Guardsmen (Marvel)

The Guardsmen are a team that feature in Marvel Comics.

History

The Guardsmen were government operatives that were advanced battle armour similar to the Iron Man Armor with them being assembled by the United States of America to handle the threat of superhuman beings. (Avengers Annual v1 #15) They wore the Guardsmen Armor that was created by Stark Industries and was derivative of the suit worn by Iron Man. (Iron Man v1 #43)

Stane International was known to had provided a new incarnation of the Guardsmen Armor though some felt that these were poor substitutes to the older Stark model. (Avengers Spotlight v1 #26) When Justin Hammer took over Stane International, he produced and sold 41 copies of the armor to the U.S. military for their guards working at the maximum security prison known as the Vault. These prison guards came to be the first Guardsmen that were deployed in large numbers to manage the facility. (Avengers Annual v1 #15)

Guardsmen Prime was responsible for escorting the recently captured Wizard to Cell Block 5 in the Vault. However, once in his cell, he managed to free himself and gained his equipment where he dealt with Frank Ensign after which he freed the other in-mates leading to a prison break. (Avengers Spotlight v1 #26)

When Iron Man began his Armor Wars, he attempted to disable or take back any armor designs sold by Justin Hammer, including the ones in use at the Vault. Stark fought and disabled all of the old Guardsmen armors. (Iron Man v1 #228)

After eventually regaining control of his company, Stark entered into a new agreement with the U.S. government to provide a better, more powerful set of Guardsmen armor suits to the Vault, but made sure the set was bound to the generators of the facility so they could not be used outside of the Vault. (Avengers Spotlight v1 #29)

Soldiers in modified Guardsmen Armor patrolled the streets of Washington by the Department of Homeland Security during a meeting between the Commission on Superhuman Activities with the Thunderbolts. (Thunderbolts v2 #103)

A squadron of Guardsmen came to be used by the Alchemax's corporation for their security division. Thus, they were equipped with versions of the Guardsman Armor built to hunt and kill Symbiotes. Following Knull's invasion of Earth, several symbiotes remained on Earth and and the Guardsmen were sanctioned to take out any symbiotes or unauthorized aliens they found. (Venom v4 #35)

Overview

In appearance, Guardsmen were shown to be figures that wore advanced armour and carried weapons into the field. (Avengers Annual v1 #15)

The original armor was a cheaper, scaled-down version of Iron Man for use as a back-up. It's design was loosely based on the Iron Man Armor Model 4 only without many of the extra details making it very sleek and form-fitting. The helmet was similar to the Iron Man armor only without the mouth section, and had a 'less human' face. A flaw in the cybernetic control of the original design led to the wearer being driven insane. (Iron Man v1 #46)

The leader of the Guardsmen stationed at the Vault was known as Guardsmen Prime. (Avengers Spotlight v1 #26)

Members

• Frank Ensign : a brown haired male who was the Guardsmen Prime at the Vault. (Avengers Spotlight v1 #26)
• Emilio Layton :
• Harry Bright :
• Jim Cunningham :
• Marc Danson :
• Paul Danvers :
• Patrick Herbert :
• Mike Ivy :
• Howard Samuels :
• Eliot Villagran :
• Frank Ensign :
• Hugh Taylor :
• Scott Washington :
• Curtis Elkins :
• Marty Delarosa :
• Rick McLaurin :
• Ravello Medina :
• Michael O'Brien :
• Corben Rubinstein :
• Pascal Tyler :

Notes

• The Guardsmen were created by Danny Fingeroth and Steve Ditko where they made their first appearance in Avengers Annual v1 #15 (October, 1986).

In other media

Television

• In Iron Man, Guardsmen appeared in the setting of the 1990s animated television series in the episode "The Armor Wars, Part 2". They served as security for the Vault alongside Hawkeye until Iron Man broke in to disable the Guardsmen's armor after learning it was stolen Stark technology.
• In Avengers Assemble, Guardsmen appeared in the setting of the animated television series in multiple episodes.

Appearances

• Avengers Annual v1: (1986)
• Avengers Spotlight v1:
• Iron Man v1:
• Thunderbolts v2:

External Links

• Marvel Database Entry

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