[4] Thomas was a noted user of retroactive continuity in his work for Marvel, notably on the World War II-set series The Invaders.

Part of the inspiration was due to a relative dearth of Marvel Universe characters between the mid-1950s cancellation of most of Atlas Comics' superhero titles and the beginning of the company's Silver Age in Fantastic Four #1.

[6] Marvel Premiere was considered a 'try-out' book - successful features such as Doctor Strange and Iron Fist had previously been promoted to their own titles.

[8] The character then did not appear in print for 15 years, before resurfacing in Avengers Forever #4 (1999), which established the events of What If #9 as taking place in an alternate reality.

After another period out of the limelight, the character returned in the 2008 Secret Invasion: Skrulls one-shot, which would lead to Triathlon taking on the 3-D Man mantle in Avengers: The Initiative #14.

He crashed the XF-13 in the Mojave Desert and when his younger, crippled brother Hal attempted to rescue him, Chuck disappeared, and was believed dead.

When Hal wore the glasses and concentrated, he triggered a dimensional shift that caused Chuck to materialize into a three-dimensional existence.

[12] At some point after his 1950s adventures Hal Chandler decided to stop functioning as 3-D Man and left his brother floating around in another dimension.

[14] Tremont and the Understanding then drained the tri-power from a captive Hal and empowered Triune member and disgraced former Olympic athlete Delroy Garrett, dubbing him "Triathlon".

[15] Though initially unaware of his powers' source, Triathlon later discovered both the truth and the third light pyramid, and during the events of the Kang War used the combined might of all three "tri-powers" to defeat both Tremont and the other-dimensional evil, release Hal and Chuck from captivity, and restore Chuck to a separate human form - Garret retaining the powers of 3-D Man.

[16] After Garrett underwent and completed Initiative training at Camp Hammond, he officially took on the identity of 3-D Man with the Chandlers' blessing, including Chuck passing on his original costume and goggles.

Donning the goggles awakened one of the original 3-D Man's powers in Garrett: the ability to perceive Skrulls in their true form, even when in shapeshifting disguise.

The 3-D Man wore a specially designed NASA flight suit (circa late 1950s), altered in appearance and bonded to his skin.

In What If #9, FBI agent Jimmy Woo brought the 3-D Man together with several other heroes, including Gorilla-Man, Human Robot, Marvel Boy, and Venus, to form the 1950s Avengers.