Boomerang (Marvel)

**Boomerang** appeared in 1966 Marvel Comics called *Tales to Astonish*.

Fred Myers was born in Australia but moved to America when he was a small child. In America, his great love was baseball and he developed an extraordinary pitching arm. He became a professional baseball player in the minor leagues after graduating high school, and a few years later entered the major leagues. Within a year he was suspended for accepting bribes. Embittered, he was eventually contracted by the subversive criminal organization, the Secret Empire, and offered employment.

They designed special weaponry for him to exploit his pitching ability and he became their special operative, code-named Boomerang. One of the first heroes he battled was the Hulk.

When the Secret Empire crumbled, Boomerang went to Australia to hide out and recuperate. There he incessantly practiced the art of throwing and decided to become a freelance assassin. Obtaining a new arsenal of weapons designed and financed by underworld financier Justin Hammer, Boomerang came back to America to pursue his criminal ambitions. His first mission was to assassinate Iron Fist, though he was defeated.

He was next hired as part of the Evil Defenders, employed by Libra to battle the Defenders.

He was hired by Viper to participate in a plot against S.H.I.E.L.D., and battled Spider-Man, Nick Fury, Shang-Chi, and the Black Widow.

Boomerang tried to kill Spider-Man to impress the Kingpin and hopefully work for him; however, he was defeated and arrested. Myers later helped the Punisher escape from prison, but was betrayed by the Punisher and re-captured. Afterward, Myers was released and hired by Max Stryker to get Dr. Bruce Banner's gamma ray to cure his cancer, but wound up battling the Hulk again.

Boomerang later joined the supervillain team the Sinister Syndicate. The team clashed with the hero Spider-Man and the mercenary Silver Sable when they were hired by the villain Jack O' Lantern, who the pair were hunting at the time. Although Boomerang was easily overpowered by Silver Sable, the Syndicate defeated the duo and were about to finish them off when they were interrupted by the reformed villain Sandman, who helped the pair defeat the Syndicate. The Syndicate were seldom seen together afterwards, and eventually disbanded.

Boomerang also engaged in solo criminal operations in San Diego, where he was again defeated by Spider-Man.

He then battled Hawkeye under the order of a disguised Loki.

Boomerang, along with Blacklash and the second Blizzard were guarding the grounds of one of Justin Hammer's front companies in Rome, Electronica Fabrizzi when Ghost, and later Iron Man, easily dispatched them. He was also employed by Hammer to battle Cardiac and Spider-Man.

The Sinister Syndicate went on a crime spree and Boomerang fought with Speed Demon over Leila Davis.

Boomerang and the Syndicate were among the mercenaries provided by Justin Hammer to assist the Sphinx in his endeavors. They battled Spider-Man and the New Warriors.

Boomerang was among various other criminals to witness Captain America disguised as Crossbones battle Batroc the Leaper.

Boomerang joined the Masters of Evil during the Crimson Cowl's weather control scheme.

Boomerang was among several of the hired killers who responded to an open bounty on Matt Murdock that was put out by Samuel Silke, Jr. as part of an elaborate plan to usurp the Kingpin's empire. After defeating Shotgun, Daredevil detected Myers on an adjacent rooftop. Boomerang in hand, Myers hesitated when he realized Daredevil had discovered him, and then runs away. Daredevil followed, beat, and threatened him when he found the picture of Matt Murdock in Myers' pocket. Myers subsequently tried to sue Murdock for $1,000,000 over the beating.

He later joined an army of super-villains hired by R.A.I.D. as part of a terrorist plot against the city of London. He was teamed with Firebrand and tasked with destroying Heathrow Airport, though they were defeated through the efforts of the Arabian Knight and Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. The villains, however, did give R.A.I.D. agents enough time to hijack a plane to use as part of their terrorist plot, but it was soon rescued by Union Jack and Sabra.

Myers was among the technologically-based super-villains who were having their weapons enhanced by Lucia von Bardas and was among the group that she assembled to assassinate the superheroes involved in Nick Fury's Secret War.

After the Superhuman Registration Act was passed, Boomerang and the Sinister Syndicate were on the run from War Machine and Komodo. Although they escaped, the villains were soon caught by the Scarlet Spiders.

