Boomerang (comics)

Superherobox|

caption=Boomerang on the cover of "Spectacular Spider-Man" #144 (November 1988).
Art by Sal Buscema.
comic_color=background:#ff8080
character_name=Boomerang
real_name=Fred Myers
publisher=Marvel Comics
debut="Tales to Astonish" #81 (July 1966)
creators=Stan Lee
Jack Kirby
alliance_color=background:#cccccc
alliances=Sinister Syndicate Sinister Twelve
Secret Empire
aliases=Boomer, Fred Slade
powers=World-class baseball pitcher,
Skilled marksman and hand to hand combatant,
Wields variety of lethal and gimmicked boomerangs,
Jet boots grant:
Flight|

Boomerang (Fred Myers) is a fictional character, a supervillain appearing in the Marvel Comics universe and first appeared in "Tales to Astonish" #81.

He has been a member of several prominent supervillain teams and clashed with several heroes throughout his career.

Fictional character biography

Fred Myers was born in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia and was raised in the United States. As a young boy he developed a love for baseball, and spent years training and perfecting his pitching arm. By the time he was a young adult, Fred had realized his dream of pitching for a major league team. However, he foolishly began accepting bribes, and was drummed out of the major leagues after being discovered. Shortly thereafter, Myers was contacted by the Secret Empire, an international criminal organization that saw the potential of his skills. Myers agreed and was given a new costume and an arsenal of deadly boomerangs, from which he derived his new codename. ["Tales to Astonish" #81]

After the Secret Empire collapsed, Boomerang returned to his native Australia and laid low for a few years, perfecting his deadly aim and making modifications to his weapons. Once he was ready, he returned to America and began offering his services as a freelance assassin-for-hire. His first mission was to assassinate Iron Fist, though he was defeated. ["Iron Fist" #13] He was next hired as part of a large group of superhuman criminals employed by Libra to battle the Defenders. ["Defenders" #64] He was hired by Viper to participate in a plot against S.H.I.E.L.D., and battled Spider-Man, Nick Fury, Shang-Chi, and the Black Widow. ["Marvel Team-Up" #83-85] Boomerang next sought to kill Spider-Man in order to impress the Kingpin of Crime and thus gain employment; however, he was defeated by the wall-crawler and apprehended by the police. ["Spectacular Spider-Man" #67] He was seen next helping the Punisher escape from prison. ["Spectacular Spider-Man" #81] Boomerang was eventually released from prison. He was hired by Max Stryker to coerce Bruce Banner into using an experimental cancer cure on Stryker, but wound up battling the Hulk, Banner's alter ego, instead. ["Hulk" #294-295]

Boomerang was then recruited by Jack O'Lantern into the Sinister Syndicate. As part of that team, he battled Spider-Man, Silver Sable, and the Sandman. ["Amazing Spider-Man" #280-281] Then, he was hired by Louis Baxter III to attack a yacht, and again battled Spider-Man. ["Spectacular Spider-Man" #144-145] He then battled Hawkeye at the instigation of a disguised Loki. ["Avengers Spotlight" #27] Next, he teamed with Blacklash and Blizzard to help Iron Man battle the Ghost. ["Iron Man" #239] He was then employed by Justin Hammer, and battled Cardiac and Spider-Man. ["Amazing Spider-Man" #345] With the Sinister Syndicate again, he participated in a crime spree. During these events, Boomerang vied with Speed Demon for Leila Davis's affections. ["Deadly Foes of Spider-Man" #1] Boomerang was among several of the hired killers who responded to an open bounty on Matt Murdock that was put out by Samuel Silke as part of an elaborate plan to usurp the Kingpin's empire. After defeating Shotgun, Daredevil detects Myers on an adjacent rooftop. Boomerang in hand, Myers hesitates when he realizes Daredevil has discovered him, and then runs away. Daredevil follows him, beats him, and threatens him when he finds the picture of Matt Murdock in Myers' pocket. Myers subsequently tried to sue Murdock for $1,000,000 over the beating. ["Daredevil" vol. 2 #28]

Boomerang has also been employed by the Silver Samurai, among others. He has been a member of the Masters of Evil, and the Sinister Twelve. Boomerang has also battled the Thunderbolts. ["Thunderbolts" #24-25]

Boomerang plays a small role in the "Secret War" crossover event. ["Secret War" #4-5]

The Sandman has claimed that Boomerang is married to his cousin.Fact|date=October 2008

Civil War/The Initiative

Boomerang is briefly shown as a captive of Baron Zemo, captured before Zemo's team was given official sanction to take down villains. ["Thunderbolts" #103]

Despite this, he appears with Hydro-Man and Shocker, on the rooftop of Bailey's auction house. Their robbery attempt is cut short by War Machine and Komodo's attempt to capture Spider-Man; the three villains escape but are pursued by the Scarlet Spiders. [ #3]

Around this time he also works for the villain Hammerhead. He teams up with the super-powered villain Grizzly. Both create new stylish outfits for themselves, Boomerang's resembling a three-piece business suit.issue

Powers, abilities, and equipment

Fred Myers has no superhuman powers, but he has the strength, speed, agility, dexterity, reflexes, coordination, and endurance of a professional athlete from his days as a baseball player. He can throw small objects with nearly unerring accuracy, and his aim is nearly the peak of what a non-superpowered human can accomplish. Only characters like Bullseye, Hawkeye, and Taskmaster can match his accuracy.

Boomerang's most dangerous asset is, naturally, his arsenal of specialized boomerangs designed by Justin Hammer. He has modified and improved on them over the years, but the most common ones are exploding "shatterangs" (with enough explosive power to destroy an automobile), "gasarangs" that release large doses of tear gas to disable a target razor-bladed "razorangs", sonic blasting "screamerangs", and whirling "bladarangs" which cut like buzzsaw blades.

Boomerang wears light body armor supplied by Hammer, with a wide variety of hidden pockets and pouches for his smaller, specialized boomerangs, in addition to attachments for securing the seven larger primary boomerangs. Boomerang also has jet boosters in his boots which are controlled by mental command through cybernetic circuitry in the cowl, that allow him to fly through the air at speeds up to 30 miles per hour, and can be used as an offensive weapon when fired at close range.

Boomerang has knowledge of basic street-fighting techniques.

Other versions

Ultimate Boomerang

The Ultimate version of The Boomerang appeared briefly in Ultimate Spider-Man. Spider-Man saved him from being shot by the Punisher during a heist. Boomerang offers Spider-Man thousands of dollars to save him from the police, but Spider-Man webs him up along with his would-be assassin. Like The Shocker, his Ultimate self is a much weaker, almost parody version of himself. He also appeared in the "Ultimate Spider-Man" video game as a thug, being the only name villain who is not a boss.

In other media

Television

* Boomerang appears in the Hulk segment of "The Marvel Superheroes".
* Boomerang appears as a member of the Masters of Evil in the 6th episode of the animated series "".

Video games

* He also makes an appearance as the boss of the first level of the first X-Men video game, in which, interestingly enough, the manual defines him as a mutant, with the power of accuracy with thrown objects.
* Boomerang appears as a minor villain in the "Ultimate Spider-Man" video game.
* He appears in the game "Spider-Man and Captain America in Doctor Doom's Revenge".

References

External links

* [http://www.spiderfan.org/characters/boomerang.html Profile at Spiderfan.org]
* [http://marvel.com/universe/Boomerang Boomerang on the Marvel Universe Character Bio Wiki]