Fixer (comics)

Fixer
Fixer, by Patrick Zircher
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Strange Tales #141 (February 1966)
Created by	Stan Lee Jack Kirby
In-story information
Alter ego	Paul Norbert Ebersol
Team affiliations	Commission on Superhuman Activities Thunderbolts Masters of Evil Redeemers HYDRA Advanced Idea Mechanics
Partnerships	Mentallo
Notable aliases	Mr. Fix, Techno, Ogre
Abilities	Electronics and mechanical genius Robotic body

The Fixer is a name used by two fictional characters, both of are which were introduced as villains in the Marvel Comics universe.

Fictional character biography

Roscoe Sweeney

The first Fixer, aka Roscoe Sweeney was a gangster and crooked fight promoter who was involved in extortion and illegal gambling. He paid boxer "Battling Jack" Murdock to take a fall and lose a fight. Murdock accepted the money, but when he saw his son, Matthew, in the audience, he became determined to continue the fight and eventually won by a knockout.

The Fixer's right-hand man, Slade, killed Jack Murdock after the fight in retaliation. Matthew Murdock, learning of his father's murder, vowed to bring men like the Fixer to justice. Matt Murdock became a lawyer, and also the superhero Daredevil to do so. The Fixer had a fatal heart attack when confronted by Daredevil. Slade was arrested and executed. All of this occurred in the course of Daredevil #1 and was revisited years later in the Daredevil: Yellow miniseries.

Paul Norbert Ebersol

The second Fixer was a long-time supervillain who later became a member of the Thunderbolts.

Paul Norbert Ebersol was born in Dayton, Ohio. He was a scientist who held a number of odd jobs, including auto mechanic, television repairman, and electronics laboratory assistant. He then became the second and more prominent Fixer, a supervillain and genius-level criminal inventor who has often worked for criminal cartels like HYDRA.

In his first appearance he escaped from prison,^[1] and teamed with his partner Mentallo in an attempted takeover of the New York S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, and even captured Nick Fury.^[2] Fixer and Mentallo were defeated by Tony Stark and S.H.I.E.L.D. troops.^[3] His connection with THEM was revealed; and THEM was later revealed as part of HYDRA.^[4] Behind the scenes, he was even revealed as the chief of the HYDRA Science Division.^[5]

With Mentallo, the Fixer later escaped prison again. They invaded the New York S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters and captured the Thing. They then invaded the Baxter Building, battled the Thing and Nick Fury, and used Doctor Doom's time machine to bring Deathlok from his alternate future.^[6] Mentallo then mind-controlled Deathlok in an attempted assassination of the U.S. President, but Fixer and Mentallo were defeated by the Fantastic Four and taken into custody by S.H.I.E.L.D.^[7] The pair was freed from prison by a HYDRA force controlled by Baron Karza. Fixer created the living machine-intelligence Computrex, which was destroyed by the Micronauts, who then defeated Fixer and Mentallo.^[8]

Fixer and Mentallo then aided Professor Power in his attempt to add Professor X's powers to Mentallo's, but they were defeated by Spider-Man.^[9] Fixer attempted to loot Northwind Observatory of Bruce Banner's inventions, but was captured by Captain America.^[10] Fixer then invaded the West Coast Avengers Compound in an attempt to steal Iron Man's armor, but was defeated by Iron Man and Ka-Zar.^[11]

When Baron Helmut Zemo formed the fourth incarnation of the Masters of Evil, Fixer served as his right-hand man. When the Masters of Evil invaded Avengers Mansion, Fixer created a device enabling Baron Zemo to control Blackout. Fixer helped engineer the capture of Captain America, Black Knight, and Edwin Jarvis.^[12] Fixer was apprehended by Ant-Man. Behind the scenes, Fixer was overpowered by the Super-Adaptoid, who changed places with him.^[13] The Super-Adaptoid disguised as the Fixer later escaped prison.^[14] The real Fixer was discovered by the Avengers in the Adaptoid's former confinement tube at Avengers Island.^[15] Fixer later escaped prison with Yellowjacket, who then spurned his romantic advances. The Fixer followed her and battled her and the Black Knight before escaping.^[16]

In Zemo's second incarnation of the Masters of Evil, the team changed their identity to the Thunderbolts, while Fixer adopted the alias of Techno. He was then apparently killed when his neck was broken by Iron, one of the Elements of Doom, and he transferred his mind into a robotic body, and this Techno sided, alone among the Thunderbolts, with Zemo when he went ahead with his scheme to conquer the planet.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Zemo and Techno decamped to one of Zemo's bases, where Techno began to experiment with cloning, offering to clone Zemo an unscarred body, and even cloning Kevin Costner for fun at one point. After the two fell out, Techno infiltrated the Thunderbolts by replacing Ogre, while continuing his experiments behind-the-scenes, including recovering Jolt's body when she was killed and placing it in a healing tube.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Techno's impersonation of Ogre ended when Scourge stowed away inside him, shrunken, and destroyed his body from the inside, while he refused to kill Jolt again to allow him to construct a new body. However, his backup plan worked, and his consciousness was returned to his original human body—mostly healed, although the nerve damage in his neck meant he required his tech-pac to bypass the damage—and the human Ebersol, initially amnesiac of the robot's exploits, returned to calling himself the Fixer.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Fixer then became one of the Redeemers, a government-backed team whereby criminals could use it to accelerate their sentences and clear their record, until most of that team was slaughtered by Graviton. He joined with the reunited Thunderbolts to stop Graviton, and he was one of the team members exiled to Counter-Earth. By a complicated series of events, at the end of the trip to Counter-Earth, Zemo's consciousness ended up in Fixer's tech-pac. By threatening to disable it and leave him quadriplegic, Zemo managed to force Fixer to transfer the Baron's consciousness to his Counter-Earth counterpart's body.^{[volume & issue needed]}

