Obadiah Stane was the son of Zebediah Stane, a drunkard who was a failure in making a career for himself. One night, when Obadiah was only a child, his father returned to the hotel room where they were staying, having just won a great deal of money gambling. Apparently overjoyed, the elder Stane told Obadiah that his luck had changed, and to prove it, Zebediah played Russian roulette with himself, loading a single bullet into a gun, spinning the chamber, and then firing the gun at his head. The elder Stane thus killed himself with his first shot, traumatizing young Obadiah. Later, Obadiah decided that his father had realized that the world was his opponent against which he could not succeed, and had therefore intentionally committed suicide. Now orphaned, Stane was raised in a succession of foster homes.

By his eighth birthday, Obadiah Stane was completely bald as a result of the shock of witnessing his father's death. Ridiculed by his classmates for his baldness, Obadiah became introverted. He became fascinated by games of chance, especially chess. Obadiah believed that life was itself a game at which his father had lost, Obadiah determined that he himself would never lose at anything.

One of Stane's fellow students at his school, Bernie Devlin, was a better chess player than he. Devlin bested Stane in the penultimate match of a school chess tournament. The winner of the next game would win the tournament. Stane secretly slit the throat of Devlin's beloved dog, Ruffer, and hid the dog's corpse in Devlin's school locker. After finding Ruffer's body on the day of the final game. Devlin was so distraught that Stane easily won the tournament. This episode was the first major example of Stane's use of psychological warfare in order to get what he wished: Stane would discover his opponent's weakness and then exploit it. Stane became an international chess champion while in his teens.


SCULPTED BY TOYMANCUSTOMS ARTIST SHERWYN LAZAGA AND PAINTED BY JUMBO!!!!