HARD-BOILED HENRY
Real Name: Henry
Identity/Class: Biogenetically engineered explosive
Occupation: None
Group Membership: Technet (Bodybag, Chinadoll, Ferro2, Gatecrasher, Joyboy, Numbers, Ringtoss, Scatterbrain, Thug, Waxworks, Yap)
Affiliations: Rocket Raccoon
Enemies: Collector (Taneleer Tivan), Excalibur (Captain Britain/Brian Braddock, Meggan, Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner, Phoenix/Rachel Summers, Shadowcat/Kitty Pryde), Alyssa Moy, Franklin Richards, Thing (Benjamin Grimm)
Known Relatives: Gatecrasher (creator)
Aliases: Hard Boiled Henwy, Hawd Boiled Henwy, "my kamikaze chick" (nickname used by Gatecrasher)
Base of Operations: Technet's base, Old Pier, Brighton, United Kingdom (place of "birth")
First Appearance: Excalibur I#42 (October, 1991)
Powers/Abilities: Henry was a sentient babychick manipulated by Gatecrasher thru biogenic nucleotronic splicing. As soon as her egg hatched, Henry's five-second timer would be activated, counting down to an extremely powerful explosion.
Height: 5" (by approximation)
Weight: 1.5 lbs. (by approximation, possibly heavier because of the explosives)
Eyes: Red
Hair: Yellow feathers
History:
(Excalibur I#42 (fb) - BTS) - Using her extensive skills in biogenic nucleotronic splicing, the Technet's leader Gatecrasher came up with Henry, figuring the explosive baby chick was the perfect weapon to destroy Excalibur.
(Excalibur I#42) - When Gatecrasher finished what she called her "ultimate-super-secret-mega-weapon", she showed the still unhatched Henry to her teammates.
(Excalibur I#42 - BTS) - Through unrevealed ways, the Technet replaced one of Excalibur's eggs with Henry.
(Excalibur I#42) - Unaware of the switch, Excalibur sat down for breakfast. The team was ready to boil some eggs, when much to their surprise one of them yelled out in pain, jumped out of the pan onto the table and cracked open. Excalibur was amazed to see the talking chick. Henry threatened the team would meet their doom at his hands as her forehead timer was activated. Instantly realizing what Henry was, Nightcrawler ordered Phoenix to protect them. Rachel managed to deflect the main explosive blast. Next, Technet moved in to deal with Excalibur until their attack was paused by the arrival of Horatio Cringebottom and Bert.
(Excalibur I#51 - BTS) - Henry's ghost was haunting Gatecrasher, angry that sacrificing herself had been in vain because Technet still failed at their mission. Gatecrasher promised the chick's ghost she would avenge her death.
(X-Men: Phoenix Force Handbook - BTS) - Gatecrasher brewed up a new Hard-Boiled Henry.
(Fantastic Four III#6) - Technet again used Hard-Boiled Henry for a surprise attack, this time on the Fantastic Four's Thing as part of the Technet's mission to capture Franklin Richards. While preparing dinner for Alyssa Moy and Franklin, Ben was about to crack an egg when it suddenly hatched on its own to reveal Henry. Seeing the timer on the talking chick's head, the quick thinking Thing ordered his friends to take cover. Henry exploded, blowing out part of the kitchen wall at Pier Four. Moments later, the Technet appeared on the scene, ready to arrest Franklin.
SECRET WARS III HAPPEND
(Star-Lord I#7 (fb) - BTS) - At some point Hard-Boiled Henry and Gatecrasher got captured and became part of the Collector's menagerie.
(Star-Lord I#7) - Collector used Hard-Boiled Henry and other menagerie members (Dirk Anger, Captain Albion, Chairman, Doop, Gatecrasher, Starfox, a Watcher, a Silver Surfer imposter and others), as his bound (literalily) studio audience for his talk show that should reveal the true reason why Peter Quill and Kitty Pryde had split up. He got mad at his studio audience when they didn't give him any reaction at first and shocked them with a press of a button before threatening to send them back to their cages if they didn't give him enough reactions. The audience complied and reacted to everything they heard and the reenactments by the Skrull Starkat Squadron.
(Star-Lord I#8) - Kitty Pryde freed Hard-Boiled Henry and other members of the menagerie from their cages. They attacked the Collector and helped free Peter Quill. Hard-Boiled Henry was among the menagerie members that kept Collector occupied while Quill and Pryde escaped.
(Rocket#1 (fb)) - Some of the members of Technet split when Gatecrasher couldn't pay them anymore. They took H.B.H.'s egg with them.
(Rocket#1) - Rocket Racccoon hired Technet (China Doll, Ferro2, Numbers, Scatterbrain and the egg) to break into a sekurimax vault on Digriz to steal the deeds for land on Tarka's World owned by Beavertron Incorporated for his former lover Otta Spice. Ferro2 used the egg when they finally reached the vault door. Hard-Boiled Henry hatched and blew the door open, but inside the vault were Gatcrasher with the other members of Technet (Bodybag, Joyboy, Ringtoss, Thug, Waxworks, Yap).
(Rocket#2 - BTS) - Gatecrasher and her team fought Rocket and his team until the Technet agreed to reunite. Rocket still managed to get the deeds to Otta, but was arrested afterward. Hard-Boiled Henry did not get involved in the battle.
Comments: Created by Alan Davis (writer, pencils), Mark Farmer (inks).
It's fairly obvious that Hard-Boiled Henry is patterned after the classic Looney Tunes cartoon star Tweety Bird, right down to the immature speech patterns. Still, "pwepaih tew meet yaw doom!" just doesn't sound all that threatening, even if a lethal explosion is bhwound tew fhollow.
Though the name "Henry" would suggest otherwise, Gatecrasher explicitly called Hard-Boiled Henry "she" in her first appearance.
A chicken is a type of bird. A rooster is the male, and a hen a female; being noted to be a chicken like Henry was in Fantastic Four III#6 doesn't mean one isn't a rooster. Regardless, maybe Henry is short for Henrietta, just like Sam is short for Samantha.
--Snood
Also noteworthy that "Prepare To Meet Your Doom" sounds like a line from another Looney Tunes character, Marvin the Martian
--Snood
Hard-Boiled Henry as part of the Technet received a profile in the X-Men: Phoenix Force Handbook.
Profile by MarvellousLuke. Update by Markus Raymond (Star-Lord & Rocket).
CLARIFICATIONS:
Hard-Boiled Henry has no known connections to
images: (without ads)
Excalibur I#42, p5, pan1,2 (main image)
Excalibur I#42, p2, pan1 (egg)
Excalibur I#51, p10, pan1,2 (ghost)
Appearances:
Excalibur I#42 (October, 1991) - Alan Davis (writer, pencils), Mark Farmer (inks), Terry Kavanagh (editor)
Excalibur I#51 (June, 1992) - Alan Davis (writer), Dougie Braithwaite (pencils), Mark McKenna, Jeff Albrecht, Jose Marzan, Jimmy Palmiotti (inkers), Terry Kavanagh (editor)
Fantastic Four III#6 (June, 1998) - Chris Claremont (writer), Salvador Larroca (pencils), Art Thibert (inks), Mark Powers)
Star-Lord I#7 (July, 2016) - Sam Humphries (writer), Javier Garrón (artist), Jake Thomas (editor)
Star-Lord I#8 (August, 2016) - Sam Humphries (writer), Javier Garrón & Will Robson (artists), Jake Thomas (editor)
Rocket#1 (July, 2017) - Al Ewing (writer), Adam Gorham (artist), Jordan D. White (editor)
First Posted: 03/11/2015
Last updated: 12/03/2023
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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