Bumblebee (comics)

Superherobox|

caption = Bumblebee: "One Year Later".
Art by Tony Daniel.
comic_color = background:#8080ff
character_name = Bumblebee
real_name = Karen Beecher-Duncan
publisher = DC Comics
debut = (as Karen) "Teen Titans" #45 (December 1976)
(as Bumblebee) "Teen Titans" #48 (June 1977)
creators = Bob Rozakis
alliance_color = background:#ffc0c0
alliances = Doom Patrol S.T.A.R. Labs Teen Titans
aliases =
powers = Shrunk to insect-like size. Her solar-powered suit enables her to fly (via bee-like wings), fire sonic force blasts, and unleash electrical 'stings'.

Bumblebee (Karen Beecher-Duncan) is a former member of the superhero team Teen Titans and a current member of the superhero team the Doom Patrol.Citation | last = Beatty | first = Scott | author-link = Scott Beatty | contribution = Bumblebee | editor-last = Dougall | editor-first = Alastair | title = The DC Comics Encyclopedia | pages = 63 | publisher = Dorling Kindersley | place = London | year = 2008 | ISBN = 0-7566-4119-5]

Fictional character history

Teen Titans

Scientist Karen Beecher was the girlfriend of Teen Titans member the Herald (a.k.a. Mal Duncan). In order to help make Herald look good in front of the team, Beecher secretly made herself a bumblebee-themed supersuit and attacked the Teen Titans. She escaped without this ruse being revealed.

When she later explained to Mal and the Titans what she had done, they were impressed enough to offer her membership, which she accepted. She and Mal subsequently moved to the new Titans West team, having relocated to San Francisco. When the Titans team dissolved for a time, Karen and Mal married and 'retired' from superheroics. Karen took a job with S.T.A.R. Labs, where she designs non-lethal weaponry.

They have returned to crime-fighting from time to time to assist the team, most notably during a short-lived revival of Titans West and the JLA/Titans event, which reunited everyone involved with the team. A fight broke out over the fate of Victor Stone, Cyborg. Bumblebee personally fought Zauriel, a member of the Justice League. Despite the assistance of the current Supergirl, Bumblebee was swiftly defeated.

Following this, Mal and Karen briefly joined the latest incarnation of Titans West (now called Titans L.A.), but this incarnation of the team never really got off the ground

"Infinite Crisis" and One Year Later

Bumblebee and her husband are among the heroes recruited by Donna Troy to help avert a coming crisis that threatened the existence of the universe. After a battle in space, most of the heroes were trapped by a Zeta Beam Ray that Adam Strange was hoping to use for teleporting away the heroes from the rift in space. Due to the ray interactions with the rift itself, the Zeta Ray altered Bumblebee's physiology, apparently transferring her body mass to Hawkgirl. This left Bumblebee approximately six inches in height and Hawkgirl some 25 feet tall.

In "Teen Titans" vol. 3, #34, Bumblebee is shown to have joined the Doom Patrol sometime in the past year along with her husband (now known as Vox) and Beast Boy. She must now take medicine developed by Doom Patrol leader Niles Caulder to prevent her heart from going into cardiac arrest, due to her tiny form.

Much like Beast Boy, she now strongly resembles her animated counterpart in costume and hair style.

Per "Birds of Prey" #100, Karen--along with numerous other DCU heroines--has been contacted by Barbara Gordon and asked to join the expanded roster of the latter's team, the Birds of Prey. Whether she accepted or not is unknown, but Oracle's letter did note that membership in the new Birds of Prey would not affect membership in another team, so her current position in the Doom Patrol is safe for now.

Powers and abilities

Bumblebee has no true superpowers and her abilities are derived from her scientific super-suit. The suit enhances her strength, acts as body armor and allows her to fly and create painful sonic blasts. She is currently stuck at a shrunken size.

In other media

Bumblebee appears in the "Teen Titans" animated series, voiced by T'Keyah Keymah. As an assertive, highly skilled, and cocky former H.I.V.E. student, who was really an undercover agent and had enrolled to infiltrate the facility and learn of their motives and secrets for Aqualad. She had been keeping track of H.I.V.E long before Cyborg posed as "Stone". Bumblebee was able to resist Brother Blood's mind control powers eventually the first time; "There's not a man alive who can tell me what to do!" she explained to Cyborg. Her abilities as a H.I.V.E. student entrusted her to Brother Blood, but Blood was shocked to find that she was also a spy when she assisted Cyborg in stopping Brother Blood's latest plan.

Unlike her comic incarnation, Bumblebee does not wear a mask or goggles. She also uses two separately carried electric stingers as weapons, and her flight and shrinking abilities appear to be a natural feature, not bestowed by a supersuit. While reduced in size, the stingers lose potency, inflicting only painful shocks, but her strength remains unchanged.

Blood escaped to Steel City where he was followed by Bumblebee and Aqualad. While in Steel City, Bumblebee and Aqualad formed Titans East with Speedy and Más y Menos. Cyborg soon followed and helped the team build their tower, but Blood entered with his new Cyborg copies and beat the Titans East whom he then placed under mind-control to attack and capture Cyborg, whom Blood wanted to examine. Cyborg then battled Blood and won, freeing the Titans East. He then decided to return to his fellow Titans and appointed Bumblebee as the new leader of Titans East.

Also, along with her fellow Titans East members, she watched over Titans Tower in Jump City, defeating Andre Le Blanc without trouble. While fighting Control Freak, she was forced to stop a subway car while remaining in her small stature.

Bumblebee was overpowered by Punk Rocket and Angel in "Calling All Titans". She somehow got rescued by Starfire and joined the Titans' assault on the Brotherhood of Evil's lair.

The animated Bumblebee is able to shrink to tiny size and fire electric blasts from a pair of hand-held weapons, as well as fly like Marvel Comics' Wasp.

Bumblebee has made a few appearances in the "Teen Titans Go!" comic book series (#20, 25, & 29). She also appears in issue #39 and is in love with Herald, similar to the mainstream comics.

References