MINDWORM

 

MINDWORM

Real Name: William Turner

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #138, August 1974

Powers: William Turner was born a mutant with an enlarged head, piercing eyes, and a psychic vampirism. His mutant power drained psionic energy from thoughts and emotions of anyone within close proximity to him, gaining nourishment that invigorates him. Prolonged siphoning will cause death to his victim. William also possessed telepathy, allowing him to read minds, mentally draw people to him and command them, unleash waves of mental force, invade dreams, inflict brain damage, and erase memories. He had limited telekinesis and cold levitate his own body a few feet from the ground.

ALISTAIRE SMYTHE

 

ALISTAIRE SMYTHE

Real Name: Alistaire Alphonso Smythe

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man Annual (Vol. 1) #19, August 1985

Powers: A baseline human with no superhuman powers, Alistaire Smythe is the son of Spencer Smythe, inventor of the robotic Spider-Slayers which were designed to capture and unmask Spider-Man. Spencer grew obsessed with killing Spider-Man, leading to his desertion of his family and eventual death. Grief-stricken and increasingly unstable, Alistaire blamed Spider-Man for his father's death. He eventually gained employement from the Kingpin, using his resources to invent a new generation of Spider-Slayers.

A self-taught genius in robotics and cybernetics, his knowledge enables him to re-create and upgrade his father's inventions and develop many of his own (including over a dozen variations of the Spider-Slayer. After suffering a paralysis, he invented a super-powered carapace that restored his mobility. While encased in his cybernetic carapace, he possessed superhuman strength (Class 10), speed, durability, as well as claws, talons, limb barbs, extendable "fangs" from his shoulders, and web shooting arms.

MENDEL STROMM

 

MENDEL STROMM

Real Name: Mendel Stromm

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #37, March 1966 (as Mendel Stromm); The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #411, May 1996 (as Gaunt); Civil War II: Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #3, August 2016 (as Robot Master)

Powers: Mendel Stromm is a genius roboticist and chemist. He currently exists as a cybernetically enhanced head on a robotic body; his body's capabilities are unrevealed. He formerly wore a harness that allowed him to control his robots mentally; the harness is now part of his cyborg implants. The prototype Goblin formula allowed Stromm to survive a massive heart attack, albeit in suspended animation. While in this state, however, his body decayed, leaving most of his organs useless. After his regeneration, he apparently became able to heal fully from fatal wounds; he presumably still has this ability in the limited amount of organic tissue he retains. Stromm's prototype battle armor possessed enhanced strength (lifting 15 tons); his second battlesuit possessed a machine gun, a spider-sense-neutralizing gas dispenser, and a large metal blade.

As Gaunt, Stromm wore an armored life-support suit that arrested his body's decay, maintained his body's functions, and allowed him to walk; the suit also granted him superhuman strength (lifting 10 tons) and included a knockout gas dispenser. Stromm has employed many robots throughout his criminal career, including: An amorphous, super-strong robot with the ability to climb walls; a humanoid robot equipped with a destruction beam; the Robot-Master, a robotic duplicate of himself, equipped with his own brain engrams, as well as super-strength and destructive eyebeams; hovering, sharp-clawed robots; Willis, Daisy and Gary, three robotic children with malleable limbs, super-strength and heat Vision, respectively; and a variety of humanoid and non-humanoid robots equipped with energy weapons employed to defend Stromm's Vermont mansion. The android Robot-Master developed several unique robots of its own design, including tiny brain-borers; a bug-eyed "hovering holocaust" with a super-strong grip and a powerful blaster; a multi-tentacled sphere; and a conical, rocket-powered "sinister slinky."

SLYDE

 

SLYDE

Real Name: Jalome Beacher

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #272, January 1986

Powers: A baseline human with no superhuman powers, Jalome Beacher was a chemical engineer for Beemont Manufacturing R&D who developed a completely frictionless chemical coating to revolutionize the non-stick frying pan industry. Fired from the company before he could announce his discovery, Beacher sought to raise cash to create his own company. Seeing no other option, he donned a speed skater costume treated with his miracle coating and became the bank robber Slyde.

Slyde's costume and boots are coated in a friction-eliminating chemical that allows him to skate rapidly over any surface. He can move at up to 30 miles per hour and is highly maneuverable, able to turn swiftly by shifting his weight or grabbing a stationary object to twist around. His costume also prevents others from grasping him, and stops Spider-Man's webbing from sticking. His gloves have uncoated pads, allowing him to grasp objects. His boots' tips are sharpened, allowing him to slice objects. He briefly carried a sword and shuriken, but demonstrated no skill in using them.

