Swarm (comics)
| Swarm | |
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Swarm
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Champions #14 (July 1977) |
| Created by |
Bill Mantlo John Byrne |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Fritz von Meyer |
| Team affiliations | Exterminators Sinister Six Hateful Hexad |
| Abilities | Flight Intangibility Shapeshifting Ability to mentally manipulate the bees that compose his body |
Swarm (Fritz von Meyer) is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character has been depicted as a former Nazi sympathizer and has been mainly featured as an enemy of Spider-Man. His entire body is composed of bees surrounding his skeleton.
Swarm first appeared in Champions #14 (July 1977). He was created by Bill Mantlo and John Byrne.
Fritz von Meyer was born in Leipzig, Germany and became one of Adolf Hitler's top scientists. 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 unique qualities of the bees 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 swarm to the extent that they become one being, calling himself/their-self "Swarm".
Swarm battled the Champions. After being defeated, Swarm resurfaced to battle Spider-Man. In the first of many fights, Spider-Man prevailed against him by dosing his own costume in a new type of Raid 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, then against Spider-Man, but feedback from a weapon fired by the Rhino caused Swarm's bee body to disperse temporarily.
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