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History

Overview[]

Damage Control is a construction company which specializes in repairing the property damage caused by conflicts between superheroes and super-villains.[1] The company additionally operates as the archival unit for government-contested metahuman machinery and technology that belongs to missing, incapacitated, or deceased individuals where either a clear chain of custody does not exist or the items in question pose an existential threat to the United States.[2]

Origin[]

Damage Control was founded by Anne Marie Hoag and was originally owned by Tony Stark and Wilson Fisk, each owning half the stock of the company, though Stark felt uneasy cooperating with Fisk, a notorious criminal.[3]

Damage Control employees have been in the middle of a breakout at the Vault,[3] confronted Doctor Doom over an unpaid bill,[4] and have been threatened with death by the Punisher.[5] They have met vastly powerful cosmic entities such as the Silver Surfer and Galactus.[6] They have 'fought' side by side with the X-Men,[7] and talked the New Warriors and the Hulk out of fighting each other in the middle of Yankee Stadium.[8]

When Ms. Hoag was offered a job in government, she nominated Robin Chapel as her replacement. Stark and Fisk sold their stock in Damage Control: Stark because he didn't want to be associated with Fisk and Fisk because he had no confidence in Robin's ability to lead the company. Another company, Carlton Co, took control of Damage Control and tried to make Damage Control more profitable, but in the process angered a lot of employees and nearly ruined Damage Control. Ms. Hoag convinced S.H.I.E.L.D. to invest in Damage Control and they loaned her the money to buy back the company. S.H.I.E.L.D. also found out that the sale of Damage Control had been a plot by Fisk to buy back the company for cheap. During the events of Acts of Vengeance (an event Fisk helped organize), massive damage was done to the city and Fisk made a large profit when Damage Control was hired to repair the damages.[9]

Damage Control (Earth-616) from Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89 Vol 1 2 001

The team

Civil War[]

Following a tragedy at Stamford, Connecticut in which the supervillain Nitro leveled part of the town, including a school, during a fight against the New Warriors, Wolverine hunted down the supervillain. He discovered that Damage Control's CEO Walter Declun had provided Nitro with Mutant Growth Hormone to enhance his powers.[citation needed]

Wolverine's investigation led him to interrogate Anne Marie Hoag. She revealed that Declun and his investors had taken a controlling share of the stock after the company went public to obtain more funds. Following the Stamford disaster, Damage Control obtained the town's reconstruction contract, as well as a contract to perform the evaluation and training of registered super-humans.[citation needed]

In his search for Declun, Wolverine engaged in a fight with Damage Control guards, who were equipped with Mandroid Armor, S.H.I.E.L.D. weaponry, Stark Enterprises technology and other weapons and equipment salvaged from superhuman fights. Wolverine defeated them with the aid of two members of the Atlantean Royal Guard, who had assisted his investigation.[citation needed]

Having survived his confrontation with the Damage Control forces and then escaped from S.H.I.E.L.D. imprisonment, Wolverine confronted Declun, who had just been fired by Hoag, and apparently killed him. However, it later transpired that Wolverine had "only" stabbed Declun's eyes out, which he later had replaced with cybernetic implants.[10]

World War Hulk[]

After Hulk's attack on New York, Damage Control, with Anne Marie Hoag back in charge, was awarded a contract by S.H.I.E.L.D. to clean up New York. With the help of numerous Superhero volunteers, the job went off without a hitch with only a brief issue where the Chrysler Building came to life due to alien rocks.[11]

Monsters Unleashed[]

After he and his monsters helped stop the Leviathons from destroying Earth, Kid Kaiju and his monsters were placed under the protection of Damage Control. Damage Control built a facility on the artificial island Mu to house Kid Kaiju, his family, and his monsters and assigned their agent Gloria Clark to help manage any damage caused by Kid Kaiju's adventures.[12]

House of X[]

Sometime after the establishment of the settlement of Krakoa, Mystique, Sabretooth, and Toad broke into one of Damage Control's buildings in search of information. Due to this and Sabretooth's attacks on various guards, the Fantastic Four were alerted and confronted the trio, with the Invisible Woman capturing Sabretooth. Through an infographic, it was revealed that various inventions created by both Tony Stark and Reed Richards were now in Damage Control's possession due to events that incapacitated the two of them.[2]

Employees[]

