Swarm (Marvel Comics)

Swarm (Fritz von Meyer) is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character has been mainly featured as an enemy of Spider-Man.[3] His entire body is composed of bees surrounding his skeleton.[4]

Swarm
Swarm
Publication information
PublisherMarvel Comics
First appearanceChampions #14 (July 1977)
Created byBill Mantlo
John Byrne
In-story information
Alter egoFritz von Meyer
Team affiliationsNazi Germany
Exterminators[1]
Sinister Six[2]
Hateful Hexad
AbilitiesFlight
Intangibility
Shapeshifting
Ability to mentally manipulate the bees that compose his body

Publication history

Swarm first appeared in Champions #14 (July 1977). He was created by Bill Mantlo and John Byrne.[5]

Fictional character biography

Fritz von Meyer was born in Leipzig, Germany and became one of Adolf Hitler's top scientists specializing in toxicology and melittology. Escaping capture after World War II, he became a beekeeper or apiarist in South America and discovered a colony of mutated bees. Intrigued by their intelligence and passive nature, von Meyer attempted to enslave the queen bee, but failed and the bees devoured him, leaving only his skeleton. The bees' unique qualities caused his consciousness to be absorbed into them, allowing von Meyer to manipulate the hive to do his will, although some of his skeletal remains are inside the swarm itself. His consciousness merged with the hive to the extent that they are one being, calling himself/themselves "Swarm".[6]

Swarm battled the Champions.[7] After being defeated, Swarm resurfaced to battle the original Spider-Man (Peter Parker).[8] In the first of many fights, Spider-Man prevailed against him by dosing his own costume in a new type of insecticide that hurt the bees if they got too close to the web-slinger. Swarm lost his/their skeleton in this battle, but returned to fight again (no longer having the skeleton but still possessing von Meyer's consciousness), first teaming with Kraven the Hunter against Iceman and Firestar,[9] then against Spider-Man,[10] but feedback from a weapon fired by the Rhino caused Swarm's bee body to disperse temporarily.

Swarm next appears when a Super-Collider from Rand Industries is activated and called his/their attention.[11] Swarm decides mankind should be exterminated so insects can rule the world. Doctor Druid convinced Swarm that mankind will exterminate themselves and the age of insects can begin.[12] Eventually, Swarm became tired of waiting and returned to New York, after a psychic wave generated by Onslaught disrupted the psychic field that bonded him and his bees together. He forced a group of scientists investigating energy fields to help him not only restore his original field, but expand it to grant him control of every bee on Earth. As New York City is invaded by bees, the second Spider-Man (Ben Reilly) tracked the bees to their destination and — taking advantage of the fact that the swarms' instinctive memory of Peter's use of Raid caused them to automatically flinch away from Spider-Man — infiltrated the building to contact the scientists. By claiming that the scientists' equipment is having trouble broadcasting a sufficiently powerful signal through the dome of bees, Spider-Man is able to trick Swarm into allowing the construction of a device designed to negate the vibrational frequency that the bees create to allow themselves to fly, presenting it as a means of boosting the power of the existing signal. With the bees now grounded, Spider-Man subsequently recovers the queen of Swarm's hive and leaves her in the care of the authorities, reasoning that without her, Swarm won't be a future threat.[13]

Now back with an internal skeleton, Swarm felt that the fall of the criminal organization Pride allowed access to their former territory, specifically Los Angeles. However, he/they are defeated by the Runaways, protectors of the city, when his/their body of bees' mental link is disrupted by electrical blasts.[14]

Swarm regained control over his colony and joins the Chameleon's Exterminators[1] to kill Spider-Man now that Parker's true identity is revealed. Swarm attacks Mary Jane Watson but Mary Jane sprays Swarm with water while a co-worker smashes Swarm's skeleton, but the bees reformed around the skeleton as Stark Industries bodyguards take him/them away.

When Alyosha Kravinoff began collecting a zoo of animal-themed superhumans, Swarm is in one of the cages.[15] He fought Gargoyle as the Punisher passes them and escaped.

