Hornet (Marvel)

Hornet in Ben Reilly: Scarlet Spider v1 #13.

The Hornet is the name used by several characters in the Marvel Universe.

Hornet (Scotty McDowell)

Main Article: Scotty McDowell

Scotty McDowell was a wheelchair-using criminologist who assisted Spider-Woman's cases. He was kidnapped by the mad scientist Karl Malus who injected Scotty with a formula composed of human and insect DNA, as well as several kinds of medicine. Spider-Woman rescued Scotty who seemed fine. (Spider-Woman v1 #21) Scotty began to suffer from nightmares in which he killed Spider-Woman. He awoke to discover that he had great strength and insect-like wings that allowed him to fly but still unable to walk. He then received a costume in the mail sent by Malus, and when he put it on, had a personality shift, becoming aggressive and chauvinistic. He flew around as the Hornet, and started out as a hero, saving people, and working with Spider-Woman. He even learned that he could throw bursts of bio-electricity. (Spider-Woman v1 #31)

Hornet (Peter Parker)

Main Article: Peter Parker

Peter Parker came to develop a new Hornet persona after his other identity of Spider-Man had been accused of murder. Parker donned four different costumes to continue saving lives without anyone knowing it was him; one of the adopted identities was Hornet. The Hornet costume was designed by Mary Jane Watson-Parker and the weapon gauntlets were designed by Spider-Man based on Ben Reilly's stinger launching pod built within the web-shooters. The cybernetically-controlled wing harness was designed by Hobie Brown who never used the device due to being too heavy to be worn by a person of normal strength. However, Peter with his superhuman strength was able to easily wear the equipment. (Sensational Spider-Man v1 #27) He used it with great success for several days, becoming a popular hero with the media after his debut featured him thwarting the Looter's attempt to rob the Daily Bugle. However, during a battle, the Vulture realized that he was actually Spider-Man and exposed him to Norman Osborn. (Sensational Spider-Man v1 #28)

Hornet (Eddie McDonough)

Main Article: Eddie McDonough

Eddie McDonough

While attending college at Empire State University, Eddie McDonough made friends with fellow students Johnny Gallo and Cassie St. Commons. McDonough was later approached by the legendary superhero, the Black Marvel, to join the team he was putting together. McDonough was given the identity of the Hornet, which had formerly been created by the hero Spider-Man to investigate fraudulent crimes against him. McDonough agreed in part because the armored suit restored full mobility to his palsied right arm. Johnny and Cassie also joined the team as Ricochet and Dusk, and they were joined by a fourth member, Ritchie Gilmore, Prodigy, to form the team known as the Slingers. (Slingers v1 #1)

Hornet (Silas Burr)

Main Article: Cyber

Red Hornet (Melinda McDonough)

Main Article: Melinda McDonough

Melinda McDonough

When Melinda was very young, her mother and father were afraid that there was something developmentally wrong with her brain; however, her uncle, Eddie McDonough, recognized that Melinda was actually a gifted intellect. A scientist and inventor himself, Eddie helped nurture and encourage Melinda's intellect, which led to her forging a close bond with him. After Eddie was killed by Wolverine, while the latter was under the control of the Hand, Melinda was devastated. She vowed vengeance, and locked herself away in a secret bunker to devise a means of preventing Logan from hurting anyone ever again. Unfortunately, because she also virtually cut herself off from contact with the outside world, she never learned that Logan himself had perished, and that Laura Kinney moved into his apartment and took over the Wolverine name. Unable to bring herself to killing him herself, Melinda instead designed and built a gun capable of transporting a target into other dimensions. (All-New Wolverine Annual v1 #1)

Hornet (Hobie Brown)

Main Article: Hobie Brown

Overview

The Hornet Suit was created by noted electronics wizard and inventor Hobie Brown. It initially consisted of only a jetpack with auto-gyros where he had been working on it for around a year. An initial problem he had with the design though that it was simply too heavy with a normal person breaking their back if they tried to put it on. Hobie had tried to make it of the lightest metals and even tried to fit an anti-grav harness but these efforts had failed. At this time, the only person that could use it were those that had superhuman strength which would allow them to bear the heavy weight of the jetpack. It was noted that the suit heavily incorporated cybernetics into the frame. Simply fitting the control system on the head allowed the user to operate the jetpack. The in-take vents were one vulnerable feature as flying into a flock of birds could lead to the feathers clogging the system. This resulted in the jetpack stalling and causing the wearer to fall as a result. (Sensational Spider-Man v1 #27)

Upon acquiring it, Spider-Man came to form a costume around the jetpack thus creating the Hornet identity. Though Parker made the initial suit, further refinements to the design's looks were made by Mary Jane Watson-Parker. Special gauntlets were worn that covered the hands of the persons skin entirely. Sedative stingers could be fired from above the wrist that were able to render targets unconscious. (Sensational Spider-Man v1 #27)

Notes

• The concept of the Hornet was created by Michael Fleisher and Frank Springer where it made its first appearance in Spider-Woman v1 #21 (December, 1979).
• The Hornet Suit itself made its first appearance in Sensational Spider-Man v1 #27 (March, 1998).

In other media

Video games

• In Spider-Man: Edge of Time, the Hornet suit appeared as an alternate downloadable costume available to Spider-Man in the setting of the video game. Peter Parker recreated his Hornet Suit and placed it in his archives in Alchemax.

Appearances

• Spider-Woman v1: (1970)
• Sensational Spider-Man v1:
• Slingers v1:

External Links

• Marvel Database Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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