He designed this suit to study ocean life. Introduced in Tales to Astonish #95 (167), Dr. Walter Newell is a brilliant oceanographer, a scientist that studies the ocean and the life in it. He helped design an underwater dome that was used to grow food. However, this was attacked by the Plunderer, with the help of Tiger Shark, but this was stopped by Namor and Lady Dorma. He then designed his signature suit to study ocean life but was forced to use the suit to capture Namor. He would later let the Atlantean escape and would later meet Namor’s friend and Tiger Shark’s sister, Diane Arliss. Diane and Walter would later begin dating and eventually married, with four kids.

He would later battle the Hulk and would later be seen with other heroes in a fake recruitment drive for the Defenders. He would later team up with The Thing to fight Roxxon and prevent them from getting the Serpent Crown. Stingray and his wife would become caretakers of the Hydrobase and when the Avenger were prevented from launching their Quinjet in the city due to complaints from the FAA, they offered the base to the Avengers. During Iron Man’s armor war, he was attacked by the armored Avengers, who believed Newell was using Stark Tech in his suit. Iron Man defeated them but learnt that Newell wasn’t using Stark Tech, something which shocked Iron Man into thinking his methods were wrong.

During Acts of Vengeance, Newell tried to defend Hydrobase from a horde of Doombots, but the island was destroyed and sunk into the ocean. When the Avengers moved to their new base, Newell was given Avengers membership before aiding Namor a few times and joined Namor’s Deep Six team with Tiger Shark, Lady Dorma, Triton and Tamara Rahn. He would later be called to help the Avengers, first to fight against Morgan Le Fay and later in fighting against Kang conquest of Earth, when Attuma decided to aid the conqueror. During the Civil War, he helped Cap’s side before Cap’s surrender where he registered with the Government.

After the Secret Invasion, he was given the position of state hero of Hawaii. He later helped fight against Nerkkod, a Serpent empowered Attuma. He would later join a team that would aid an inverted Dr. Doom from being attacked by Scarlet Witch, who had been turned evil during Axis. He was then hired by Deadpool as part of his Merc for Money team, but he was acting as a spy for Cap. He would leave the Mercs with the rest of the team when they discovered Deadpool was skimming their money. He was later seen fighting Tiger Shark, before the pair was attacked by Namor. Namor used his powers to set sharks upon Stingray, leaving his old friend near death.