Born in Blood!

Can YOU

Name This Marvel Villain??

As part of a backup feature in the 1977 The Rampaging Hulk magazine, Killer Shrike was given rather short shrift along with any significant details of his origins. Shrike was a hired gun of the Conspiracy, five super-powered individuals whose goal was to gather together the shattered fragments of the "Bloodgem" in order to gain the same same strength and immortality of their enemy, Ulysses Bloodstone*. Shrike's talents are mostly boiled down to super-strength, martial arts, and flight, though his wrist-unit weapons give him a significant edge when it comes to attacking his foes.

*Bloodstone, an adventurer created in '75 by Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, and John Warner, was mainly, in his own words, "a hunter of men and monsters, and I have lived for 10,000 years." Interpol calls him "a globe-trotting, independently wealthy adventurer. A soldier of fortune."

We first meet Shrike when he confronts an extraterrestrial who is also linked with the Bloodgems affair:

...but whatever plans exist for the character in this operation are abruptly cancelled when he gets his, er, blades handed to him by Bloodstone.

In effect, Shrike's involvement with the story, and with the Conspiracy, ends then and there, though he's air-lifted to a New York hospital where he's recovered by another Conspiracy operative known as the Modular Man--a villain who decides to strike out on his own once the Conspiracy members meet their end.

Clearly, the Modular Man is only using Shrike as a means to an end. Nevertheless, Shrike turns out to be effective backup for the M.M. when Spider-Man and the Beast team up to stop them.

Once the M.M. is ready to capitalize on his efforts, however, he decides to dispose of Shrike, though Shrike's life would be saved by Spider-Man.

As we've seen, Shrike is a capable fighter, though mostly a victim of his own bad choices in partnerships. That would continue when he's recovered by the Brand Corporation, and molded into one of the company's best secret operatives. Caught up in the Will O' The Wisp's vendetta against Brand, he's defeated by Spider-Man--but eventually, when Brand is put out of business for their illegal activities, Shrike becomes a free agent and starts robbing banks to raise his profile and gain the interest of other criminal groups looking for operatives. Once again, he's found and dealt with by Spider-Man--and again, when he attempts to obtain a power booster from the Tinkerer. Shrike would continue to turn up here and there, one of a number of handy all-purpose villains to be inserted into a story when the need called for a sufficient, but short-term, threat.

BONUS!

Writer David Michelinie would eventually spell out the reason why Killer Shrike has taken the name that he has--but let's go right to the source and get the scoop on these so-called "butcherbirds" which, due to their feeding habits, are well-named, indeed!

WARNING: NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART (OR STOMACH)!