Humanimals

Inspired by the New Men of High Evolutionary, Melodia Stillwell and her husband Jeremy created the Gene-Splicer technology that could merge a human and any animal into a single Humanimal form, retaining the intelligence and the rough proportions of the human, while also gaining the appearance and the ability of the animal.^[2] The animals themselves would be fused into the new forms on the deep genetic level.^[1] The Stillwell set up the base on their Farm in Westchester County, miles away from civilization, and began experimenting on unwitting subjects. After transforming kidnapped victims into grotesque animal forms, the Stillwells would present them with an ultimatum: work as slave labor in various roles around the Farm, or refuse and be disposed of. Those who disobeyed Melodia's instructions or otherwise displeased here were brutally murdered as well. The Humanimals were also stripped of their former names, only referred by numbers for their first year, and by a new moniker that evoked their animals forms after. They were kept in line by the promise of eventual return to their human form, but this was a lie: the reverse procedure never worked, as became apparent when Melodia's attempt to turn her husband Jeremy back into a human correctly separated his body from that of an owl, but switches their consciousness, trapping Jeremy in an owl body and vise versa.^[2] Both of Jeremy's forms were kept in highest secret away from the other Humanials,^[3] as years of attempts to fix his condition had no effect.^[2]

Left to run things on her own, Melodia, now "Madame Monstrosity", became highly secretive and protective of her work. Her sons Farley and Harlan both became notable scientists and attempted to use their mother's technology for themselves, only to meet their demise shortly afterwards. Shannon fared better than her brothers, avoiding her mother's wrath by sticking to other areas of research.^[4] One of Melodia's subjects, dubbed Number Five, produced unique results.^[5] Dubbed Spider-Boy, he could evolve and devolve his form at will, changing his appearance back to that of a regular human while maintaining the strenth and abilities of the spider. Before Madame Monstrosity could figure out his secret, Spider-Boy escaped with the help of Spider-Man and became his sidekick for the next three years. Eventually he was erased from existence by the Totem Dagger, which erased both memories others hand of him and all physical evidence of his existence.^[6] Madame Monstrosity had already invited the High Evolutionary to present her breakthrough, but not seeing the subject he was informed about, High Evolutionary left in deep disgust.^[5]

Spider-Boy was eventually restored to life, but the memories of others and physical evidence of his past life was not.^[7] His heroics as Spider-Boy caught Madame's attention, as she immediately recognized her creation, yet had no memory of making him.^[4] She became obssessed with him, eventually locating the genetic remains of his component beings and fusing them together into Spider-Boy opposite: Boy-Spider.^[8] Able to extract Spider-Boy's memories from his counterpart, Madame Monstrosity uncovered his civilian identity was able to capture him alongside his friend Christina Xu.^[5] She merged Christina with a pigeon and dropped her with other Humanimals on the farm, which proved her undoing.^[2] Using her newfound ability to understand and speak with pigeons, Christina had them deliver a message to Spider-Boy's mentor Spider-Man, who in turn was able to call on the Avengers.^[3]

Soon, a Quinjet delivered Thor, Captain America, Squirrel Girl, and both Spider-Men at Stillwell Farm. Madame Monstrosity ordered the Humanimals to attack them, while she spliced herself with multiple animals at once, transforming into a huge, dragon-like creature. Spider-Boy revealed to all Humanimals that they were being lied to about their chance to be restored to normal, turning them away their former master. The Monstrosity was teleported away by the High Evolutionary, to become a test subject herself.^[3] Back at Stillwell Farm, Spider-Man had figured out what she could not: the way to reverse the splicing process. Most Humanimals were finally restored back into their original forms, with the animals separating from the humans. However, this new procedure still could not reverse the non-standard transformations, like those of Spider-Boy and Boy-Spider, Jeremy Stillwell and Hellifino, who was merged with two animals instead of just one.^[1]