Jalome Beacher is a talented chemical engineer with a masters degree in chemical engineering.

STYX & STONE

 

STYX & STONE

Real Name: Jacob Eichorn (Styx); Gerald Stone (Stone)

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #309, November 1988

Powers: Unemployed and homeless, Jacob Eichorn was hired by a medical research firm to participate in pharmaceutical experiments in search of a cure for the common cold. One researcher, bio-technician Gerald Stone, pursued his own unauthorized project to develop a cancer vaccine by incubating a mutated cancer compound in a human test subject. Stone talked Eichorn into submitting to the test, which gave the latter immunity to diseases. However, it also affected his sanity, turning him into a living cancer able to kill organic matter with a touch. Stone created high-powered weaponry and a flying "turbo-hopper" and joined Eichorn (now calling himself "Styx") as a mercenary assassin, hoping to supervise Eichorn's deadly urges and put their earnings towards finding a cure.

A living cancer, Styx can rot and kill all organic matter upon physical contact, deriving pleasure from the experience. His fingers elongate when he reaches out. He must touch the victim directly for his power to operate; for instance, Spider-Man's mask was a sufficient barrier against him.

Stone is a baseline human with superhuman powers but designed and uses a flying "turbo hopper" platform, and a dual gun construct that he wears atop his shoulders. One gun fires projectiles such as gas pellets, chains, steel cable, adhesive gel and glue. The other fires beam weapons such as sonic waves, a strobe burst and a heat-generating "nova beam".

LOOTER

 

LOOTER

Real Name: Norman G. Fester

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #36, May 1966

Powers: Originally a baseline human with no superhuman powers, Norman G. Fester obtained a radioactive meteor and accidentally opened a gas pocket which mutated his physiology, granting him superhuman strength. Adopting a costume, dazzle gun, and a helium balloon backpack, Norton became the Looter, going on a crime spree.

The Looter possesses superhuman strength enabling him to lift up to 20 tons and can leap 15 feet from a standing start. His dazzle gun emits blinding light. He's worn a backpack containing a balloon that can be filled from a helium canister, carrying him aloft. He has also used a microwave backpack, a wave motion gun, cybernetic enhancements that increased his strength and allowed him to access and disable any computerized security system, other villains' weapons, the Meteorator 300 and a meteor gun that did absolutely nothing. Although Norton claimed the meteor magnified his intelligence, that appears to be part of his delusion.

HAMMERHEAD

 

HAMMERHEAD

Real Name: Joseph

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #113, October 1972

Powers: A baseline human with no superhuman powers, portions of Hammerhead's skull and skeleton have been surgically replaced with a nearly unbreakable steel alloy, making him extremely resistant to physical injury; in particular, his head, flattened as a result of the procedure, is virtually impervious to physical damage. He is an exceptional athlete and hand-to-hand combatant, although his favorite battle tactic is to simply charge his opponents headfirst.

Although considered dim-witted by many, he possesses a keen criminal mind and is proficient in the use of firearms, especially machine guns. He customarily carries 1920s-style Thompson sub-machine guns and utilizes other accoutrements of that era. At times, he uses special guns which fire non-lethal stun pellets instead of bullets. On occasion, he wears an exoskeleton that magnifies his strength at least tenfold and provides supplemental protection from injury and heat. His underlings use various advanced weapons as needed.

PAPER DOLL

 

PAPER DOLL

Real Name: Piper Dali

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #559, July 2008

Powers: Piper Dali mutated after being caught in her father's dimensional compressor. She developed the ability to flatten herself into a two-dimensional state, compressing her mass into an extremely thin frame. This papery form can absorb damage by yielding to blows and strikes, and she can also stretch her limbs and other portions of her body to a certain degree. Her thin and dense skin also becomes extremely sharp, letting her cut through Spider-Man's webbing and slice flesh with a pass of her hand. Paper Doll can also blend in with her surroundings in her two-dimensional state, taking on the same colors and patterns of a wall or billboard to become completely indistinguishable from her surroundings.

Finally, Paper Doll can recreate the dimensional compression effect on other people and objects she wraps around. Whipping her hand around Spider-Man's arm painfully compressed its mass into a papery state, leaving it all but useless until the effect wore off. She can wrap herself around an entire human body, reducing other people to a paper doll form as well, and her victims tend to suffocate to death as their compressed lungs are incapable of properly drawing breath.

