Prowler (Marvel Comics)

The Prowler is a fictional character, appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Several characters (such as the anti-hero Hobie Brown and the career criminal Aaron Davis) have taken up the Prowler identity all while being an acquaintance to Spider-Man.

Hobie Brown has appeared in various animations and video games. Aaron Davis makes his live action debut in Spider-Man: Homecoming portrayed by Donald Glover.

Publication history

The original and most well-known iteration (Hobie Brown) debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man #78 (November 1969), and was created by Stan Lee (writer) and John Buscema and Jim Mooney (artists) after a "suggestion" by John Romita, Jr. The character eventually appeared in his own solo comic The Prowler.

Several other characters have taken up the Prowler identity as well: The second version first appeared in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #47 (October 1980), and was created by Stan Lee (writer) and Steve Ditko (artist). The third version (Rick Lawson) first appeared in Sensational Spider-Man #16 (May 1997), and was created by Todd DeZago (writer) and Mike Wieringo (artist).

An Ultimate Marvel iteration (Aaron Davis) first appeared in Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #1 (November 2011), and was created by Brian Michael Bendis (writer) and Sara Pichelli (artist).

Fictional character biography

Hobie Brown

Hobie Brown
File:Prowler (Hobbie Brown).jpg Art by Bill Reinhold
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	The Amazing Spider-Man #78 (November 1969) (as Prowler) The Amazing Spider-Man #15 (January 2015) (as Spider-Punk)
Created by	Stan Lee (writer) John Buscema (artist) Jim Mooney (artist)
In-story information
Alter ego	Hobart "Hobie" Brown
Team affiliations	Defenders The Outlaws Wild Pack Parker Industries
Notable aliases	Prowler, Spider-Punk
Abilities	Technological genius Skilled hand-to-hand combatant Use of hypnotic aids and conventional hand-held weapons Battle suit grants: Wall crawling Gliding via cape Titanium-laced claws Gauntlets capable of shooting compressed air blasts, sleeping pellets and other projectiles

The debut of the Prowler (Hobie Brown). Cover of The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 1, #78 (November, 1969), art by John Romita Sr.

Hobie Brown is the original iteration of Prowler. He was born in the Bronx, New York. He was a bright but angry teenage African-American who got fired from his window washer job. Intending to use his engineering skills for personal profit, he devised a plan to steal items while disguised as a supervillain and then return them as Hobie.

Donning his green and purple "Prowler" costume for the first time, Hobie set out to rob the payroll office of the Daily Bugle, figuring that that would garner him quick publicity. However, he was caught in the act by Peter Parker. While struggling with Peter, he drew the attention of editor J. Jonah Jameson. Parker, with no way to defeat Prowler without giving away his own secret identity, contrived to get thrown through a window during the struggle, and used spider-powers to save himself once outside. Traumatized by the events, the shaken Hobie made his escape to the roof of the building, only to be confronted by Spider-Man. Spider-Man vanquished and unmasked Hobie, but realizing he was just a misunderstood kid (much like the web-slinger himself), Spider-Man gave him advice not to throw his life away as a criminal and to redeem himself. Hobie took this advice to heart and has since become a model citizen. Hobie later impersonated Spider-Man at the hero's request - Spider-Man wearing a webbing mask - to convince Peter's friends that he was not Spider-Man after Peter 'confessed' the truth while suffering delirium due to the flu, thus creating the impression that Peter had merely been confused. Hobie became convinced that Spider-Man was involved somehow in police Captain George Stacy's death, and unsuccessfully tried to bring Spider-Man to justice. Hobie eventually married his love Mindy S. McPherson, and settled down into a career as a construction worker.

Brown began to look after his 'little brother' Manuel "Manny" Lopez as a part of the Big Brother Program. When Manny was murdered, Prowler believed the original White Tiger (Hector Ayala) was responsible and attempted to bring White Tiger to justice. Prowler attempted to join the super-hero group the Defenders only to be tossed into the harbor by Valkyrie at which point he decided to retire his identity. However, Brown's Prowler equipment is later stolen by the "Cat Burglar" to commit crimes for fashion criminal Bella Donna. Brown was eager to join the search for the thieves but Spider-Man insisted that he stay home so he would not get into trouble since the second Prowler had committed a felony murder. When the second Prowler was subsequently defeated by Spider-Man, the stolen equipment was returned to Brown.

