His first recruit was a minor circus mentalist named Chondu the Mystic. Chondu had engaged in sorcerous combat before, losing badly. He jumped at the chance to join Nagan’s group, if only to gather expendable allies.

Jerry Morgan, a research pioneer in cellular biology, was attempting to recreate Henry Pym’s shrinking gas independent of the Pym particle. His experiments achieved success, but at a terrible cost: Morgan’s experiments shrank his skeleton and internal organs to a height of four-foot-three, but left his skin grotesquely oversized. Embittered by his deformity, Morgan gladly joined Nagan’s Headmen.

Ruby Thursday’s origins are much less well known. She joined the Headmen in the middle of their first confrontation with the Defenders and the alien known as Nebulon, the Celestial Man. Ruby’s head had been somehow replaced with a globe of organic circuitry with a vast array of unusual powers.

The Headmen were ambitious enough to seize the world, and realistic enough to realize that the body of a gorilla, minor mystical powers, shrinking gas, and a plastic head were insufficient for a direct physical take-over. Instead, Nagan used his business skills to enter into politics and high finance. The Headmen captured the Defenders, and Nagan rearranged their brain patterns slightly, so that the Defenders would subconsciously act in the Headmen’s political interests. Ruby made a play as a popular candidate for public office. Morgan’s shrinking gas was being peddled to the Indian government as a solution to overpopulation. Due more to Nebulon’s interference than any resistance the Defenders could muster, the Head men were defeated and sent to prison.

During their struggles with the De fenders, the Headmen realized that they needed more physical power. Nagan and Morgan combined their genetics and surgical skills to create a monstrous form for Chondu. Chondu did not appreciate this, and went berserk. In an attempt to ameliorate Chondu’s tortured existence, the Headmen recently attempted to transplant Chondu’s head onto a headless clone of the She-Hulk. This plan was foiled by Spider-man and She-Hulk, and the Headmen have been returned to custody.