Hodges was a long time friend of Mike Morgan, but was secretly, jealous of Mike Morgan's intelligence and successful career. At some point, he started coveting Mary Michaels, Morgan's fiancé, so he orchestrated a laboratory accident, which he believed would be fatal, that would take him out of his way. He eluded the same fate by using the pretext of a budget meeting, so as to justify his absence in the time of the accident. However, he did not intend for Mary to be present in that moment either. Hodges believed the radiation would kill Morgan and anyone else present, but instead he, Mary, and fellow scientist Stewart Lowe were instead transformed into metahumans. Nevertheless, he sold all of them out to the military, to use them as weapons.