Tyler Stone

Tyler Stone is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Fictional character biography

Tyler runs the Alchemax Corporation, one of the largest corporate powers in the dystopian 2099 future of Earth. When one of his promising young employees, Miguel O'Hara, develops a troubling conscience over testing on humans, Stone has him secretly addicted to the highly potent drug 'Rapture', that he, of course, controls, to force his compliance.^[1] Miguel's successful efforts to rid himself of the addiction create several spider-based powers.^[2] Stone hires the corporate mercenary Venture to capture O'Hara, now known by the name Spider-Man. At the same time, Stone is making deal concerning Tiger Wylde, the current ruler of Latveria. The deposing of said ruler also affects the first few issues of the series "Doom 2099". Venture does not succeed in his assignment.^[3]

Stone arranges for one of his employees — the assassin and Stark/Fujikawa Corporation field operative known as "The Specialist" — to kidnap Kasey Nash in order to lure Miguel (as Spider-Man) into battle.^[4] The Specialist was an expert martial artist, trained as a samurai warrior, and highly proficient with various martial arts weaponry. However, during the battle with Spider-Man, his throat was accidentally slit as Miguel discovered his new powers included talons.^[5]

Stone then fired Public Eye Sgt. Rico Estevez, and reported the failure of his plans to the Alchemax CEO.^[6] Stone conferred with Mr. Hikaru of Stark-Fujikawa,^[7] and then conferred with Dana D'Angelo.^[8] He then plotted against Spider-Man 2099 and Stark-Fujikawa.^[9] Soon after that, Stone encountered Thanatos for the first time.^[10] Thanatos later disrupts Stone's interdimensional piercing program; chasing after an amnesiac super-powered being that becomes swept up in the events. Tyler and his girlfriend Dana are assaulted and kidnapped in the course of this adventure.^[11] It is later detailed that Thanatos is a corrupted version of the heroic Rick Jones, longtime associate of the Hulk.^[12]

Dealing with his son

Tyler's son Kron Stone, chronically neglected and physically abused by the family's robot nanny (it believed him to be a dog for a time), grew up to be an amoral murderer. His serial killings take the lives of Jake Gallows' extended family, resulting in his transformation into his era's Punisher.^[13] Kron, like many other rich people, has the ability to simply purchase his way out of any legal punishment and does so. This does not save him from death at Jake's hands.

Tyler interrupts his holographic observation of the Alchemax undersea colony rebuilding (Atlanteans had damaged it). He accepts the ashes of his son from his assistant Winston; then flushes them down the toilet.^[14]

Tyler and Kron appear in various flashbacks in the 2099 series that deals with Miguel's education. In one story, he gets into a verbal sparring match with Miguel after Kron is accused of attempted murder.^[15]

Kron returns to life through interaction with an alien symbiote. Tyler attempts to have him slain again but is outmaneuvered.

For a time, the Doctor Doom of this period takes over America and reveals that Tyler Stone is not the true power in Alechemax, it is Avatarr, a mysterious alien being. In a fit of rage, Doom kills Avatarr.^[16]

Miguel later infiltrates Tyler's building. He unexpectedly overhears his own mother conversing with Tyler. He then hears he is actually Tyler's son.^[17]

Later, Miguel becomes head of Alchemax. He hires his own mother as his personal secretary. Around this time, she shoots and severely wounds Tyler, forcing him to utilize a hover-chair. During his recovery in the hospital, Tyler learns his love, Dana, had been killed; the murderer turns out to be his son Kron.^[18]

His other son

Tyler realizes his son has returned to life due to interacting with an alien symbiote. He attempts to have it slain but is resisted by the science team overseeing the symbiote's prison cell. Miguel then overrules him. After the funeral of Dana, whom both Miguel and Tyler had slept with, Tyler attempts to bully Miguel, saying he will be reclaiming his office on the next day. Tyler claims this will be done because he is Miguel's father. The man knows this already and has Tyler removed by security.^[19]

During Tyler's many attempts to regain control over the company, he recalls it was Mrs. O'Hara who shot him. She again pulls a gun but Miguel takes the weapon. Tyler states he has always known O'Hara has been Spider-Man. Miguel fires three shots. It is revealed Tyler was utilizing a holographic projection. When questioned on if he knew it was projection before firing, Miguel says "I hope so." ^[20]

Dying himself

Undersea invaders rampage through New York as revenge for Alchemax threatening to remove them from the city of New Atlantis. The leader, Roman, flooded the city of New York,^[21] and summoned the monster Giganto, who had originally appeared decades ago.^[22] This starts an evacuation of the city. Tyler Stone is shot to death by General Dagin of the Atlantean Army. Mrs. O'Hara also perishes in the conflict.^[23]

Stone's Mars Colony, called 'Project: Ares', becomes one of the last two outposts of humanity, the Savage Land being the other. This is detailed in the series 2099: World of Tomorrow.^[24]

Connections to Earth-616

Tiberius "Ty" Stone is one of Peter Parker's fellow employees at Horizon Labs and has been mistakenly referred to as "Tyler." Viewed as a mistake, writer Dan Slott changed "Tyler" to "Ty" in collected editions. It is eventually revealed that Tiberius will, in fact, be the father of Tyler Stone, and by proxy, the grandfather of Miguel O'Hara.^[25] Tiberius Stone had previously appeared in Iron Man issues, circa 2000. He had appeared as a rival and former friend of Tony Stark where he is now attempting to conquer the Earth with technology called "Dreamvision".

In Superior Spider-Man #19, Tyler Stone himself travels to the present day Marvel universe where he traps Miguel there.^[26] He returns in Spider-Man 2099 vol. 3 #12, revealed to be the mastermind of the terrorist organization, the Fist.^[27]

Powers and abilities

Tyler Stone is an otherwise normal man with a gifted intellect but no superhuman powers. He is an accomplished business administrator with an advanced degree in Business administration, and is a skilled planner. For some time he has had full access to the advanced technology of the super-corporation Alchemax.

Other versions

Timestorm

In the re-imagining of the 2099 universe called 'Timestorm 2009-2099', Tyler maintains most of his original story; Miguel's half-brother becomes the future Scorpion instead of the future Venom. Alchemax is the de facto ruler of all of America. Stone sends Jake Gallows, a version of Punisher 2099 back to the 'Heroic Age' to murder modern day heroes. However this disdain for said heroes proves his undoing. Gallows overhears Stone insulting the Asgardian Thor and murders him for blasphemy. In the fatal blow, Stone kills Gallows as well.^[28]

Secret Wars (2015)

During the Secret Wars storyline, the Battleworld domain of 2099 has Tyler Stone whose legitimate son is Miguel Stone. Both of them are the current heads of Alchemax. Now confined to a wheelchair, Tyler is being a major influence on the now much more insidious Miguel.^[29] While 2099's versions of the Avengers and the Defenders were fighting Martin Hargood (the 2099 descendant of Baron Mordo), Miguel was taking his father Tyler to a safe room where he revealed to have hired the assassin to kill Roberta. This revelation enraged Miguel, who threw Tyler out of a window in a fit of rage.^[30]

References

External links

• Tyler Stone at Marvel Wiki
• Tyler Stone at Comic Vine