Roxxon Oil

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Roxxon Oil (aka Roxxon) is the name of a fictional massive petroleum corporation in the Marvel Universe. It first appeared in Captain America #180 (Dec 1974), created by Steve Englehart.

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[edit] History

This fictional company, appearing in comic book stories published by Marvel Comics, is notorious for its determination to make massive profits regardless of any laws or moral principles. As such, it is involved in numerous criminal plots that require the opposition of the various superheroes to stop. The name of the company resembles that of Exxon, an American petroleum company often criticized for its profiteering at the expense of the environment.

While this fictional company has encountered numerous superheroes, it has most notably been at odds with Iron Man, as in a storyline called "The Iron Age" where it was revealed that agents of Roxxon Oil killed Tony Stark's parents. Roxxon has also regularly been at odds with Project: Pegasus regarding energy sources as the latter has been involved with alternative energy research that could hurt Roxxon's oil profitability.

Roxxon is closely connected to the Brand Corporation, another for-profit company that has specialized in creating superhumans. Brand is sometimes referred to as a Roxxon subsidiary, but it has sometimes made its own decisions and acted on its own.

The former head of the company, Hugh Jones, had been arrested several times but has never been convicted to date.

In at least one possible future, Roxxon is still a viable company in the year 2099. In Spider-Man 2099 #1, Tyler Stone (the head of Alchemax) mentions Roxxon while listing megacorporations of his era.

[edit] Recent Appearances

Recently, in the mini-series Great Lakes Avengers, a character named the Grasshopper was introduced. Real name Douglas Taggert, he was an employee of Roxxon, wearing a suit of cybernetic armor themed like a grasshopper developed by them to defend the company. After accepting an invitation to join the GLA, he was killed by a villain named Zaran literally seconds afterwards.

In the following GLX-Mas special, the villain Killer Shrike (himself a former employee of Roxxon) attempted to steal "Project Z" from the company, but was stopped by a new Grasshopper, who defeated the villain. He also died mere minutes later after activating the suit's maximum jump, which launched him into space. It seems a sure bet that if Roxxon attempts to give a new Grasshopper suit to anyone else, they will also die prematurely.

Since then the Red Skull, inside the body of former Soviet General Aleksander Lukin, has used Lukin's powerful Kronas Corporation, and the Cosmic Cube, in order to buy out Roxxon. It is unclear what effect this will have on Roxxon's actions in the future.

[edit] Members of Roxxon Oil

The following characters have worked for Roxxon Oil:

[edit] List of supervillains created or hired as a result of Brand-Roxxon corporate conglomerate

[edit] Ultimate Roxxon

In the Ultimate Marvel Universe the Roxxon Corporation is also responsible for creating supervillains, although its owner, Donald Roxxon, seems to have little idea what the company actually does. In Ultimate Spider-Man he was targeted by a former employee who took the identity of the Tinkerer, and hired Silver Sable to track down Spider-Man, as he believed the hero knew who was responsible.

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