MISTER NEGATIVE

 

MISTER NEGATIVE

Real Name: Unrevealed

First Appearance: Free Comic Book Day: The Amazing Spider-Man, May 2007 (cameo); The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #546, January 2008 (full)

Powers: Mister Negative received superhuman abilities from the same experimental drug that gave Cloak and Dagger their powers. While the teen runaways gained individual powers over light and darkness, this former smuggler and human trafficker became an embodiment of both concepts. He is capable of assuming a Darkforce-based form, charging his body with energy so that he appears like a photographic negative. His normal and charged appearances each represent a different side of his character. As Mr. Negative, he continues on his former path as a crimelord and force of darkness, but he also operates as "Martin Li", a humanitarian whose personality is based on the history of one of his former "passengers" from smuggling illegal immigrants in from China. While Mr. Negative is fully aware of his history and status, Martin Li is not. Li ignores or blocks out knowledge of his activities as Mr. Negative most of the time. The crimelord has occasionally demonstrated the ability to influence Li's actions or even dominate his form, exerting his powers through Li. There is still a balance being served, however, as Negative has occasionally involuntarily reverted to Li before he's ready.

As Mr. Negative, he channels a power related to the Darkforce, but it operates very differently than any previous use of that extra-dimensional force. Presumably he, like the Spot, draws his abilities not from the Darkforce Dimension itself, but from a similar neighboring dimension. His negative charge provides Mr. Negative with superhuman strength, reaction time, and resistance to all forms of physical injury. In addition to pure strength, he can also charge his blows or weapons with an energy field of reversing polarities. This "negative charge" has an electro-repulsive effect that makes objects more resilient as they strike while generating a disruptive energy pulse and repeling on impact, which all combines to make the weapon substantially more effective. Mr. Negative also has his corrupting touch, using a "negative charge" to manipulate the personalities of other people. The more inherently good a person is, the greater the reversal of their true nature. That true nature cannot be completely overcome, however, as individuals like Spider-Man, Shang-Chi, and even Aunt May have shaken off the corruption when their capacity for good vs. evil is tested. The effect of the corruption varies: May suffered no obvious physical changes, but merely a negative reflection of her character for several weeks. Other characters are overtly covered with a "negative charge" and become violent servants in the name of Mr. Negative. Shang-Chi uniquely became "evil", but had a strong enough will or sense of balance to reject Mr. Negative's control and nearly overthrow the crimelord. Mr. Negative can also use his corruption to create his Inner Demons, henchmen whom he has enhanced with his powers to be virtually unkillable. The Inner Demons can survive multiple forms of lethal injury, including bullet wounds, dismemberment or disemboweling. Their power and will are bound to Mr. Negative (or at least to HIS power, as they remained frozen and unable to choose between Negative and Shang-Chi when the latter nearly usurpted his power). The corrupted White Dragon was shot and killed by the Hood, though, so all of Mr. Negative's corrupted victims do not gain the same regenerative powers as the Inner Demons.

Finally, Martin Li seems to have powers of his own. He possesses a healing touch that has miraculously cured broken bones, permanent paralysis, even purging Eddie Brock of cancer. In fact, his healing effect merged with the traces of the Venom symbiote in Brock to create the Anti-Venom pseudo-symbiote. Martin seems unaware of his healing powers for the most part, and its possible this side of Mr. Negative has other abilities he is unaware of as well.

STUNNER

 

STUNNER

Real Name: Angelina Brancale

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #397, January 1995

Powers: Stunner is the virtual reality avatar of Angelina Brancale, a test subject and later lover of Doctor Octopus. Octavius (and his protege, Carolyn Trainer) were experimenting with ways to bring virtual reality into the physical world, and Angelina volunteered to operate a prototype tangible virtual reality interface for them. The interface was an enormous bit of machinery that Angelina was physically plugged into, designed to support her for extended periods of time with IV supplements for nutrients and neural feedback goggles that penetrated the skin around her eyes with implants inserted directly into her cerebral cortex. When activated, the virtual reality interface created an interactive digital body for Angelina, based on her idealized self-image. As Stunner, she possessed Class 60 strength, superhuman running speed, endurance, leaping ability, and tremendous resistance to physical injury.

Theoretically, Angelina could operate indefinitely as "Stunner" without exiting the virtual reality interface rig, projecting her consciousness and sensory input through the Stunner construct (though Angelina would often be several miles away). The technology was originally still unstable, however, meaning the Stunner construct would spontaneously disperse at unexpected times, or if subjected to excess amounts of force.

