Can YOU
Name This Marvel Villain??
If there was ever a criminal who plied his trade on the basis of the haves and the have nots, it would be Anthony Davis, the Ringer, whose career began by pulling a heist from the safe of multi-millionaire Kyle Richmond. Imagine a villain who will not only battle you, but lecture you on your privileged life as well as your questionable motivations for being a hero.
Clearly the Ringer knows a little something about engineering, fashioning an arsenal of specialty rings that make him something of a cross between Boomerang and Hawkeye. Tangling with Nighthawk, whose strength is only doubled at night, the Ringer doesn't have much trouble with the hero once he nullifies his ability to fly by taking out his jet pack. To Nighthawk's credit, he stays in the fight, though his only real weapon aside from his physical conditioning is grit. That, and the ability to endure the Ringer's insufferable put-downs.
Unfortunately, the Ringer has been using his supply of rings like bullets--and when he has Nighthawk on the ropes by fashioning a lasso of rings, he discovers that he's run out of his only weapon. When he makes a break for it, he finds that Nighthawk has grabbed his ring lasso to use against him.
When the Ringer is released from prison, he retrieves a new and improved suit that the Tinkerer modified for him--and this time, he's made sure his supply of rings is inexhaustible.
The Ringer had not intentionally meant to resume his life of crime; but he was conscripted by the Beetle to battle Spider-Man, an opponent whose speed and agility allowed him to mostly avoid the Ringer's attack. Though you'd think it was Spidey's humiliating wit that won the day against the Ringer.
Regrettably, the Ringer was one of the villains caught in the massacre of a number of super-villains by Scourge. Clinging to life, the Ringer was retrieved by A.I.M. and transformed into a cyborg. Eventually, the Ringer (now known as "Strikeback") escaped A.I.M.'s control and rejoined his wife, though his cybernetic systems would later fail and lead to the end of his life.
Well-known subversive and possible closet socialist David Anthony Kraft, known in the Bullpen as "rascally red-haired Dave Kraft" was not above sneaking in a little sly, social commentary in his stories as well as multiple references to Blue Oyster Cult.
ReplyDeleteIt's just impossible for me not to like the guy.
Here we see him wrapping up the aftermath to the fabled Scorpio saga, which dealt with an individual's relationship with society, what happened to Nick Fury's brother, and how the Incredible Hulk reacts after getting slapped around and thrown out of an abandoned factory into the polluted Passiac by the new improved Zodiac!
Hint: not well.
m.p.