Grey Gargoyle's History
Early Life
Dr. Paul Duval, a young chemist working for a pharmaceutical company in Paris, accidentally spilled a potion contaminated by some unknown organic substance on his right hand. To his dismay, his hand began to turn to stone-like material still capable of movement. Accidentally touching his other hand, he found that he could transform his entire body into the stone-like material. He also discovered that any matter he touched also turned to stone.
Grey Gargoyle
Mercenary by nature, Duval decided to exploit his bizarre power for personal profit and turned to theft, quickly becoming one of France’s most accomplished criminals as the Grey Gargoyle. When he became bored with lack of challenge to his crimes, he decided to travel to America and wrest the secret of immortality from Thor. He was twice bested in combat by him.
He was among the many costumed menaces assembled by Doctor Doom to disrupt the wedding of Reed Richards and Susan Storm.
He returned to what had proved more successful in the past-- pure mercenary endeavors. His first attempt was to steal a new cobalt-powered weapon from Stark Industries, and he was actually successful after transforming Iron Man’s battle armor to stone. Iron Man returned when the Gargoyle’s power wore off, stopping the villain by destroying the machinery he hoped to abscond with.
Later, an attempt to acquire the deadly compound dubbed "Element X" went horribly wrong. He was confronted by Captain America, the Falcon, and Nick Fury, cornered, and accidentally shot into space.
The Gargoyle found himself trapped aboard a satellite in Earth’s orbit, where the subversive scientific organization A.I.M. rescued him. On their behalf, he joined their efforts to launch a satellite with heavy weaponry, fighting Captain America and Spider-Man, but was accidentally rocketed into space once more.
In deep space, he was retrieved by the Bird of Prey, a pirate starship whose crew members were of various alien races. Ever out for himself, the Grey Gargoyle forced himself into command of the ship.
The Bird of Prey encountered the starship Starjammer, used by Thor, Sif, and the Warriors Three in their adventure to the Doomsday Star. The Gargoyle had the heroes captured and conscripted to join the crew for slave labor. The heroes' ally, the Recorder, not only helped his friends escape but started a mutiny among the crew against the Grey Gargoyle. When the rebellion grew out of control, the Grey Gargoyle professed to want to join Thor in order to return to Earth. However, at the height of the battle, the Gargoyle tried to flee and seemed to have died in a violent explosion.
In fact, Duval survived by creating a stone-like cocoon around himself. Using the cocoon to travel through space, he managed to return to Earth, where he immediately battled the Avengers. In the process, his cocoon was destroyed, and he was taken into police custody.
Spider-Man stopped Grey Gargoyle, Jonas Harrow, and Armand DuBroth from breaking out of prison.
Grey Gargoyle teamed up with Doctor Octopus to battle Iron Man.
Masters of Evil
Duval was soon freed by the fourth Masters of Evil organization, whose goal was to destroy the Avengers, but following a defeat at the hands of the Wasp and Black Knight, he was again returned to jail.
Paul St. Pierre
Having broken out, Duval embarked on a unique plan. He created an artistic persona, Paul St. Pierre, and became a successful and highly sought-after sculptor. In fact, his statues were real people, transformed by his power and sealed with a special polymer compound that would make this change permanent. His plot was uncovered when Tony Stark attended his gallery, and he exposed the Gargoyle.
Acts of Vengeance
The Grey Gargoyle was broken out of prison again, this time to join several master criminals in a coordinated attack on various heroes and sent to battle the Hulk. At the time, the Hulk possessed a gray alter-ego, and this confused Duval, who had thought that the Hulk had turned to stone but nonetheless kept moving. The Hulk summarily defeated the Gargoyle, breaking his arm, and left. He was then sent to the Vault.
Grey Gargoyle was one of the many villains who later tried to escape the Vault.
Doom's Brigade
The Grey Gargoyle continued to be a recurring villain in the lives of many heroes, which included the likes of Captain America and Spider-Man as part of Doctor Doom's "Doom's Brigade," and later fighting She-Hulk.
The Thor War
Zarrko pulled enemies from out of the Timestream including Gargoyle to fight Thor and Beta Ray Bill. The Grey Gargoyle attacked Beta Ray Bill but Duval was smacked away by his enchanted hammer.
Auction
The Grey Gargoyle was one of numerous villains invited by the Brass Bishop and the Chess Set to an auction located inside an abandoned airstrip. The Chess Set wanted to auction the bodies of Auric, Silver, and a government scientist named Hedison after they obtained a highly potent cocktail of energies after the Sphinx imploded within the Target Technologies. The auction was interrupted by Alpha Flight and Spider-Man. Grey Gargoyle was taken down when Heather Hudson absorbed Klaw's emissions into her battlesuit and returned it back to her enemies. The Grey Gargoyle was apprehended and sent back to the Vault.
