gremlin

gremlin

The culprit to blame when something goes wrong with hardware or software. Gremlins are mythical, ill-behaved creatures, and "a gremlin did it" is a joke when nobody knows what caused the problem. See gremlin drone.

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Gremlin

(pop culture)

The super-scientist known as the Gremlin, a formidable foe of the Hulk and Iron Man, first appeared in the Steve Englehart–scripted, Herb Trimpe–drawn The Incredible Hulk vol. 2 #163 (1973). A misshapen boy genius who inherited augmented brainpower from his Soviet mastermind father, the radiation-mutated Gargoyle (the Hulk's first adversary from the hero's 1963 first issue), the Gremlin—whose grotesque, balloon-headed appearance came from his father's altered genes—operated from his secret base in a frozen Russian wasteland. Following in his father's footsteps, the Gremlin, funded by the Soviet government, designed the high-tech armor worn by his strike force, the Super-Troopers, who proved a worthy threat to the superstrong behemoth Hulk. The Gremlin's principal weapon was his damage- resistant battlesuit of titanium armor—hence his alternate name, Titanium Man (though not to be confused with the original Titanium Man)— which magnified his strength to superhuman levels, enabled him to fly, and from which he could project devastating energy blasts. At the end of his comic-book run, the Gremlin was attacked by Iron Man, who believed that the Gremlin's Titanium Man armor incorporated some of the stolen designs for Iron Man's own metal gear. In a battle with Iron Man, Titanium Man/Gremlin died when his armor jets ignited and exploded (Iron Man #229, 1988). Although the Gremlin hasn't appeared on TV, the Gargoyle, renamed “the Gorgon,” was seen in a “Hulk” episode of the 1966 The Marvel Super- Heroes animated series. Under the name the Gargoyle he was also in The Incredible Hulk animated series (1996–1999).

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