Swarm next turns up in Denver, Colorado, having amassed enough bees to become giant-sized. The Thunderbolts face him/them unsuccessfully until Norman Osborn dispatches Venom devouring Swarm's bones. Osborn speculated this was, by now, a minor inconvenience that shouldn't prevent Swarm's return.[16]

Next, Swarm turns up in Buenos Aires having his intelligence again. He fought the Mighty Avengers by creating 'avatars' made of bees. Notably, the Avengers roster included the Wasp, Stature and Amadeus Cho. Stature placed an inhibitor collar on the queen bees which caused Swarm's intelligence to somehow disperse.[17]

He was briefly seen trying to launch an attack of the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning only to be almost instantly thwarted by the X-Men's Krakoa, the Bamfs, and Doop.[18]

Swarm later formed his own incarnation of the Sinister Six with 8-Ball, Delilah, Killer Shrike, Melter and Squid. They attack Spider-Man and the students of the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. Swarm gets dispersed by Hellion which caused the other members to surrender.[2]

Swarm later attacked New York but was defeated by Squirrel Girl and her ally Koi Boi covering him with water and turning bags full of his constituent bees in to the police.[19]

Swarm later appeared as a member of the Hateful Hexad alongside Bearboarguy, Gibbon, Ox, Squid and White Rabbit. During the disastrous battle against Spider-Man and Deadpool, the battle is crashed by Itsy Bitsy.[20] Swarm relocates to Florida, where he encounters Macrothrax and his minions, like him sentient insect colonies in humanoid form, accidentally created by the invention which created him. He ends up joining forces with Ant-Man and taking a liking to him.[21]

Powers and abilities

Swarm is a composite being of hundreds of thousands of bees driven by a human intelligence. He is technically intangible, as his body is merely an aggregate of tiny forms. He can fly through the air and assume any shape and size he desires. He can mentally influence the actions of other bees, the full range of which may extend over hundreds of yards in radius. With the aid of a team of scientists, Swarm was briefly able to enhance his power to the point where he could have theoretically taken control of every bee on Earth, but this plan was averted by Spider-Man. At first, Swarm seemed capable of only controlling other bees, but he has exhibited the ability to communicate/control other insects as well. Fritz von Meyer's skeleton, the focal point of his consciousness, remained behind as his only remains until being devoured by Venom.[16]

Other versions

Marvel Fairy Tales

In the second issue of the Spider-Man line of Marvel Fairy Tales (an adaptation of the legend of Anansi), an alternate version of Swarm appears as the stories' main villain, the Bee Spirit.[22]

Marvel Adventures

Swarm recently appeared and fought Spider-Man in Marvel Adventures. He/they supposedly wanted to take over the world (or at least kill a few jocks), but it looked like he/they just wanted some ice cream.[23]

Ultimate Marvel

The Ultimate Marvel equivalent of Swarm is Petra Laskov, a Syrian female mutant who initially appears as a member of The Liberators and later under the Red-Wasp title as members of the Avengers.[24][25]

Marvel Noir

In the Marvel Noir universe, Madame Sturm is a Nazi scientist who finds the same Spider-God totem behind Peter Parker's powers which she uses to mutate herself into a bee god and calls herself Madame Swarm. She is defeated when Spider-Man Noir lures her towards a Nazi blimp that Miles Morales blows up with the Venom sting.[26]

In other media

Television
  • A different variation of Swarm appeared in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, voiced by Al Fann.[27] This version was originally a beehive irradiated by a fallen meteorite's energy. In Swarm's self-titled episode, the meteorite grants a swarm of bees sentience as well as the ability to increase other bees' size and mutate humans into insect hybrid drones. It attempts to spread its hive mind throughout the universe until Spider-Man, Firestar and Iceman intervene and launch the meteorite back into space to reverse Swarm's effects.
  • An adapted iteration of Swarm appears in the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series,[28] voiced by Eric Bauza in "Swarm"[29][27] and by Drake Bell in "Sandman Returns."[30][27] Debuting in his self-titled episode, Swarm started out as Michael Tan, a disgruntled and immature employee of Stark Industries who worked on a device to control technology, only to be fired by Tony Stark. In retaliation, Tan activates the device and fuses his molecules with Spider-Man's spider-tracer. When the web-slinger attempted to use it on Juggernaut, Tan was transformed into a swarm of self-replicating nanobots. Taking the name "Swarm", he attempted to assimilate more technology, but Spider-Man and Iron Man were able to defeat him using the former's spider-tracer and the latter's arc reactor to amplify a nullifying frequency. Once Swarm's neutralized, Iron Man confiscates the nanobots to attempt to reconfigure Tan. In the episode "Sandman Returns", Swarm attacks a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility to assimilate their technology, but was defeated by Spider-Man and Sandman. In the episode "HYDRA Attacks Pt. 1", Swarm became a prisoner on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Tri-Carrier before Doctor Octopus combined his miniature Octobot with the former's nanobots to convert the Tri-Carrier into Arnim Zola's HYDRA Island.
  • Swarm appears in Marvel Super Hero Adventures, voiced by Ian James Corlett.[27]
  • Swarm appears in the 2010s Spider-Man animated series episode "Spider-Man Unmasked", voiced by Alex Desert. This incarnation of Swarm is the leader of the Mutant Monster League. He captures Spider-Man, but Ghost Spider, Spider-Girl, and Miles Morales rescue the web-slinger.