ANNEX

 

ANNEX

Real Name: Alexander Ellis

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man Annual (Vol. 1) #27, May 1993

Powers: Annex the Augmented Man is a US Army soldier originally named Alexander Ellis. He lost his lower leg during combat and later volunteered for an experimental prosthetic program. Dr. Hillman Barto had created a form of biological matter which could be transmitted and configured by technology. An amputee would don a special armored suit called the Annexing Unit and use cybernetic commands to access the configurable matter from the Bio-Regenerative Energy Well (BREW). Summoning bio-matter from the BREW over ultra-high frequency radio waves, the Annexing Unit would then mold the adaptive material into a replacement limb. However, there were several glitches:

Adarco Corporation, the A.I.M. front company that sponsored Dr. Barto, was also a weapons manufacturing plant, and blueprint files from its inventory were also available for "creation" by the Unit. While wearing the armor, Annex could use the activation phrase, "Schema Mode -- Initiate!" to generate a facsimile leg for himself and download technologies directly into his suit or hands. This downloading process was potentially dangerous, however, because he would exchange portions of his own memory and personality each time he initiated a download, robbing him of his humanity. Alex soon learned how to consciously block this psychic downloading when utilizing the suit. Annex could mentally amplify his own strength and speed by downloading exoskeletal enhancements into the armor, visually scan information into his memory banks via an optical beam, add radio equipment and bio-scanners to his helmet, summon a thrust unit onto his back for flight, generate a magnetic attractor field from the armor, reconfigure the entire suit into an immobile construct for additional protection or to use himself as a barricade, redesign the armor as firefighting equipment to protect him from smoke and flame, and access any number of items including lasers, shields, stun pistols, flame ejectors, anti-riot rubber bullets, two-way video communicators, automatic pistols, laser-guided bazookas, plasma blasters, energy-absorbing rifles, armor-piercing guns, sonic blasters, anti-aircraft missile launchers, magnetic repulsors, CO2 guns, skeleton keys, alarm nullifiers, infrared goggles, etc.

While he originally needed to store the Annexing Unit armor and manually don it, Alex later had an implant surgically placed in his body so that he could summon and displace BREW matter at will. This not only provided him with instant access to his armor whenever he needed it, it also enabled him to generate and maintain his prosthetic leg at all times as well, or materialize individual items without summoning the entire armor to do so.

Alex Ellis is a war veteran with US Army training in hand-to-hand combat, marksmanship, and weaponry.

CARNAGE

 

CARNAGE

Real Name: Cletus Kasady

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #344, February 1991 (As Kasady); The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #360, March 1992 (As Carnage)

Powers: Cletus Kasady was an incarcerated sociopathic serial killer serving 11 consecutive life sentences when he bonded with an alien Symbiote. The Symbiotes are a bloodthirsty but otherwise emotionless race composed of viscous protoplasm. They graft onto the adrenal and nervous system of other beings, using them as hosts. Symbiotes reproduce asexually by budding once per generation. Kasady bonded with a Symbiote spawned from that of his cellmate Eddie Brock (Venom) which was mutated by gestation in an alien environment: Earth's.

Carnage's original Symbiote was actually destroyed by a sonic barrage, but it left his metabolism permanently mutated. A mutagenic factor in his blood enabled Kasady to manifest a non-sentient replica of his Symbiote out of his blood whenever it was exposed to the open air. This modified costume was far more resilient to sonics than the original that was destroyed, and even if flames or microwaves destroy it, the "Symbiote" could be summoned again moments later by Kasady shedding fresh blood. During the Planet of the Symbiotes event, Earth was overrun with an invasion force of Symbiotes. Carnage found he could absorb other Symbiotes into his costume, increasing his size and strength in the process, until he eventually stood over 100 feet tall. Though he was defeated and returned to normal size, later stories showed Kasady physically separating from his Symbiote again, suggesting he restored his living Symbiote during this period, replacing the bio-costume replica in his system. Time and again, Kasady has demonstrated the ability to recreate his Symbiote as needed. When Venom stole back and destroyed his Carnage Symbiote, Kasady eventually located another Symbiote from Venom's race in the Negative Zone. Despite being completely different from his original, Kasady was able to bond with this Symbiote and then mutate it into a duplicate of his own unique symbiotic costume.