Fantastic Force
Code: Blue needed some assistance with the apprehension of the Grey Gargoyle so Duval came into conflict with the Fantastic Force and was apprehended after Psi-Lord used his telekinesis to isolate Duval from potential targets. Code: Blue placed the Grey Gargoyle in special cuffs and took him away.
Oscorp Break-in
Molten Man came to Matt Murdock's law office looking for help regarding break-ins at Osborn Chemicals; Daredevil reunited with the Black Widow to take on the culprit, Grey Gargoyle.
Gideon Trust
Later, Duval, somehow recovering from his previous encounter, was contacted by the Gideon Trust, a business executive board interested in using technology developed by the Fantastic Four for their own purposes. They bade the Grey Gargoyle to attack the Thing, in a sort of initiation to their employ. The Gargoyle seemed successful in turning the Thing into non-living stone, but he was defeated by the remaining members of the Fantastic Four. In addition, the Thing was able to break free of the Gargoyle’s power as it kick-started his ability to transform into his human alter-ego and back again at will.
Search for Immortality
Paul returned to his initial goal of searching for Thor's secret to immortality when the death of a childhood friend affected him significantly. He attacked Thor’s associate Tarene, and actually managed to defeat her, leaving her for dead and stealing her magical hammer. Proclaiming himself to now be like a god, the Gargoyle was immediately confronted by Desak the God-Slayer who was searching for Thor. Desak defeated the Gargoyle with ease.
Big House
He was next seen serving time at Pym Experimental Penitentiary Number One alias the Big House, a prison that kept its super-powered inmates miniaturized, and participated in a breakout led by the Mad Thinker only to be thwarted by She-Hulk. He was transferred to the Raft, only to escape during a blackout caused by Electro.
He was kept at the Raft for a long time. He later became involved in the mass jail break.
Spider-Woman
He resurfaced later, attempting a hit on an unidentified movie studio executive, but was beat up by Spider-Woman, and then slammed into a car by Ms. Marvel, but apparently escaped shortly afterwards.
Dark Reign
Recently, Grey Gargoyle was defeated by Tempest and Wondra from the latest incarnation of the New Warriors, and was subsequently shrunk down to the size of a candy bar using stolen Pym particles and left for the police. He was then taken into custody by the NYPD. He managed to break out shortly afterwards, and attended a meeting hosted by The Hood. After inviting Moonstone to dinner he told her he knew she was the Ms. Marvel for Osborn's team, and the other members were also former criminals. He then went on to rant about how he was not taken seriously when he wasn't offered membership, to this and a number of other teams.
Lethal Legion
Grey Gargoyle was recruited in the Grim Reaper's Lethal Legion. They attempted an assault on Norman Osborn during his time as leader of the Initiative, but failed. The team later battled Hawkeye. After they were captured, Paul shared the identities of the Dark Avengers with his lawyer, but it was not the team's real identities.
Attacking Asgard
Grey Gargoyle, still on a quest for immortality, attacked Thor and Asgard to learn their secrets.
Fear Itself
When the Serpent was freed by Skadi, he called seven hammers to Earth. Grey Gargoyle was transformed by one of these hammers, becoming Mokk, Breaker of Faith. In a rampage through Paris, Mokk was responsible for thousands of deaths.
He battled Iron Man, Detroit Steel, and Rescue until the Serpent summoned him for the final battle. When the Serpent was killed by Thor, Mokk's hammer was taken from him as well as the hammers of the other Worthy, freeing Gargoyle and the others. He was imprisoned by Tony Stark in a containment unit made for Hulk. The chaos he wrought in Paris was partially restored by Odin, who turned back to normal the "statues" that weren't destroyed.
Sins Rising
The Grey Gargoyle joined Count Nefaria's incarnation of the Lethal Legion when the villain mastermind reassembled the team to help him find a new source of power in the Catalyst, a device created by Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. After raiding the Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. Facility to kill the scientist who discovered it and prevent his knowledge from being shared with anybody else, the Lethal Legion attacked a public demonstration for the Catalyst taking place at the Empire State University. The attack was interrupted by Spider-Man, but he was overpowered by the villains.
The Lethal Legion was ultimately stopped by the vicious vigilante Sin-Eater, who shot each member of the Legion and Nefaria. However, due to his new supernatural nature, when the Sin-Eater killed the Lethan Legion, he also stole their powers. This process also returned Duval and the rest of the villains back to life, filled with a new-found sense of repentance for their crimes. They were all transferred to the Ravencroft Institute, where they became model patients. After the "sins" accumulated by the Sin-Eater were transferred into the Order of the Web and then they were expunged from this corruption, they went back to their original hosts, causing the Grey Gargoyle to regain his powers and return to his normal self.
When the Sin-Eater's master, the demonic Kindred twins, enacted their final attack against Spider-Man, they used their powers to pull into their service an army of super villains, including the Grey Gargoyle, due to his involvement in the Sin-Eater's rampage. They participated in a battle royale for Spider-Man's head until Doctor Octopus freed himself and the other contestants from the Kindreds' control.
