Abner
"Abe" Jenkins was a master mechanic at an aircraft parts factory who became
dissatisfied with his boring, low-paying job. Using his considerable mechanical
knowledge, Jenkins built an armor-plated, strength-augmenting suit, a pair of
gravity-defying wings, and suction-fingered gloves, and a cybernetic control
helmet. Calling himself the
Beetle, Jenkins decided to
use his battlesuit for fame, wealth, and adventure. Jenkins chose to lure the
Human Torch
and the Thing
into battle, believing a victory over these heroes of the
Fantastic Four would make
him an overnight sensation. Unfortunately, the Thing and the Torch defeated
him, and he was sent to prison. Paroled a short time alter, he sought revenge
on the Torch, but found himself in battle with
Spider-Man instead. Once
again he was defeated. Upon his released he decided to forego petty revenge and
concentrate on the acquisition of wealth. He battled Spider-Man and
Daredevil separately on
various occasions, and once was recruited by the
Collector to serve as his
unwilling agent. Under the Collector's domination, Jenkins faced the
Avengers.
Losing every battle against costumed crime fighters and failing to accumulate
very much wealth, Jenkins offered his services to underworld financier Justin Hammer, who kept various superhuman criminals on retainer. His
offer accepted, Jenkins was dispatched against Iron Man as part of a
battalion of costumed criminals (in
IM #126-127). His
Beetle armor was severely damaged by
Shellhead during the
fight.
Jenkins
then invested all of the capital he could acquire into the modification and
refinement of his Beetle armor. With the assistance of the Tinkerer, he produced a
new battle-suit with far greater capacitates than his old one. Before launching
his comeback, Jenkins recruited the criminal
Ringer to put Spider-Man
through his paces. The Beetle wished to study Spider-Man's fighting style and
program it into a computer system so he could anticipate his opponent's moves.
Despite his preparations and new battlesuit, Jenkins was defeated by
Spider-Man. He was later freed from prison by
Egghead who recruited him
for his Masters of Evil
organization. Jenkins and the other Masters of Evil were defeated by the
Avengers and arrested.
Beetle
later teamed up again with
IM enemies
Blizzard and Blacklash
to retrieve the rogue Force
from asylum at Stark Enterprises (IM
#223-224). Shortly
thereafter, IM
easily dispatched of Beetle in a short opening sequence of an
"Armor Wars" installment (IM
#227).
Beetle
and his buddies Whip(Black)lash, Blizzard and now
Spymaster popped up again to take advantage of Tony Stark's "death" (IM
#285). They prepared to
battle Tony Stark-Iron
Man; unfortunately, Iron Man
was now Jim Rhodes,
and his fighting style caught the nasty quartet by surprise. Rhodes won
handily.
Recognizing the value of teamwork, however, Jenkins formed a loosely-organized
band of super-villains upon his release from prison.
The Sinister Syndicate, as
they were called, were defeated by Spider-Man and
Silver Sable in their
first outing, although they occasionally returned to work together to further
their private ends. Unfortunately, over time the members of the Syndicate
formed grudges among each other, compounded by the fact that the crime lord
Kingpin
was manipulating events as part of his own, unrelated scheme. During this time,
the Syndicate was hired to kill a scientist who owed a large gambling debt, and
Jenkins dealt the killing blow. Torn apart by in-fighting, the Syndicate
dissolved.
More recently, Baron
Helmut Zemo recruited
Beetle to join his Thunderbolts,
a new Masters of Evil group posing as super-heroes to win the world's trust
while secretly plotting world conquest. Jenkins worked with his teammate
Fixer to create a new guise of
MACH-1.
First ever appearance: Strange Tales #123.
First
IM appearance: Iron Man #126.
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