When Infinite Man first battled the New Men in Africa, he generated a mutagenic plague which was intended to destroy Dr Saul Numen, and while the attack failed, the plague was not entirely cleaned up in the aftermath. A family of chimpanzees contracted the mutagenic disease and suffered terribly. When Balthasar Numen discovered that the plague had shifted to the primates he alerted his family who quickly swung into action and created an antidote. However, many of the chimpanzees had perished. Those who remained were taken to the capital Abuja where Saul Numen hastily set up a clinic to treat them.

Twelve months later and only two chimpanzees remained alive: Pan and Pandora. A side effect of the mutagen was that both chimpanzees developed higher functioning brains and long after Dr Saul Numen turned his attention away from these creatures they decided to take matters into their own highly dextrous hands.

They realised that humans would never be able to save the chimpanzees' dwindling population because they were so easily distracted. Pan and Pandora realised it would fall to them to take the salvation of their species on to the world stage. They began to track the activities of Dr Numen and realised that he had great respect across the globe as well as great wealth. Added to these were his uber powers and close-knit super family. Pan decided to emulate Numen, but to use the influence such things brought in a way which benefited the primate world.

He discharged himself from the clinic and together with Pandora set out to visit Gorilla City which had always been a kind of myth. He was greeted cordially by the cautious King and spent many months in the vast libraries and halls of knowledge. During his stay he met again with an older Balthasar Numen who was in the City to work with a British spy, Agent Ape. Balthasar remembered Pan and spent some time with him. The boy was friendly, but didn't seem to grasp the enormity of the chimps' situation. He was too brash, too comforted by the wealth and power of his family.

Pan and Pandora left Gorilla City with enough knowledge to establish their own 'New Men', although with obvious differences. They returned to Nigeria where they ventured into the dwindling forests. Pan called together a modest number of chimpanzees and spent hours talking to them about the coming dawn.

None of the chimpanzees seemed particularly worried about their lot in life, and in fact, many of them showed fear when faced with Pan's unusual behaviour.

It was Pandora who drew Pan back to the city. She counselled him that the way to salvation lay in the humans' world. If they were serious about saving their species they would have to engage in human affairs. She liked his idea of forming a super hero team, but suggested he employ humans. Pan was initially disgusted, but then saw the benefits. Humans were, after all, easier to manipulate than other primates. They were drawn to the power of money and luxury and fame.

So Pan began to scour the countryside of Nigeria for likely candidates, and while the country had a very large population he only found a handful of uberhumans, and of that group he could only persuade two to join his team. Nonetheless, he and Pandora trained them in the use of their powers and covertly set up their organisation. They were very cautious about releasing information too early.

With the advent of Africa Force, Pan thought that their plans would have been thwarted, but once again Pandora counselled him. Africa Force was an international peace keeping force, dedicated to helping mankind with no thought of financial reward. Their team, however, would service those people or organisations which had the finances to pay for their help. And she said that there would always be those who had more money than sense.

Again, Pan agreed.

In 2005, Pan addressed the people of Nigeria via a television broadcast. he had already become a public figure through his strategic 'humanitarian work' at the local hospitals and clinics, and now he used that image to propel his super hero team onto the international stage. He unveiled the 'Next Gen' super heroes while Pandora simultaneously launched their organisation on the internet and across the world with offices in London, New York and Johannesburg.

The Next Gen were immediately hired by the government of Nigeria to assist with security around their oil production: something which Pan had predicted months earlier. The team swept into action and quickly eradicated the loosely organised groups of saboteurs. They were then swamped with work from small scale rescues of family members who had gone missing in London and Abuja, to security work protecting valuable museum exhibits in Spain.

As the work increased, the money continued to flow in, and Pandora even began to branch out into sponsorship deals. Soon Next Gen was a household name across most of the world, and their bank accounts were overflowing. Pan had set up the membership of the team with clear employment contracts, so while the company earned a lot of money, individual members only saw a fraction of the plunder. Still, they didn't seem to mind.

Pan has big dreams but has to deal with humans in order to see any of them come to fruition, and that really frustrates him. He was initially hopeful of employing young chimpanzees in his quest to secure a better future for his species, but soon realised they lacked the world perspective or power to assist him, so he regretfully turned to humans. Apart from momentarily bouts of blatant prejudice against humans, Pan is a friendly and intelligence being. He enjoys conversation and fine wine, and is fast becoming a world celebrity.

He and Pandora have been through some very trying times together, including the eradication of their family. The siblings have a very close relationship which will never be broken, especially by the humans. Sometimes Pan believes that he would never have come so far without Pandora, and he is right. Despite their best efforts, they have yet to have children. The disease which swept through their family has made them infertile. As the years progress and the Next Gen company makes more and more money, Pan is looking into ways that he can reverse this condition and produce a worthy heir for his nascent empire.

"I always say, if you can't get a good chimpanzee to help you out, there are always the humans."

Since being exposed to the mutagenic plague released by the mad man Infinity, Pan and his sister Pandora have developed incredibly astute brains, putting them at a genius level intellect. They are shrewd business-primates as well as imaginative problem solvers, and they use these abilities to fine tune their super hero team as well as their growing international organisation.

Pan is a chimpanzee standing at a little under one metre, but looks taller when he dresses in human clothing. While he prefers his natural appearance, he does realise that humans prefer to do business with clothed beings, so both he and Pandora have long since adopted the habit of wearing tailored clothing. When he joins the Next Gen team as Professor Pan he wears an armoured costume which has a dark green band across the top covering his shoulders and upper chest, with a white band covering the rest of his torso, and dark green trunks and pants.