Prowler later appeared in California during Peter's "Webs" book deal. He is first seen attacking the Black Fox (Raul Chalmers) for possession of a chalice, to keep Mindy out of prison. Mindy accepted a bookkeeping job at Transcorp New York. The company was caught in some shady stock deals and Mindy was set up and blamed for the crimes. Seeing only way to clear Mindy's name, Hobie re-donned his Prowler costume and found the books which Mindy had been blamed for stealing. He hid the books on an information chip and put the information chip on the chalice, where no one would look for it. Prowler and Spider-Man team up to take on the Black Fox in order to re-gain possession of the chalice. Hobie vindicated his wife of stock fraud charges with the help of Spider-Man and the Black Fox.

Prowler later attempted to vindicate Spider-Man of a crime, and first encountered Silver Sable and the Outlaws (including rehabilitated villains like Sandman, Rocket Racer and Puma). His safety designs were stolen by Justin Hammer. Hobie proved the designs flaws during an encounter with Hammer's hirelings. Hobie fought his brother Abe Brown (of the Sons of the Tiger) as an initiation test for Silver Sable. Prowler joined with Spider-Man and the Outlaws against the Avengers and the Space Phantom. Prowler was hired along with the Outlaws to retrieve a Symkarian nuclear device in England. Prowler then formally joined the Outlaws to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a Canadian official.

His costume and equipment were stolen by Nightcreeper, and Prowler then battled Nightcreeper and the Vulture.

Later, Hobie was paralyzed during the Great Game. In follow-up appearances, he began regaining movement of his paralyzed limbs- evidence suggests that his paralysis was more a result of mental rather than physical damage, as he was feeling frustrated over the recent theft of his costume, eventually regaining full mobility. While recovering, Brown provided Spidey with a jetpack used when assuming the new Hornet identity during the Identity Crisis storyline.

Prowler was captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. in Ms. Marvel's Civil War tie-in.

Escaping incarceration, he attended the wake for Stilt-Man, along with many other villains and former villains. Prowler narrowly escaped injury as Spider-Man and Puma escorted him from the wake shortly before it was bombed by the Punisher.

When Peter Parker elevated Parker Industries into a global franchise with Spider-Man officially acting as a "bodyguard" as part of the All-New, All-Different Marvel branding, Hobie Brown is hired to act as Spider-Man in situations where the public would expect to see Peter and Spider-Man in the same place. Following the fight against Zodiac's Pisces Sect, Peter tells Hobie to change into his Prowler costume and that they'll retrieve the Webware together before Zodiac undoes his encryption.

Before The Clone Conspiracy storyline and crossover, wanting to know more about New U Technologies, Peter sent Prowler to infiltrate it. He ended up encountering the late Maxwell Dillon's revived girlfriend Francine Frye who is now the new Electro. Prowler was chased around by Electro and was accidentally killed. In the aftermath, Doctor Rita Clarkson took Spider-Man to where some people that were subjected to the New U Technologies treatment were being held. The Prowler was among those people as it turned out that he was not killed by Electro. Julia Carpenter later talks to the real Prowler who just emerged from cryo-sleep and tells him about his clone's actions. Hobie is then seen talking to Peter about his future, wondering which direction he will take. He then heads home, where he is last seen conflicted about his own identity.

Cat Burglar

Cat Burglar
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	The Amazing Spider-Man #30 (November 1965) Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #47 (October 1980) (as Prowler)
Created by	Stan Lee (writer) Steve Ditko (artist)
In-story information
Notable aliases	Prowler

Bella Donna (Narda Ravanna) stole Hobie Brown's costume and equipment and hired the cat burglar that Spider-Man had originally fought long ago. As the second incarnation of Prowler, the criminal wears a simpler Prowler costume. He accidentally killed a guard during one of his crimes. This Prowler's silhouetted profile confused witnesses enough to have Spider-Man implicated in the murder. Eventually, Spider-Man captured both Bella Donna and this Prowler, cleared the original Prowler's name, and returned the stolen equipment to Brown. An unknown cat burglar was later seen at the "Bar With No Name" attending Stilt-Man's wake, identifying himself as the "Second Prowler". He had a brief fight with the original Prowler at Stilt-Man's funeral. Sometime after the original Prowler left, Punisher poisoned the guests' drinks and blew the place up. It was later mentioned that "they all had to get their stomachs pumped and be treated for third-degree burns”.

Rick Lawson

Rick Lawson
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Sentenional Spider-Man #16 (May 1997)
Created by	Todd DeZago (writer) Mike Wieringo (artist)
In-story information
Alter ego	Rick Lawson
Notable aliases	Prowler

Rick Lawson is the third incarnation of Prowler. A medical intern, he stole a Prowler costume when Hobie Brown was brought in with a back injury. When Brown was brought into hospital, the costume was partly cut away to conceal Hobie's superhero identity, but friends were unwilling to risk moving Brown due to the back injury and so a portion of the costume was left that tipped Rick off. Having found Hobie's address from the medical files, Lawson stole another Prowler costume, using his new tech to both rob patients in the ICU and get revenge on those who had "wronged" him in the past such as a construction foreman who fired him when he needed the job to complete medical school. He ran into the Vulture, rejuvenated and attempting to kill all who knew as an old man, mistaking this Prowler for the original and unconcerned about the mistake. The Vulture managed to badly injure Prowler by slashing him across the chest with the wings, but was unable to kill him when Spider-Man interrupted the fight. As Spider-Man defeated Vulture, Rick was taken to the hospital and the Prowler costume was returned to Hobie (recovering from paralysis).

Clone of Hobie Brown

Hobie Brown's clone
File:Prowler (Hobbie Brown's clone).jpg Artwork for the cover of Prowler vol. 2, #1 (October 2016)  Art by Mike Deodato Variant cover art depicting Prowler (Hobie Brown's clone).
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	The Amazing Spider-Man #17 (October 2016)
Created by	Dan Slott (writer) R.B. Silva (artist)
In-story information
Notable aliases	Prowler, Hobie Brown

The fourth iteration of Prowler is a clone of Hobie Brown. Jackal apparently revived Prowler with his memories intact. While learning about Jackal's mission, Prowler ended up becoming loyal and started acting as a spy to find out what Parker Industries is up to. It is revealed that this Prowler is a clone that Jackal had gathered to grow clones with false memories that span all the way to their deaths.

After stopping a bank robbery that a clone of Madame Web foresaw, Prowler returns to New U Technologies to stop a fight between reanimation clones of Jack O'Lantern, Kangaroo, Massacre, Mirage, Montana, and Tarantula. Jackal reminds Hobie that he brought Hobie back to keep the reanimated supervillains in line and that he wants Hobie to warn him when he leaves the building so his technology does not go out into the world. Knowing how annoying it is to be stuck in the same location, Jackal assigns Hobie to take care of a potential hacker in San Francisco. When Hobie goes to get more information on the hacker from Madame Web, she tells him that she sees buildings filled with agony that cannot escape. After confronting his killer Electro, Prowler figures out Madame Web's precognition and goes to Alcatraz where he sets off a trap and gets caught in the process. Hobie wakes up in a cell in Alcatraz and discovers that the hacker is Julia Carpenter who has been using leftover technology from the Shroud to investigate New U Technologies. Hobie angers Julia by severing the connection to stop her from looking more into New U Technologies. Back at the company, the villains are getting out of control, so Jackal sends Electro to find Prowler to put them under check again. Julia senses that Cassandra's alive from telepathic feedback resulting from Electro's attack. Prowler tells Julia what New U Technologies has accomplished and tries to get her to join them, but she refuses and escapes in a puff of black smoke. Prowler's body then starts failing, due to not taking his New U Pills for an extended period of time, as he questions what he is doing with his life. He is then confronted by Electro. Prowler tries to escape Electro's wrath in Alcatraz, which proves difficult with her powers and his dying body. Using his weapons, the gift shop, and his strategic thinking, Prowler manages to defeat the simple-minded Electro. When he makes it outside, he is found by Julia taking him on her boat and heads towards New U Technologies to get his New U Pills.

When Spider-Man and Spider-Woman of Earth-65 are escaping from New U Technologies, Prowler helped them out by diverting the cloned villains to another part of the city.

Julia helps Prowler break into New U Technologies and takes Prowler to his room to get his pills. When Jackal orders the villains in the "Haven" part of New U Technologies to kill Spider-Man, Prowler works with Spider-Man to fight them off. When the alarm goes off and all the clones start breaking down from clone degeneration, Prowler leaves Haven and tries to find whoever set off the system that has been killing the clones. Prowler runs into Julia and accuses her of being the culprit. He tries to defeat her and Julia is left no choice but to fight back. She knocks him down as Prowler's body continues deteriorating.

The clone assists the Jean DeWolff clone in helping Spider-Man get away from the villains. Kaine Parker later told Spider-Man that the clones of Prowler and Jean died in battle against the villains.

During the final battle, Prowler and DeWolff battle the villains outside. Hobie's body is rapidly decaying, but the two receive assistance from Earth-65 Gwen and Kaine. Gwen leaves Hobie in an alley when he proves too weak to continue, and he's found by the murderous Electro. Julia arrives and fends Electro off as she tells Hobie that Spider-Man stabilized the human and clone cells. When Electro gets the upper hand on Julia, Prowler sacrifices himself to stop Electro and dies in Julia's arms.

Powers and abilities

The Prowler has no superhuman powers, but is naturally inventive, especially in the field of pneumatics, although he has no formal education in that science. He relies on a suite of technical gimmicks that he has created. Prowler wears modified coveralls interwoven with denim and stretch fabric, equipped with gas cartridge bracelets and anklets capable of propelling projectiles at high velocity. His arsenal of projectiles include steel darts ("flechettes"), gas pellets, small explosives, magnesium flares and cleaning fluid. Prowler has been known to use hypnotic aids and conventional hand-held weapons. He wears steel-tipped gauntlets for scaling walls, and shock absorbent foam rubber insulated boots. He also wears a cape which contains a network of pneumatic filaments which expand with air to give it a rigid structure, allowing him to glide for short distances.

A technological genius, Hobie Brown has also designed the cybernetically-controlled wing harness used by Hornet (Peter Parker during Identity Crisis) although he himself was unable to use it due to the weight. He is a skilled hand-to-hand combatant, possessing a green belt in taekwondo.

Other versions

House of M

In the altered timeline of the "House of M" storyline, Hobie Brown serves as a technician in Luke Cage's resistance.

Marvel Zombies

A zombified version of Prowler (Hobie Brown) is seen during the Ultimate Fantastic Four story "Crossover". He is depicted in a scene standing near the side of Tigra on the two page layout of the zombies.

Ultimate Marvel

Aaron Davis
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics (Ultimate Marvel)
First appearance	Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #1 (November 2011)
Created by	Brian Bendis (writer) Sara Pichelli (artist)
In-story information
Alter ego	Aaron Davis
Team affiliations	Roxxon Corporation
Notable aliases	Prowler

The Ultimate incarnation of Prowler is Aaron Davis, the uncle of Spider-Man (Miles Morales). He and his brother Jefferson Davis used to commit various crimes in their youth. Whereas Jefferson reformed by marrying Rio Morales, Aaron never came around and becomes the "Prowler" cat burglar. Prowler breaks into an abandoned Oscorp lab to steal a small red box and other rare items from a safe but Oscorp's genetically altered spider crawled into his duffel bag without his knowledge. Miles later visits his uncle's apartment and is bitten by the spider. After Miles passes out and regains consciousness, Jefferson forbids Aaron to spend time with Miles on account of his criminal life. During a visit to Mexico City, Aaron fights off the Mexican crime boss Scorpion. When his deal with Scorpion goes bad, he is detained by Mexican authorities. Returning to New York, Prowler interrogates Elijah Stern about Norman Osborn. Realizing his nephew was bitten by an Oscorp spider, Prowler kills Tinkerer to keep this a secret. He then claims Tinkerer's various tech for himself: an electric suit, a winged suit and electric gauntlets. Davis uses his winged suit in a vain attempt to kill Scorpion. The next day, Davis confronts his nephew about being the new Spider-Man. Davis initially convinces Miles to assist him in defeating Scorpion, however, Spider-Man comes to the realize his uncle's exploitation. When Miles decides to sever their relationship, Aaron threatens to tell Jefferson and Rio of his nephew's secret identity. Spider-Man ultimately gets into a fight with Aaron that results in Aaron's gauntlets exploding, killing him but not before telling his nephew of being just like him. A year later, Spider-Man discovers that Aaron was hired to break into Oscorp by Phillip Roxxon, and was revealed to be a criminal acquaintance of Turk Barrett.

This was used as the basis for the version in film.

Spider-Verse

During the Spider-Verse storyline, the Earth-138 version of Spider-Man is revealed to be Hobart Brown, originally operating as Spider-Punk. He is a homeless teenager that was transformed by a spider that was irradiated as part of President Ozzy Osborn's toxic waste dumping. He becomes the punk-rock inspired Spider-Man, leading the downtrodden people of New York against Osborn's V.E.N.O.M. troops. Spider-Punk managed to kill Osborn during a riot by bashing the President with his guitar. After President Osborn's death, Spider-Punk unmasked himself to the viewing crowd as their savior. Spider-Punk was later recruited by Superior Spider-Man (Otto Octavius's mind in Peter Parker's body) to join an army of Spider-Men.

Spider-Gwen

In the pages of Spider-Gwen which take place on Earth-65, Hobie Brown is a member of the Yancy Street Gang. He and the Yancy Street Gang rooted for Spider-Woman (Gwen Stacy) and were graffiti-spraying a billboard attacking Spider-Woman when Officer Ben Grimm tried to catch them. However, they witnessed as Officer Grimm gets attacked and abducted by Vulture.

In other media

Television

File:Spidermanep52.jpg

Prowler (Hobie Brown) on the Spider-Man animated series.

• The Hobie Brown incarnation of Prowler appeared in the Spider-Man animated series, voiced by Tim Russ. This version worked for the crime lord Iceberg (voiced by Lawrence Mandley) and was feeling he was not earning his fair cut for the work he was doing. When Iceberg discovered that Hobie was stealing, Iceberg's boys attempt to kill Hobie, narrowly escaping that fate but gets in an argument with his girlfriend Angela about Hobie's criminal life. Brown steals Mary Jane Watson's purse but is stopped by Spider-Man and sent to jail for violating his parole. While in jail, he saves Richard Fisk from an attempt on his life. As payment, the Kingpin arranges for a hot shot lawyer to enable Brown's release then gives him a special battle-suit. Taking his battle-suit on a trial run, Prowler has a run-in with Spider-Man whom he managed to evade, and then gets revenge on Iceberg. After making Iceberg a servant, Prowler finds out there are strings attached as his suit has to be 'recharged' if Prowler keeps working for Kingpin. He also discovered that Angela had fallen in love with someone else, believing Hobie would never change. In his self-titled episode "The Prowler", Prowler sought out Peter Parker and told his story since Peter knows how to get through to Spider-Man. Peter discovered that Kingpin has wired the suit to shock him if he disobeys and the belt will detonate if tampered. Prowler and Spider-Man team up against Kingpin and destroy the controls to not detonate and Prowler's suit is recharged. Having given up crime, Hobie can have a chance at a normal 'good' life with Angela.
• Hobie Brown appears in The Spectacular Spider-Man animated series, voiced by Charles Duckworth. A student at Midtown High, this incarnation experiences a recurring joke where he doesn't have a speaking role due to people usually interrupting him when trying to speak. Hobie's sole speaking role comes in the episode "Opening Night" when he takes the role of Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream in lieu of Harry Osborn's absence.
• Spider-Punk has a cameo appearance in Ultimate Spider-Man vs. The Sinister 6, voiced by Drake Bell in a Cockney accent. In the episode "Return to the Spider-Verse" [Pt. 4], Spider-Punk is among the alternate-reality versions of Spider-Men held hostage by Wolf Spider's interdimsional power siphon when Spider-Man, Kid Arachnid and Spider-Gwen arrive.

Film

File:Donald Glover as Aaron Davis in Spider-Man Homecoming.jpg

Donald Glover (left) as Aaron Davis in Spider-Man: Homecoming

• Aaron Davis appears in Spider-Man: Homecoming, portrayed by Donald Glover. This version is a petty stick-up artist. Herman Schultz and Jackson Brice were in the middle of selling him advanced technology which is interrupted by Spider-Man. Spider-Man later confronts Aaron during his grocery shopping and webs his hand to the car where Spider-Man asks him where the Vulture's men are going to be. Davis gives information about Vulture's latest sale with Mac Gargan in order to keep these weapons off the streets (and protect his nephew). After Spider-Man leaves while stating that the webbing he is in will dissolve in hours, Aaron is annoyed at the fact that the ice cream he bought will have finished melting by then.
• The Aaron Davis incarnation of Prowler will appear in the upcoming Spider-Man animated film, voiced by Mahershala Ali.

Video games

• The Hobie Brown incarnation of Prowler made his video game debut in Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, voiced by Chris Gardner. This version is one of the many characters to help Spider-Man in fighting the invasion, and is one of the featured characters to join S.H.I.E.L.D. before Spider-Man. In this game, Prowler did not wear a cape but still used canister barrages.
• Hobie Brown appears as a playable character in Spider-Man Unlimited as Prowler and Spider-Punk.

Comic strip

• The Hobie Brown version of Prowler made an appearance in an early story in The Amazing Spider-Man comic strip story "The Prowler". This version's gauntlets weaponry were restricted to compressed air blasts.

External links

• Prowler at Marvel.com
• Prowler's profile at Spiderfan.org