Carnage possesses superhuman strength, speed, agility, endurance, and reflexes when employing his Symbiote. His costume somehow had made him stronger than Venom and Spider-Man combined, giving him roughly Class 50 strength or higher. He also duplicates Spider-Man's wall-crawling and Venom's abilities to nullify the spider-sense and alter the Symbiote into clothing. The original Symbiote could relay visual data for Kasady like Venom's as well, but might not have been capable of doing this after the original version of the Carnage Symbiote was destroyed. Carnage has not demonstrated the ability to turn invisible or produce webbing like Venom. Instead, the blood-red Symbiote manipulates its substance in other ways. Carnage can extend tendrils of his costume's substance like Venom, only with much greater versatility. His prehensile filaments can be razor-tipped or -lined, acting as lethal blades. He can extend his costume as talons over his fingers or as duplicates of Wolverine's claws. He can stretch out his costume like a web-line, allowing him to swing through the city, or as a high speed blunt- or sharp-tipped extension. Carnage can also expel portions of his costume as projectiles, creating throwing blades and axes, or a spray of razor sharp darts. These projections dissolve into ash about 10 seconds after disconnecting from his mass. Carnage can accelerate the growth of his costume's bio-mass using negative emotions or raw meat as a catalyst. At full recorded dispersal, he can produce enough symbiotic material to overtake an entire town, flooding through every corner thanks to the water pipes and manipulating close to a thousand people like puppets.

VENOM

 

VENOM

Real Name: Edward Charles Allan Brock

First Appearance: Web of Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #18, September 1986 (as Eddie Brock); The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #299, April 1988 (as Venom)

Powers: Edward "Eddie" Brock became Venom after he was bonded to the Symbiote alien costume that Spider-Man brought back from the Secret Wars. The Symbiotes are a bloodthirsty but otherwise emotionless race composed of viscous protoplasm. They graft onto the adrenal and nervous system of other beings, using them as hosts. Symbiotes reproduce asexually by budding once per generation.

The Symbiote is capable of mimicking many of his abilities. While wearing the costume, Venom possessed Spider-Man's superhuman strength, speed, agility, endurance, and reflexes, added to amplify his own existing physical abilities. As a result, Eddie Brock's Olympic-level strength was added to Spider-Man's Class 10 strength, allowing him to lift roughly 20,700 lbs. as opposed to Parker's roughly 20,000 lbs. When the Symbiote was extended over his hands and feet, it allowed him to stick to objects and climb walls just as Spider-Man does. It protected him from physical injury as well, absorbing kinetic impact to insulate him from harm. At times, it even proved capable of stopping bullets before they penetrated to hit Brock's own body. Long-term symbiosis also increased Brock's natural strength and healing abilities, even when the Symbiote was not directly working for him. The Symbiote was highly vulnerable to flame and certain sonic frequencies, though.The Symbiote itself is capable of altering its appearance, most often to duplicate the look of normal clothing. Though its default state is a one-pieced bodysuit, the Symbiote can reform itself in multiple articles of clothing at once: Shirt, pants, socks, shoes, trench coat, etc. It can also create other effects, such as rendering him invisible by blending in to the environment, opaquing his eye-slits to avoid being blinded, faking his death with a layer of false skin that hides his pulse, synthetic masks which can disguise his appearance as someone else, and his fangs and prehensile tongue. Venom can extend his costume to create organic tendrils, prehensile and responding to his thoughts. These tendrils possess his full strength, allowing him to lift heavy objects with them, snap someone's neck, or crush their skull by wrapping a series of filaments around their head and squeezing. The costume's material is self-regenerating but finite, meaning he can only extend a tentacle out a few feet before his costume begins to lose its integrity, like unraveling a shirt by pulling on a single thread. Venom can also produce organic webbing, duplicating Spider-Man's web-shooting in much the same way as he creates his tendrils. Brock was in constant psychic contact with his Symbiote, apparently governed by an empathic bond which transmitted impressions more than vocal commands. The costume was capable of relaying visual and tactile information directly to Eddie, so Venom could still "see" his surroundings even if Spider-Man blinded his human eyes with webbing, literally had "eyes" in the back of his head, and the costume senses everything that comes into contact with it, meaning Spider-Man couldn't secretly plant a spider-tracer on them. The Symbiote was also capable of neutralizing Parker's spider-sense, allowing them to attack Spider-Man without him being warned of the danger. This effect only applied to Venom himself: Spider-Man would still sense a car that Venom throws at him, for instance.

Brock eventually separated permanently from his Symbiote after contracting cancer. The Symbiote passed to Angelo Fortunado for a time, and later MacDonald Gargan, Flash Thompson, and finally to its current host, Lee Price.

