THE INTRIGUING STORY OF ASBESTOS MAN

An average Marvel Comics fan knows this plot. A mad scientist is conducting some crazy experiments. Something happens and, don’t you know it, they miraculously (or magically?) gain some superhuman power. And of course, what they do with these new found abilities is another matter entirely.
Asbestos Man is one of such characters. Back in the late 40s, when Marvel Comics was known as Timely comics, it created a timely fictional super-villain character that got their super power from asbestos. This character was known as Asbestos Lady. We will get to why this character was timely later.
For Asbestos Lady, also known as Victoria Murdoch, villainy didn’t come after the power. She was already a bank thief. To prevent being captured, she used fire effectively. And to protect herself? You guessed it – asbestos!
Asbestos Lady developed a special suit using woven asbestos and an internal cooling system. It worked! Taking things further, and in an attempt to keep her main adversary, Jim Hammond, The Original Human Torch away, she kidnapped a well-known “Asbestos Scientist” named Fred Raymond to help her in upgrading her suit.
The new suits didn’t just offer better asbestos insulation. It also shoots asbestos bullets. Here is where things took the wrong turn. Remember the scientist Fred Raymond? Well, all that experimentation with asbestos got to him and he became sick. Eventually, Asbestos Lady landed in jail.
Now, the story gets more interesting.
Two decades later, Marvel decided it is time to create another villain with a craze for asbestos. You know how people tend not to learn from history but end up repeating the same mistakes made by others in the past? Well, here comes Asbestos Man!
Anyway, this “world's foremost analytical chemist" named Dr. Orson Kasloff decided that his works weren’t getting all the recognition they deserved. Turns out the real inspiration was money – lots of money. With neither recognition nor wealth, he decided to go dark.
To make this work, Kasloff worked with a substance he developed, called “Super-Asbestos”. This wasn’t your everyday asbestos. It is a mixture of Chrysotile asbestos, iron, and calcium. The new substance was so powerful, Kasloff used it in creating a suit, shield, and energy net.
Now, with all these, Kasloff is not just fire resistant, but also bullet proof. Guess what he did with all that power. Straight to the bank! He started robbing banks and also decided to challenge the new Human Torch. You know, anything for that recognition. Oh, of course, he landed in jail too. What do you expect?
That is not the saddest thing about these two. Even though the both stayed off the limelight until the 20th century, where they reappeared on separate comics, they didn’t last all that long.
You see, all that exposure to asbestos got to them too. They both were diagnosed with mesothelioma and would later die as a result. Looks like Asbestos wasn’t all “protective”, after all.
 
The story of this two characters is a really interesting one – and timely, at that. It was at a time when research started to publish the findings of the negative effects of exposure to asbestos and its carcinogenic properties. However, with all their resources, large asbestos manufacturing companies made sure these facts didn’t see the light of the day.
However, facts might be stopped, but fiction couldn’t. By creating these two characters, Marvel successfully brought awareness of the real danger of the exposure to an audience that would have missed it. In the late 70s, this danger was proved and asbestos from banned from public exposure.
Great job, Marvel!

Thanks to Ian Cull and Jordan Thomas for bringing this story to my attention.  Lee