Affiliations: Bobby Chance, Spider-Man

Enemies: Hammerhead, Madame Fang, Manslaughter Marsdale

Known Relatives: Marie (wife), sons, daughters (unnamed)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Manhattan, New York

First Appearance: Amazing Fantasy I#15 (August 1962)

Powers/Abilities: None, although in his prime, Hogan was once a professional wrestler skilled in the sport and in nearly perfect physical shape.

Height: 5' 10" Weight: 210 lbs.

History: (Tangled Web#14 BTS) - Joseph "Crusher" Hogan started his wrestling career at Championship Wrestling, but as the company began going bankrupt, he started a self-smear campaign to attract more fans. He also borrowed $1000 from the underworld figure known as Hammerhead and then promised it in the ring to whoever could defeat him.

(Amazing Fantasy#15) - While appearing at a wrestling exhibition in the old Manhattan armory, Hogan fought against a disguised Peter Parker (the future Spider-Man) seeking the money. Humiliated by the young man, Hogan's career came to a dead stop.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#271) - Over the years, Hogan came to a realization that the unknown masked man had to be Spider-Man. Unable to get any other job than as custodian at his old gym, he began making up stories about being Spider-Man's friend and training him and turning him into the costumed crime-fighter he was now. Hogan also eventually discovered that promoter Madame Fang and wrestler Manslaughter Marsdale planned to cripple another wrestler named Bobby Chance rather than allow him to sign with another promoter. Their confrontation received the attention of Spider-Man, who defeated Manslaughter and even stopped long enough to lend credence to Hogan's stories about their friendship.

Comments: Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

There is quite a bit of difference between the ret-conned Crusher Hogan from Tangled Web#14 and the traditional Crusher Hogan seen in Amazing Fantasy#15 and revisited in Amazing Spider-Man#271. The traditional Crusher seemed to have made his peace with the world when Spider-Man revisited him, but the ret-conned Crusher was warned his hand would be broken if he lost Hammerhead's money (that is, if it was Hammerhead; it sure looked like him). Presumably, Hammerhead did not live up to his threat or was not able to.

Before the ret-con, it was $100 that Peter Parker won while wrestling Hogan. Much later, according to Spider-Man: Chapter One, it was $1000 dollars Peter won at the exhibition. That Crusher Hogan also had red hair and a colorful WWF (now WWE)-like costume.
If it was $10,000 that Crusher borrowed from the mob (in the Tangled Web ret-con, it was), from the looks of the crowd at the show, he would have had no problem paying it back, even if Spider-Man did collect it. Judging by the sliding time-scale, I'd put
Spider-Man's origin in the mid-80's (he'd have to be in his 30's to be teaching now, I'd assume). During that point in time,
having a full-house crowd like the show had would have ensured a gate of $50,000, and I'm sure his boss didn't want his main draw hurt, so there's the $10,000 there. Besides, "Hammerhead" appeared to be enjoying himself quite a bit during the show, so even if they couldn't pay it all back, he probably would have "insisted" on a part of the future gate receipts for a while.--Madison Carter.
True, but the point about the mid-80's is both debatable and moot. The modern era is thought to represent anywhere from 12-17 years , depending on who you talk to (you're on the high end, I guess). Also, Marvel doesn't want people to see Spidey in his 30s, as he loses some of the "cool factor," though it is more realistic. You don't have to be in your 30s to be a teacher. You just need some sort of Bachelors (4 years) +/- Masters (2-4 years) degree. Also, as time slides forward, this point keeps moving towards and then into the 90s, and beyond. At any rate, your points about he could pay off the debt are all valid. However, he also could have retired after taking a beating from some mobsters.
--Snood.

In the "Spider-Man" movie, Hogan was renamed Bone-Saw McGraw and played by professional wrestler Randy Poffo (aka Macho Man Randy Savage). The likely reasons for this was to create a more colorful and intimidating character for Peter to fight, and that there were probably already too many copyrighted characters on the script.

Plus they may have wanted to avoid any confusion with Hulk Hogan.

Scott Levy, the co-writer for the Tangled Web story is better known as the wrestling star Raven. You can visit his site to learn more about his career: The Raven Effect.
--Markus Raymond

CLARIFICATIONS: Joseph “Crusher” Hogan is not to be confused with:

• Crusher (El Professor) @ Tales Of Suspense I#91

• Crusher (Juan Aponte) @ Daredevil I#119

• Crusher, agent of Pluto @ Thor I#130

• Crusher of Tunnelworld - giant, tank-like weapon of Ytitnedion @ Defenders I#81

• Harold “Happy” Hogan (Iron Man Supporting Character) @ Tales To Astonish I#45

• Colonel Robert Hogan U.S.A.F. of the TV Series “Hogan’s Heroes”

• Hulk Hogan, outlaw in the Old West @ Gunsmoke Western#63

• Hulk Hogan, the world-famous wrestler

• Any other characters named “Crusher” or “Hogan” who have appeared in the Marvel Universe