Villains With Potential-Justin Hammer

Justin Hammer isn't just dead, he's "frozen-inside-a-big-block-of-ice-in-space" dead, which is twice as dead as Gwen Stacy. But hey, can't keep a good mad billionaire down, right?

Yeah, okay, maybe I'm reaching. But without Hammer, who'll fund all of the super-villains? Who'll give them health-care and get their busted gadgets fixed? Who'll shell out for those jail-house accountancy courses?

Well, his daughter, probably, considering that she's given up the whole Crimson Cowl deal in the aftermath of Dark Reign. But Justine Hammer, while having plenty of her father's ruthlessness lacks his business acumen.

See, that's what I always liked about Hammer...he wasn't book smart, like Tony Stark. In the immortal words of Bartholomew J. Simpson, "With your book-smarts, and my ability to manipulate people with book-smarts...". Hammer was a stone-cold manipulator. Whether via money, intimidation or genetic poisons injected into the bloodstream, Hammer got people to do what he wanted.

Including downloading his consciousness (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) into a Hammer Industries variation on the SHIELD Life Model Decoy. Possibly with a bit of help from brainiacs like the Mad Thinker or Arnim Zola. Wouldn't that be a shock to poor Justine?

Finally out of her father's shadow, only to have him reappear, in a manner of speaking.

But even as Hammer sets about re-establishing himself, he learns that his daughter has out-manoeuvred him...Hammer is locked out of his own company, left only with a few bits and pieces of Stane International to keep him in his dotage. And his LMD body is beginning to wear out thanks to a faulty transference process. He needs funds and research and fast.

Of course, the bits of real estate he still holds are, in actuality, the old training and outfitting facilities from his super-villain hiring days. And Justine threw his old Rolodex in with his other office supplies. And, he has just enough money to jumpstart a small business. Say, a private security company?

What's a master manipulator to do?