Real Name:
Moreau (first name unrevealed in original novel)
Identity/Class: Normal human
Occupation: Geneticist
Affiliations: Dr. Montgomery, Speaker of the Law, Beast Men
Enemies: The puma man
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: His island
First Appearance: The Island of Dr Moreau (1896)
Powers/Abilities: Skilled biologist and physiologist.
History: Apparently born in the late 1820s, scientist Dr. Moreau became well known in scientific circles for his extraordinary imagination and his brutal directness in discussion; he viewed the pursuit of knowledge over morality, and engaged in vivisection experiments, discovering valuable new medical information regarding blood transfusions and morbid growths (warts, tumours, etc.) Looking for sensation, around 1876/1877 a journalist infiltrated Moreau's London laboratory in the guise of a lab assistant, then published an inflammatory pamphlet entitled "The Moreau Horrors." Spurred on by a press campaign run by the journalist's cousin, the then-fiftysomething Moreau was hounded out of England. He set up a new home and lab on a South Pacific island, where, with the help of his assistant Dr. Montgomery, he continued his studies, eventually transforming a variety of animals into near-human hybrid creatures. However, they had to be strictly governed by the Law composed by Moreau, as they had a tendency to slip backwards into bestial behaviour, especially if they ate flesh or tasted blood. In February 1887 Moreau gained a guest in the form of shipwrecked traveller Edward Prendrick, who was hauled out the sea on to the trader Ipecacuanha, which was carrying Montgomery back to Moreau's island after a supply-procuring trip. Prendrick soon learned of Moreau's work, accepting it despite recognising the cruelty involved. After Pendrick had been on the island for a little while, a puma Moreau was transforming escaped; when Moreau pursued it, he was mauled and killed.
Comments: Created by H.G. Wells.
There have been three film adaptations of the Island of Dr. Moreau. In 1932 Charles Laughton played Moreau in The Island of Lost Souls, which also starred horror icon Bela Lugosi (better known for his portrayal of Dracula) as Sayer of the Law; the movie renamed the Prendrick character Edward Parker. In 1977 Burt Lancaster portrayed him in The Island of Dr. Moreau; this version of the story gave him the first name Paul, and renamed Prendrick as Andrew Braddock. Marlon Brando played the most recent incarnation in the 1996 version; again, Prendrick got renamed, this time becoming Edward Douglas.
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Moreau has also turned up in various novels and comics. Marvel's High Evolutionary bears many traits in common with Moreau, notably his creation of New Men from various evolved animals. In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume II he is working quietly in the English countryside producing his beast men (all of whom resemble characters from children's literature, such as Rupert the Bear or Mole, Ratty and Badger from Wind in the Willows); identified as Alphonse Moreau, his beast men work is tolerated by the government because he is also working on hybrid diseases - germ warfare - for them, and when the Martians invade, it is one of his creations which brings down the invaders.
In Dark Horse's Van Helsing: Beneath the Rue Morgue, a tie-in with the Van Helsing movie, monster hunter Gabriel van Helsing discovers Moreau working in the sewers beneath Paris, using Griffin's formula to turn one of his beast men invisible. Moreau also turns up in Kim Newman's novels Anno Dracula and The Bloody Red Baron; in the first, he is working with Henry Jekyll, while in the latter he is assisted by H.P Lovecraft's Herbert West.
CLARIFICATIONS: Not to be confused with
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any other mad scientists
Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.
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