ASHCAN
Real Name: Alexander "Alex" Woolcot
Identity/Class: Human mutate
Occupation: Student
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Steven Estevez, Hulk, S.H.I.E.L.D. (especially Nick Fury and Dylan Pattinson), Spider-Man
Enemies: S.H.I.E.L.D. (especially Frederick Miluv), Fritz Woolcot
Known Relatives: Evelyn (mother),
Fritz (father,
deceased);
Dylan Pattinson ("adoptive father")
Aliases: None
Place of Birth: New York City, New York
Base of Operations: Boulder, Colorado; formerly New York City
Extent of Education: Junior high school student
First Appearance:
(Woolcot) Spectacular Spider-Man II#112 (March, 1986);
(Ashcan) Incredible Hulk II#339 (January, 1989)
Powers/Abilities: Alex can project energy blasts able to disintegrate most forms of matter. Even the Hulk ran screaming after taking a blast in the face.
Height: 5' 2"
Weight: 105 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Reddish-blond
History: Alex was a youth growing up in New York City with an abusive father. His dad was a research scientist, and the distractions caused by his wife and son caused him to become violent.
(Spectacular
Spider-Man II#112) - Steven Estevez, a teacher at
Alex's school, noticed a regular pattern of bruises on Alex, and initiated
legal proceedings against his father. Fritz Woolcot threatened to start a rumor
about the time Estevez was spending with his son if he didn't drop it.
(Spectacular Spider-Man II#113) - While Fritz met with his lawyer to discuss switching to another school district to disrupt the investigation, Alex was drawn to his father's experiment, like a moth to a flame. Entranced by the bright light--and not knowing it was an incineration device--Alex stuck his hand into it and received the shock of his life. Fritz's experiment was destroyed, and he would have taken his anger out on Alex if the lawyer had not been present.
(Spectacular Spider-Man II#115) - Fritz Woolcot punched out Steven Estevez when he brought reporter Joy Mercado to their apartment. Peter Parker had been on his way to meet Joy when his Spider-Sense detected Alex's imminent power flare-up. Spider-Man swung into the room, but the situation defused itself, and Spidey was just left confused.
(Spectacular Spider-Man II#116) - Alex nearly got another beating from his father, and his hand began to glow with power, nearly surging out of control. Later, when his father came in, drunk and ready to deliver that beating, Alex put his hand up to defend himself. His dad disintegrated when his fist touched Alex's hand. Alex just knew his mom was going to kill him for turning dad into ash.
(Spectacular Spider-Man II#117) - Fearing punishment from any number of sources, Alex ran away from home. Rod and Bert, a pair of pedophiles tried to pick him up, and when he struggled to get away from them, his powers flared again, blowing up their car, and even shorted out a Con-Edison generator.
Meanwhile, his mom, trying to pretend her life wasn't falling apart around her with the disappearance of both her husband and her son, set out to do some cleaning. She cleaned up the pile of ashes in Alex's room with her vacuum cleaner.
(Spectacular Spider-Man II#118) - Steven Estevez reported Alex's disappearance to Peter Parker, hoping that the reporter who took the photos of Spidey could get in touch with the web-slinger. At the same time, Alex's paranoia began to get the best of him. A pair of police officers suspected him to be a truant, and when they approached him, he blew up their car as well. The cops called in a potential mutant attack, which alerted SHIELD operatives who had been on the lookout for Alex.
Spider-Man found Alex, but found himself under fire from the scared youth, who then fled--right into a squadron of SHIELD Mandroids, who tried to bring him in. Alex, with the help and protection of Spider-Man, continued to fight off a number of SHIELD Operatives. Just when they thought they were in the clear, agent Frederick Miluv fired from above in a Flying Car and shot Alex--apparently dead...
(Incredible Hulk
II#339 (fb) - BTS) - Actually, the above
maneuver was carefully calculated, and while a few bullet were used--and
targeted into non-vital areas, most of them were actually non-lethal
tranquilizers. With the young Alex apparently dead, SHIELD had no problem
removing him. Nick Fury took Alex under his wing, but the young boy was left a
veritable basket case from the amount of stress he had suffered. SHIELD
relocated Alex to Boulder, Colorado, where they placed him with semi-retired
agent Dylan Pattinson. Alex's memories were partially submerged, and he came to believe that the
SHIELD agent was really his dad.
(Incredible Hulk II#339) - In search of a batch of missing Gamma Bombs, renegade SHIELD agent Clay Quartermain tried to hack into SHIELD Central's database through the relatively unguarded home of Dylan Pattinson. It happened, of course, to be the same house in which Alex was living. Clay, Rick Jones, and the gray Hulk easily overpowered the SHIELD agent, but when the Hulk scared the beejeezus-bells out of Alex, he got a face-full of disintegration blast. After screaming in pain for a few seconds, the Hulk took off after Alex to punish him. However, upon learning of Alex's abusive father, the Hulk, who had a similar childhood, felt sympathy for him. The two were soon fast friends.
