FUSION
Real Name: Wayne Markley
Identity/Class: Human mutant
Occupation:
Criminal;
formerly prisoner;
former super-villain
mind-bent on revenge, and industrialist/real estate mogul in his spare
time.
Group Membership: BioTechnix
Affiliations: Doctor Octopus (Otto Octavius) (who was pretending)
Enemies: Doctor Octopus, Spider-Man, Thor
Known Relatives: Francis "Frankie" Jeremy Markley (son, deceased).
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: His industries; formerly, a warehouse turned into a gym, USA
First Appearance: Peter Parker: Spider-Man II#30 (June, 2001)
Powers: Markley had a high level of human strength expected for a guy who engages in intensive physical exercise.
He can persuade people to do what he wants, to see what he wants and to hear what he wants. Basically, he controls people's perceptions. This renders the Spider-Sense useless, but once you know his tricks, there's no way you can fall for them.
He uses "systems that enhance" his powers. Maybe that small "doohickey" (Spidey's words), a small wand, that can detonate at a given voice code, and that he throws persuading everybody else that it's Captain America's shield, or Thor's Mjolnir, or other famous weapons, may actually be the power enhancer device, attending to the fact that he ran like a sissy when he lost it. Also, because he's rich, he has lots of hi-tech equipment, of which only bombs are used for villainous purposes.
He also has the amazing
ability of referring
to his little boy as Francis, when his name was Jeremy. He's
mindset on avenging his son, but he can't get his name right.
Smooth.
Robert Bruce Banner syndrome! --Markus Raymond
Height: 6' 0" Weight: 190 lbs.
History:
(Peter Parker: Spider-Man II#32 (fb)) - When he was a child, Markley discovered he had the mutant ability to persuade. He could talk anyone into doing what he wanted, so as he grew older, he made millions with his powers. He honed his powers and used his money and influence to develop systems to enhance them. So, he became a "more-than perfect killing machine". Or just a guy with a big mouth...
Jeremy Markley, Fusion's 9-year-old son, to whom he gently refers as "My Francis" (how sweet), was a timid boy, who loved Spider-Man, and wanted to be like him. So, he climbed to a warehouse's roof, and jumped with a rope on his hands, expecting to swing. Unfortunately, things don't work out that way, and poor little Jeremy didn't survive the fall. His father, being used to getting everything he wanted, faced a first: He couldn't get his son back. So, typically, he blamed it on Spider-Man.
(Peter Parker: Spider-Man II#30) - Fusion appeared as an awesome, near-omnipotent character. He faced Spidey on a rooftop, and he fought with the powers of the Hulk, the Thing, Mr. Fantastic, Thor, and many others, seemingly copying them all. He also made all the guns in the cops' hands explode, killing them, and caused the crash of a police helicopter. Then he threw a mannequin from the top of the building, and Spidey mistook it for a real woman, and tried to web it. The mannequin was wired, and it exploded against the side of the building, killing 300 people...
(Peter
Parker: Spider-Man
II#31-32) - They
fought again at the spot where Jeremy died, and with his nearly
endless powers, Fusion beat the crap out of Spidey, breaking his
neck in the process. Fusion dragged him to his hideout, and
there, he left him helpless on the floor, while he watched him in
agony and despair. Of course, as all of the readers know, and no
super-villain seems to learn, if you have Spider-Man knocked-out,
you should kill him right away. But villains tend to gloat over
their petty need to feel superior, and, of course, if they did
that, we'd have no comics to read. Finally, after spending being
tortured by Fusion, trying to find out what is wrong, and
persuading himself not to give up, Spider-Man finally managed to
move his hand.
Realizing the true nature of Fusion's powers, he stood up, and faced his opponent. "You're just a poor man's Mysterio, an' I just figured you out." A surprised Fusion then told the story of his powers to Spidey, and informed him that the officers that seemed to die during their first fight, didn't, they were persuaded to commit suicide. He said that even if Spidey knew what was really happening, he couldn't block his powers; this was proved wrong, and Fusion was forced to explode his small wand, which made the warehouse collapse. Spidey chased him to the street, where "the Hulk" punched him in the stomach, and Spidey doesn't move an inch, knowing it was Fusion again. Spidey nearly captured Fusion, but he made some cars crash, so that the Web-Head lost him. Spidey saved the people, and Markley fled.
(Peter Parker: Spider-Man
II#39-40) - Fusion
found Doc Ock working in one of his facilities under an assumed
name, and enslaved him. Octopus was apparently convinced that
Fusion's "powers" were real. Fusion's plan was complex,
and it involved the company BioTechnix. They would cause
incidents that made people lose an arm, and then replace it with
an all new, very advanced prosthetic arm. All of the people were
high-placed in the military, or in the espionage community, as
well as Senator Bradley Miles. All of these prototype limbs had a
processor that sent/received information to the brain, and also a
radio transmitter/receiver. In English, these arms allowed Fusion
to control the minds of their users. Fusion wanted to control all
of those people, to find out the whereabouts of the device known
as John Hancock. Fusion wanted the device to track down
Spider-Man, who has an unique radiation signature. But Doc Ock
had his own plans...
Spidey found both of them at a BioTechnix factory. He escaped with a prosthetic limb and a suitcase that provided him with some clues. After speaking to some sources, he returned to the factory, where an amputee brought the John Hancock device to Fusion. After Fusion told Ock that the amputee was the only witness to the whole affair, Ock killed him. Fusion was enraged that Octopus killed him without his order, but he soon realized that that was his smallest problem. Octopus was playing him for a fool in order to get the device. Fusion's powers had no effect on him. He beat Fusion up, and left him hanging from the ceiling, nearly dead, covered in octopus ink, and with 4 prosthetic limbs stuck to his torso. He was found by Spider-Man, who phoned for an ambulance.
(Thor: Heaven & Earth#2 (fb) - BTS) - Although on the FBI's ten most wanted list, Markley's whereabouts remained unknown.
(Thor: Heaven & Earth#2) - Markley held 50 people hostage with a massive amount of explosives, demanding to see Thor, who soon arrived. Markley wanted the god to resurrect his son, but Thor indicated that he could not and showed him the possibilities of different choices made by people with free will. Angered but upset, Markley ordered everyone out of the building and, unable to forgive himself for what he had done, detonated the explosives.
Comments: Created by Paul Jenkins, Mark Buckingham, Wayne Faucher.
Once someone actually found out what his secret was, he had no way to affect that person (unless that person was really dumb, and kept believing all the stuff this guy made up). Also, bossing Doctor Octopus around is not the kind of thing you'd do if you have high life expectations.
The John Hancock was earlier used by General Ryker to track the Hulk in Jenkins' own Hulk stories.
Markley has a criminal record in the US for the murder of 300+ people.
His first name was revealed in his entry in OHOTMU A-Z Hardcover#4.
by Henrique Ferreira courtesy of Spider-Fan
Clarifications:
Fusion has no known connection to:
Appearances:
Peter Parker: Spider-Man II#30-32 (June-August, 2001) - Paul Jenkins
(writer), Mark Buckingham (pencils), Wayne Faucher
(inks), Axel Alonso (editor)
Peter Parker: Spider-Man II#39-40 (March-April, 2002) - Paul Jenkins
(writer), Mark Buckingham (pencils), Wayne Faucher (inks), Axel Alonso
(editor)
Thor: Heaven & Earth#2 (October, 2011) - Paul Jenkins (writer),
Mark Texeira (art), Charlie Beckerman (editor)
Last updated: 01/07/12
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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