by Ross Andru, 1976

Hammerhead

Real Name: Unknown
Identity: Mobster and Crimelord
Group Affiliation: Member of the Maggia
First Appearance: Amazing Spider-Man #113
Status: Active

Powers & Abilities:

Hammerhead has no superhuman abilities. He is an above-average combatant with slightly above-average strength.

Equipment & Weapons:

Hammerhead's unusual cranium comes from an implanted steel alloy skull. He uses this as a weapon by lowering his head and charging his opponents. Hammerhead commonly uses a variety of Tommy-guns, machine guns, and other assorted heavy weaponry.

Origin:

The mobster known as Hammerhead was a thug with the criminal organization known as the Maggia. After a brutal beating, he was found and fixed up by a Dr. Jonas Harrow. Due to the extent of his injuries, Dr. Harrow replaced his skull with a steel alloy skull. When he recovered, Hammerhead had lost any memory of who he was, and adopted the identity of "Hammerhead" after a 1920's movie poster. His new criminal identity favors 1920 gangster stereotypes including clothes, weapons, and speech. Since then, he's fought Spider-Man on several occasions all in attempts to become New York's #1 crimelord.

Appearances:

Hammerhead, out for revenge against Doctor Octopus is manipulated into a confrontation with Octopus by the notorious Jackal. The story starts in Amazing Spider-Man #130.

Interrupting the wedding between Dr. Octopus and Aunt May in Amazing Spider-Man #131, Hammerhead pursues the pair to an isolated island containing an active "nuclear breeder". Battling it out with Dr. Octopus causes a chain reaction and Hammerhead is apparently vaporized in the resulting blast.

Amazing Spider-Man #157 begins a three-part storyline where Hammerhead, thought dead in an atomic explosion, reveals that he was simply knocked "out of phase" with our world. Appearing like a ghost, his intangible form stalks Doctor Octopus and vows revenge on Octopus for causing his death.

In part two (continuing in Amazing Spider-Man #158), Hammerhead tricks both Doctor Octopus and Spider-Man to returning him to a physical form by bathing his ghost with atomic energy.

Concluding a three-part storyline, Amazing Spider-Man #159 Hammerhead escapes capture by kidnapping Aunt May. Unable to withstand an assault by the temporarily partnered Octopus and Spider-Man, he flees in an escape helicopter. However, his copter is crippled by Octopus and crashes with an explosion into the Hudson River leaving Hammerhead apparently dead again.