After the Hulk and company had left, Alex, who had now completely regained his memory, told his "dad" that they needed to renegotiate his allowance...
Comments: Ashcan was created by Peter David and Mark Beachum
Here's more info about Ashcan provided by Loki:
From Peter David's A&Q (fans post answers, as in Jeopardy, PAD
posts his answers) on the Com-X Fan boards, a small note which
might
be relevant to the entry on Ashcan:
Originally
posted by VonDiabolica
A: That was
why I brought back Alexander as Ashcan in Hulk.
PAD: Q: I
heard you were ****** off that editor Jim Owsley
dropped the
last page of your Spec Spidey story that clearly
showed Alex
was still alive, thus giving the impression he was
dead.
The SHIELD agent who led the attack on Ashcan in Spectacular Spider-Man II#118 returned in
Spectacular II#128 under Silver Sable's employment.
--Per Degaton
The rogue SHIELD agent Frederick Miluv and the semi-retired SHIELD agent Dylan Pattinson were both named in OHotMU 2006 A-Z#1
Profile by Snood
Profile updated/edited by Kyle Sims using info from Loki
CLARIFICATIONS:
Alex has no known connection to:
Evelyn Woolcot
She tried to keep the peace in the family and, maintaining her practice of living in denial, she vacuumed up Fritz's ashes while trying to keep a tidy house.
--Spectacular Spider-Man II#113 (116, 117
Fritz Woolcot
He was a brilliant scientist, but had a bad temper, that tendered to flare to violent levels when he was having problems with work, such as being distracted, or when he was drinking. He, too, was beaten by his father, and thought that what he was doing was healthy, and that everyone else was over-reacting. After Alex was mutated by his incineration device, he was disintegrated when he took a swing at his son.
--Spectacular Spider-Man II#112 (113, 115, 116
Steven Estevez
He worked with abused children for years, but as he developed a hard shell to deal with what he was seeing, he started not liking himself. He became a teacher so he could like himself again, and soon after encountered Alex. Recognizing the signs of abuse, Estevez filed a report, which Fritz Woolcot avoided by moving to another school district. Fritz punched Estevez out when he brought reporter Joy Mercado to his door. After Alex vanished, Estevez contacted Peter Parker, hoping he could contact Spider-Man.
--Spectacular Spider-Man II#112 (115, 118
He was a semi-retired SHIELD agent and served as Alex's father during his emotional recovery from the traumatic events in New York. He seemed to provide a happy, healthy, and relaxing environment. He failed to stop Clay Quartermain from using his computer to hack into SHIELD Central, and he got a broken hand from the Hulk as a reward when he pulled his gun.
After Alex regained his memory (and powers), he apparently remained in the role of his father figure, though the balance of power had shifted somewhat.
--Incredible Hulk II#339
images: (without ads)
Spectacular Spider-Man II#18, p5, pan4 (Ashcan main image)
Spectacular Spider-Man II#113, p8, pan2 (his father's experiment)
Incredible Hulk II#339, p14, pan4 (Ashcan VS Hulk)
Spectacular Spider-Man II#113, p9, pan2 (Evelyn & Fritz Woolcot)
Spectacular Spider-Man II#118, p2, pan3 (Steven Estevez)
Incredible Hulk II#339, p1, pan2 (Dylan Pattinson)
Appearances:
Spectacular Spider-Man II#112 (March, 1986) - Peter David (writer), Mark Beachum (pencils), Pat Redding (inks), Jim Owsley (editor)
Spectacular Spider-Man II#113 (April, 1986) - Peter David (writer), Bob McLeod (pencils/inks), Jim Owsley (editor)
Spectacular Spider-Man II#115 (June-July, 1986) - Peter David (writer), Mark Beachum (pencils), Bob McLeod (inks), Jim Owsley
Spectacular Spider-Man II#116 (June-July, 1986) - Peter David (writer), Rich Buckler (pencils), Bob McLeod (inks), Jim Owsley
Spectacular Spider-Man II#117-118 (August, 1986) - Peter David (writer), Rich Buckler & Dwayne Turner (pencils), Bob McLeod, Del Barras, Brett Breeding & Joe Rubinstein (inks), Jim Owsley
Spectacular Spider-Man II#118 (September, 1986) - Peter David (writer), Mike Zeck (pencils), Bob McLeod (inks), Jim Owsley (editor)
Incredible Hulk II#339 (January, 1988) - Peter David (writer), Todd McFarlane (pencils), Jim Sanders III (inks), Bob Harras (editor)
First Posted: 03/25/2003
Last updated: 07/28/2013
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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