SETH YOUNGBLOOD

Real Name: Seth Youngblood (probably)

Identity/Class: Human technology user

Occupation: Hired assassin

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: took contract from Don Moroni 

Enemies: Spider-Man

Known Relatives: None known

Aliases: Tin-head (derogatory nickname given to him by Spider-Man) ; Death (name given on invite)

Base of Operations: The Fun House, Manhattan; prior to this, unknown

First Appearance: Marvel Presents the Spider-Man Annual  1979 (Winter 1979, UK Annual, published by Marvel Comics International Ltd in association with Grandreams )

Powers/Abilities: Seth used a variety of fun-house gadgets redesigned to turn them into lethal death-traps: slot machines which spat out sharpened coins at the speed of a bullet; a room of mirrors filled with noxious gases and high pitched whistles, all meant to deaden the senses so the victim would fall into a pit full of rotating knives; and robotic Jack-in-the boxes armed with automatic weapons. He also wore an armoured suit, coated with a slick substance so that Spider-Man's webbing could not stick to it, and covered in sharp blades so that the hero could not hit the assassin without cutting his own hand to ribbons. For personal offensive weaponry though, he relied on a sniper's rifle, and later a pair of revolvers.

History:  (Spider-Man Annual 1979 3/3) - Seth Youngblood, reputed to be the best hit-man in the business, is hired by Don Moroni to eliminate Spider-Man, since the vigilante had been making it impossible for Moroni's men to carry out their criminal activities for several weeks. The Don gave the killer three weeks to slay the wall-crawler; in return Youngblood asked for a fee of one million dollars, as well as three men the Don's organisation could afford to lose.

 (Spider-Man Annual 1979 3/3 - BTS) - Seth Youngblood prepared for his confrontation with his target, booby-tapping an amusement arcade, and putting together an armour designed to counteract the superhero's powers. With everything in place, he put into motion the next phase of his plan - luring his victim into the firing line.

 (Spider-Man Annual 1979 3/3) - Seth sent the three thugs he had been loaned out to rob the Faber-Allan Security Office. As planned, this drew the attention of Spider-Man. While the web-slinger was apprehending them, Seth played sniper, firing at him. Not unexpectedly, his target's spider-sense allowed him to dodge the bullets, and the hero swiftly moved to deal with the shooter. Seth fled along a prepared route, luring his prey after him to the killer arcade. Fleeing inside, Seth left an embossed invitation taped to the door, addressed to Spider-Man.

"The Fun House. Games, prizes, laughs, thrills. One night only. Dress as you please. Step inside. Guest: Spider-Man. Host: Death".

Taking up the challenge, Spidey entered the building. He dodged razor-sharp coins fired out of one-armed bandits; entered a hall of mirrors full of senses-distorting devices and successfully negotiated the hidden pit of spikes therein, and got past a room full of jack-in-the-boxes armed with machine guns. Finally the hero entered a room where the walls and ceiling were coated with a substance too slick for him to stick to, where he confronted the man behind all these death traps.

Seth faced him wearing specially prepared armour, armed with two revolvers. The hero, barely able to stand on the coated floor, clogged up both guns with webbing. Seth threw them away, unperturbed, and when Spidey tried to cover him with the adhesive too, it slide harmlessly off the armour. Then the assassin strode forward, unaffected by the slippery floor that his target was sliding around on. He struck at the hero, who barely managed to dodge. Realising that the only thing in the room the webbing could stick to was itself, Spider-Man swiftly made a lasso, which he looped over his attacker. Though the armour was slippery, the knives served to hold the web rope in place, while Spider-Man smashed Seth off the walls of the room until he lost consciousness. Removing the hit man's helmet, Spidey greeted the awakening killer with a raised fist. Realising that he was extremely vulnerable without the armoured headpiece to keep the hero from striking him, Seth quickly surrendered.

Comments:  Created by ?? Sadly the U.K. annuals don't include credits for writers, artists or anyone else for that matter. Like most UK Annuals, it would have been released a few months before the end of the year, in time to be bought for Christmas. Typically annuals which had the year printed on their cover were actually released the year before, so that children receiving them as presents on Christmas Day would not think they were getting an out-of-date product. However Spider-Man annuals of the late seventies / early eighties didn't carry a date on the cover, and the date given in the copyright section of the indicia is now generally used for the year distinguisher.

Seth appeared in the second text story (Fun-House of Fear) given in the British Annual. As such, he remains on the fringe of the Marvel universe, and much like characters from the various novels, his existence on Earth-616 is unconfirmed, unless and until he makes a definite appearance in another story. However there is also nothing at all that rules out this story being added to the Spider-Man canon either.

It's unclear if Youngblood normally uses either booby-traps like those in the arcade, or an armoured suit; perhaps these are only employed in this particular hit. Certainly the armour has been customised to counter Spidey's powers. Given that Seth tried sniping at Spider-Man, and that when he faced the hero one-on-one, he used normal revolvers, I'd speculate that on normal jobs he didn't use fancy gadgets, and that the equipment and armour were ways of trying to equalise things given the hero's superpowers. Maybe he got the equipment from either Arcade or the Tinkerer.

Profile by Loki

CLARIFICATIONS:  Seth Youngblood has no known connections to and should not be confused with

• Set, Elder God, creator of the Serpent Crown, @ Marvel Feature I#6
• Set, one of Hellstorm's demon steeds, @Marvel Spotlight I#12
• Seth, Heliopolis god of death, @Thor I#240
• Seth, an Atlantean friend of Namor's, @Tales to Astonish I#98
• Seth, a Neo and foe of the X-Men, @X-Men II#100
• Seth the Immortal, leader of the Hellbent, @Moon Knight III#43
• Seth-Amon, an ancient Egyptian, @Master of Kung-Fu I#26
• Youngblood, a team of characters published by Image Comics.