Video games
  • The Fritz von Meyer iteration of Swarm is referenced in the 2018 Spider-Man video game. He is mentioned during one of J. Jonah Jameson's podcasts as "a Nazi made of bees". In the game's comic book adaptation, S.W.A.R.M. (Symbiotic Warfare Anthophila Restraining Model) fully appears.[31]

Toys
  • An action figure of Swarm (Fritz von Meyer) 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 which could also be assembled to create a 'giant' bee accessory.

Theatre

Reception

In August 2009, TIME listed Swarm as one of the "Top 10 Oddest Marvel Characters".[32]

Swarm was ranked #29 on a listing of Marvel Comics' monster characters in 2015.[33]

gollark: I'm sure you'd like to think so.
gollark: Actually, my memetic engineering will *finally* converge on the ultimate result; *me* as owner.
gollark: Well, as they say, [DATA EXPUNGED] global deployment of Rust [REDACTED] intertemporal retroactive unsafe code removal.
gollark: LyricLy doesn't deserve that. He should be helper forever.
gollark: Of course, events *are* in motion.

References
  1. Exterminators (Spider-Man foes)
  2. Spider-Man and the X-Men #4
  3. Morris, Jon (2017). The Legion of Regrettable Supervillains: Oddball Criminals from Comic Book History. Quirk Books. p. 249. ISBN 978-1594749322.
  4. Cowsill, Alan; Manning, Matthew K. (2012). Spider-Man Chronicle: Celebrating 50 Years of Web-Slinging. DK Publishing. p. 109. ISBN 978-0756692360.
  5. DeFalco, Tom; Sanderson, Peter; Brevoort, Tom; Teitelbaum, Michael; Wallace, Daniel; Darling, Andrew; Forbeck, Matt; Cowsill, Alan; Bray, Adam (2019). The Marvel Encyclopedia. DK Publishing. p. 366. ISBN 978-1-4654-7890-0.
  6. Rovin, Jeff (1987). The Encyclopedia of Supervillains. New York: Facts on File. p. 334. ISBN 0-8160-1356-X.
  7. Champions #14–15 (1977)
  8. Spectacular Spider-Man #36–37
  9. Spider-Man Family Amazing Friends #1
  10. Lethal Foes of Spider-Man #3–4
  11. Secret Defenders #18
  12. Secret Defenders #19
  13. Sensational Spider-Man #9–10
  14. Runaways vol. 2 #7
  15. The Punisher War Journal vol. 2 #15
  16. Thunderbolts #122
  17. Mighty Avengers #24
  18. Wolverine and the X-Men #18
  19. Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #7
  20. Spider-Man/Deadpool #9
  21. Ant-Man #1-#2 (February & March 2020)
  22. C. B. Cebulski (w), Niko Hendrichon (p), Niko Hendrichon (i). "Once Upon A Time..." Marvel Fairy Tales 2 (August 2007), Marvel Comics
  23. Marvel Adventures #38
  24. Ultimate Avengers #5
  25. Ultimates 2 #9
  26. Spider-Verse Vol. 3 #5
  27. https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/characters/Spider-Man/Swarm/
  28. Goldman, Eric (20 April 2012). "Ultimate Spider-Man: Make Way for Iron Man!". IGN.com. Retrieved 23 May 2013.
  29. "Swarm". Ultimate Spider-Man. Season 2. Episode 11. June 9, 2013. Disney XD.
  30. "Sandman Returns". Ultimate Spider-Man. Season 2. Episode 24. October 27, 2013. Disney XD.
  31. Spider-Man: City At War #2
  32. "Top 10 Oddest Marvel Characters". Time. August 31, 2009.
  33. Buxton, Marc (October 30, 2015). "Marvel's 31 Best Monsters". Den of Geek. Archived from the original on September 30, 2018. Swarm is a very obscure villain who made his debut in the pages of The Champions of all places. So why is he on our list? Because he's a freakin' Nazi Scientist- MADE OF EVIL BEES!
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