Beetle | |
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Spider-Man: Web of Doom #3 featuring the second Beetle armor and the version most associated with the name Art by Shawn McManus |
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Publisher | Marvel Comics |
First appearance | Strange Tales #123 (August 1964) |
Characters | Abner Jenkins Leila Davis |
The Beetle is the name of two comic book characters owned by Marvel Comics who exist within the fictional Marvel Universe. It is also the name of the three versions of high tech armor used by five separate characters. The original and most well known Beetle is Abner Jenkins (who has also used the alias, MACH-1, 2, 3, IV, and currently MACH-V).
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Publication history
The first version of the Beetle armor debuted in Strange Tales #123 (August 1964) as the creation of Abner Jenkins. This version would only be used for a few years before the character switched to the second version, which is the armor most associated with the name. This version would be in use until Thunderbolts #1 (April 1997) when Abe Jenkins alter ego was changed to MACH-1.
A new version of the Beetle armor debuted in Thunderbolts #35 (February 2000). This version resembled a walking tank and would be used by Jenkins and Leila Davis, the second person to use the Beetle identity. This version was crushed by Graviton, killing Davis, who was still inside at the time.
After Leila Davis' death the Beetle armor would go unused until Thunderbolts #103 (August 2006) when all three versions were stolen and used by three college students. How, why and exactly when the third version of the armor was rebuilt was not made clear. The individual names of these characters were not revealed.
Fictional character biography
Abner Jenkins was born in Baltimore, Maryland.
Criminal career
Abner Jenkins was a master mechanic at an aircraft parts factory who became dissatisfied with his boring, low paying job. Using his considerable mechanical knowledge, Jenkins built an armor-plated, strength-augmenting suit, a pair of gravity-defying wings, suction-fingered gloves, and a cybernetic control helmet. Calling himself the Beetle, Jenkins decided to use his battle-suit for fame, wealth, and adventure. Believing a victory over half the Fantastic Four would make him an overnight sensation, the Beetle chose to lure the Human Torch and the Thing into battle. However, the Thing and the Torch defeated him, and he was sent to prison.[1]
Paroled a short time later, he sought revenge on the Torch, but found himself in battle with Spider-Man instead. Once again, with help from the Torch, he was defeated.[2] Upon his release, he decided to forego petty revenge and concentrated on the acquisition of wealth. At one point the Beetle was mentally dominated and recruited by the Collector to serve as his unwilling agent. Under the Collector's domination, the Beetle faced the Avengers.[3] He battled Daredevil[4] and then, allied with Gladiator, fought him again.[5] The Beetle also battled Spider-Man again.[6]
He later became a member of the group of supervillains who briefly posed as the Defenders in order to confuse the authorities and earn a bit of public trust.[7]
Losing every battle against costumed crime-fighters and failing to accumulate very much wealth, the Beetle offered his services to underworld financier Justin Hammer, who kept various superhuman criminals on retainers. His offer accepted, the Beetle was dispatched against the original Iron Man, as part of a battalion of costumed criminals. His Beetle armor was severely damaged by Iron Man during the fight.[8] Beetle was one of the villains that attacked the Fantastic Four during the Acts of Vengeance.
Jenkins then invested all of the capital he could acquire into the modification and refinement of his Beetle armor. With the assistance of the Tinkerer, he produced a new battle-suit with far greater capacities than his old one. Before launching his comeback, the Beetle recruited the criminal Ringer to put Spider-Man through his paces. The Beetle wished to study Spider-Man's fighting style and program it into a computer system so he could anticipate his opponent's moves. Despite his preparations and new battle-suit, the Beetle was again defeated by Spider-Man.[9] He was later freed from prison by Egghead who recruited him for his Masters of Evil organization. The Beetle and other Masters of Evil were defeated by the Avengers and arrested.[10]
Justin Hammer then commissioned Beetle, Blizzard II, and Blacklash to kill Clayton Wilson, but Iron Man defeated them.[11] Soon thereafter, Beetle battled Iron Man again, but this time all portions of the Beetle's battle armor using Stark technology were fused.[12]
The Beetle organized his own team of super-villainous mercenaries called the Sinister Syndicate. The team ran afoul of Spider-Man[13][14] and Silver Sable, and later imploded due to internal conflicts.
