Fixer (comics)

The Fixer is a name used by two fictional characters, both of are which were introduced as villains in Marvel Comics.

Publication history

The second fixer first appeared in Strange Tales #141 (February 1966) and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

After some time away from the team, he appeared as a regular character in Thunderbolts beginning with issue #144, until he was forced to leave the team in issue #174.

Fictional character biography

Roscoe Sweeney

The first Fixer, aka Roscoe Sweeney was a gangster and crooked fight promoter who was involved in extortion and illegal gambling. He paid boxer "Battling Jack" Murdock to take a fall and lose a fight. Murdock accepted the money, but when he saw his son, Matthew, in the audience, he became determined to continue the fight and eventually won by a knockout.

The Fixer's right-hand man, Slade, killed Jack Murdock after the fight in retaliation. Matthew Murdock, learning of his father's murder, vowed to bring men like the Fixer to justice. Matt Murdock became a lawyer, and also the superhero Daredevil to do so. The Fixer had a fatal heart attack when confronted by Daredevil. Slade was arrested and executed. All of this was originally depicted in Daredevil #1^[1] and was revisited years later in the Daredevil: Yellow miniseries.

Paul Norbert Ebersol

Fixer
Fixer, by Patrick Zircher
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Strange Tales #141 (February 1966)
Created by	Stan Lee Jack Kirby
In-story information
Alter ego	Paul Norbert Ebersol
Team affiliations	Advanced Idea Mechanics Commission on Superhuman Activities HYDRA Masters of Evil New Enforcers Redeemers Thunderbolts
Partnerships	Mentallo
Notable aliases	Mr. Fix, Techno, Ogre
Abilities	Electronics and mechanical genius Robotic body

The second Fixer was a long-time supervillain who later became a member of the Thunderbolts.

Paul Norbert Ebersol was born in Dayton, Ohio. He was a scientist who held a number of odd jobs, including auto mechanic, television repairman, and electronics laboratory assistant. He then became the second and more prominent Fixer, a supervillain and genius-level criminal inventor who has often worked for criminal cartels like HYDRA.

In his first appearance he escaped from prison,^[2] and teamed with his partner Mentallo in an attempted takeover of the New York S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, and even captured Nick Fury.^[3] Fixer and Mentallo were defeated by Tony Stark and S.H.I.E.L.D. troops.^[4] His connection with THEM was revealed; and THEM was later revealed as part of HYDRA.^[5] Behind the scenes, he was even revealed as the chief of the HYDRA Science Division.^[6]

With Mentallo, the Fixer later escaped prison again. They invaded the New York S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters and captured the Thing. They then invaded the Baxter Building, battled the Thing and Nick Fury, and used Doctor Doom's time machine to bring Deathlok from his alternate future.^[7] Mentallo then mind-controlled Deathlok in an attempted assassination of the U.S. President, but Fixer and Mentallo were defeated by the Fantastic Four and taken into custody by S.H.I.E.L.D.^[8] The pair was freed from prison by a HYDRA force controlled by Baron Karza. Fixer created the living machine-intelligence Computrex, which was destroyed by the Micronauts, who then defeated Fixer and Mentallo.^[9]

Fixer and Mentallo then aided Professor Power in his attempt to add Professor X's powers to Mentallo's, but they were defeated by Spider-Man.^[10] Fixer attempted to loot Northwind Observatory of Bruce Banner's inventions, but was captured by Captain America.^[11] Fixer then invaded the West Coast Avengers Compound in an attempt to steal Iron Man's armor, but was defeated by Iron Man and Ka-Zar.^[12]

When Baron Helmut Zemo formed the fourth incarnation of the Masters of Evil, Fixer served as his right-hand man. When the Masters of Evil invaded Avengers Mansion, Fixer created a device enabling Baron Zemo to control Blackout. Fixer helped engineer the capture of Captain America, Black Knight, and Edwin Jarvis.^[13] Fixer was apprehended by Ant-Man. Behind the scenes, Fixer was overpowered by the Super-Adaptoid, who changed places with him.^[14] The Super-Adaptoid disguised as the Fixer later escaped prison.^[15] The real Fixer was discovered by the Avengers in the Adaptoid's former confinement tube at Avengers Island.^[16] Fixer later escaped prison with Yellowjacket, who then spurned his romantic advances. The Fixer followed her and battled her and the Black Knight before escaping.^[17]

In Zemo's second incarnation of the Masters of Evil, the team changed their identity to the Thunderbolts, while Fixer adopted the alias of Techno. He was then apparently killed when his neck was broken by Iron, one of the Elements of Doom, and he transferred his mind into a robotic body, and this Techno sided, alone among the Thunderbolts, with Zemo when he went ahead with his scheme to conquer the planet.

