the ghost of bailey briggs

BAILEY BRIGGS

Real Name: Bailey Briggs

Identity/Class: Human mutate (ghost)

Occupation: Engineer:
    formerly Sergeant in the U.S. Army

Group Membership: Hammer Aeronautics

Affiliations: Evangeline "Angie" Cryer (lover), Alpha Team, Mr. Quarrel (defender), The Thing/Benjamin Grimm, Peabody, his other defendants and affiliates (Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg and Holliway's Law Firm)

Enemies: Maxwell Newton, Jennifer Walters, Mallory Book

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Upstate New York, Hammer Aeronautics manufacturing plant

First Appearance: She-Hulk I#3 (July, 2004)

Powers/Abilities: After death, Briggs's spirit could interact with the material world being seen and heard when he wanted, but he was incorporeal and was not restrained by physical barriers.

Weaknesses: Briggs wasn't able to pass to the afterlife because of his love for Angie, which kept him bound to the Earthly plane.

head shot

History:
(She-Hulk I#3) - Bailey Briggs worked as engineer on a prototype of a hyper-sonic jump-jet. He loved his work and was sure that the result of his project would change the face of air travel.

    Briggs wanted his "Evangeline" (the prototype) to be perfect. Naming the jet after Angie, his lover, was as a gift for her, whom he felt he wasn't able to care enough for. He repeatedly postponed the delivery date, causing loss of millions of dollars in contracts, and Maxwell. Newton, the manager, deeply resented that.

    However, Briggs' "Evangeline" stole too much of his time, so he neglected Angie for a long time.

    So, on the day of Angie and Bailey's anniversary, when Briggs refused to celebrate it to work on the jet, Angie left him. At that point of their relationship, she didn't feel anything for him anymore.
    That late night, Briggs was still in the wind tunnel, but he wasn't working anymore, he thought of Angie. He couldn't see his Newton, who entered in the command room, activated the tunnel fans and killed him.

    Weeks later, Briggs' ghost was still on Earth. His soul was in a so great turmoil that Bailey continued to stay on the Earthly plane until his affairs would have been resolved. The affair that imprisoned Briggs on Earth was his love for Angie, a love he wanted to demonstrate giving her name to the jump-jet, but which he could not finish. So, Briggs devised a plan to have Angie join him. Knowing that his murderer would have been sentenced to death, he decided to have her killed in Newton's place so they could live forever together in the afterlife. Vengeance mattered very few for Briggs, for he knew that Newton would be punished and tormented in the afterlife.

    Thus, Briggs, under unrevealed means, contacted Mr. Quarrel, the lawyer that defended Newton. Mr. Quarrel asked for Doctor Strange's assistance about the supernatural side of the situation, but also asked the assistance of Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg and Holliway's Law Firm, which led to the involvement of Mallory Book and Jennifer Walters (She-Hulk).

    The day of the trial, Briggs was allowed to testify by Judge Phillips. He perjured that Mr. Newton wasn't the assassin, and claimed that Angie Cryer had killed him.

    Nonetheless, the evidence and the stronger motives for the murder pointed to Newton, so Jennifer Walters and Mallory Book went to the manufacturing plant to investigate. There, they discovered that Briggs had named the jet prototype after his lover, and understood that he loved her too much, so much to lie and have her killed to join her in the afterlife. Briggs, however, spied on them. As a ghost, he watched and heard their deductions. He decided that they were dangerous for the success of his scheme, so activated the wind tunnel to kill them, in the same way that Newton had killed him. What he didn't reckon was that Jennifer Walters could become She-Hulk. The jade giantess destroyed the tunnel and saved Mallory.

    Hours later, Briggs found himself forcibly summoned into an enchanted prison: the Cage of Cyttorak. The truth of his affairs were revealed before him so the Cage became able to restrain him.

    Charged of two attempted murders, Bailey Brigg's ghost would spend his afterlife sentence on Earth.

    He could not meet Angie anymore in the afterlife.

Comments: Created by Dan Slott, Juan Bobillo and Marcelo Sosa.