As a member of the Thunderbolts
When most of Earth's costumed adventurers, including the then-core membership of the Avengers and Fantastic Four, seemingly died battling Onslaught, Baron (Helmut) Zemo recruited Jenkins and a number of other villains to trick the world into believing they were heroes called the Thunderbolts. Jenkins adopted the guise of MACH-1. Zemo's plan ultimately failed, but Jenkins and other members decided to try making the Thunderbolts a legitimate team. When Hawkeye took over the group's leadership, he convinced Jenkins to serve out the remainder of his prison term as a show of good faith to the public, but another criminal used the guise of the Beetle to frame him. While at Seagate, Jenkins coped with resentment and occasional assaults from other super-criminals and refused a chance to participate in a mass escape organized by his old employer Justin Hammer. Instead, Jenkins foiled the breakout, an act which brought him to the attention of the government's Commission on Superhuman Activities (CSA). They recruited Jenkins to participate in a sting operation aimed at Hammer. Jenkins agreed, using a newly-designed armor to operate as the Beetle once more. The activities of the new Beetle attracted the attention of the Thunderbolts. Fearing the CSA might not honor the terms of their bargain, Jenkins fled CSA custody after completing the operation and rejoined the Thunderbolts. Hawkeye blackmailed the CSA into allowing Jenkins to remain free, even though the government's records would list Jenkins as still being in prison, in exchange for keeping the CSA's exploitation of Jenkins' secret.
Jenkins created the MACH-2 battle-suit after modifying his MACH-1 armor with the aid of Techno (a robot based on the Fixer, who was then posing as Thunderbolts' machine-smith Ogre). Techno also altered Jenkins' physical appearance using "dermaplasty" technology since the public was not supposed to know MACH-2 was Abner Jenkins, and the mischievous Techno had some fun at Jenkins' expense by giving him the features of an African American. While this change made his girlfriend Songbird uneasy for a time, Jenkins himself adjusted quickly and reestablished himself as one of the team's most confident and capable members.
When the Thunderbolts uncovered and thwarted a CSA-connected conspiracy to exterminate all superhumans, Hawkeye blackmailed the CSA into giving the Thunderbolts full pardons in exchange for the group's silence; however, CSA agent Henry Peter Gyrich insisted that he would not go along with the deal unless Hawkeye went to prison for his technically illegal vigilante activities as a member of the Thunderbolts. Hawkeye agreed, despite the protests of his teammates, and surrendered to federal custody. Most of the rest of the Thunderbolts, including MACH-2 and Songbird, were pardoned and released. However, as part of the terms of their deal, they were forbidden from public use of superhuman powers or costumed identities. MACH-2 and Songbird turned their equipment over to the authorities and started new civilian lives in the town of Burton Canyon, Colorado as Abe Jenkins and Melissa Gold.
Ironically, Jenkins found himself employment with the Burton Canyon police department as a tech support specialist. Unfortunately, their quiet lives were shattered when the super-criminal Graviton launched his latest attempt at world conquest in Burton Canyon, imprisoning the world's superheroes and reshaping the planet in his own image. Despite their reluctance to risk their newfound freedom, Jenkins and Songbird agreed to join Citizen V (secretly Baron Zemo controlling Citizen V's body) in attacking Graviton as part of a new team of Thunderbolts. Jenkins was given new armor provided by Citizen V's financiers, the V-Battalion, and called himself MACH-3. Graviton was defeated and the world was saved, but MACH-3 and the other Thunderbolts disappeared in an implosion created by the dying Graviton's power, with the exception of Songbird, who appeared left behind as the sole survivor.