Meanwhile, Eddie Brock was transformed into Anti-Venom. Criminal philanthropist Martin Li had been exploiting a curative power down at his FEAST Centers for the homeless, miraculously curing the sick or injured of physical ailments or disease. His touch not only cleansing Brock of terminal cancer but also interacted with the residual Symbiote cells in his system. The Symbiote matter was purged from Eddie's body and transformed into a negatively-colored recreation of the Symbiote itself, creating "Anti-Venom", a living costume made of human/alien hybrid antibodies. This anti-Symbiote now gives Brock all of his former abilities: It can shift between regular clothes or a costumed appearance, extend massive fists, claws, or animated tentacles, spin web-lines, boosts his physical powers, etc. The anti-Symbiote is even immune to Spider-Man's spider-sense. In addition, Anti-Venom is unaffected by flame or sonics, and seems to have no "other" whispering in his mind anymore. He also has curative powers unique to his genesis at Martin Li's touch. He can break down and disperse the original Symbiote, weakening it and causing it to separate from its current host. Brock can also "cleanse" the radiation in Spider-Man's radioactive spider-blood, effectively rendering Peter Parker normal and "curing" him. Spider-Man broke free before the effect was permanent, but would lose his abilities whenever in close proximity to Anti-Venom. Brock can mentally sense the original Symbiote, and detect other factors in need of curing, like the radioactive spider-blood, merely by focusing his attention on someone. The full extent of his curative powers are unclear.

Eddie Brock holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism. He is a former journalist with a skilled acumen for deductive reasoning and investigative tactics.

SILVER SABLE

 

SILVER SABLE

Real Name: Silver Sablinova

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #265, June 1985

Powers: No superhuman powers, the Silver Sable is a normal human trained extensively in all forms of hand-to-hand combat and has mastered a variety of weapons.

Due to her association with the Wild Pack (professional soldiers hunting Nazi war criminals) and the Symkarian government, the Silver Sable has the latest technology and equipment at her disposal, along with an extensive manpower force. She sometimes uses a katana sword and the Chai, a half-moon weighted projectile of her own design.

She is the owner of Silver Sable International, a for-profit corporation specializing in bounty hunting and as a security force for the eastern European Kingdom of Symkaria. Since Silver Sable International is Symkaria's chief source of revenue, she has considerable financial resources and is able to hire specialized assistance, offer full compensation for damages caused by her employees in the course of a contract, and provide full benefits for her employees.

PUMA

 

PUMA

 

Real Name: Thomas Fireheart

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #256, September 1984

 

Powers: Thomas Fireheart is the chosen protector of the Kisani tribe, the product of 10 generations of selective breeding and mystical rites to produce the perfect guardian. He is capable of summoning the puma spirit, transforming into a half-human, half-cat being with superhuman strength (Class 25), speed, agility, endurance, reflexes, and durability called the Puma. He's covered with orange fur and has razor sharp claws. His senses are tremendously acute, giving him excellent night vision and the ability to pinpoint a specific man by his heartbeat or scent. His tracking abilities are profound, easily the match for Wolverine or Daredevil, and through meditation his can sift through the smells and sounds of an entire city to pinpoint his prey.

 

Thomas Fireheart holds a Master's Degree in business administration. An extraordinary genius and billionaire industrialist, he is the founder and CEO of the multinational corporation Fireheart Enterprises. He is trained in many hand-to-hand combat techniques, especially in the martial arts used by Master Muramoto.

HYDRO-MAN

 

HYDRO-MAN

Real Name: Morris Bench

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #212, January 1981

Powers: Morris “Morrie” Bench was a cargo ship crewman who fell overboard on a ship with an experimental energy converter. The energies of the converter, combined with gases from undersea volcanoes triggered a mutagenic change in Morrie, causing him to absorb the properties of the water around him. He thereafter developed the ability to transform into an organic liquid substance resembling water, beginning a criminal career as the Hydro-Man.

The Hydro-Man can transform all or part of his body into animated water. He could project his body mass outwards as a highly pressurized blast of water, and envelop an opponent to drown them in his mass. He could manipulate the surface tension of his body to make his watery form feel as solid as necessary, effectively increasing his size and strength by creating massive watery fists to strike opponents. His mass could be displaced and reform itself easily, and he could absorb outside sources of water to increase his mass. This allowed him to merge with other bodies of water or rapidly dehydrate opponents once he got his hands on them. In later stories, he had developed hydro-kinetic abilities allowing him to manipulate water from a distance, dehydrating opponents remotely or causing water pressure to build up in their veins or tissues. Certain events have suggested he is capable of controlled state change, becoming animated ice or vapors, but he has not demonstrated this ability consistently.

