BOMBARDIERS
Membership: Five members (all names unrevealed)
Purpose: Mercenary wreckers
Affiliations: Unnamed landlord
Enemies: Thor, Amos, Lt. Tenent Byrd, tenants of old run-down hotels (including Max Yadow)
Base of Operations: New York, USA
First Appearance: Thor I#309 (July, 1981)
Powers: The Bombardiers were normal humans who used extremely specialized equipment. The Bombardiers wore special suits with wings that enabled them to fly. They had special weapons such as wrist-mounted guns that could fire explosive mini-missiles and wraparound rockets, which had wires made of an Adamantium alloy that could entangle, bind and restrain a target.
Their most powerful weapon was the rocket-car, a car capable of reach high speed, ramming and rocket-powered flight. Its shell was made of an Adamantium alloy and could withstand the blows hurled from Thor's hammer or the crumbling of a building. However, its windshield, while still highly durable, could be weakened by repeated blows. The rocket-car could host at least five persons. When running, it emitted a scary sound and produced a pushing force near to 100 tons. The rocket-car had several destructive cannons and could deploy demolition explosives. The car could fly like a rocket using its rear thrusting turbines and had a pair of wings that could extend outward.
History:
(Thor I#309 (fb) - BTS) - The Bombardiers were hired by a ruthless landlord to secretly destroy his tenement houses and put them on fire so that he could cash the insurance money as the insurance paid money than the hotels earned.
The mercenaries, using their almost indestructible rocket-car, demolished the buildings without care of the people still living inside. However, Lt. Tenent Byrd of the NYPD guessed that the disasters weren't natural and started inquiring about the landlord.
(Thor I#309) - The Savoy Hotel was shattered by the Bombardiers. After having demolished it, the criminals put it on fire. The disaster killed several people, among them Max Yadow, who died hours later in hospital before Dr. Donald Blake could do something for him but his pet cat, Amos, stayed with Blake.
The Bombardiers were hired again to demolish the landlord's last property, an old building built in 1891, the Belnord Arms. Byrd's investigations led him to guess that this was to be the next target and informed Blake.
Later that night, the Bombardiers found Thor waiting for them, flanked by Amos the cat, defending the Belnord Arms. The flying rocket-car was heavily hit by Thor's Uru hammer, but resisted it and was launched at full speed against the Asgardian. Another blow temporarily held back the car, then the Bombardiers went out of the vehicle and attacked Thor personally utilizing their flying harnesses to provide some advantage. Their mini-missiles were ineffective against the whirling hammer, but the wraparound rockets managed to entangle Thor. They then started punching Thor and it took several seconds for the god of thunder to free himself. Meanwhile, Tenent Byrd and the police arrived on the scene. The Bombardier's leader managed to make it back to the rocket-car and tried to kill Thor by driving the killer machine at maximum force against Thor, and repeatedly shot explosive charges at him at close distance. Tenent Byrd's shots broke the car's damaged windshield and in that moment, Amos the cat jumped into the car and scratched at the leader's eyes, pushing him back onto the flight controls and was thus electrocuted. Thor managed to lift the front of the car skyward and it shot up into the air. Thor followed it and fetched Amos from the car but a moment after, the flying weapon exploded with a tremendous sound. The other four members of the Bombardiers briefly resisted, but were then arrested by the police.
Comments: Created by Bill Mantlo (writer), Rick Leonardi (pencils) and Chic Stone (inks).
Where did the Bombardiers find so much Adamantium (alloy) to cover their car and build their weapons? Surely someone built the equipment for them.
The Bombardier's leader claimed that they would destroy the Belnord hotel in 1981; that date can be considered topical.
The scream emitted by the Rocket-car reminded me about the siren used by Stukas, German dive-bombers used in WWII. The sound produced by the siren instilled terror in people even before the bombing started.
A
squad piloting a special airplane which
bombed and destroyed buildings, and a hero who stopped them after some
difficulties, reminded me an old Superman cartoon, probably set
during WWII.
The Bulleteers
was a 1940s cartoon with Superman from Fleisher animation.---John
McDonagh & Doc Savage
Profile by Spidermay.
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Bombardiers have no known connections to:
Max Yadow has no known connections to:
Amos the avenging cat has no known connections to:
Max Yadow was a normal old man and Amos was his pet black cat. Yadow lived in the old Savoy Hotel with his only friend, Amos. One night, the Bombardiers used their rocket-car to attack the Savoy Hotel. He was terrified by its appearance, "Eyes like the devil -- screaming like a soul in torment!" The rocket-car demolished the Savoy building in only a few minutes and Yadow was buried under the debris. Amos managed to escape and follow his wounded friend to the Westside Clinic, but Yadow died hours later just after having spoken to Dr. Donald Blake.
Amos was then taken care of by Blake and, when the doctor transformed in Thor, Amos attracted his attention and convinced him to be carried to the place where the Bombardiers were expected to attack next. Once there, while Thor battled the rocket-car, Amos managed to slip into the building, suggesting to the switchboard-man to call the police. Shortly after, Amos went out and with its mewing, warned Thor about the rocket-car's sneak-attack. Thor managed to hold the rocket-car in his clutches for several seconds, and when the glass was broken by Blackbyrd's shot, Amos jumped inside and attacked the Bombardiers' leader's eyes. Thor grabbed Amos just before the rocket-car exploded and the cat obtained his revenge.
--Thor I#309
Images:
Thor I#309, p13, pan2 (Bombardiers)
Appearances:
Thor I#309 (July, 1981) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Rick Leonardi
(pencils), Chic Stone (inks), George Roussos (colors), Jim Salicrup
(editor)
First Posted: 12/28/2007
Last updated: 12/28/2007
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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