On Counter-Earth
On Counter-Earth, the team continued to band together, searching for a way to return to their own world and beginning to establish themselves as the leading superheroes of the troubled Counter-Earth.
After a failed attempt to escape to the real Earth, the team entered into an uneasy alliance with their original leader, Baron Zemo, in an ongoing effort to save Counter-Earth from the various ills plaguing that alternate world. The Thunderbolts went on to revive the flying city of Attilan and populate it with refugees and survivors of the war-torn and nearly-destroyed world. The Thunderbolts became renowned for their heroism and efforts to solve the world's problems. They were hailed by many to be the world's saviors. Nevertheless, Jenkins appeared to be going through the motions; his heart being elsewhere as his relationship with Songbird was thought to be lost.
On Counter-Earth, Zemo's Thunderbolts had encountered the effects of a white hole spawned from an abandoned spacecraft, as its engine's radiation began eating Earth from the inside. The Thunderbolts embarked on a plan to combine their powers to punt the alien ship off the Earth and sever the link between the worlds. However, in order to complete this plan, the Thunderbolts needed to be inside the engine-spawned void in order to keep it clear of the real Earth as it closed. By so doing, they would reemerge from the void on the real Earth, forfeiting their roles and place on Counter-Earth. Emerging from the void, the Thunderbolts encountered their former teammates Hawkeye and Songbird, who had formed their own version of the Thunderbolts, who were similarly engaged with the void from the real Earth's counterpart of the spaceship. The two teams of Thunderbolts combined forces to plug the void and shunt the alien ship from Earth. Jenkins' reunion with Songbird was short-lived. Despite their feelings for each other, Jenkins left Songbird, once more remanding himself to police custody to serve the remainder of his sentence.
Back on Earth
For six months, Jenkins had been a model prisoner at Parsons Minimum Security prison in Illinois. He has since had his skin and face changed back to his original appearance, and has resumed contact with Songbird. Abe was recently approached by the Avengers on finding if they had been staying legit despite their suspicions. Abe told them they would have to stop Baron Zemo before he launched Project: Liberation, but that Moonstone was the one to really worry about. After Moonstone revealed her plans, Abe had Jolt contacted to help the Avengers and Thunderbolts stop her.
Following the conclusion to the battle, Abe was finally paroled from jail and made an announcement that he was reforming the Thunderbolts and that any former villains or super-powered individuals who wanted a second chance would be allowed to join. He found himself the group's leader and lover to Songbird. Things continued to go crazy when the Thunderbolts kept being put into tough situations as Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker threw new challenges to keep them busy, including adding Speed Demon to the team as a spy and allowing Fathom Five to attack New York City. Things finally came together when Abe revealed he always intended to take down Strucker. They succeeded in defeating HYDRA's scheme to destroy all of Manhattan, but Strucker managed to escape. Currently, Abe is dealing with the status of his team being city heroes again.
Dark Reign
While in the midst of perfecting the new Mach-V armor, Abner and the Fixer are approached by their old teammate Songbird, who was on the run from Norman Osborn. Abner agreed to assist her in any way he could, and the two kissed before she departed.[15]
Powers and abilities
Abner has no superhuman powers, but has extensive knowledge of mechanics and engineering.
As the Beetle, Abner designed and wore a suit of full body powered armor that granted him superhuman strength and durability and artificial winged flight. The suit's gloves contained pneumatic suction-grippers, enabling him to cling to walls or lift things with his fingertips. The suit could also create an electrostatic energy discharge referred to as the "electro-bite". On the back of the suit are a set of ultra-tough mylar wings powered by super efficient micro-motors which enable him to fly. Antennae built into the suit's helmet allowed reception and ultra-efficient conversion of microwaves, providing the suit with a constantly-replenishing power supply. A mini-computer built into the chest-plate feeds data to heads-up displays in the helmet, providing him with constantly-updated tactical analysis of his opponent's movements.
