Hobie BrownHornet

From a window washer to the stealth mercenary Prowler, the now heroic Hornet uses his one-of-a-kind pneumatic weaponry to do good.

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2
durability
3
energy
3
fighting skills
4
intelligence
2
speed
2
strength

Biography

Biography

A pneumatics expert takes his inventions to new heights and becomes the stealth mercenary known as Prowler, all to stop criminals in their tracks.

 

A Plan Gone Awry

When his family moves from a San Francisco ghetto, Hobie Brown is born and raised in the Bronx, New York as the youngest of nine children. His father “Tiger” Brown leaves when Hobie is a baby, and his distraught mother becomes an alcoholic as such. When Tiger is killed in military action in Cambodia, Hobie’s eldest brother Abe leaves home, returning to San Francisco, eventually becoming a martial arts expert and Sons of the Tiger member but leaves Hobie unprotected growing up. Following high school, Hobie becomes a window washer, hired by a racist boss to fill a quota. When he’s knocked off his platform by Wilbur Day, AKA Stilt-Man, and saved by Peter Parker, AKA Spider-Man, Hobie becomes inspired to design safety equipment.

His girlfriend Mindy McPherson urges him to bring the devices to work, but when he shows diagrams of belt harnesses and toggle hooks to his boss, he is curtly dismissed. Fed up with further slurs and mistrust from his employer, Hobie angrily quits. Intent on gaining publicity for his inventions, Hobie incorporates his designs into a costume and becomes the Prowler. 

Planning to commit a crime as the Prowler and later return the money as Hobie, he chooses the Daily Bugle’s payroll as his target in order to garner immediate press attention; however, Peter Parker stumbles upon the Prowler’s robbery and when J. Jonah Jameson also walks in, Peter intentionally topples out a window in order to change into Spider-Man. With Jameson accusing him of murder, the guilt-ridden Prowler abandons the payroll and flees, running into Spider-Man, from whom he escapes using gas sprayed from his boot bracelet. Frantic for a way to clear his name, Hobie later attacks Spider-Man, hoping to deliver him to the police, but he is easily defeated instead. Upon learning Hobie’s story, however, and realizing that the Prowler is not a criminal, Spider-Man releases him.

 

Pneumatics Expert

An expert in pneumatics, Hobie invents pneumatic propulsion devices for window washing that he incorporates into his Prowler costume. His wrist and ankle bracelets contain chambers of compressed air that can shoot cleaning fluid, gas, explosive pellets, high-velocity drug-tipped metal darts (“flechettes”) and a grappling hook with built-in winch. A blast of the compressed air alone is enough to shatter a three-inch wood plank. 

The Prowler wears steel-tipped gloves strong enough to penetrate stone, enabling him to climb walls. His special-insulated boots absorb the impact of a two-story fall. He carries a mini-flare that emits a blinding magnesium light and a laser-listening device for eavesdropping. Pneumatic filaments in his cape allow him to glide. His suit is also designed for stealth—from his wrist he can enable a subtle magnetic force to unlock windows and control the temperature settings of his suit to avoid detection from thermal sensors.

The Prowler has no superhuman abilities, although he has become a skilled hand-to-hand combatant with a green belt in Tae Kwon Do and has learned how to pick any lock. Red, as the Prowler, used Belladonna’s gas, which dissolves Spider-Man’s webs. Rick Lawson used a fingertip glass cutter.

As the Hornet, his upgraded suit is activated by a button on his collar, making it easy to transition from street clothes to Super Hero duds. The suit is equipped with wrist gauntlets similar to his Prowler bracelets. He also possesses wings that attach around his shoulders, which offer him flight capabilities.

 

Den of Thieves and Threats

Prowler goes up against and defeats Charles Weiser, an employee at Hammer Industries who steals Prowler’s prototype compact glider. He’s not the last either to steal from the Prowler, Red, AKA Cat Burglar, and Rick Lawson take his costume and use it for their own nefarious ends.

When Prowler goes up against an enraged Brunnhilde, AKA Valkyrie, and loses, he quits his heroics for a time. During this time, his wife Mindy gets framed for some shady stock deals carried out by her employer Transcorp New York and he dons the uniform to clear her name. 

During his heroics, he faces El Toro Negro but in a battle he suffers a fall that leaves him paralyzed for a time. He later has a serious scuffle with Francine Faye, AKA Electro, who nearly kills him after he discovers the experiment that endows her with her former boyfriend Max Dillon’s powers, but he is saved by Ben Reilly as the Jackal.

 

Tenuous Allies and Alliances

Hobie as Prowler often assists Spider-Man in helping him protect his secret identity, and Spider-Man does the same for Hobie. Though they are often allies, Hobie does Spider-Man a favor that goes so awry that he leaves their relationship behind for a time.

Mindy S. McPherson is Hobie’s long-term girlfriend and eventual wife, who is supportive of his inventions. She later discovers his secret identity as Prowler and leaves him, but returns after he suffers a terrible fall.