The team remained on Counter-Earth for some time, until, in sealing a rift, they returned home, leaving Jolt (whom Fixer saved from burning out in helping to seal the rift) behind. Finally, after Moonstone went insane, Fixer furnished a device that could give the combined Avengers and Thunderbolts a couple of seconds to make their move; he then left.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Later, Deadpool visited Fixer at his holiday home enlist his help in saving Cable. After a brief fight, Fixer accepted the challenge (and Deadpool's monetary inducement), and successfully bonded new, benign, techno-organic mesh to Cable. Some time after this, Fixer suddenly reappeared to save MACH-IV, his former teammate, from a fall. Fixer recruited MACH-IV to join a secretive group headed by Zemo to combat and destroy Genis-Vell, a member of the Thunderbolts whom Zemo had brought back to life. The process was flawed, however, and Genis' existence now threatened the universe.^{[volume & issue needed]}

After Genis was destroyed, Fixer remained with the Thunderbolts, who were now helmed by Zemo. He helped the team recruit supervillains to the pro-registration cause during the Civil War. He also helped Zemo save the Wellspring of Power from the Grandmaster. After Zemo was betrayed and the Thunderbolts were placed under S.H.I.E.L.D. control, Fixer and MACH-IV were offered jobs with the Commission on Superhuman Activities.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Ebersol has been identified as one of the 142 registered superheroes who appear on the cover of the comic book.^[17]

During the Heroic Age storyline, Fixer works at the Raft supervising its section for male supervillains when Captain Steve Rogers and Luke Cage arrive to recruit Ghost.^[18]

As well as working with the Thunderbolts, Fixer has also been seen working with Baron Zemo.^[19]

Powers and abilities

The second Fixer is an intuitive genius at invention of weapons and other electrical and mechanical devices. He has designed numerous devices and paraphernalia for himself, including his body armor. As weaponry, he has used various devices including bombs, electronic jamming devices, guided missiles, sonic amplifiers, brain-wave scanners, and mind-control pods. He has also built anti-gravity discs which are affixed to his feet and allow flight at the speed of sound, as well as a special mask which contains a three hour air supply and acts as an air pressure reduction valve, together enabling flight at high velocity and high altitude.

In other media

Television

• In Iron Man: Armored Adventures, Fixer appears as “Mr. Fix” (voiced by Donny Lucas); he is a genius inventor and a high-tech arms dealer with ties to the Maggia. For protection, he employs highly sophisticated communications and surveillance equipment, teams of soldiers, and individuals (e.g., Whiplash) equipped with high-tech weapons. Physically, he resembles his comic book counterpart. In the episode “Whiplash”, Mr. Fix orders Whiplash to kill Pepper Potts’ FBI agent father, who is close to apprehending him; then, Fix sends Whiplash after Pepper herself. Whiplash fails at both tasks; ultimately, Iron Man defeats him. In the episode “Man and Iron Man”, Fix sends an enhanced Whiplash to get revenge and prove that his weapons are effective against Iron Man. When Iron Man loses control of his suit, Fix is thrashed, begs for his life, and is nearly killed when his lab is destroyed. In the episode “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” Iron Man suggests that Fix is trying to eliminate Unicorn and Killer Shrike upon learning that Fix hired them to perform a robbery, but, unbeknownst to them, equipped them with explosives powerful enough to destroy the entire city. Mr. Fix later returns in the second season under the employ of a shadowy figure and has Whiplash kidnap Obadiah Stane and Justin Hammer (who had orchestrated his own kidnapping). Hammer threatens Fix to do as he says or he will release a nanovirus implanted in him the will kill him. He later revives Living Laser in the episode "Look Into the Light" as part of Project Titanium. In the episode "Titanium vs. Iron," Mr. Fix completes the Titanium Man armor yet Justin Hammer wants to test drive despite the fact that Mr. Fix hasn't found a way to bond the titanium with vibranium. Growing impatient that Fix had not yet found a way to bond titanium to vibranium following his first outing as Titanium Man, Hammer declares that Mr. Fix has failed for the last time and releases the nanovirus killing his physical body. However, Hammer removed a flash drive with Fix's consciousness on it and enslaves it so that he can perfect Project Titanium. In the episode "The Hawk and the Spider," Justin Hammer speaks with Mr. Fix 2.0 about the User Interface Chip which would plan to control the armors and that the User Interface Chip must be programmed well to be adapted to the Titanium Man armor. Justin Hammer tells him to find a way to make it work or he will download him into a hard drive and throw it into the sewer.

Film

• In the feature film Daredevil, the Roscoe Sweeney version of Fixer is renamed Falon (played by Mark Margolis) while the Slade character is replaced by Wilson Fisk, the film's main villain.

Music

• The industrial band Mentallo and the Fixer derive their name from Fixer (Ebersol) and his former partner Mentallo.

References

1. ^ Strange Tales #141
2. ^ Strange Tales #142
3. ^ Strange Tales #143
4. ^ Strange Tales #145
5. ^ Daredevil #121
6. ^ Marvel Two-in-One #26
7. ^ Marvel Two-in-One #27
8. ^ Micronauts #24-25
9. ^ Marvel Team-Up #118
10. ^ Avengers Annual #13
11. ^ Iron Man #202
12. ^ Avengers #273-274
13. ^ Avengers #276
14. ^ Avengers #286
15. ^ Avengers #287
16. ^ Solo Avengers #12
17. ^ Avengers: The Initiative #1 Character Map
18. ^ Thunderbolts #144
19. ^ Captain America #606

External links

• Fixer I at Marvel.com
• Fixer II at Marvel.com
• Fixer I at Marvel Appendix