According to SHIELD,
the Mercenary was an orphan and was raised by a "criminal combine." He
was "trained from boyhood
in all their murderous arts until he became a cruel, cynical killer." This
combine didn't have any fashion sense, though. 'Ol Merc had one of the
nuttiest costumes of any villain, Shellhead's
or otherwise. (It looks like a bad Yellowjacket
rip-off.) Nevertheless, nutty or no, Merc had in his arsenal armor-piercing
shells, a "solar-scan unit" in his helmet, microwave spy monitors, an electro-static
jamming device, "blackout mist," hallucinogenic flares, a cardio-sonic
scanner, an energy-absorbing magnetized "block," steel-edged gloves, and
a costume kit! All this and Merc was an expert tumbler, too!But wait -- how did he get
involved with Shellhead?
Well, a woman named Bonnie Parker
held Stark at gunpoint, but only because she feared for her life. She and
her husband were on the ship that smuggled the Titanium
Man into the U.S. (IM #22).
She decided to blow the whistle, but she was discovered! The captain of
the vessel then telephoned Mercenary to "off" Mrs. Parker! But Tony Stark
vowed to protect Bonnie, and took on Merc as Iron
Man. Merc nailed him with his energy-absorbing
block, donned a disguise to look like Stark,
and headed off to kill Bonnie. However, a one Vincent
Sandhurst, (see IM
#12) who Merc thought he had killed earlier
(and brother of Basil Sandhurst, the Controller),
showed up and shot who he thought was Tony Stark! Obviously it was the Mercenary,
not Stark, and then Sandhurst died of his wounds seconds later...believing
he had killed Stark.
First ever & IM appearance:
Iron Man #23.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 16 July 2008 )
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