constructs, the Panther tracked Klaw down to his secret lab where he used a machine to convert sound into moving matter. After Panther toyed with the machine, it exploded, seemingly killing Klaw in the process.

Shortly after, Klaw returned completely made of sound and with a hatred for the Fantastic Four. To exact his revenge, he knocked Thing and Mr. Fantastic out after sealing off the building, then went after the Invisible Woman. He told her that instead of dying in the explosion, he actually climbed into his converter machine.

Ben and Reed quickly figured out how to free themselves and jumped into the fray with the upgraded Klaw. Thanks to some Vibranium bands that T’Challa sent across the world in moments, Mr. Fantastic figured out how to beat and smother Klaw's newfound powers.

Ultron, posing as the Crimson Cowl, broke Klaw out of jail and brought him into the fold of the second Masters of Evil. Their plot to destroy the Avengers worked for a time. In a fit of rage, Klaw unleashed on the Crimson Cowl, but soon cowed to his superior after the boss shrugged off a massive attack from the supposed murderous master of sound. Once freed, the Avengers jumped back into action and Black Panther quickly bested his adversary.

Klaw would spend much of his time aligning himself poorly with other groups. His attempt to restart this group of Masters resulted in a loss at the hands of Valkyrie-lead Lady Liberators. Later, he worked with Solarr to gain control of the Wakandan throne, but once again fell to T’Challa. He even worked with a race called the Sheenareans to steal Savage Land Vibranium, but ultimately lost to Ka-Zar. Even his potentially lucrative team-up with Molecule Man came to a halt when they ran afoul of Impossible Man!

That all paled to his defeat at the hands of Dazzler who used her mutant ability to absorb sound, inadvertently deconstructing Klaw and then using that energy to attack Galactus aboard his own ship. One remaining vibration escaped, soaked into the ship and reconstituted Klaw, but in a more infantile mental state. Doctor Doom later found him like this during the original Secret Wars.

Klaw even let Doom dissect him and turn his body into lenses that would allow the Latverian leader to absorb the power created when Galactus consumed his own home world for more power. After he succeeded in that, Doom also absorbed the Beyonder’s power and made Klaw whole once again. Thanks to some help from Spider-Woman Julia Carpenter, the Beyonder managed to take up residence in Klaw’s mind. Before fully taking control, he played with Doom’s mind a bit and then held his own against all the heroes after getting a power upgrade from Doom. The Beyonder’s essence inside of Klaw came out and reconstituted itself as Doom fought Captain America. Klaw and Doom were then instantly transported away from Battleworld.

After regaining his wits, Klaw joined up with the Frightful Five to attack the Fantastic Four. This group proved powerful enough to defeat the Fantastic Four after accidentally stripping Ben Grimm of his powers. They used their secret fifth member, Aron the Rogue Watcher, to put their enemies down—that is until the de-powered Grimm rescued his teammates. At the end of this wild adventure, Klaw ended right back where he started: in jail.

Since then, Klaw worked with A.I.M. during Acts of Vengeance and even the West Coast Avengers when he realized that Pacific Overlords leader Doctor Demonicus had actually made a deal with some extra-dimensional devils. He also re-joined Justine Hammer's Masters of Evil to battle the Thunderbolts, many of whom were former members of that team themselves. And, of course, he made more plays on Black Panther and Wakanda like the time when Captain America's shield—which is made partially of Vibranium—was fixed incorrectly, resulting in an explosive effect on the world's deposits of Vibranium.

Sometime later, Klaw hatched one of his more successful plots to overthrow Wakanda utilizing the super talents of Cannibal, Rhino, Radioactive Man, Batroc the Leaper, and the Vatican’s Black Knight. Though they initially used the element of surprise to gain the upper hand, Wakanda showed its toughness and pushed back. Klaw attempted to get T’Challa to kill himself in exchange for his captive mother's life, but that also failed. By the end of the conflict, Klaw found himself impaled on the floor thanks to the Panther's efforts.

Having uploaded part of himself to the Internet, Klaw eventually returned and joined back up with the Frightful Four and then had some involvement in the first Intelligencia. He even took on new Black Panther, Shuri, while trying to track down more Vibranium.

At one point, Klaw fought the Avengers and got captured, but one of his soundshadows escaped and, with some help, built a kind of template that Klaw could sense and reform himself around. He created even fainter echoes of himself that wound up capturing Daredevil and built him into that device. The Man Without Fear managed to escape, though, and destroy the antenna in the process.

Once again working with The Wizard, Klaw helped steal Carnage from lock up. The Wizard intended to mentally control the symbiote, but that didn't work, so he bonded it with Karl Mallus to make Superior Carnage. Unfortunately, The Wizard's mind began to fail him and he lost control, which meant Carnage could stab Klaw with a Vibranium spear that blew him up and connected him with the sound wall that connects all things. Klaw managed to intervene once more after Carnage took over Wizard and use the crack of lightning to save his longtime friend.

Klaw would reappear in Hell’s Kitchen as a kind of self-replicating song that could take over anyone who heard it. Daredevil and Echo combated this by getting to the Emergency Broadcasting System and sending out a noise canceling version created by Echo.

Klaw was also revealed as one of the mind-controlled denizens of the unorthodox S.H.I.E.L.D. prison known as Pleasant Hill and continues to make even more trouble for his old enemy Black Panther!