    Briggs was mentioned in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z I#4.
    In his ghostly apparition, Briggs wore a military uniform with the U.S. Army Sergeant grades.

Profile by Spidermay.

CLARIFICATIONS:

Bailey Briggs has no known connections to:

Maxwell Newton has no known connections to:

Hammer Aeronautics has no known connection to the H.A.M.M.E.R. agency that time later replaced SHIELD after the Skrull Secret Invasion.

Judge Phillips has no known connection to any other "judge" or "Phillips" character.

Mr. Quarrel has no known connections to any other "Quarrel" character.

Angie Cryer has no known connections to any other character with a similar name.

Peabody has no known connections to:


Newton and Quarrel

Maxwell Newton

    Maxwell Newton was the boss of Hammer Aeronautics.

    Newton waited for Bailey Briggs to finish the hyper-sonic jet that would have changed the world of aeronautics. Unfortunately for him, Bailey Briggs kept trying to perfect the airplane, never delivering a finished product. Every time that Briggs put off the delivery date, Newton lost millions of dollars.

    When Newton could not bear any other delay, he killed Briggs, activating the wind tunnel while the engineer was inside. 

    He left significant evidence of his murder, the fingerprints, the voice on the console, etc. so he was accused of the murder. He took Mr. Quarrel as defendant lawyer. However,  apparently his best defense came form Bailey Briggs that lied for his own purposes, but knowing that in the afterlife Newton would not escape the right punishment.

    Mr. Quarrel and the Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg and Holliway's Law Office helped Newton to be discharged.

    In the end, Newton learned about what punishment waited for him in the afterlife. The revelation would cause him to die three days after. 

--She-Hulk I#3


Judge Phillips

Judge Phillips

    Judge Phillips presided over the trial that accused Maxwell Newton.

    She had to decide whether to admit the ghost of Bailey Briggs to testify.
    Ben Grimm's deposition helped to assess that people sometime did come back from death.
    So, the Judge accepted that Bailey Brigg's ghost would swear and give his testimony. Briggs lied under oath, creating a reasonable doubt and the jury decided that Newton was innocent.


--She-Hulk I#3


 



Angie Cryer

Angie Cryer

    Evangeline Cryer was Bailey Briggs' lover.

    The two were not married. Their relationship went well until Briggs started to work to the hyper-sonic prototype. Unbeknownst to Angie, the jump-jet carried her name, and Bailey wanted it to be perfect as a proof of his love for her. What Angie noticed, instead, was that Bailey worked too much and neglected her. So, time after time her love for him faded.

    When Bailey refused to celebrate their anniversary, she decided to break the relationship, feeling nothing for him anymore.

    Bailey's death complicated things because her ex-lover devised a plan to force her to join him in the afterlife. Angie was accused by Bailey of being his assassin. Bailey's purpose was to have her killed as punishment, so he could stay with her after death. However, Jennifer Walters and Mallory Book's investigations uncovered Brigg's real purpose of his lies.

    Briggs was imprisoned. He was even ready to wait for Angie's departure, but his imprisonment took place on Earth, so he had to stay separated from her.

--She-Hulk I#3

 


peabody

Peabody

    Peabody was the General Prosecutor's assistant.

    Peabody attended the trial of Evangeline Cryer. When Jennifer Walters asked who, among the people in the room, had been killed by Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet, Peabody raised the hand.

--She-Hulk I#3

 




images: (without ads)
She-Hulk I#3, p3, pan6 (the ghost of Bailey Briggs)
She-Hulk I#3, p1, pan2 (Briggs, head shot)
She-Hulk I#3, p3, pan2 (Mr. Newton and Mr. Quarrel)
She-Hulk I#3, p14, pan5 (Judge Phillips)
She-Hulk I#3, p1, pan2 (Angie Cryer)

She-Hulk I#3, p14, pan4 (Peabody)


Appearances:
She-Hulk I#3 (July, 2004) - Dan Slott (writer), Juan Bobillo (pencils), Marcelo Sosa (inks), Chris Chukry (colors), Tom Breevort (editor)


First Posted: 01/12/2025
Last updated: 01/12/2025

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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