10 Ridiculous Obscure Marvel Characters - Part 3
Here's part three of my list of the most ridiculous and obscure characters from the Marvel Universe. To see Part 1, click here, and for Part 2, click here. I've been spending a lot of time going through the Marvel library of characters, and there are some strange doozies in there that are very amusing. Here are the next ten characters to add to the collection.
The Asbestos Lady
Real name: Victoria Murdock
The Asbestos Lady was a gifted scientist who became famous by designing a flameproof costume from asbestos. She also used a flame-thrower and guns that fired asbestos-lined bullets. What's so ironic and funny about this is the fact that the Asbestos Lady fell victim to being exposed to the harmful carcinogenic fiber for so long. She eventually got cancer from asbestos poisoning and is believed to have succumbed to the disease. I'm not saying cancer is funny, but the fact that she contracted the disease by being the Asbestos Lady is crazy to me. Why would Marvel create this character?!
Gibbon
Real Name: Martin Blank
Here's a Spider-Man character that Sony could throw into their movies! He was born a mutant and tried to team up with Spider-Man, but the web-slinger laughed at him, which drove the character to be a villain for awhile. He had superhuman agility and dexterity, and enhanced strength. He eventually joined a group called the Spider-Man Revenge Squad. The character was basically a loser.
Ruby Thursday
Real Name: Thursday Rubinstein
Aliases: "Bubble Head," Headgirl, Angela Jagger, "Gumball-Head Lady"
This lovely character has the body of a model with a red globe for a head. The head is an organic red plastic computer, and it can reshape her head into any form. She can also dislodge pieces of her head in various shapes as projectile weapons, and explode her head with great kinetic force. It doesn't take great kinetic force for me to explode my head.
To make sure she never really dies, Ruby keeps a back-up copy of her persona, ready for downloading into other prepared computer heads. She also doesn't need to eat, drink, sleep or breathe. The ultimate goal of this scientist and villain was to replace everyone's head with her circuitry.
Puppet Master
Real Name: Phillip Masters
This crazy, creepy-looking guy didn't have any powers, but he did find some radioactive clay that allowed him to create voodoo doll-type puppets of people that could control them. How convenient for a puppeteer! Of course he has to coat the puppets with lead paint in order to protect himself from the radiation. He's not able to control anything mindless though.
Squirrel Girl
Real Name: Doreen Green
To escape the taunts of her classmates, Doreen fled into the nearby woods of Los Angeles where she quickly discovered her affinity for squirrels. She idolized Iron Man and ended up coming up with her own costumed identity of Squirrel Girl in the hopes of becoming his crime-fighting partner. He wasn't interested though. That would have been a very weird team up.
Squirrel Girl has enhanced strength, speed, agility, and reflexes. She also had small claws, enlarged incisors, retractable knuckle spikes, a semi-prehensile tail, and an empathic bond with squirrels.
Humbug
Real Name: Buck Mitty
Aliases: The Bug-Man of Alcatraz, Red Baron
Here's a guy that had no powers, no weapons, and his only ability is that he's an expert in insect communication. This is a villain that was born to lose.
He was working on validating his thesis that "insects are our friends" at Empire State University, but regents cut off his funding. Instead of looking for outside funding or finding a job, he turned to crime to continue to fund his research. He wore an amateur costume with gadgetry capable of various tricks via the amplification of insect noises.
Ruth Hart
It just thought it was hilarious that one of the powers listed for her is "Attractive Female." I guess that could be considered a power. Other powers listed are agility, healing, and intellect.
She was initially introduced as a former member of the biker gang Skull-Crushers. Ruth had been accused of embezzling funds from the gang's treasury. She went on the run and headed to New York City where she found employment as a nurse. I guess that's where her healing factor came into play.
Foolkiller
There are several variations of Foolkiller but I'm focusing on the alter ego Greg Salinger.
Foolkiller primarily used a weapon called the "purification gun," which shoots out a laser-like beam of energy capable of totally incinerating a human being within seconds. What makes this character so ridiculous though is the fact that he dressed up like a buccaneer killing… fools.
He used a mobile computer and surveillance system to locate and track his victims. He was an athletic man who was self trained in hand-to-hand combat, but didn't have any superhuman powers, and, of course, he was criminally insane.
Salinger is also an amateur poet, and at one time he was said to have been in the army but was discharged for medical reasons possibly related to his mental instability.
Dollar Bill
Real Name: Aaron Tagma English
Dollar Bill has no powers and normal human strength. So what makes him so special? Well, he was born into a very wealthy family with an interest in film. He grew up to become a TV producer and an associate of the Defenders. Basically he's just a regular dude that has no business hanging out in the Marvel Universe.
Orrgo
Orrgo has an interesting power which allows him to seemingly alter reality by the power of his mind. The character can actually do some really cool things, like teleport himself two billion miles across space in less than a minute, learn other languages by draining information from the minds of others, blow hard enough to knock a grown man off of his feet, levitate an entire city into the air, and animate inanimate objects such as trees in order to create a personal army for himself. He could also reconfigure things at the subatomic level, a power which he used to melt tanks and guns and to turn aircrafts into giant birds. He was also able to encase the city of Washington D.C. in ice and was able to hypnotize the entire human race, causing them to bow to his will.
The poor guy just looks absolutely ridiculous, and I couldn't help be laugh at the weakness listed… "Orrgo was still vulnerable to physical attacks while he was asleep." No shit!