| A villain published by Marvel Comics. Doctor Bong was created
by Steve Gerber and first appeared in Howard the Duck #15.
Doctor Bong began his life as an overweight child named Lester
Verde. Verde was often teased by other children because he shopped
in the husky department at Sears and had a low self-esteem until he
found that he could hurt the other children with his words.
When Verde reached college, he majored in journalism. When one of
his journalism professors anger Verde, he created a false story
accusing the professor of dealing in drugs. The story, though false,
caused the professor to lose both his position at the university and
his wife. While in college, Verde also sought to gain the affections of Beverly
Switzer, a fellow student. When she rebuffed his advances, Verde
published stories about Switzer and her boyfriend, that caused their
relationship to become strained. Switzer's boyfriend subsequently
died in a car accident under mysterious circumstances.
When Verde left college, he became a tabloid journalist, but
continued to carry a torch for Switzer. He decided that he would
become a rock musician and then expose the lifestyle in print, gaining
public attention and hopefully Switzer's notice. When he had
become part of a popular band and was preparing to publish his
tell-all piece, Verde revealed to the other members of his band his
plans. A scuffle ensued and Verde lost his left hand to a prop guillotine with
an faulty release. The shock of the loss drove Verde mad and he fixated
on the first thing he saw which was a large bell used by the band.
On that day, Doctor Bong was born!
Verde disappeared for a few years and when he reappeared his left
hand had been replaced with a large clapper and his helmet ws
bellshaped. When Doctor Bong struck his helmet with the clapper, the
resulting sound had a multitude of effects from paralyzing those who
heard to disintergrating the molecular bonds in inorganic matter. Gone was the overweight physique, replaced by a top
physical form. Doctor Bong captured Switzer and her friend
Howard the Duck while they were travelling on a cruise ship. Bringing
them to his island lair, Bong threatened to kill Howard if
Switzer would not marry him. She agreed, but Doctor Bong
performed experiments on Howard, transforming him into a human being
for a time. Howard sought to rescue Switzer and was transformed back
to his original form.
Switzer in the meantime used Bong's equipment to clone Bong and
produced four smaller versions of Doctor Bong. Threatening to reveal
to the world that Bong was a bad father, Switer defeated Bong with
the very weapon he had used years before on others: public opinion.
Bong has not made many appearances since his initial one. He has
battled the She-Hulk when he attempted to break his children's
addiction to Saturday morning cartoons by creating Bong-vision,
cartoons with realistic outcomes. He has also served as a
psychologist for the deranged mercenary Deadpool. | 