As MACH-I through MACH-IV, Abner designed a new suit of power armor which granted superhuman strength, durability, and flight as the Beetle suit did. This new suit contains a variety of different weapon systems, however, instead of the insect-themed powers of the previous armor.
Other Beetles
Leila Davis
The second character who used the Beetle idendity is Leila Davis (who also used the alias Hardshell). Leila is at first the wife of the late Anthony Davis. After Anthony is manipulated by Abner Jenkins (the original Beetle) into a life of crime (which included multiple conflicts with Spider-Man), he is eventually killed by the anti-hero Scourge. Leila swears revenge on all three of them. She joins the Sinister Syndicate (a team led by Jenkins), in order to get close to him. She also serves as the group's getaway driver.[16]
Once Boomerang was captured by Spider-Man on the group's first mission, she began dating Speed Demon. Eventually, the Shocker engineers a breakout for Boomerang and the team fractures, with Boomerang, Rhino, and Leila (using her husband's old weapons) battling the Beetle, Speed Demon, and Hydro-Man in the middle of New York City.
After attempting to kill the Beetle, Leila is disarmed by Spider-Man and arrested along with Jenkins and Boomerang.[17]
Sometime later, she is paroled from prison and immediately went back to her old ways. Donning a new red and black suit of weaponize armor and referring to herself as Hardshell, she allies herself with Boomerang, Rhino, and the Vulture. The group became involved in a massive fight that also involves Stegron, Doctor Octopus, Swarm, the Answer, Jenkins, and Spider-Man, with each party trying to gain control of a highly experimental gun. Spider-Man eventually stood victorious and most of the costumed criminals are taken into custody. Leila is teleported away by her husband Anthony, who had been turned into the cyborg Strikeback by the criminal organization 'Advanced Idea Mechanics'.[18]
She reappears years later taking on the Thunderbolts (the superhero team a reformed Jenkins helped found), ironically now referring to herself as 'the Beetle'. She is wearing a tank-like exoskeleton painted in the same paint scheme as both of Jenkins' previous Beetle costumes—a new iteration of the Beetle armor which Jenkins himself had designed while working for the Commission on Superhuman Activities. As the second Beetle, she eventually joins the group known as the Redeemers, which actually includes several former members of the Thunderbolts. The group takes on the powerful super villain Graviton, who would nonchalantly use his power to crush the Beetle armor into a small cube.[19]
The three Beetle suits
Three college students stole the previous incarnations of the Beetle armor during Marvel's Civil War event[20]. The individual piloting the first version was called Joaquim and the person in the second version was revealed to be female. No other information was revealed about them in their subsequent appearances in Thunderbolts.[21] No individual code names were given to them either. In those issues which made up a storyline named the "Guardian Protocols", they defend the city of Dallas against a plot by the Grandmaster as members of an enlarged Thunderbolts team recruited by Baron Zemo and consisting of numerous supervillains. When the Overmind lets the full power of the Wellspring (the source of power the Grandmaster is using) loose when he attempts to revive Baron Zemo, the defenders of Sydney and Dallas are overrun, with the three Beetles presumably among them.