The super-powered criminal known as the Sandman and the Hydro-Man once merged together as the Mud-Thing, a large animated mass of mud with neither of their full intelligence.

MADAME WEB

 

MADAME WEB

Real Name: Cassandra Webb

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #210, November 1980

Powers: Madame Web’s was born with a debilitating neurological disease that had the side-effect of leaving her with an array of limited psionic powers, including telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and psychometry. She can read the minds of other people in close quarters and project her thoughts long distance in order to communicate with someone mentally from miles away. She can plant strong compulsions in the minds of others to influence their behavior to a small degree, such as getting someone to travel in a certain direction or to a specific location without them even realizing it. By focusing on people or objects, she can pinpoint their locations to a certain degree. This power works best with targets she is personally familiar with. She also can receive visual images in her mind that represent future events and probabilities, the intensity and clarity of the vision often determines how likely it is to actually occur. Her power works best through psychometric activity, meaning she reads the psychic residue left on people or objects. Therefore, she can most easily predict the events of someone's future when they are in her presence or touching her, will pick up on the most psychically intense thoughts or memories of others, and can receive thoughts or empathic impressions off of solid objects, detecting what another person was thinking or feeling when they were in contact with that object in the past.

Madame Web was stricken with myasthenia gravis, a baffling disease that gradually erodes the central nervous system which left her physically blind and partially paralyzed from birth. She was cybernetically linked to a spider web-like life-support system designed by her husband which attends to all of her bodily needs by augmenting her weakened autonomic nervous system. By simple cybernetic command, she could shift her chair to an upright or reclining position for sleeping. The system was equipped with robot arms that take the place of her now useless arms.

WILL O' THE WISP

 

WILL O' THE WISP

Real Name: Jackson Arvad

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #167, April 1977

Powers: Jackson Arvad was the chief scientist for electromagnetic research at the Brand Corporation, a subsidiary of the Roxxon Oil Company. His superior in the Brand, James Melvin, drove Arvad relentlessly to develop projects for Melvin under threat of being fired. During a laboratory mishap, a gravitic energy surge shattered the "magno-chamber" in whose vicinity Arvad was working. The accident plunged Arvad's body directly into the magno-chamber's self-sustained electromagnetic field, and the residual high frequency field weakened the electromagnetic attractions between the molecules of Arvad's body. This caused the molecules of Arvad's body to gradually disperse. Melvin held Arvad in the magno-chamber long enough to question him on any useful scientific applications the accident might have had, and then left Arvad to die. Arvad soon discovered, however, that he possesses a certain degree of mental control over the dispersion of his body's molecules.

As Will O' The Wisp, he possesses the power to exert conscious control over the sub-atomic electromagnetic particles that carry the force of attraction between the molecules of his body. This enables him to control his density, granting him such powers as superhuman strength, flight, and intangibility. Mentally willing himself to his maximum density, he can make his flesh and substance as hard as the mineral feldspar. At this density, his muscles become denser and stronger, granting him superhuman strength (Class 25). Will O' The Wisp can maintain this state of density for about 10 minutes before fatigue forces him to let up. Mentally willing himself to his minimum density, Will O' The Wisp allows a non-critical number of random molecules to oscillate at a small distance from his body, granting him intangibility. Unlike the Vision, who shunts his excess molecules to an extra-dimensional space, Will O' The Wisp disperses them omni-directionally in this dimension. The process of dispersing his molecules produces a bright, sparkling light,

Will O' The Wisp can also selectively solidify parts of his body For example, he can keep his arm solid while making the rest of his body intangible. By creating a short, highly accelerated oscillation of the energy states in the molecules of his chest, he can cause a dazzling light that gives him various degrees of hypnotic control over those who witness it, depending upon the person's susceptibility,

Will O' The Wisp can fly by becoming lighter than air and expelling excess molecules in a single direction behind him, causing him to be propelled forward. When he travels faster than 5 miles per hour, the expenditure of molecular energy causes him to give off so much light that he appears to be an ethereal glowing sphere. Will O' The Wisp can fly at a maximum speed of 90 miles per hour, and because he is intangible while flying, he is not deterred by solid obstacles. It is not known how many molecules are needed to accelerate him at his maximum speed, whether he can replenish "shed" molecules, or if there is a limit to how many he can expel before doing himself injury.

