Origin

The Elements of Doom are a team consisting of living elements that take over a Russian nuclear plant and needed more human specimens to recreate all the elements from the periodic table. The Avengers come to the aid of the Russians as they were flying over Soviet airspace. They land at the Russian nuclear plant and come across the first element Vanadium. Wonder Man would smash through Vanadium's body and then the rest of the Avengers enter the plant. They see four more elements- Carbon, Phosphorus, Chlorine and Radium inside so a battle ensues. The Elements of Doom are interested in the Avengers and wish to make them into specimens. Captain America orders a strategic withdrawal when the element Chlorine unleashes a poisonous gas. The Falcon realizes the Wasp is missing and goes back to get her but he is knocked out by Vanadium. Apparently he reassembled his atoms after Wonder Man's attack and brings back the Falcon as a potential specimen.

The Wasp tells Captain America she was knocked out for a bit after inhaling some of Chlorine's gas. When she awoke she saw Phosphorus place a Soviet technician inside a machine. The man's atoms were rearranged and was transformed into another element- Cobalt. They wanted to recreate all the elements known to man and they had the Falcon. Ms. Marvel and the Beast would use the laser cannon from a tank to destroy the fusion reactor while the rest of the Avengers saved the Falcon. The laser blast splits the fusion reactor and exposes its molten core. The Elementals are caught in a hot rain of nuclear plasma and the thermonuclear mixture of electrons and charged atoms swiftly breaks down their atomic structures.

Creation

The Elements of Doom were created by Bill Mantlo, John Byrne, Daniel Green and Frank Springer in 1979 and first appeared in The Avengers # 188.

Story Arcs

The Elements of Doom would reappear a few years later and battle the Thunderbolts in New York. The man who originally created the Elements of Doom was a scientist named Dr. Vasily Khandruvitch who was placed in jail after recreating them in the United States. The Elements of Doom are recreated one year later by AIM and would battle the Avengers once again in St. Louis. AIM contacted Dr. Khandruvitch in his cell by hologram and asked him to help re-create the Elementals but he refused. The AIM hologram told Dr. Khandruvitch if you are not with them then you are against them and for his refusal, he would be silenced by his own creations. The Avengers would battle the Elements in St. Louis while Captain America and the Jack of Hearts flew to a federal prison near Philadelphia where Dr. Khandruvitch was detained. An Elemental known as Platinum attacked the prison as he attempted to kill his original creator. Jack of Hearts engaged Platinum while Captain America went to see Dr. Khandruvitch. The scientist provided Captain America the schematics needed to shut down the Elements. Destabilize the crystalline structure of their brains and the Elementals would lose coherence and dissolve. Captain America gave the schematics to Jack of Hearts and told him to get to St. Louis as fast as he can. The Beast, Wonder Man and Iron Man took the schematics and created a chemical destabilization cannon from salvaged components from the wrecked Quinjets and supplies from onboard labs. Jack of Hearts blasted the Elementals with the cannon and shut down their brains. The Elementals could not maintain their humanoid shapes and all that was left was a bunch of decomposing goop.