In 2007, the three Beetles were identified among the 142 registered superheroes who appear on the cover of the comic book Avengers: The Initiative #1. [22]
Other versions
Marvel Zombies
Abner appears alongside the Thunderbolts in the Dead Days one-shot of the Marvel Zombies miniseries wearing an early version of his MACH suit, and alongside the rest of the group is seen attacking first Thor and then Nova. He is quickly killed by a blast of flame from the Human Torch.[volume & issue needed]
House of M
Abner Jenkins is a scientist secretly working for the Human Resistance (along with Erik Josten) who is part of an elite sapien military unit the Howling Commandos and Jim Sanders. The three, along with General "Dum Dum" Dugan, are attempting to create a chemical weapon to wipe out all the Kree on Earth, so the humans can strike an alliance with the Shi'ar to overthrow the House of Magnus.[volume & issue needed]
Ultimate Beetle
The Ultimate Marvel version of Beetle debuts in Ultimate Spider-Man #124. Spider-Man first finds him stealing a sample of the Venom symbiote from the Roxxon company. After the brief confrontation, Nick Fury tells Peter Parker not to get involved with the S.H.I.E.L.D. investigation. Beetle breaks into the building that Venom is held in and Venom chases after him after Beetle slices off one of his symbiotic tentacles. Upon cornering Beetle, Venom is attacked by Spider-Man. When Venom seizes Beetle with his tentacles, Spider-Man saves Beetle who escapes. After Eddie Brock becomes Venom again, Beetle captures him and ships him to Latveria.[23]
In other media
The Beetle has made numerous appearances outside of comic books. Most of these happened when Abner Jenkins was the only character using the name and it is assumed that he is the character in the armor.
Television
- The Beetle appeared in the 1980s Saturday morning animated series Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends voiced by Christopher Collins. The Beetle stole a crime-detection computer and the Power Booster invented by Tony Stark to increase his power. He was the first villain that the Spider-Friends faced together in that origin episode.
- The Beetle made a brief appearance in the Iron Man animated series of the mid-1990s, during the "Armor Wars" two-parter, in which he was attacked by Iron Man and had his armor - based on stolen Stark designs - deactivated. He is voiced by John Reilly with a Liverpudlian accent that evokes the similarly-named band.
- The Beetle will appear in The Super Hero Squad Show voiced by Carlos Alazraqui.[citation needed]
Video games
- Beetle appears in both the SNES and Sega Genesis of the Spider-Man: The Animated Series video game.
- The Beetle was the first boss in the 1995 Super Nintendo game Spider-Man: Lethal Foes, a game only released in Japan.
- The Beetle played a minor role in the sequel to the Spider-Man game for the PlayStation, Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro voiced by Daran Norris. He worked for Hammerhead and only appeared in cut-scenes making him the only villain not to appear as a boss character.
- In the Ultimate Spider-Man video game the Beetle (voiced by Tucker Smallwood) makes his Ultimate continuity debut, acting as an agent for the Latverians, collecting genetic information from superhumans to allow them to genetically engineer super-soldiers. The notable actions he took in the game were stealing a vial of sand (which it is implied the Ultimate Sandman has a connection) and freeing Green Goblin. He also battled Spider-Man shortly after freeing the Green Goblin and stealing the Sandman vial, but escaped by ducking into the nearby Latverian Embassy. Concept art in the special edition of the game shows Beetle giving the Sandman vial to Doctor Doom. Beetle is later sent to capture a sample of the Venom symbiote. Venom eventually chases and defeats the Beetle.
References
- ^ Strange Tales #123
- ^ Amazing Spider-Man #21
- ^ Strange Tales #27-28
- ^ Daredevil #33-34
- ^ Daredevil #140
- ^ Spectacular Spider-Man #16
- ^ Defenders Vol. 1 #63-65
- ^ Spectacular Spider-Man #127
- ^ Spectacular Spider-Man #58-60
- ^ Avengers #228-229
- ^ Iron Man #223-224
- ^ Iron Man #227
- ^ Amazing Spider-Man #280-281
- ^ Deadly Foes of Spider-Man #1
- ^ Thunderbolts #134
- ^ Thunderbolts #56 (2001)
- ^ Deadly Foes of Spider-Man #1
- ^ Lethal Foes of Spider-Man #1
- ^ Thunderbolts #48
- ^ Thunderbolts vol. 1 #103 (August 2006)
- ^ Thunderbolts #104, 107 and 108
- ^ Avengers: The Initiative #1 Character Map
- ^ Ultimate Spider-Man #128
External links
- Beetle (disambiguation) at the Marvel Universe
- Beetle at the Marvel Database Project
- Leila Davis
- Abner Jenkins at Marvel.com
- Profile at Spiderfan.org
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