Growing up in a military family, Stewart Ward was a black ops operative for the CIA and was assigned a top secret mission to uncover a HYDRA alien project with Arthur Stacy and the Ranger. The mission went bust after it was revealed that Ward was helping HYDRA with the project to use the powers of the alien race known as the Z'nox (who had been banished to the Negative Zone by the X-men and Fantastic Four years earlier). HYDRA was using a type of virus that could create Z'nox/human hybrids that would allow them to return to Earth. Arthur and the Ranger were able to over load one of the generators and Ward was contaminated by the virus and left to die. However, he survived but was suffering amnesia from the attack. He eventually quit the CIA and ran for office but working with HYDRA on the side. For some reason, yet unknown, several of Spider-man's rogues gallery found out about Ward's secret past and tried to manipulate his powers. During a battle with the Sinister Six, Ward's memories and powers were unleashed and during Maximum Security, Ward tried to have Earth invaded by the Z'nox until the Ranger overloaded his powers with his batons and Ward and the Ranger both melted into a pile of nothing. The Z'nox returned to the Negative Zone as a result.