We all (well, all of us who read comics regularly) know that the original Beetle, Abner Jenkins, went straight. But that doesn't remove the Beetle's potential as a viable bad guy.The Beetle armor was never as advanced as Iron-Man's, being more along the lines of, say, Stilt-Man's. It's a four seater, not a sports car. No fine-tuning or meta-tech gimmicks. What's more, Jenkins seems to have entirely given up any claim he might once have had on the identity, as we saw three new Beetles buzzing around during the Civil War crossover, each wearing a different version of Jenkins' suit. The Thunderbolts quashed that little trio pretty quick, but who's to say where that armor went?
All of this makes the Beetle the perfect candidate for revival and mass production.
Think about it...dozens of the 'classic' Beetle (above) swooping down for the kill, raiding casinos, banks or even hijacking planes. A swarm of Beetles, each acting on the orders of some mysterious agency...AIM maybe. The Secret Empire. Heck, somebody new. Maybe the Beetles will be the foot soldiers of a new, insect themed organization (the Serpent Society, except with bugs), or even be a mercenary outfit, contracted out by Hammer Industries or Stane International to super-villains with a taste for armored henchmen.
The classic purple and teal color scheme will, of course, not be touched.
2 comments:
No joke, the Beetle may be my favorite villain ever. Love the name, love the dichotomy of Jenkins' personality. There's a mini-series from the 1990s called DEADLY FOES OF SPIDER-MAN which reads like SECRET SIX does now, in which the Beetle leads a team of Spider-Villains, then internal strife causes a small war to break out between two factions. It's interesting, tho making Jenkins suddenly turn into a snieveling coward at the end rankled me.
Yeah, I didn't like the ending of that mini either. I mean, I got the reasoning behind it, but it wasn't much fun.
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