Prowler (comics)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Prowler is the name of three fictional characters owned by Marvel Comics.
The first Prowler was a criminal turned superhero by the name of Hobie Brown. He debuted in Amazing Spider-Man #78 (November 1969). Hobie Brown was created by Stan Lee, John Buscema and Jim Mooney.
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[edit] Prowler I
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Prowler debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man #78 (November, 1969). He was co-created by writer Stan Lee with artists John Buscema and Jim Mooney.
Hobie Brown was a bright, but angry teenage African-American who got fired from his job as a window cleaner. Intending to use his engineering skills for personal profit, he devised a plan to steal stuff in the disguise of a supervillain and bring it back as Hobie Brown, thus hurting no one and still becoming a noteworthy hero.
However, as seen in The Amazing Spider-Man (1st series) #78-79 (1969), when he donned his green and purple "Prowler" costume for the first time, he crossed paths with Spider-Man. Spidey vanquished and demasked Prowler, but realizing he was just a misunderstood kid (much like himself), he gave him advice to not throw his life away as a criminal and to redeem himself. Hobie took this advice to heart and has since become a model citizen. Years later, for a brief period of time, also joined super-hero group The Defenders (as seen in three 1970s issues).
Prowler later appeared in California during Peter Parker's "Webs" book deal (story-arc around The Amazing Spider-Man (1st series) #304, 1988). He is first seen attacking the Black Fox for possession of a chalice, to keep his wife, Mindy, out of prison. Mindy accepted a bookkeeping job at Transcorp New York. The company was caught in some shady stock deals and Mindy was set up and blamed for the crimes. The only way to clear her name, Hobie redonned the Prowler costume and found the books that Mindy was blamed for stealing. He hid the books on an information chip and put the information chip on the chalice, where no one would look for it. Prowler and Spider-Man team up to take on the Black Fox to take the chalice back. They succeed and Hobie's wife is cleared of all charges. He was last seen during a poker game organized by the Thing.
Prowler appears also in various 1990s Spider-Man issues, when, teamed up with some another rehabilitated villains like Sandman, Rocket Racer and Puma, create the team of The Outlaws.
In 1994 he has his own four-issues limited series named Prowler.
Later (Spider-Man Unlimited #16), during The Great Game plot, Hobie was paralyzed during the Great Game in story-arc started with The Sensational Spider-Man (1st series) #16 (1997).
The Prowler was captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. recently in Ms. Marvel's Civil War tie-in.
[edit] Notes
Hobie is a valuable friend to Spider-Man. Most notably, he once impersonated Spidey (in The Amazing Spider-Man (1st series) #87) after a sick Peter Parker had foolishly told his identity to Gwen Stacy, Flash Thompson, Mary Jane Watson and Harry Osborn.
[edit] Powers
Prowler has no superhuman powers. He relies on a grab bag of technical gimmicks, most notably:
- Pellets filled with sleeping gas
- Steel claws for climbing walls
[edit] Other media
Hobie Brown appeared on Spider-Man: The Animated Series. He first appeared working for a crimelord called Iceberg and was feeling he wasn't earning his fair cut for the work he was doing. When Iceberg found out, he had his boys attempt to kill Hobie. After narrowly escaping that fate, he knew he needed to get out of town. He stole a passer by's purse in order to fund his new trip. It turned out to be Mary Jane's purse when she and Peter Parker are in the process of apartment hunting but was stopped by Spider-Man and Hobie was sent to jail for violating his parole. While in jail, he saves Richard Fisk from an attempt on his life. As payment, the Kingpin arranges for a hot shot lawyer to enable Hobie's release and gives him a special suit. He used the costume to get back at his old boss Iceberg. There are strings attached, however: the belt will detonate if he tampers with it. He and Spider-Man team up against the Kingpin and destroyed the controls to the belt so it wouldn't detonate and Prowler's suit is recharged. Hobie gave up crime so he can have a chance at returning to a normal 'good' life. He was played by Tim Russ.
[edit] Prowler II
In a story-arc seen around The Spectacular Spider-Man (1st series) #47 (1980), a villain named Bella Donna stole Brown's costume and equipment and hired the cat burgler whom Spider-Man originally fought in Amazing Spider-Man #30 to become a new Prowler. That criminal, who wore a simpler version of Brown's costume, accidentally killed a guard during one of his crimes. Unfortunately, that Prowler's similar silhouetted profile confused witnesses enough to have Spider-Man implicated in the murder. Eventually, Spider-Man captured both Belladonna and her accomplice, cleared his name and returned the stolen equipment to Brown.
[edit] Prowler III
In The Sensational Spider-Man #16-18, a medical intern named Rick Lawson stole the Prowler costume and used it to both rob patients in the ICU and get revenge on those who had 'wronged' him in the past. However, he eventually ran into the Vulture, who was at the time rejuvenated and attempting to kill all who knew him as an old man; he mistook Rick for Hobie and was unconcerned about the mistake. Eventually, he managed to badly injure Rick by slashing him across the chest with his razor-sharp wings, but was unable to kill Rick. As Spider-Man defeats the Vulture, Rick was taken to the hospital and the Prowler costume was returned to Hobie. After this event, Rick Lawson's current location is unknown; presumably he was sent to prison once he had recovered enough to stand trial.
