RODENT
Real Name: Edward Williams
Identity/Class: Mutated Human
Occupation: Vengeance-seeker
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Rats within the sewers of New York
Enemies: Cloak, Dagger, Predator
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Vermin (see comments/clarifications)
Base of Operations: Sewers of New York
Appearances: Strange Tales II#5 (August, 1987)
Powers/Abilities: Rodent does possess the ability to command rats. Whether Rodent has any superhuman powers or not has yet to be revealed. Rodent looks like a humanoid rat. Its only real human features are longer limbs and articulate fingers. It's at least five feet tall.
History: (Strange Tales II#5 (fb)) - After eating a dead rat that had been killed by a particular kind of poison, the person that would become Rodent was mutated into a humanoid rat. Knowing that there was little left for itself socially on the surface, Rodent moved underground with the vermin it resembled, becoming their self-appointed guardian. Fumigation efforts to kill the rats Rodent lived among angered it, so Rodent sought vengeance by abducting children, holding them hostage for the safety of the rats it lived with in turn.
(Strange Tales II#5) - After attaining two more hostages, Rodent was confronted by the super-heroic duo of Cloak and Dagger. During their melee, Rodent was swallowed up into Cloak’s dimension. Within it, Rodent confronted its worst fear--failing to protect the rats. In an anomieic state, Rodent wanted to die. Sensing this, Cloak pitied the creature and released it from his dimension. Sensing it was defeated, Rodent began to flood the sewer antechamber, swearing it would not be captured unawares by Cloak in their next encounter. While Rodent floated away in the ensuing deluge, Cloak teleported himself, Dagger, and all of the captured hostage children away, returning them to their concerned parents in the process.
Comments: Created by Bill Mantlo and Bret Blevins.
Rodent’s gender was never established (Thus the "it" root pronoun used throughout the entry). If Rodent was female, it could couple with Vermin, what a lovely thought.
Rodent was probably meant to be an established nemesis for Cloak and Dagger but this never happened. (And no one's really too upset about this -editor caliban)
Rodent refers to himself as 'Vermin', and so does Cloak and all the captions in the story. The only time he is refered to as 'the Rodent' is on the cover of this issue. His name is probably more properly 'Vermin'. But Marvel already has a completely distinct rat man named Vermin, so I'm perfectly willing to go along with Rodent.
His real name was revealed in Dagger's entry in OHotMU A-Z Hardcover#3.
Profile by: Kyle Smith
Clarifications:
No known connection to:
Rodent, Mickey Ditillio, the
reporter who exposed Project: Glamour
Rodent, a character
similar to Rodent in appearance and ability, who appears in the
Savage Dragon comic from Image Comics
Rodents, henchmen of rascal, @ Wolverine II#124
Rhodan, of the New Men, an evolved rat, @ Marvel
Premiere#2
Squirrel Girl, teenage character that was referred to as
"Rodent" by her high school peers, @ Marvel
Super-Heroes III#8
Vermin, another human
mutated by chemical means into a humanoid rodent who can control
rats, @ Captain America#272
Xenos, Sgt. Gwenn, @ Moon
Knight I#15
--any other rat-people
Appearances:
Strange Tales II#5 (August, 1987) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Bret Blevins (artist), Carl Potts (editor)
Last updated: 10/12/13
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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