[citation needed] Born Gustav Fiers, the man who would become known as the Gentleman went on to develop a lethal reputation in the criminal underworld, known for conducting elaborate plans to increase his own wealth, involved behind the scenes in various significant events in global history.

[5] Eventually arriving in New York, Fiers arranged for the Chameleon to recruit Spider-Man's enemies Doctor Octopus, Electro, Mysterio and the Vulture to form a new incarnation of the Sinister Six (with Pity as the sixth member of the team).

made contact with George Williams to conduct more research into the Gentleman, Fiers began to buy up various works of art from around the world, also planting a bomb in the Parker household while Peter was absent.

realized that the Gentleman intended to use Electro to trigger the generator and create an electro-magnetic pulse in downtown Manhattan that would have erased all computer records- Spider-Man noting that the need for Electro to power the generator was Fiers' public reason for using the Six instead of more manageable mercenaries, although his private reason was his vendetta against Peter Parker- with Fiers subsequently releasing the contents of the stolen tank from his private plane; a special catalyst that would essentially destroy all ink it came in contact with, erasing all paper records as well as electronic ones.

The resulting loss of information would trigger a worldwide financial collapse, as gang warfare became the only way to survive amid the chaos and destruction caused by the detonation of the generator.

Although the Chameleon-as-Fiers was then confronted by Doctor Octopus – who had deduced that Fiers had an ulterior motive beyond detonating the generator and resented his subordinate position in this current incarnation of the Six – the two villains were caught by Spider-Man and Pity; Electro, Mysterio and the Vulture had all been defeated before they could set off the generator, and Spider-Man had convinced Pity to help him find the Gentleman by pointing out the danger of Octavius's absence given his obvious vendetta against his subordinate position in the current iteration of the Sinister Six (everyone was so focused on Octavius that they failed to register the Chameleon's absence from the fight until they were already on the plane).

Dying of his wounds with nobody to claim his body, Fiers was laid to rest in an unmarked pauper's grave, while the plane carrying most of his new treasures crashed into the sea during the fight between Spider-Man, Pity, the Chameleon and Doc Ock.

Spider-Man and the Chameleon were recovered from the crash, but Octavius merely went missing for a few months after he fell out during the fight, and Pity dropped off the radar, while the bomb that Fiers had planted in the Parker house was found and disabled by Wolverine (who had learned about the Gentleman's return to action but decided that protecting Peter was more important than trying to join an already-efficient team to ensure his own revenge).