Hobie’s brother Abraham “Abe” Brown is skilled in martial arts and as such Hobie trains with him on occasion. Even though Abe defeats Hobie as the White Ninja, as ordered to do by Silver Sablinova, AKA Silver Sable, to teach him a lesson in humility, Abe and Hobie team up to defend and protect people. 

Hobie joins The Defenders but quits upon being defeated by an enraged Valkyrie the same day. He later joins Silver Sable’s band of mercenaries, the Outlaws, where he and his teammates search for kidnapped victims and steal dangerous tech from the ill-begotten hands.

height

5'11"

weight

180 lbs.

gender

Male

eyes

Brown

hair

Dark brown

Universe, Other Aliases, Education, Place of Origin, Identity, Known Relatives, Powers
  • Universe

  • Other Aliases

  • Education

  • Place of Origin

  • Identity

  • Known Relatives

  • Powers

A History of Heroics

Following his trials as the Prowler, Hobie found a window-washing job with another company. Parker, meanwhile, delirious and fearing he was losing his spider-powers, revealed his Spider-Man identity to Harry Osborn, Mary Jane Watson, Gwen Stacy and Captain George Stacy. Discovering he was sick with flu instead, Spider-Man contacted Hobie and leant him his costume to pretend to be the web-slinger in front of Peter’s friends with Peter present. With his Prowler gloves hidden under the costume, Hobie successfully mimicked Spider-Man’s wall-crawling powers and pulled off the deception. 

When Captain Stacy was later killed, apparently by Spider-Man, Hobie, unaware of Peter’s secret identity or the reason for the impersonation, feared that he had been made a murder accomplice and attacked the wall-crawler, seriously injuring himself in a fall during the fight. Spider-Man burned Hobie’s Prowler costume to protect his identity and brought him to the hospital. 

After recovering, Hobie married Mindy, became a construction worker, and mentored Manuel Lopez in the Big Brother program for a year. When a night watchman accidentally killed “Manny,” who was involved with a street gang, Hector Ayala, AKA White Tiger, was initially blamed. Seeking justice, the Prowler fought the Tiger until convinced of his innocence. 

Later, Hobie was one of many heroes who joined the Defenders after an unauthorized documentary advertised for members, going on one mission with fellow new members Sam Wilson, AKA Falcon, Jack Hart, AKA Jack of Hearts, Walter Newell, AKA Stingray, and Brock Jones, AKA Torpedo, during which a battle-mad Valkyrie tossed him off the Staten Island Ferry. Quitting the Defenders and his Prowler identity as soon as he emerged from the water, Hobie stashed the costume in a storage locker where Red, AKA Cat Burglar, stole it, using it in Narda Ravonna, AKA Belladonna's employ. Double-crossed, burned, and injured in Belladonna’s attempt to kill Spider-Man, Red sought revenge but before he could toss her off a balcony, he was defeated by the web-spinner.

As Hobie continued his construction work, Mindy became a bookkeeper for Transcorp New York, owned by the criminal tycoon Justin Hammer. Caught in shady stock deals, the company created a second set of books and pinned the indiscretions on Mindy. Discovering the only copy of the real books was on a microchip hidden on the valuable Valencia Chalice on display in Los Angeles, Hobie went west as the Prowler, encountering Spider-Man and the larcenous Black Fox, and retrieving the chip to clear Mindy’s name.

Back in New York, Hobie sought to clear Spider-Man’s name when the web-slinger was accused of robbing millionaire Winston Walker. After a melee involving Prowler, Thomas Fireheart, AKA Puma, Robert Farrell, AKA Rocket Racer, William Baker, AKA Sandman, Silver Sable, Spider-Man and Jackson Arvad, AKA Will O’ The Wisp, Sable revealed that she employed Spider-Man to rob Walker to gain proof of his Maggia ties. She then offered the others future employment. 

Failing to save a falling colleague at a construction site, Hobie designed a compact glider that Mindy unwittingly offered to Hammer Industries. The Prowler defeated Charles Weiser, the Hammer employee who stole and used the prototype, coercing him into reporting to his bosses that the glider was a failure. With the construction site subsequently closed, Hobie took Tae Kwon Do lessons from his brother Abe and offered his services to Silver Sable. On his first solo mission, the Prowler was defeated by the White Ninja, actually Abe in disguise, as Sable arranged a lesson for Hobie in self-respect and humility.

Due to deceptions engineered by Calculus of the Young Gods and the Space Phantom, Spider-Man recruited Prowler, Puma, Rocket Racer and Sandman to fight the Avengers, but instead aided the Avengers in defeating a carnivorous black insect swarm. Silver Sable subsequently recruited Prowler, Rocket Racer and Will O’ the Wisp to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a Canadian government official. Dubbed “the Outlaws” by Sable, the group fought the Sandman, who appeared to be with the kidnappers but who had actually infiltrated to rescue the victim himself. When Sandman did just that, Sable invited him into the Outlaws as well. With Paladin but minus Wisp, the Outlaws traveled to England to retrieve the bio-nuclear simulator stolen by Darkmoor Research Center head Professor Walshe from Sable’s native Symkaria. Hobie’s weeks of undercover work at the Center came to naught when the super-team Excalibur arrived and battled the Outlaws until Walshe was revealed as an artificial life-form, an unused Arnim Zola robotic vessel, engaged in cloning experiments. Discovering that the Super Hero battle caused an equipment overload, Walshe sacrificed himself to prevent nuclear meltdown.

