Bearly Evil

A bear. This guy is a bear. Not one of those big, hairy guys who likes other guys and is awkward to bring up in conversation. No. He is a bear. If you've ever wondered why comic books are not a seriously respected form of literature, it's because of guys like this guy! Today's Z-Lister is The Grizzly. Bear!

Created by Gerry Conway and Ross Andru in "Amazing Spider-Man #139" in 1974, Maxwell Markham was the third character to use the name "The Grizzly". Maxwell was formally a professional wrestler who was extremely violent. So violent, a man named J. Jonah Jameson wrote a news article for The Daily Bugle about Max's actions, thus getting Max fired from wrestling and ruining his career. Ten years later, Jonah would run The Daily Bugle and have a certain employee with secret spectacular spider-powers. Max reappears with a bear-shaped exoskeleton given to him by the Spider-Man villain The Jackal. As The Grizzly, Max tries to kill Jonah and is defeated by Spider-Man.

The following years consisted of Grizzly fighting Spider-Man and The Punisher, he gets an upgraded suit by The Tinkerer, starts The League of Losers with other villains, attends the funeral of Stilt-Man, and is held captive in The Savage Land by Kraven The Hunter's daughter as part of her animal-themed-villain zoo. When Stephen Colbert (yes, that Stephen Colbert) ran for presidential office in The Marvel Universe, The Grizzly was hired to kill him because-and this is actually a real life confirmation-Stephan Colbert has a fear of bears. Huh. Anyway, Colbert and Spider-Man team up to fight Grizzly.

After being a member of Norman Osborn's Thunderbolts and imprisonment at The Raft, Grizzly joined Super-Villains Anonymous to reform. He makes his way to Miami to confront Ant-Man, who wronged him during "The Siege". Over a beer, Ant-Man explains that he is Scott Lang and the Ant-Man who wronged Grizzly was Eric O'Grady, the third Ant-Man. With nothing else to do, Grizzly was hired by Ant-Man to help with his company, Ant-Man Security Solutions.

In his more recent appearances in "Ant-Man" I've grown to like this character, more so when the ridiculousness of his theme is fleshed out and made fun of. The idea of this character knowing he is a lame villain and deciding to do something useful rather than repeating his sad attempt at evil is something I very much appeal to. I hope to see Grizzly become an even more likable supporting character for Ant-Man in the future.

Thanks for reading.

"All-New Grizzly", anyone? Please!?

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