SIDNEY CRUMB (EARTH 616)

Real Name: Sidney Crumb

Identity/Class: Human mutate

Occupation: Tramp

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Mrs. Esther McGeary (friend)

Enemies: The Fury, Captain Britain, Meggan, his abusive father, George and friend (school bullies), Captain Moden, officer Booth and the London police

Known Relatives:  Unnamed abusive father, Mavis (wife, divorced)

Aliases: Crumbie (nickname given to him by school bullies)

Base of Operations: London

First Appearance:  The Daredevils#4 (April 1983)

Powers/Abilities: (final appearance only) Skin extrudes corrosive slime, superhuman strength, gradually growing to gigantic size, constantly mutating.

History: (Captain Britain II#4 (fb)) - As a young man, Sidney Crumb was beaten by his drunken father. This abuse continued as he got older, this time from school bullies during the war, after his father had been killed. Several years later his wife Mavis walked out on him, unable to cope with his drinking.

(Daredevils#4) - Sidney Crumb and Mrs. McGeary were present watching the police take charge of cleaning up after the fight between Captain Britain and Slaymaster.

(Daredevils#8) Sidney Crumb was drinking in a scrap heap, with his only friend, fellow tramp Mrs. McGeary, nearby. He heard a strange sound and asked "Mrs. McGeary? Was that you saying 'shizik' just now?"

(Captain Britain II#4 (fb)) - Investigating the 'shizik' noise, Sidney found Mrs. McGeary dead, speared through the head by the Fury. The cyboite was injured from its trip through dimensions, and was seeking material to rebuild itself. It attempted to kill Sidney too, but only managed to wound him on the arm. The wound became infected, and Sidney slowly began to mutate.

(Mighty World of Marvel#14) - It was March 18th 1984, the night of a full moon. Sidney had been thrown out of a hostel because of he was a 'smelly diseased fleabag'. Looking for a place to drink himself unconscious for the night, he was attacked by Meggan (at this time still in her feral form) because she thought he 'stunk like a dead animal'. Captain Britain intervened before he was seriously harmed, and advised the ungreatful tramp to find somewhere else to spend the night.

(Captain Britain II#3/4) - Sidney had been ill for some time now. His skin had distorted and began to meld with his soiled clothing, and he barely looked human anymore. In a haze of pain and alcohol, he began to stumble through the streets of London looking for medicine to ease his suffering, while his mutation accelerated rapidly in its final stages. Every person he came into contact with suffered an agonising death from contact with his acidic skin. His mind was awash with pain, slipping between the present and his tortured memories. He rampaged into a chemists (drugstore to the Americans among us) looking for tablets, which in his incoherent state he felt would solve all his problems. However upon finding the tablets in the store he realised he no longer had a mouth to put them in.

Captain Britain arrived as Sidney began to strike out indiscriminately at those around him in his terror. Sidney recognised him from their last encounter, and tried to cry out for his help, but was unable to communicate his plight. Meanwhile the hero recognised Sidney's smell as being the same as that of the Fury, a monster he feared beyond anything else he had ever encountered, and believing that Sidney was that killing machine, he gave no quarter, attacking with all his might. Just before he died, Sidney managed to scream in pain, and Captain Britain realised that the thing he faced was not malevolent. It was too late though; mortally wounded, Sidney dissolved in the rain, leaving only a stain that the rain soon washed away.

Comments: Created by David Thorpe, Alan Davis, Alan Moore and Mike Collins.

The reason so many people are credited with this character's creation is because the first two actually introduced us to his Earth-238 counterpart, Alan Moore then brought in his Earth-616 version in a cameo where he appeared to die, and then Davis and Collins developed the mutating version. So each one had a hand in what proved to be poignant ongoing saga of a background character in Captain Britain's universe.

McGeary's first name was revealed in Marvel Atlas#1.

CLARIFICATIONS: No known connections to

Mrs. Esther McGeary (Earth 616)

(Daredevils#4) - Sidney Crumb and Mrs. McGeary were present watching the police take charge of cleaning up after the fight between Captain Britain and Slaymaster.

(Daredevils#8) - Mrs. McGeary, the only friend of fellow tramp Sidney Crumb, was wandering a London junkyard. While her friend drank nearby, she stumbled across the Fury, newly arrived on Earth-616 and badly damaged by its journey. Seeking a source of new material to rebuild itself, it speared Mrs. McGeary through the head with a small dart, and dragged her body over to itself.

(Captain Britain II#4 (fb)) - Sidney Crumb, hearing the noise of the Fury's dart weapon, investigated and found his dead friend lying next to the injured Fury. Fleeing, he was wounded by the same device.

Sidney Crumb (Earth 238) and Mrs. McGeary (Earth 238)

 

(Marvel Superheroes#377) - Newly arrived in a world similar but not quite like his own, Captain Britain of Earth-616 and his companion, the elf Jackdaw, sought to find out more about the reality they had been sent to. The only sign of life they could find that night was on a rubbish tip, where a number of tramps congregated around makeshift fires. The first two they talked to were the Earth-238 counterparts to Mrs. McGeary and Sidney Crumb (Mrs. McGeary can be recognised by the Smiley Face carrier bag she carries in both realities, Sidney by his clothing). They informed the heroes of the year (1981), and the names of the Prime Minister (Scott) and monarch (Margaret the First). Jackdaw downed half a bottle of Sidney's scotch before teleporting off to seek the assistance of Merlin for the disgruntled Captain. This sight made Sidney swear off alcohol. Mrs. McGeary asked the Captain for help with their homeless plight, but he was distracted by the sudden appearance of the Junkheap that Walked Like a Man.

(Marvel Superheroes#384) - With only a few hours until Earth-238 was given an evolutionary push by Saturnyne's forces, Captain Britain saved a young boy from a gang and flew him home. Beneath him on his way, we spied Mrs. McGeary (with her ever-present smiley face carrier bag) and Sidney Crumb.

(Marvel Superheroes#388) - Mrs. McGeary and Sidney were among the spectres Mad Jim Jaspers taunted Captain Britain with at his mad tea party, just before dropping the broken hero at the graveyard of superheroes.

(Daredevils#6) - Although we did not see them, it is safe to assume that Mrs. McGeary and Sidney Crumb were destroyed by the actions of Lord Mandragon, along with the rest of their reality.

Appearances:
Daredevils#4 (April 1983) - Alan Moore (writer), Alan Davis (artist), Bernie Jaye (editor)
Marvel Superheroes#377 (September, 1981) - Paul Neary & Dave Thorpe (writers), Alan Davis (artist), Paul Neary (editor)
Marvel Superheroes#384 (April, 1982) - Dave Thorpe (writer), Alan Davis (artist), Bernie Jaye (editor)
Marvel Superheroes#388 (August, 1982) - Alan Moore (writer), Alan Davis (artist), Bernie Jaye (editor)
Daredevils#8 (August, 1983) - Alan Moore (writer), Alan Davis (artist), Bernie Jaye (editor)
Mighty World of Marvel#14 (July, 1984) - Steve Craddock (writer), Alan Davis (artist), Chris Gill (editor)
Captain Britain II#3 (March, 1985) - Jamie Delano (writer), Alan Davis (artist), Ian Rimmer (editor)
Captain Britain II#4 (April, 1985) - Mike Collins (writer), Alan Davis (artist), Ian Rimmer (editor)

Last updated: 08/19/02

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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