From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Swarm
Swarm
Publisher Marvel Comics First appearance Champions #14 (Jul 1977) Created by Bill Mantlo and John Byrne
Characteristics Alter ego Fritz von Meyer Abilities Capable of mentally manipulating the bees that compose his body

Swarm (Fritz von Meyer) is a fictional character, a supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe. His most notable feature is that his entire body is composed of bees with Nazi sympathies.

Contents 1 Fictional character biography 2 Other versions 2.1 Ultimate Swarm 2.2 Marvel Fairy Tales 3 In other media 3.1 Television 3.2 Toys 4 References 5 External links

Swarm's origin is hazy. It is known that he was born in Leipzig. Two stories have been presented so far. The first is that von Meyer was an apiarist in South America, who found a colony of mutated bees. The bees ate him alive, but somehow absorbed his consciousness. He told that version to The Champions of Los Angeles in his first appearance in Champions #14.

The second story is that von Meyer was one of Hitler's top scientists in the field of cosmic radiation. After the war, he somehow used his knowledge of radiology to mutate a colony of bees and become Swarm.

Despite initially appearing as a foe of The Champions, Swarm is a recurring Spider-Man adversary. In his second appearance, Spectacular Spider-Man #36, Spider-Man defeated Swarm by dousing himself in insect repellent. Swarm later re-formed himself while Spider-Man was dealing with an attack by several other villains, but was defeated and lost his internal structure. Swarm re-formed again following Onslaught's defeat and bombarded New York with bees, but Ben Reilly (as Spider-Man) used a machine to disrupt Swarm's control of his bees, and captured the queen.

Swarm felt that the fall of the criminal organization the Pride allowed access to their former territory, specifically Los Angeles. He was swiftly defeated by the Runaways, the new protectors of the city. His control was again disrupted, this time by electrical blasts.

He regained his form and joined the Chameleon's Exterminators. Their goal was to kill Spider-Man, now that he has revealed his identity. Swarm attacked Mary Jane Watson. She attacked him with water and one of her co-workers smashed Swarm's skeleton. He began to re-form but bodyguards that Iron Man had assigned to Mary Jane took him away.

In The Ultimates Vol. 2, Ultimate Swarm was introduced. She is a Syrian mutant with the power to control insects. She is fully corporeal, but has grey skin and horns, making her resemble sorceress Margali Szardos. She is a member of the Liberators who invade America, killing many, in order to put a stop to perceived American aggression. Like most of her teammates, she was killed; a giant-sized Wasp steps on her in The Ultimates, volume 2, #12.

In the second issue of the Spider-Man line of Marvel Fairy Tales (an adaptation of the legend of Anansi) an alternate version Swarm appears as the stories' main villain, the Bee Spirit. ^[1]

In an episode of the 1980s cartoon, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, The Swarm was created when an alien energy from a fallen meteorite irradiated a nearby beehive. The Swarm used eye blasts to greatly increase the size of some bees and their hive. It also used the eye blasts to turn people into human/bee drone hybrids. The Swarm was defeated when Spider-Man (with the help of Firestar and Iceman) launched the meteorite back into space. Distancing the bees and hybrids from the meteor's radiation reversed all of The Swarm's effects.

An action figure of Swarm was released in 1997 as part of the Spider-Man: Spider Force toy line. It was molded in a translucent yellow plastic, and featured a removable cape and hood, and snap-on bee armor. This armor could also be assembled to create a "giant" bee accessory.

• Swarm on the Marvel Universe Character Bio Wiki