Bird-Man

Bird-Man is the name of three fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The first two have similar powers and appearances, and both appeared primarily as a member of the villain team the Ani-Men.

Publication history

The first Bird-Man first appeared in Daredevil #10-11 (October, December 1965), and was created by Stan Lee, Bob Powell, and Wally Wood. The character subsequently appears in Daredevil #39-41 (April–June 1968), Daredevil Annual #2 (1971), Marvel Team-Up #25 (September 1974), X-Men #94-95 (August–October 1975), and Iron Man #115-116 (October–November 1978), in which he dies. The character appears posthumously in Iron Man #139 (October 1980) and Classic X-Men #3 (November 1986). Bird-Man appeared as part of the "Ani-Men" entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition #16, and in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Master Edition #32.

The second Bird-Man first appeared in Daredevil #157-158 (March, May 1979), and was created by Roger McKenzie, Mary Jo Duffy, and Gene Colan. The character subsequently appears in Captain America #319 (July 1986), in which he was killed by the Scourge of the Underworld. Bird-Man appeared as part of the "Ani-Men" entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition #16, and in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Master Edition #32.

Fictional character biography

Henry Hawk

Along with Ape-Man, Cat-Man, and Frog-Man, Henry Hawk was recruited by a man named the Organizer to form the original Ani-Men. The Organizer supplied Henry with a winged costume enabling him to fly, and dubbed him Bird-Man. The Organizer was secretly Abner Jonas, a candidate for mayor of New York City, who sent the Ani-Men on missions to undermine the current administration. Daredevil defeated them and the Ani-Men and Organizer all went to prison.^[1] Later, Ape-Man, Bird-Man, and Cat-Man formed a team called the "Unholy Three" with the Exterminator, and fought Daredevil again.^[2] The Unholy Three, as a team of independent thieves, fought Daredevil and Spider-Man and were defeated.^[3]

Ape-Man, Bird-Man, and Cat-Man later rejoined the Ani-Men, and the Ani-Men went to work for Count Nefaria. Count Nefaria's scientists submitted the unwitting Ani-Men to processes that gave them superhuman powers and animal-like forms. The Ani-Men invaded the Cheyenne Mountain missile base for Count Nefaria, and fought the X-Men.^[4]

The Ani-Men lost their superhuman powers and reverted to normal. Count Nefaria sent the four original Ani-Men to kill Tony Stark, however the Spymaster detonated a bomb with which he had intended to kill Stark, and the resulting explosion killed the Ani-Men instead.^[5]

Achille DiBacco

The Death-Stalker sometime later recruits a new team of Ani-Men, with a new Ape-Man, Bird-Man, and Cat-Man. He sends the new Ani-Men to capture Matt Murdock. The Black Widow defeats Bird-Man, and the Death-Stalker murders Ape-Man and Cat-Man upon the completion of their mission, effectively ending the Ani-Men.^[6] The second Bird-Man is later murdered by the Scourge of the Underworld, along with many other villains in the infamous "Bar with No Name" incident.^[7]

Arnim Zola later created a proto-husk of him only for it to be killed by Deadpool.^[8]

The second Bird-Man was among the eighteen criminals (that were murdered by the Scourge) who were resurrected by Hood using the power of Dormammu as part of a squad assembled to eliminate the Punisher.^[9] Bird-Man was seen flying around New York alerting Punisher to his being alive.^[10] Bird-Man is seen rescuing the Human Fly from being beaten by the Punisher. Letha later ordered Bird-Man to take the injured Mirage and Black Abbott to safety.^[11] Bird-Man was later sent to retrieve Lascivious and Letha from the crime scene.^[12]

Bird-Man was seen at Avengers Towers with the other villains when Norman Osborn says that the bounty is off Tony Stark's head.^[13]

Unnamed

During the Civil War storyline, a third Bird-Man alongside a third Ape-Man and a third Cat-Man were among the villains in Hammerhead's supervillain army.^[14]

Powers and abilities

Originally, Hawk had no superhuman powers. He was an athletic man who wore a costume which incorporated a powered exoskeleton that amplified his strength sufficiently to utilize the costume's artificial wings to maneuver in flight. While employed by the Exterminator, Hawk wielded a "time-displacement ray" ("T-ray") gun that fired a ray which projected its victim into a limbo-like inter-dimensional void. The gun could thus "displace" a victim for a limited period of time, such as 30 minutes. A ray blast of sufficient intensity could exile a victim to the inter-dimensional void permanently. Hawk was later subjected to an unknown mutagenic process administered by Count Nefaria's scientists which temporarily gave him natural feathered wings capable of bearing him aloft in flight and hollowed bones, as well as superhuman strength and enhanced speed, agility, stamina, durability and reflexes.

DiBacco possessed the same abilities as the first Bird-Man, including natural feathered wings capable of bearing him aloft in flight, hollowed bones, superhuman strength, and enhanced speed, agility, stamina, durability and reflexes.

References

External links

• Bird-Man (Henry Hawk) at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
• Bird-Man (Achille DiBacco) at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
• Bird-Man (Achille DiBacco) at the Marvel Database