Angle Man

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caption=The Silver Age Wonder Woman and Angle Man square off on the cover of "Wonder Woman" #254 (volume 2).
comic_color=background:#8080ff
character_name=Angle Man
real_name=Angelo Bend
publisher=DC Comics
debut="Wonder Woman" #70 (November 1954) (as Angle Man)
creators=Robert Kanigher
Harry G. Peter
alliance_color=background:#c0c0ff
alliances=Mafia The Society Anti-JLA
aliases=
powers=Possesses an object known as an "Angler" which can alter objects and locations according to the holder's wishes, sometimes defying gravity or through teleportation.|

Angle Man is a fictional character, the name of a "DC Comics" supervillain.Citation | last = Jimenez | first = Phil | author-link = Phil Jimenez | contribution = Angle Man | editor-last = Dougall | editor-first = Alastair | title = The DC Comics Encyclopedia | pages = 15 | publisher = Dorling Kindersley | place = London | year = 2008 | ISBN = 0-7566-4119-5]

Publishing history

The Angle Man was created as a recurring foil for Wonder Woman during the period in which Robert Kanigher took over as writer of the comic book.

In the late 1940s, as the backlog of Marston scripts dried up and his family stopped writing stories, and into the 1950s, Kanigher phased out most of the supporting cast, even, briefly, the Amazons of Paradise Island, presenting Wonder Woman in three short, disconnected stories per issue rather than three chapters of one full-length script. The short form left little room for characterization or elaborate plots and, for a while, typically featured Wonder Woman as a full-time crime fighter frequently targeted by the criminal underworld for elimination.

The Angle Man emerged after a series of tales in which Kanigher presented a desperate underworld turning to experts in designing elaborate schemes to defeat Wonder Woman. After one-shot tales featuring the Plotter and the Brain, Kanigher settled on the Angle Man, a character whose gimmick is designing schemes based on an angle. "Wonder Woman" #62 featured "Angle" Andrews, and beginning in "Wonder Woman" #70 she was pitted against someone known simply as the Angle Man.

The Silver Age adventures of "Wonder Woman" came to feature one-off villains and predicaments, and the Angle Man and the Duke of Deception were for a time the only recurring villains.

The Angle Man was dropped in the 1960s, as "Wonder Woman" shifted away from superheroics to feature espionage and urban adventures of the depowered Diana Prince, but he reemerged in the 1970s as a more traditional costumed supervillain, now equipped with a superpowered "angler" device.

The Angle Man was the featured villain in the issue which marked the conversion from stories based in World War II to stories based once again in the 1970s.

The Angle Man was one of many Wonder Woman rogues who were not updated following the reboot of the Wonder Woman series after the Crisis on Infinite Earths, until relatively recently.

Fictional character biography

There have been multiple incarnations of Angle Man in DC Universe continuity.

Golden and Silver Age version

The Angle Man was an unsuccessful criminal who became obsessed with crimes with unbeatable "angles." He plagued Wonder Woman with a series of increasingly clever schemes that involved "angles." It is unclear whether or not he had an Earth Two counterpart.

He reappeared in Secret Society of Super Villains [Secret Society of Super-Villains Special #1] now wearing a yellow and green costume and wielding the Angler, a Penrose triangle which could warp time and space in a variety of ways. A text page in that issue explained that he had been recruited and outfitted by the SSOSV's founder Darkseid only to use the Angler to warp ahead in time to a point after Darkseid had been exposed and deposed as the Society's secret leader. He also began appearing in the Wonder Woman title once more.

This Angle Man died in the 1985 limited series "Crisis on Infinite Earths", [Crisis on Infinite Earths #11] apparently as a result of attempting to use his Angler during the massive dimensional upheavals caused by that event.

