How Did One of Spider-Man's Greatest Enemies Become His...Roommate?

Fred Myers is Peter Parker's roommate. He's also the villain called Boomerang. And in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #27, a small army of baddies led by Beetle are gunning for him—and Spidey.

Needless to say, there's a lot of history here.

Fred bowed way back in TALES TO ASTONISH (1959) #81 in 1966 thanks to the fertile minds of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. In that issue, the Secret Empire called out to the one man for the job to steal the Orion Missile, disgraced pro baseball pitcher-turned-mercenary...Boomerang! Along the way, he got ahold of Betty Ross, which did not sit well with the Hulk, and the two came into contact the following issue.

Boomerang would go on to become a regular foe of Spider-Man for many years, but then got wrapped up with the Thunderbolts during Norman Osborn's run and afterwards when Luke Cage took over on into the DARK AVENGERS (2009) days. 

His long-running beef with the Wall-Crawler almost led to his death during the time when Otto Octavius' mind took over Spider-Man's body. In the very first issue of SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN (2013) by Dan Slott and Ryan Stegman, Boomerang started a new Sinister Six with Speed Demon, Shocker, Living Brain, Beetle (Janice Lincoln), and Overdrive. During their second run-in with Otto, the team lost bad and Boomerang would have been beaten to death—had Peter Parker's consciousness not stopped Octavius.

Myers wound up in the Raft when Alistair Smythe was scheduled to be executed with Spider-Man in attendance (in SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN (2013) #11-13). Smythe had other plans, though, and summoned a legion of mini Spider Slayers to come in, save him, and upgrade any villains present if they would ally themselves with him. Boomerang, Vulture, and Scorpion agreed and did their best to destroy the far less friendly neighborhood hero. In the process, Boomer almost got his hands blown clean off.

Boomerang then began to headline a new title, THE SUPERIOR FOES OF SPIDER-MAN (2013), written by Nick Spencer. He tricked his Sinister Six teammates into bailing him out of jail and then put them on the trail to steal the head of Silvio Silvermane. In reality, he needed to get this particular piece of anatomy for Chameleon, who he owed, but he believed the head to be an urban legend.

Along the way, his parole agent set him up with Abner Jenkins, the original Beetle, and current hero Mach VII. That lead the rest of the team to kick him out, so Myers arranged for Iron Fist and Power Man to get the drop on his teammates just so he could free them! When Shocker admitted to Boomer that he'd overheard one of his conversations with Chameleon, Fred trapped him in a car and threw him into the river.

The four remaining members of the Sinister Six then decided to hit Owl's compound to get Silvermane's head. During the mission, Boomerang broke off and stole a painting of Doctor Doom's real face with an estimated value of $300 million. Meanwhile, Shocker survived and wound up in the junkyard where the head had actually been in hiding.

Thanks to a series of double, triple, and quadruple crosses that led to plenty of twists and turns between Boomerang and his teammates, the group ultimately dissolved in a mix of betrayal and confusion. The series itself ended with Fred telling the whole story to a guy named Peter at a bar...

Boomerang popped up here and there, but when Spencer relaunched AMAZING SPIDER-MAN last year, he brought the character in as Peter Parker and Randy Robertson's roommate. Parker knew who Fred really was, but kept him close after he stole something from Kingpin. Since then, he's been a terrible roommate, but a relatively good person, though he did still frequent the Bar With No Name.

Now, with this week's AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #27 by Spencer and Kev Walker, we see how Fred does when faced with Beetle's new gang, the Syndicate, consisting of Lady Octopus, Scorpia, Trapster, Electro, and White Rabbit!

Read these mags on Marvel Unlimited now, then pick up AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #27 at your local comic shop!