Upton was an employee of Xavier Mace, also known as the Black Dragon. While committing crimes for the Black Dragon, Upton was equipped with a type of body enhancing exo-skeleton that Professor Reisenbach noted had been the subject of a University Research paper that Tom Swift Sr. had written at Princeton back in the 1960's. . Unfortunately, after botching a break-and-enter of Fenton Hardy's house in Bayport, New York, the Black Dragon had Upton executed.