STINGRAY

 

STINGRAY

Real Name: Walter Newell

First Appearance: Tales to Astonish (Vol. 1) #95, September 1967 (as Walter Newell); Sub-Mariner (Vol. 1) #19, November 1969 (as Stingray)

Powers: Oceanographer Dr. Walter Newell designed a unique suit for deep sea exploration. The armored suit, dubbed "Stingray" (which also became his code name while wearing the armor), provides him with exceptional physical powers while wearing it. Most notably, the glider-winged Stingray armor grants him superhuman strength and durability, enables him to function underwater, has limited air-gliding capability, and is equipped with electrical weaponry.

The suit is a reinforced, armored exoskeleton of super-hard artificial cartilage electrically powered, plastic-based, muscle-like tissue. The armor enhances Newell's strength to superhuman level, sufficient to lift up to 25 tons. The armor also enhances his agility and reflexes to athlete levels, augments his speed and stamina to peak human levels, and grants him significantly enhanced durability. The suit's exterior is tough enough to stop bullets at close range, albeit thin enough that the impact of gunshots can still potentially injure Newell to some extent (for instance, a close-range head shot once gave him a concussion). Back-up systems within the armor can repair minor damages as they occur, though the armor needs to be otherwise inert for a few moments during this process. The armor is controlled through a network of sensors close to the skin that follow and amplify the wearer's bodily motions via negative feedback control with the aid of an onboard computer system. The suit is powered by a small, nuclear-powered thermo-electric generator capable of normal operation for several years before requiring servicing.

Designed primarily for underwater use, the Stingray armor is equipped with an oxygen-diffusing system that provides its wearer with breathable air almost indefinitely. Two pairs of mini-turbine impellers located underneath the suit’s wings propel Stingray through the water at high speeds; as of the suit’s last known upgrade, it could travel at a rate of 60 knots (roughly 52 miles per hour) on its low-power setting. The suit’s current top speed at higher-power settings is unrecorded. The suit’s propulsion is strong enough that it can maintain high speeds, even if the wearer is carrying over 500 pounds of additional cargo or passengers. Able to withstand tons of water pressure, the armor can theoretically reach depths of well over 3,600 feet with compromising its structural integrity. The suit’s aerodynamic wings also enable the wearer to glide through air for short distances, particularly when coming out of forceful leaps of dives.

An electrical discharge device built into Stingray’s exoskeleton can emit up to 20,000 volts through the air (up to 30 feet) or water (up to 10 feet), rendering the average healthy male unconscious for about 2 hours. The armor has an internal sonar system and other sensors enabling its wearer to scan its surroundings and track various targets – for instance, a program enabling Newell to analyze and follow the ripple effect left behind by a given undersea quarry. The suit’s mask is sometimes equipped with a special amplifier enabling Stingray’s voice to be heard clearly underwater, and the mask’s interior features a computerized heads-up display that updates the wearer on the status of the armor’s various systems. Filtering and imaging software provides crystal clear vision through the one-way viewscreen of the suit’s face mask, even in the murky darkness of undersea locations. Newell wears a modified wetsuit beneath the armor and carries a short-term oxygen mask, enabling him to function underwater for brief periods without the armor if necessary.

Newell has designed and built a wide variety of high-tech submersible vehicles over the years, such as the “saucer-sub”, which is also capable of flight or hovering in mid-air, equipped with a selectively permeable transparent canopy of “ultra-polystyrone.” Newell also designed the undersea community Hydropolis, a sealed ecosystem covering six acres and capable of supporting various air-breathing life forms beneath the seas, including up to 500 varieties of plants, animals, and insects, The community’s protective biosphere is composed of porous thermal glass able to maximize heat obtained from minimal sunlight, though most of the community’s energy is gathered from geothermal vents and tidal generators. Hydropolis contains multiple distinct environmental habitats, recreating portions of the all the world’s various ecosystems, such as rainforests, savannas, marshlands, and oceans. Artificial rain is produced within these environments via condensers that extract water from outside the city. Newell has also used the artificial island Hydrobase as a mobile floating base of operations, though in its current modified form it resembles a huge conventional sea vessel. The entire Hydrobase structure can flip itself vertically to become a freestanding instrument platform, submerging much of the vessel beneath the water. While in this mode, Hydrobase can link up with Hydropolis, enabling the movement of people and materials from one structure to another.

Dr. Walter Newell holds a Ph.D. in oceanography. An exceptionally gifted intellect, he is an experienced oceanographer, an accomplished scientific researcher, and a skilled inventor of experimental oceanographic equipment. He is particularly adept at the design and construction of submersible vehicles and undersea architecture. He has also been trained in unarmed combat, marksmanship, first aid, and other skills by Initiative instructors.