In addition to his molecular powers, the Will O' The Wisp can mesmerize people into performing certain simple acts. To do so, he disperses molecules from the vicinity of his chest emblem, causing it to glow brightly. For reasons not fully revealed, gazing into this light puts the looker into a highly suggestible hypnotic trance, susceptible to the Wisp's commands. This hypnotic state generally lasts ten to thirty minutes, depending upon the subject's mental state and the length of exposure to the light.

Jackson Arvad is a brilliant scientist in the field of electromagnetics and holds a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering.

THE PUNISHER

 

THE PUNISHER

Real Name: Frank Castle (born Francis Castiglione)

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #129, February 1974

Powers: The Punisher possesses no superhuman powers. He possesses the normal human strength of a man of his age, height, and build who engages in intensive regular exercise. The Punisher is a thoroughly seasoned combat veteran of exceptional skills. A former U.S. Marine Captain with a distinguished combat record, who has undergone SEAL (Sea Air Land) training, UDT (Underwater Demolition Team) training, and LRPA (Long Range Patrol) training, Frank Castle is well-versed in the arts of warfare and hand-to-hand combat.

From this multi-disciplinary military training, the Punisher is proficient in not only basic infantry skills, but in special operations, which includes the use and maintenance of specialized firearms and explosive ordnance. He is highly trained in infiltration into heavily-guarded enemy territories and structures for the purpose of assassination, captures, and military intelligence. Also, he is trained in various forms of camouflage and stealth. From his airborne training, the Punisher is able to pack and maintain his own parachute rigs, as well as professionally control his landings, in daylight and at night. From his Navy UDT training, the Punisher is well-skilled in extended underwater operations, including demolitions. He is skilled with a great many types of explosives, ranging from simple dynamite to plastique to improvised explosives. His hand-to-hand combat skills are more then sufficient to allow him to incapacitate and kill men much stronger than he is, as well as to deal with groups of armed and unarmed enemies, killing them all without weapons if he deems it necessary. He is also extremely deadly in knife training, preferring the knife he learned to fight with in the USMC: The ka-bar. Additionally, he is a preternaturally-precise marksman. He is thoroughly trained and experienced in unconventional ("guerilla") warfare. He is an armorer, a gunsmith, and an expert in field medicine.

The Punisher constantly employs an arsenal of portable weaponry. His most commonly used personal weapons are the Vietnam era M16 automatic rifle in .223 caliber; a Sterling Mark 69mm, 34-round clip fed, semiautomatic rifle converted to automatic fire; a 14-round, 9mm Browning Llama automatic pistol; a Government issue .45 caliber automatic frame re-chambered for 9mm ammunition with a replaceable barrel to convert it to .223 caliber ammunition; and a 4-shot derringer in .223 caliber (thus, he needs to carry only two types of ammunition).

EQUINOX

 

EQUINOX

Real Name: Terrance Sorenson

First Appearance: Giant-Size Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #1, July 1974 (in shadows); Marvel Team-Up (Vol. 1) #23, July 1974 (full appearance)

Powers: Terrance “Terry” Sorenson was a teenager when he was caught in an energy discharge from an explosion caused by his scientist father’s experimental devices. This discharge mutated Terry on a cellular level, leaving his body in a state of constant thermodynamic flux.

As Equinox the Thermodynamic Man, Terry can place his body in a state of thermal transitions. When his power is active, heat and cold coruscate across his skin in waves, making parts of his body alternate as solid ice and blazing flame.

Depending on which state he is in, Equinox can project either freezing or burning energy from his hands. A sustained blast may actually switch from one extreme to another in mid-blast if his hands transition during the assault. He can set objects on fire, produce enough heat to melt metal, freeze targets in a block of ice, or create ice-slides for transportation.

Originally, his thermal changes were uncontrollable, and he briefly wore a metallic containment skin-suit designed by his mother to keep him stable. Once the suit was damaged, however, Equinox discovered he became more powerful the faster the thermal transitions raged over his body. Over time, this not only increased the amount of thermal energy he could produce, but also boosted his strength, endurance and durability to ever-increasing superhuman levels.

Sorenson himself is immune to the temperature extremes and can activate and deactivate his powers at will. Before gaining control of his powers, his thermal shifts made him mentally unstable and gave him a pink skinned, blank-eyed appearance with two pointed projections growing from his face. He has since regained his normal physical appearance.