The construction site re-opening, Hobie returned to work, where he prevented sabotage and saved fellow worker William Thorpe from committing suicide. Discovering that Thorpe was distraught over the sudden death of his previously taken-for-granted wife, Hobie learned to appreciate the time he spent with Mindy. With Abe, the Prowler fought the White Dragon and Flying Dragons gang, protecting the homeless of Hogan’s Alley. The Prowler broke his wrist fighting Killer Shrike at the Sons of the Tiger school but still won after Abe and fellow Tiger Lin Sun gave Hobie what he believed were their power-magnifying amulets. Abe and Lin subsequently revealed that the amulets were imitations that instilled Hobie with nothing but self-confidence. In defeating the Resistor and the Broken Skulls, the Prowler convinced a young gang recruit to forget crime and return to his previously abandoned Sons of the Tiger tai chi lessons. Hobie later teamed with Dwayne Taylor, AKA Night Thrasher, and Rage to defeat gun runners, but left in disagreement over Thrasher using his wealth to buy out law-breaking companies rather than providing financial support to Super Heroes.

Recommended by Silver Sable, Hobie was hired by Bestman Laboratories who paid for his night school as he headed their pneumatic research division, using his technology to create safety devices. Fellow Bestman designer Eric Cross, seeking revenge for the crippling of his daughter by gunmen, stole Hobie’s inventions and became the murderous vigilante Nightcreeper. Adrian Toomes, AKA Vulture, engineered a Bestman Labs takeover and then defeated the Nightcreeper, leaving him partially paralyzed. Hobie defeated the Vulture in turn but lost Mindy when she discovered his Prowler identity and took a job in California. 

When Rocket Racer convinced Prowler to join him in a staged fight in order to cash in on the Super Hero survivor contest called the Great Game, El Toro Negro attacked the two, causing a fall in which Hobie broke multiple bones and entered a coma. Although Rocket Racer stashed much of Hobie’s costume en route to the hospital, Emergency Room orderly Rick Lawson saw enough to learn the truth. Hobie regained consciousness but nerve trauma left him temporarily paralyzed. Mindy, hearing the news, returned from California. In the process of flunking medical school, a bitter Lawson, meanwhile, stole Hobie’s spare costume, becoming the new Prowler and going on a crime spree that abruptly ended when the revenge-seeking Vulture nearly disemboweled him, thinking he was the same Prowler who thwarted his Bestman Labs takeover. 

Recovering from paralysis, Hobie returned as the Prowler, helping Spider-Man rescue a woman from a fire, then provided the cybernetic jet pack which allowed Spider-Man—who was looking for new identities to avoid bounty hunters—to become the Hornet. The Prowler was one of the costumed heroes who refused to comply with the government's Superhuman Registration Act, and was captured by Carol Danvers, AKA Ms. Marvel, and placed in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. After escaping from prison thanks to Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America's Secret Avengers, Hobie attended the funeral of his long-ago inspiration Stilt-Man. Inebriated, Hobie got into a scuffle with the other attendees and had to be escorted home by the Puma.

He fought in the Superhuman Civil War and later impersonated Spider-Man again to help protect Peter’s secret identity. Peter then asked him to infiltrate New U Technologies, a pharmaceutical company, but in the process Prowler encountered Francine Frye, the new Electro, who severely burned him. 

The new Jackal (Reilly) used his cloning technology to create a new undamaged body for Hobie, but his new life came at a price: in exchange for a daily dose of medication that prevented Hobie’s body from decaying, he had to work for the Jackal. He kept an eye on other violent and dangerous superhumans who had also been brought back to life. But his loyalty was swayed when the Jackal set off a signal that destabilized the clones’ bodies, unleashing the lethal carrion virus. Thanks to the help of his allies and quick-thinking, Spider-Man stopped the Jackal while many of the reanimated superhumans did not survive, including the clone of Hobie.

But the original Hobie Brown was discovered in one of the Jackal’s headquarters recovered, but the ordeal made him rethink his affiliation with Spider-Man and cease their allyship. But that didn’t stop Spider-Man from vouching for Hobie to work for Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man’s Fairgray Pay, a formerly shady crowdfunding company. Spider-Man encouraged Hobie to give up the Prowler and show his wife Mindy what the inventor Hobie could offer the world.

Hobie took Spider-Man’s advice and gave up the Prowler suit. As he and his wife were discussing it at Tavern on the Green in Central Park, Knull, the malicious God of the Symbiotes, launched an all-out attack on Earth. Hobie protected Mindy and advised those around him to get to safety as hordes of symbiotes attacked people. He donned a new costume and fought the symbiotes. With renewed purpose as a protector, he adopted the identity Hornet to go with his new duds.