  • Anne Marie Hoag: Founder and first director of Damage Control, an elderly lady, she is good friends with then-S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury and convinced him that S.H.I.E.L.D. should loan her the money to buy Damage Control's stock. Current owner of Damage Control.
  • Robin Chapel: Traffic manager and Ms. Hoag's most trusted employee. She had a rivalry with John Porter, when he was hired, because she applied for his position within Damage Control. Over time, the two have become good friends. Robin is very capable and ambitious, but is a friendly person underneath her businesslike exterior. Current director of Damage Control.
  • Kathleen O'Meara: Vice-president, brief love interest for Ben Grimm.
  • Albert Cleary: Comptroller, Albert is a financial genius and always keeps a cool head, even when presenting bills to the likes of Doctor Doom. He possesses the uncanny ability never to wrinkle his suit. Doctor Doom at one time offer Cleary a job, Cleary politely turned down the offer. Doom respected Cleary's decision enough to let him live.Although Cleary will never admit it,he found his encounter with Doom unnerving.
  • John Porter: Account executive, worked independently in "superhero insurance", but was offered a job by Ms. Hoag.[1] He initially had a rivalry with Robin Chapel, but the two have become good friends and he has expressed a romantic interest in her. John has the ability to find peaceful, practical solutions to the most complicated problems. Has an odd, peaceful relationship with notorious villain Thunderball.
  • Lenny Ballinger: Construction foreman, a middle-aged man, Lenny's no-nonsense attitude has made him very popular with his crew and even took their side in a strike against Carlton Co, who had offered him a large amount of money to take their side. Although mistaken for the late actor Lee Marvin, Lenny feels he looks more like Paul Newman.
  • Bart Rozum: Former intern, offered a full-term contract as personal assistant to Robin Chapel.
  • Eugene "Gene" Strausser: Technician, briefly became an armoured supervillain when Damage Control's new board of directors fired him; with an ally, he even attacked She-Hulk. Was rehired when Ms. Hoag regained control. He served the required jail time for his misdeeds on a work-release basis, thanks to his "former boss", Nick Fury, pulling some strings on his behalf.
  • Anne: Receptionist.
  • Henry Ackerdson: Head of marketing, not very popular because of his idea that every employee should wear superhero costumes, but eventually accepted as part of the team.
  • Gloria Clark: Agent permanently assigned to mitigate damage done by Kid Kaiju and his monsters.
  • Jim Palmetto: Partner of Kirk Eden, assigned to the Bronx to report on any damage caused by the Ghost Rider.
  • Kirk Eden: Partner of Jim Palmetto, assigned to the Bronx to report on any damage caused by the Ghost Rider.
  • Jay: Head of security.
  • Marie Leahy: Account executive.
  • Ray Lippert: Former representative of Carlton Co. who stayed with Damage Control after Carlton sold the company.
  • Frank Johnson aka Monstro: A super strong former firefighter.
  • Abby Dunton aka Visioneer: An empath who works for Damage Control to help find people as part of Damage Control's search and rescue team.
  • Trull the Unhuman: An alien possessing an experimental steamroller convinced to join by Frank Johnson after being caught stealing parts from Damage Control's equipment.[13]
  • Hercules: Did community service with Damage Control before, but seen as a regular employee for Damage Control,[14] after losing much of his godly riches to the Constrictor in an excessive force lawsuit. Hercules works on construction and demolition.
  • Robby Baldwin (Speedball): Worked as an intern for Damage Control until he was fired for his constant absenteeism (caused by his frequent sneaking away to act as Speedball).
  • Vincent "Vinnie" Patilio: Former super-villain known as Leap-Frog who briefly was employed by Damage Control. Eugene Strausser made some improvements on the Leap-Frog suit.
  • Rex Randolph aka Edifice Rex: Former employee, who found an artifact that gave him cosmic powers. As the anal retentive cosmic being Edifice Rex, Rex tried to clean up the universe by un-creating it, but was stopped by Robin Chapel, who fired him.
  • Fluppy: The bulldog mascot for the company, cared for by Bart.

Trivia

  • Damage Control possesses advanced schematics and disassembled material created or owned by the Reed Richards and Tony Stark. Despite both heroes going to great lengths to avoid such thing, their normal avenue of evasion consisted of leaving control of their intellectual property to each other; and this method failed after Richards was missing for a prolonged period of time and Stark fell into a coma. The rights to all of that material became contested,[2] presumably after both heroes returned.

See Also

Links and References

References

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