[3] The character debuted in Dark Horse Presents #80 (December 1993) in a story titled "A Monkeyman & O'Brien Adventure: Tortorus".
Missing for two years, Professor O'Brien left his daughter Ann and her assistant Akiko Oki living in his palatial Bay Area estate.
Ann's amoral half-sister Oniko (who left the family 15 years earlier to join a mysterious criminal enterprise) and her two henchmen invade the estate to take it over.
The sisters have a brawl in an unused dimensional transportation chamber, and Ann accidentally hits a button that kicks off a "life form retrieval beam."
She frets a little about the ongoing growth spurts (wasting plenty of money on clothes that become too small in 24 hours), but finally settles in at seven feet tall and 250 pounds.
Her new strength, size, and knowledge (from working alongside Tiberius) transform O'Brien from an estate manager to a renowned and fearless adventurer.