Modern Age version

After the events of "Crisis on Infinite Earths", the entire DC Universe history was erased and restarted again with the same familiar characters, but with all new backgrounds and histories. In Angle Man's case a still-living, uncostumed Angle Man initially appeared briefly in the "Flash" comic as one of several villains whose equipment was appropriated by the weapon-absorbing Replicant. [Flash Vol. 2, #154]

Later, during Phil Jimenez's run on the Wonder Woman title, he was revamped into Angelo Bend, an Italian master thief for hire who uses his special "angler" to escape authorities. [Wonder Woman Vol. 2, #178-187] He was caught by Donna Troy while trying to steal an ancient artifact from a museum. Even though Donna, as Troia, was trying to stop the villain, Angle Man formed a bit of a crush on the Amazon. He became so enamored with her that he instinctively transported himself to Themyscira seeking Donna's help when he was savagely attacked by a Fury possessed Barbara Minerva. Later it was learned that he had been hired by Barbara, the previous Cheetah, who had lost her powers to Sebastian Ballesteros and needed the stolen artifacts to regain them. He was also seen grieving at Donna Troy's funeral after she was briefly killed by a Superman robot. [ #3]

The next time he is shown was among a large team of super villains formed by the Wonder Woman villain Devastation. [Young Justice #47-51] An enemy of Cassie Sandsmark, Devastation formed the group to battle the now disbanded Young Justice.

Infinite Crisis

The sophisticated thief re-imagined by Jimenez was subsequently written as an entirely different personality, much deadlier and obsessive.

Bend appeared in Catwoman as a member of the "Secret Society of Super-Villains" who were operating in the East End of Gotham City. Catwoman infiltrated the team pretending to be a villain again to get close to the Society. Bend discovered her discussing her plan to double-cross the Society and attacked her, shooting her in the stomach and stabbing her in the head with a triangle-shaped blade. However, the Catwoman the Angle Man "killed" was in fact a new Clayface whom Catwoman had recently encountered and asked for help. The real Catwoman appeared and, during her attack on the villains, beat Bend savagely with a baseball bat. [Catwoman Vol. 3, #46-49]

One Year Later

In the DC Universe One Year Later, Selina Kyle has given up her mantle as Catwoman after having a child. Her associate and friend Holly Robinson has taken over the Catwoman persona.

Bend, now obsessed with Catwoman and bent on revenge, has targeted Holly, not realizing that he is going after the wrong person. He has since been defeated by Holly once (the brutal fight was caught on tape), but has been approached by a new villain calling himself the Film Freak, apparently a successor to the deceased Batman villain of the same name.

When Film Freak deduces Selina's secret identity the two villains launch an attack on her apartment. In the wake of this he even threatens to kill Selina's baby and to give her secret identity away to other villains. These plans are, however, thwarted when Selina calls in Zatanna, who performs another mindwipe on the two men. This results in Angle Man forcibly confessing his crimes to Gotham Police after reminiscing about his more glorious days as a supervillain. [Catwoman Vol. 3, #53-58]

Angelo next appears as an ally of Circe who has emmassed a large team of villains to attack Wonder Woman. [Wonder Woman Annual #1 (Vol. 3)] He informs Diana that Circe has amplified his powers and uses his Angler to replicate itself as a projectile stabbing tool. He and his teammates are about to subdue Wonder Woman when she is rescued by a large group of the Amazon's allies. Angle Man is rendured unconscious by Robin in hand-to-hand combat and is then arrested under the authority of the Department of Metahuman Affairs. After Angle Man's incarceration has been processed his Anglers are taken by Nemesis and placed in government confiscation.

In other media

In "Justice League Unlimited", Angle Man appears as a member of the Secret Society and makes several non-speaking appearances in the series final season. Angle Man had one line in the episode "The Great Brain Robbery", voiced by an uncredited Phil LaMarr. He is a member of the Grodd/Luthor Secret Society in the episode, "Alive"

External links

* http://www.dcuguide.com/who.php?name=angleman

ee also

* List of Wonder Woman enemies

Notes and references