Bentley-23
Bentley-23 is a male comic character who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Bentley-23 was a male clone offspring of Bentley Whittman who operated as the supervillain known as the Wizard. (Fantastic Four v1 #570) He was created during a time when Whittman suffered from a tumour causing him to experience insanity and engage in mad schemes. (Fantastic Four v1 #610) This resulted in him creating numerous clones of himself as part of a new attack on the Fantastic Four. The majority of the subjects were grown to adulthood but one was a juvenile who was designated as Bentley-23. With the exception of young Bentley, the remaining clones were dispatched to attack the Wizard’s foes in the Fantastic Four where they were defeated. The heroes then attacked the Wizard’s base and defeated him where he was arrested. However, Bentley-23 was seen as being an innocent and he was taken into care. (Fantastic Four v1 #570)
Afterwards, he came to attend the birthday of Franklin Richards where the Fantastic Four attempted to humanise him and get him to engage with others. (Fantastic Four v1 #574) He was later inducted into the newly formed Future Foundation that was created by Reed Richards. (Fantastic Four v1 #580)
Bentley-23 accompanied the Invisible Woman as they went to track down the Wizard following his release from prison by A.I.M. They came to give him an invitation by Doctor Doom to attend a gathering of other top scientists as they looked to deal with rogue members of the Interdimensional Council of Reeds operating on Earth. (FF v1 #3) He watched the meeting where he was excited at seeing some of the smartest supervillains on the planet. (FF v1 #4)
One day, he came to invent a weapon that was able to alchemically convert unlikeable food into chocolate. This saw the other children in the Future Foundation chasing him in the Baxter Building which drew the attention of the Invisible Woman. Sue Richards though upon finding the reason deemed it to be harmless fun and allowed them to have their fun. (Fantastic Four v5 #1) At this time, monsters from Dimension F arrived through the gateway where they began to attack the city with Reed creating a cypovirus to stop the creatures in their attack on New York City. (Fantastic Four v5 #2) However, a great deal of damage and loss of life resulted from the attack. It was then that various supervillains began attacking the Fantastic Four with this including the Wizard whose new incarnation of the Frightful Four was bolstered by the addition of three members of the Wrecking Crew. (Fantastic Four v5 #3) The villains came to be contained by the Invisible Woman using one of her forcefields leading to the Wizard agreeing to surrender as he and his comrades were taken away by S.H.I.E.L.D. though he vowed to get his revenge. It was then that S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Maria Hill regretfully informed the Fantastic Four that the United States government had ordered the Baxter Building be shut down, and the Future Foundation be put into protective custody while the their guardians were taken to court. (Fantastic Four v5 #4)
When NYC sued the Fantastic Four for some of the collateral damage they were causing, the Future Foundation kids were taken from them and put in the custody of SHIELD, specifically agent Jim Hammond. Bentley and his team put pressure on Jim to help them save Dragon Man. SHIELD had ordered he be dismantled, and being a synthetic being himself, Jim did not like it much. Eventually, The Quiet Man, the person responsible for all of the F4’s recent misfortune, made himself known. Among his many individual attacks, he kidnapped the FF kids. He had big plans for Franklin, and he needed The Wizard’s help to achieve them. The Wizard used this opportunity to manipulate Bentley into returning to him. Bentley was tempted, but when he saw how much pain Franklin was in and how disappointed Onome was with him, he betrayed his father. With Franklin’s torture ended, Bentley allowed The Wizard to escape. Before he made his getaway, The Wizard admitted to being impressed by the man Bentley is growing up to be. So much so, The Wizard leads the Frightful Four into a fight beside the Avengers and Fantastic Four against the Counter-Earth doubles that The Quiet Man unleashed.
Their ship was then brought back to Earth-616 through the use of the Forever Gate that was developed by Valeria. This was a gateway that could link to anywhere in the cosmos and it was successful in bringing the Future Foundation back home. Thus, the kids were reunited with their families and the Future Foundation was seemingly disbanded as a result. Dragon Man and Bentley-23 though had no place to go with the two being requested to remain with the Fantastic Four to help maintain the Forever Gate. This saw Bentley-23 being reunited with Valeria who was nursing a heartache after breaking up with a boy. (Fantastic Four v6 #26) By this point, waves of refugees from destroyed realities were coming from the gateway who were fleeing from the Griever. To prevent her from coming to Earth-616, Valeria and Bentley worked on shutting down the doorway but failed to do so in time with the Griever arriving on the planet to continue her rampage. (Fantastic Four v6 #27)
Overview
Personality and attributes
The Wizard originally named him as 23 with him not giving his clone son a name. (Fantastic Four v1 #574) Initially, he refused to go by any other name as the clones of Wittman were told that they were only given a name if they earned one. (Fantastic Four v1 #574)
At first, he yearned to be worthy of his name and do something that would make him an anomaly among his clones as this would make him special. He believed that such a feat would lead to him getting a name. (Fantastic Four v1 #574)
He liked to claim that he worshipped the Devil or a similar demonic being instead of God. (FF v1 #1)
Bentley was held as being a ward of Reed Richards and thus stayed with the Fantastic Four. (FF v1 #1)
He was shown to have a crush on Valeria Richards. (Future Foundation v1 #1)
Powers and abilities
As a clone, he was the thirty-second derivative of his genetic father and inherited the master-intellect of Bentley Wittman where he preceded thirty-one failures. (Fantastic Four v1 #574)
Similar to his genetic donor, he hated the use of marzipan and had a reaction to it. (Fantastic Four v1 #643)
At one point, he created a weapon that was able to alchemically convert certain foods he disliked into chocolate. (Fantastic Four v5 #1)
He once created a pocket dimension that existed within his own room thus making it far larger inside the chamber. Typically, Bentley told people not to enter as he considered it his evil lair. (Future Foundation v1 #5)
Bentley-23 was once a member of the Future Foundation after it was formed by Mr. Fantastic. (Fantastic Four v1 #580)
Notes
- Bentley-23 was created by Jonathan Hickman and Dale Eaglesham where he made his first appearance in Fantastic Four v1 #570 (October, 2009).
Alternate Versions
Appearances
- Fantastic Four v1: (2009)
- FF v1:
- FF v2:
- Fantastic Four:
- Future Foundation v1:
- Fantastic Four v6: (2020)
External Links
This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.
