Jenkins was a mechanic for an aircraft producer, but tired of not getting promotions he thought he deserved he decided to strike out on his own. Using a suit of armor, Jenkins became the Beetle. Getting a chance to play hero years later, Jenkins rethought his criminal ways and became a hero.

Universe

Earth-616

Place of Birth

Baltimore, Maryland

Created by

Stan Lee, Carl Burgos

First appearance

Strange Tales #123
(August, 1964)

1 HistoryEdit
- 1.1 The Beetle
- 1.2 Thunderbolts
2 Powers and AbilitiesEdit
3 ParaphernaliaEdit
- 3.1 Equipment
4 TriviaEdit
5 LinksEdit
- 5.1 Discover and Discuss
- 5.2 Footnotes

HistoryEdit

The Beetle

Abner Jenkins was a mechanic for an aircraft producer, but tired of not getting promotions he thought he deserved he decided to strike out on his own. Using a suit of armor, Jenkins became the Beetle^[1]. As the Beetle, Jenkins was often foiled by superheroes.

His first battle was against the Human Torch and the Thing^[1]. Spider-Man in particular was a constant problem, whom he first encountered while attempted to kidnap the Human Torch's girlfriend Dorrie Evans^[2]. He was among the many costumed menaces assembled by Doctor Doom to disrupt the wedding of Reed Richards and Susan Storm.^[3] At one point the Beetle was mentally dominated and recruited by the Collector to serve as his unwilling agent. Under the Collector's domination, the Beetle faced the Avengers.

After Jenkins and the Tinkerer made several armor upgrades and came up with schemes, he was targeted by Iron Man during the Armor Wars due to Justin Hammer providing stolen Stark technology.

He had somewhat better success in groups. While part of Hammer's 'hit squad' Jenkins murdered a scientist.

Thunderbolts

When Baron Zemo formed the Thunderbolts, Jenkins made a new armor, the Mobile Armored Cyber-Harness, and took on the name of MACH-1. Zemo's plan was to gain the favor or the citizens of New York, in need of heroes after the disappearance of the Avengers and Fantastic Four following Onslaught's attack in order to gain access to classified S.H.I.E.L.D. files and eventually control the world.

Jenkins and several of his teammates began to like the hero life, and decided to leave their villainous pasts behind. During this time Jenkins and his teammate Songbird began to develop feelings towards one another. Zemo instead outed the Thunderbolts as ex-Masters of Evil members to the public, leaving the new heroes with a public unwilling to trust them. Jenkins and other members decided to try making the Thunderbolts a legitimate team.

The murder he committed eventually came back to haunt Abe. When Hawkeye took over leadership of the team, he convinced Jenkins to serve out his prison sentence as a gesture of good will to the public. While in prison,Jenkins foiled a breakout, an act which brought him to the attention of the government's Commission on Superhuman Activities (CSA). They recruited Jenkins to participate in a sting operation aimed at Justin Hammer. Jenkins agreed, using a newly-designed armor to operate as the Beetle once more. Hawkeye blackmailed the CSA into allowing Jenkins to remain free, even though the government's records would continue to list Jenkins as incarcerated, in exchange for keeping the CSA's exploitation of Jenkins' secret.

To protect his identity, Abe was given a new face and appearance of an African American by the Fixer along with the alias of Matthew Davis. While this change made Songbird uneasy for a time, Jenkins himself adjusted quickly and reestablished himself as one of the team's most confident and capable members.

When the Thunderbolts uncovered and thwarted a CSA-connected conspiracy to exterminate all superhumans, Hawkeye blackmailed the CSA into giving the Thunderbolts full pardons in exchange for the group's silence. Abe and Songbird, along with most of the Thunderbolts, were pardoned and released. However, as part of the terms of their deal, they were forbidden from public use of superhuman powers or costumed identities. They started new civilian lives in Colorado. Their brief respite was shattered when Graviton attempted to take over the world.

Eventually Jenkins returned his features to normal and returned to prison to finish his sentence. Spending time as a hero seemed to change his outlook on life. After being released from prison, Jenkins reformed the Thunderbolts with the funding of Baron Strucker. Songbird took charge of the team, Abe found himself working with Fixer once again.

During the superhuman Civil War Abe joined the Hero Hunters and oversaw three college students using the previous Beetle armors (the first beetle theme design, the second streamlined update, and the third tank-like armor).

Later, during Norman Osborn's Dark Reign, Abner, alongside Fixer, was working on the Mach V version of the flight armor. One day he met with his old teammate Songbird who wanted to bring together the old band of Thunderbolts and deal with the team of killers Norman had assembled as the new Thunderbolts. Abe pledged to help her and gave her the location of Chen. Melissa kissed him in thanks before leaving.

When Melissa and Natasha were in danger, he saved them from Osborn's new Thunderbolts with his new Mach V armor.

After the Siege in Asgard, Mach V was supervising Mac Gargan at the Raft after he was disbonded from the Venom symbiote, he was later defeated by the Spider-Slayer, who escaped with Gargan, to turn him again into the Scorpion.

Powers and AbilitiesEdit

Powers

Abe has no powers. He uses both the Beetle armor and the Mobile Armored Cyber-Harness or MACH armor.

Power Grid ^[4]

Abilities

Abe is a highly skilled aircraft mechanic. He is excellent at operating and working on powered armor. Although Abe lacks a formal university background, he has advanced enough knowledge of mechanical engineering, and advanced propulsion systems to have developed many of the original technologies that comprise his armor. Due to his association with the Fixer, he is also familiar with technologies that exceed the capabilities of conventional modern science. Abe's intellect is what would be considered unevenly gifted.

Strength level

Abe possesses the normal human strength of a man of his age, height, and build who engages in moderate regular exercise. When using the Beetle armor, Abe could lift 1 ton with each arm.