In Tibetan village of Death's Head a female assassin with bestial fangs named Zola and a brutish man named Mei Ting lived for many months on a mountain house, eventually throwing themselves off the mountain once their son, the Claw, was born. The ugly baby grew up into a hostile person, eventually he was forced into a reform school where he was shackled. Over time her grew in size and strength, eventually breaking himself free and slaughtering everyone around him.

A chunk of mass blew off the planet Zylmarx and was hurtled towards Earth. It streaked over New York and landed in Tibet, far from civilization. For almost four years, the crater remained untouched. There were faint rumblings in the Earth, recorded on seismographs all over the world, but they were not considered unusual. Unknown to humanity, something was slowly developing within the meteor towards its awful birth... And then, early in 1939, the ground split open and out of the crater emerged a horrible sight... The Claw!

The ruler of the Pacific island nation of Ricca, the Claw is the ultimate villain, often called the God of Hate by his own people. The Claw's activities were apparently monitored by an Infernal supervisor and he could travel down into Hades to request aid. To keep his minions loyal he would subject them to addictive blissful dreams in their sleep for initiation and force nightmares upon them if they failed. The Claw's most commonly used power was his ability to make himself any size he wishes via a chemical emitted by his body, and he usually maintained a height of at least 100 feet.  He towered over Manhattan when he first came to the U.S., where he would encounter his greatest foe - Daredevil. He was strong enough to pick up a train or rip the roof off of a building and he could not be killed by conventional firearms or even dynamite, though, being somewhat cowardly, he would usually retreat when he experienced pain. His regenerative capabilities spawned from his black blood allowed him to completely heal his hand in seconds after being shot by a battleship cannon as long as his neck vein was intact. After he was revived by devil worshipers as Green Claw he could emit heat waves hot enough to dissolve bullets and melt metal upon physical contact and emit hypnotic waves capable of temporarily shrinking his enemies. He had other ill-defined abilities as well which seemed to depend on the phases of the moon including emitting lightning and hypnotic bolts from his hands, forming whirlpools around him, and altering the weather at the global level during full moons. After absorbing the shock of an electric chair during a prison execution he gained the ability to stretch his limbs thousands of feet and read minds. He was served by a small army of human henchmen such as Sans and by his goblin-like Clawites. His castle hideout in Tibet varied from issue to issue, but usually had a skull motif and in Daredevil issue 24 it was revealed to be named Mount Destruction.

Over the years, the Claw faced a number of opponents, which included (in chronological order) - Jerry Morris, Major Carl Tarrant, Daredevil, the Ghost and Rocky X. The Ghost was the longest-running opponent of them all, fighting the Claw for twenty issues. In early appearances he wore a green cloak, but as time went on he switched it to a red one. The Claw was seemingly killed numerous times, but he always managed to come back as he sold his soul to Lucifer. Among Claw's many mechanical creations included red submarines for ship hijacking called Leech Boats armed with a carbon monoxide hose, a train-like submarine with each car armed with a roof turret cannon called the Mammoth Undersea Mobile Fortress, a Radio Finder that could locate anyone, an army of humanoid robots, a drill tank armed with a pair of shell cannons and a roof gun turret called the Boring Machine which could burrow from Tibet to America in two months, a generator that could amplify his lightning to melt an entire city, a rifle called a Drug Gun that could shoot down planes and emit knockout gas, and speedboats that were armed with a large gun on the bow.

Claw left Earth during WWII by tricking the Nazis into building him a rocket. He went back to the planet Zylmarx and for decades built up an invasion force to conqueror Earth, notably with a new shroud that had the Chinese character representing the Han dynasty. His plans are foiled by Rocky X and his allies and he was exiled to the Arizona desert where he was monitored by Earth's government.

*Boy Comics #5
*Boy Illustories #89-93
*Captain Battle Jr. #1
*Captain Battle Junior #2 (as "The Green Claw") Reprint
*Daredevil Battles Hitler
*Daredevil Comics #1-31
*Silver Streak Comics #1-2, 6-11
*Silver Streak Comics #6 (as "The Green Claw)

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claw_(Lev_Gleason_Publications) Wikipedia]
*[http://www.toonopedia.com/claw.htm Toonopedia]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20200813013432/http://free-universe.myartsonline.com/Claw.html Free Universe (Archived)]
*[http://projectsuperpowers.wikia.com/wiki/Claw Project Superpowers Wikia]
*[https://comicvine.gamespot.com/the-claw/4005-6647/ ComicVIne]
*[https://www.comics.org/character/20787/ GCD]
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