Frog-Man

Frog-Man (Eugene Patilio) is a minor comedic superhero created by writer J. M. DeMatteis and artist Kerry Gammill for Marvel Comics. His first appearance was in Marvel Team-Up #121.

Fictional character biography

Eugene Patilio was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Vincent Patilio, the minor Daredevil supervillain Leap-Frog. After several defeats by Daredevil, Iron Man, and Spider-Man, which eventually landed him in jail, Vincent eventually decided to retire and go straight.

His son, Eugene, donned his father's costume as Fabulous Frog-Man in an attempt to be a crime-fighter to clear his father's name.^[1] However, his crime-fighting career became essentially a joke. His two major enemy villains are the White Rabbit, a comedic villainess inspired by the Alice in Wonderland character,^[2] and the Walrus, a dimwitted character who essentially had the proportionate abilities of a walrus (tough skin and super-strength, though well below Spider-Man's class).^[3]

Frog-Man had a tendency to capture villains simply by dumb luck. Eugene's inability to fully pilot his automated Frog-Man costume caused him to wildly bounce around, scoring sure wins against villains by crashing into them. This questionable method of fighting supervillains accounts for his luck in dealing with the Yellow Claw, and Speed Demon. (Captain America assisted in the battle against the Claw.) Both villains were later contacted by the White Rabbit with proposals for an alliance against him. She later complained to Walrus that both men laughed her off as soon as they heard her codename. When Rabbit and Walrus went on a rampage shortly after that revelation, they not only lured Eugene to them, as the Rabbit had hoped, but also his father and Spider-Man (who was visiting the Patilios) and suffered another crushing defeat, with Eugene clumsily bouncing into the Rabbit once again.^[4]

He also participated, along with Spider-Kid and The Toad, in a short-lived super-team called the Misfits.^[5]

Vincent Patilio was very proud of his son, yet at the same time very worried about him risking his life. He even prevented his son from joining the Defenders, even when it meant publicly humiliating him by literally dragging him home in front of the team and the media.

When Alyosha Kraven, the son of Kraven the Hunter began collecting a zoo of animal-themed superhumans, Frog-Man was amongst his captives.^[6]

The Initiative

Eugene Patilio as Frog-Man was later recruited by the US government as part of the Fifty-State-Initiative program, as a member of the Kentucky based team, Action Pack.^[7] In the Secret Invasion storyline, he was revealed to be a Skrull infiltrator.^[8]

After the invasion is over, the real Frog-Man is shown in a support group meeting with the others that had been replaced by Skrulls.^[9]

Frog-Man reappears in Fear Itself, in the mini-series, Fear Itself: Youth in Revolt. He appears at a meeting held by Prodigy regarding magical hammers that have crashed into the earth.^[10] He is part of Gravity's team and helps battle Crossbones.^[11]

During the Spider-Island storyline, Frog-Man witnesses terrorists with spider powers attacking the United Nations and springs into action, teaming up with Ms. Marvel, Hawkeye, and Jessica Jones against a spider-empowered Flag-Smasher.^[12]

Powers and abilities

Frog-Man has no superpowers, but wears a frog suit that contains electrical coils on the soles of its flippers which allows him to leap great distances. The boots' power source is worn on his back like a back pack. Additionally, internal padding of the suit enables Frog-Man to bounce off objects with little danger.

In other media

Television

• Frog-Man made a brief appearance in Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes episode "The Cure", where, after the Thing was "cured" of his condition, he was a potential recruit as a new member of the Fantastic Four. Frog-Man was rejected after accidentally bashing his own head off the ceiling during his audition for the team.^[13]

References

External links

• Frog-Man at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe