Razorback (comics)

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caption=Panel from "Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man" #13
comic_color=background:#ff8080
character_name=Razorback
real_name=Buford T. Hollis
species=Human Mutant
publisher=Marvel Comics
debut="" #12 (November 1977)
creators=Archie Goodwin [Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man #18] , Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema
alliance_color=background:#ffc0c0
alliances=
aliases=
powers=Depowered, formerly:
Innate ability to operate and drive any vehicle,
Costume grants:
Electrically charged mane |

Razorback (Buford Hollis) is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character first appeared in shadow in "Spectacular Spider-Man" vol. 1 #12. His first full appearance is in "Spectacular Spider-Man" vol. 1 #13.

Fictional character biography

Buford Hollis, a muscular trucker and costumed adventurer from Texarkana, Arkansas, was in New York looking for his younger sister, who had joined a religious cult. This was in fact led by the villainous Man-Beast (disguised as the Hate-Monger), and it takes the combined efforts of Razorback and Spider-Man to defeat him.

Later, Buford is seen again in "The Sensational She-Hulk". Taryn O'Connell, a female trucker, spends some time searching for him before he arrived in his oversized rig. They team up and use the rig itself to hijack NASA's experimental faster-than-light spacecraft, the "Star Blazer". Though opposed by Mister Fantastic and She-Hulk, they nevertheless succeed in stealing the spaceship.

Their purpose is to find Taryn's lover, Ulysses Solomon Archer, who had left for deep space several years prior, establishing himself as a space trucker. They arrive (with She-Hulk as a stowaway, thanks to Mister Fantastic's assistance) only to discover that Archer had already married Taryn's rival for his affections, Mary McGrill, a woman who had travelled into space with him. In the same "She-Hulk" story arc, Razorback assists in defeating Xemnu the Titan, who intended to transform Archer and Mary's as-yet-unborn child into a member of his own species. With the help of the She-Hulk's persuasion, NASA soon realizes that Razorback, with his mutant skill allowing him to drive anything, is the perfect pilot for their craft. Taryn joins Buford on his travels, having fallen in love with him. "Star Blazer" is renamed the "Big Pig", which Razorback calls all his vehicles.

Both later return to Earth, and Razorback inexplicably fights the Human Torch ["Fantastic Four" vol. 3 #24] . Razorback has reportedly lost his mutant powers after M-Dayissue|date=February 2007, though his size and strength are unaffected.

Powers and abilities

Given his great size (6' 8", 410 lbs) and muscular build, Razorback possesses considerable (but not superhuman) strength and endurance. He is an excellent hand-to-hand combatant and wears a wild-boar cowl headpiece with an electrified mane. This electrical discharge proved strong enough to incapacitate Spider-Man [Spectacular Spider-Man vol. 1 #13] .

Previously, Razorback had the mutant ability to intuitively pilot, drive or operate virtually any vehicle or mode of transportation. Thus he could fly the experimental "Star Blazer" spacecraft despite having never seen it before.

Razorback is a skilled mechanic and self-taught engineer who built two cab-over tractor-trailer trucks with sophisticated defensive systems, enhanced engines and self-drive capabilities ("Big Pig" I and "Big Pig II").

In other media

Novels

Razorback made a number of appearances in the series of Marvel Comics novels published by Byron Preiss in the 1990s. The novels shared a common continuity and he was a recurring supporting character in the Spider-Man novels, as well as "Generation X: Crossroads" by J. Steven York. This novel ends with Razorback, who has won acclaim by saving the life of the President, wondering if he should risk his reputation by publicly revealing his mutant nature.

An alternate universe version of Razorback appears in the novel "Spider-Man/X-Men: Time's Arrow, The Present" by Tom DeFalco and Adam-Troy Castro, in a world where the X-Men were dictators who controlled all superheroes.He joined the resistance movement after the X-Men took "Big Pig" to pieces.

Although more likeable than most of the team (which largely comprises villains), he is very bitter about the "death" of "Big Pig". At one point Spider-Man thinks "I don't believe it. This Razorback is grim and gritty."

Footnotes