Zemo and Techno decamped to one of Zemo's bases, where Techno began to experiment with cloning, offering to clone Zemo an unscarred body, and even cloning Kevin Costner for fun at one point. After the two fell out, Techno infiltrated the Thunderbolts by replacing Ogre, while continuing his experiments behind-the-scenes, including recovering Jolt's body when she was killed and placing it in a healing tube.

Techno's impersonation of Ogre ended when Scourge stowed away inside him, shrunken, and destroyed his body from the inside, while he refused to kill Jolt again to allow him to construct a new body. However, his backup plan worked, and his consciousness was returned to his original human body—mostly healed, although the nerve damage in his neck meant he required his tech-pac to bypass the damage—and the human Ebersol, initially amnesiac of the robot's exploits, returned to calling himself the Fixer.

Fixer then became one of the Redeemers, a government-backed team whereby criminals could use it to accelerate their sentences and clear their record, until most of that team was slaughtered by Graviton. He joined with the reunited Thunderbolts to stop Graviton, and he was one of the team members exiled to Counter-Earth. By a complicated series of events, at the end of the trip to Counter-Earth, Zemo's consciousness ended up in Fixer's tech-pac. By threatening to disable it and leave him quadriplegic, Zemo managed to force Fixer to transfer the Baron's consciousness to his Counter-Earth counterpart's body.

The team remained on Counter-Earth for some time, until, in sealing a rift, they returned home, leaving Jolt (whom Fixer saved from burning out in helping to seal the rift) behind. Finally, after Moonstone went insane, Fixer furnished a device that could give the combined Avengers and Thunderbolts a couple of seconds to make their move; he then left.

Later, Deadpool visited Fixer at his holiday home enlist his help in saving Cable. After a brief fight, Fixer accepted the challenge (and Deadpool's monetary inducement), and successfully bonded new, benign, techno-organic mesh to Cable. Some time after this, Fixer suddenly reappeared to save MACH-IV, his former teammate, from a fall. Fixer recruited MACH-IV to join a secretive group headed by Zemo to combat and destroy Genis-Vell, a member of the Thunderbolts whom Zemo had brought back to life. The process was flawed, however, and Genis' existence now threatened the universe.

After Genis was destroyed, Fixer remained with the Thunderbolts, who were now helmed by Zemo. He helped the team recruit supervillains to the pro-registration cause during the Civil War. He also helped Zemo save the Wellspring of Power from the Grandmaster. After Zemo was betrayed and the Thunderbolts were placed under S.H.I.E.L.D. control, Fixer and MACH-IV were offered jobs with the Commission on Superhuman Activities.

Ebersol has been identified as one of the 142 registered superheroes who appear on the cover of the comic book.^[18]

During the Heroic Age storyline, Fixer works at the Raft supervising its section for male supervillains when Captain Steve Rogers and Luke Cage arrive to recruit Ghost.^[19]

As well as working with the Thunderbolts, Fixer has also been seen working with Baron Zemo.^[20]

During the Fear Itself storyline, Fixer was seen working on a forcefield to secure the rounded up prisoners that escaped from the Raft after Juggernaut in the form of Kuurth: Breaker of Stone leveled it.^[21]

After escaping the Raft by time-travelling, the Thunderbolts wound up meeting their counterparts - the first Thunderbolts team.^[22] Being as arrogant as they are, present-Fixer and past-Fixer got into an argument in which Fixer impulsively killed his past self.^[23] In order to preserve the timeline, Fixer surgically changed himself to restore his younger appearance and preserved his age by a blood-transfusion from Centurius. Fixer and the past Thunderbolts' memories were wiped, stranding Fixer in a stable time-loop and preserving the timeline after his mistake.^[24]

Powers and abilities

The second Fixer is an intuitive genius at invention of weapons and other electrical and mechanical devices. He has designed numerous devices and paraphernalia for himself, including his body armor. As weaponry, he has used various devices including bombs, electronic jamming devices, guided missiles, sonic amplifiers, brain-wave scanners, and mind-control pods. He has also built anti-gravity discs which are affixed to his feet and allow flight at the speed of sound, as well as a special mask which contains a three hour air supply and acts as an air pressure reduction valve, together enabling flight at high velocity and high altitude. Fixer's Techno body can mentally control his robotic body which is capable of assuming virtually any form from blast cannons to pile-drivers to even the form of a space station. To take on larger shapes, Techno absorbed mass from other mechanical materials nearby. Techno's body also could morph into forms that appeared completely organic, as with his assumed guise of Thunderbolt machine-smith Ogre.

In other media

Television

• In Iron Man: Armored Adventures, Fixer appears as Mr. Fix and is voiced by Donny Lucas. He is a genius inventor and a high-tech arms dealer with ties to the Maggia. For protection, he employs highly sophisticated communications and surveillance equipment, teams of soldiers, and individuals (e.g., Whiplash) equipped with high-tech weapons. Physically, he resembles his comic book counterpart. In the episode “Whiplash”, Mr. Fix orders Whiplash to kill Pepper Potts’ FBI agent father, who is close to apprehending him; then, Fix sends Whiplash after Pepper herself. Whiplash fails at both tasks; ultimately, Iron Man defeats him. In the episode “Man and Iron Man”, Mr. Fix sends an enhanced Whiplash to get revenge and prove that his weapons are effective against Iron Man. When Iron Man loses control of his suit, Mr. Fix is thrashed, begs for his life, and is nearly killed when his lab is destroyed. In the episode "Don’t Worry, Be Happy," Iron Man suggests that Mr. Fix is trying to eliminate Unicorn and Killer Shrike upon learning that Mr. Fix hired them to perform a robbery, but, unbeknownst to them, equipped them with explosives powerful enough to destroy the entire city. Mr. Fix later returns in the second season under the employ of a shadowy figure and has Whiplash kidnap Obadiah Stane and Justin Hammer (who had orchestrated his own kidnapping). After escaping from Iron Man and being picked up in a limo, Mr. Fix is surprised that his mysterious benefactor was Justin Hammer all along. Justin Hammer's assistant Sasha then implants a nano-virus into Mr. Fix which Justin Hammer would activate if Mr. Fix threatens him or leaves his services. He later revives Living Laser in the episode "Look Into the Light" as part of Project Titanium yet the side effect ends up splitting Living Laser into a good side and a bad side. Although Living Laser gets away after both halves were reunited, Mr. Fix gives Justin Hammer a disk with the information needed to complete Project Titanium. In the episode "Titanium vs. Iron," Mr. Fix completes the Titanium Man armor yet Justin Hammer wants to test drive it despite the fact that Mr. Fix hasn't found a way to bond the titanium with vibranium. Growing impatient that Fix had not yet found a way to properly bond titanium to vibranium following his first outing as Titanium Man, Justin Hammer declares that Mr. Fix has failed for the last time and activates the nano-virus killing his physical body. However, Justin Hammer removed a flash drive with Mr. Fix's consciousness on it from a compartment in Mr. Fix's back and places it into a nearby console. Justin Hammer tells Mr. Fix that his consciousness has evolved at the cost of his body and that now he can work on Justin Hammer's other projects 24/7. In the episode "The Hawk and the Spider," Justin Hammer speaks with Mr. Fix 2.0 about the User Interface Chip which would be able to control the Titanium Man armor and that the User Interface Chip must be programmed well to be adapted to the armor. Justin Hammer tells Mr. Fix 2.0 to find a way to make it work or he will download him into a hard drive and throw it into the sewer. In the episode "Heavy Mettle," Justin Hammer uses a control device made by Mr. Fix 2.0 to control the Iron Monger armor into going berserk. In the episode "Hostile Takeover," Mr. Fix 2.0 works on the "dissection" of Iron Man (whose armor was under lock-down to save enough power upon being knocked down by Titanium Man) even when the Iron Man armor is accidentally recharged during Killer Shrike and Unicorn's fight. When Justin Hammer receives a shock trying to remove the Iron Man helmet, Mr. Fix 2.0 tells Justin Hammer that War Machine is approaching Hammer Multinational. In the episode "The Hammer Falls," Mr. Fix 2.0 creates the Zombie Gas which Justin Hammer tests on Count Nefaria. When Mr. Fix 2.0 is unable to trace the call of an individual who recently started blackmailing Justin, Justin tells him to trace the call or he will turn him into a social network for teens. Justin Hammer later tells Mr. Fix 2.0 that he has failed to trace the blackmailer as Sasha tells Justin to leave Mr. Fix 2.0 alone. It is soon discovered that Mr. Fix 2.0 was responsible for blackmailing him and had helped Iron Man expose Justin Hammer as part of his revenge for what Justin Hammer did to him. After Justin Hammer is dropped from his Titanium Man armor, Mr. Fix 2.0 then traps Justin Hammer in a Zombie Gas chamber which results in Iron Man blasting the console Mr. Fix 2.0 is in causing Mr. Fix 2.0 to disintegrate.

Film

• In the feature film Daredevil, the Roscoe Sweeney version of Fixer is renamed Falon (played by Mark Margolis) while the Slade character is replaced by Wilson Fisk (played by Michael Clarke Duncan).

Video games

• The Fixer (Ebersol) is featured as a boss in the Facebook game Marvel: Avengers Alliance. He is featured in a chapter 3 mission called "RAID-ical Resolution."

Music

• The industrial band Mentallo and the Fixer derive their name from Fixer (Ebersol) and his former partner Mentallo.

References

External links

• Fixer I at Marvel.com
• Fixer II at Marvel.com
• Fixer I at Marvel Wikia
• Fixer II at Marvel Wikia
• Fixer I at Marvel Appendix