After the events of the Secret Invasion, Fred joined Norman Osborn's corrupt Initiative and became a superhero in the service of the law with the alias of "Outback". He was outed as a criminal and punched in the face on TV by Prodigy.

Myers was hired by the Rose and came into conflict with Jackpot, and learned her true identity. He tracked her down to her home and killed her husband in front of her and her daughter.

Boomerang appeared later as a member of Bella Donna Boudreaux's Assassins Guild and confronted Wolverine, Domino, and X-Force.

Boomerang joined the Thunderbolts Army.

He escaped together with several other inmates who were members of the Thunderbolts. Due to a failure of the teleportation technology of their tower (caused by Man-Thing), the tower began to move in time as well as in space. They ended up in World War II teaming up with the Invaders to battle the Nazis . They next end up in Victorian London. They go even further back in time ending up in King Arthur's court in Camelot.

They eventually bounced back to the time of the original Zemo-lead Thunderbolts team. After the Fixer killed his younger self, this began to cause a collapse in reality which forced Fixer to assume his younger self's place. He returned to the future with the rest of the Thunderbolts.

He recently assembled his own Sinister Six line-up, but they were defeated by Spider-Man. He later attended a support group called Supervillains Anonymous that was held at a church and also attended by Grizzly, Hippo, Porcupine, Dr. Bong, Looter, and Mirage.

When Hydra took over the United States, Boomerang took advantage of the chaos to build a small but considerable criminal empire in Newark. During this time, Fred helped the resistance of heroes against Hydra. After Hydra was overthrown, Myers cashed in on those favors and gained complete pardon of every crime he had committed. This also allowed Fred to build up an unearned reputation as a hero. Not long afterward, Boomerang was hired by the Kingpin, who had become Mayor of New York, to retrieve the scattered pieces of the Lifeline Tablet. As part of his ploy, Fisk had tricked an archivist for the Department of Records, a man named Gus Mapleton, into misguidedly entrusting Fred with magical knowledge of the location of every piece. After learning that Mapleton had enchanted the final piece so trying to secure it would be fatal unless the person was a true and selfless hero, Myers broke his deal with Fisk.

Boomerang decided to go around the enchantment by enlisting the help of Spider-Man. While figuring out how to approach the hero, Fred came across an ad by Peter Parker, Spider-Man's secret alter-ego, looking for a roommate. Due to the popular notion that Peter Parker and Spider-Man were friends, Fred decided to become Peter's roommate to get close to Spider-Man. Despite Peter's initial repulsion towards Myers due to his reputation and behavior as a roommate, he eventually gave Myers a second chance after Fred saved his life during a supervillain skirmish. Boomerang eventually became involved with Spider-Man and, once the hero grew to like Myers after several offbeat team-ups, Fred shared with him a distorted version of the reason he was looking for the tablet, claiming to be after it to keep it from Kingpin's hands out of the goodness of his heart. The two started searching for the pieces together, and eventually gathered most of them, adopting in the process the guardian of the final piece, Gog, as their house pet. Despite the ulterior motive behind his partnership with Spider-Man, Myers would come to genuinely appreciate his bond with both the hero and his secret identity.

After the Kingpin enlisted the help of numerous crime bosses to get to him, Fred decided to look for the final piece of the tablet. After being attacked by the Boomerang Revenge Squad, a mock-super villain team part of Fred's plan, Spider-Man and Boomerang reached the final piece. As soon as Spider-Man was vetted by the spell and secured the piece, the Boomerang Revenge Squad ambushed the web-slinger and knocked him out while Fred escaped with all the pieces and handed them over to Fisk. Leaving a note behind, Fred apologized to Spider-Man for the deception.

When the demonic Kindred twins, Sarah and Gabriel Stacy, enacted their final attack against Spider-Man, they kidnapped an army of super villains, including Boomerang and his accomplices. The villains were forced to participate in a battle royale for the hero's head. Still remorseful for betraying the hero, Fred provided him a smokescreen to evade the other participants. When the vampiric Morlun caught Spider-Man and began to feed on his life force, Boomerang tackled the hero's attacker to save his life. In retaliation, Morlun fed on Boomerang instead and tossed aside his withered body. Fred's sacrifice spurred on his villain friends and even Beetle to instead help Spider-Man against the rest of the villains until the contest was abruptly ended by Doctor Octopus.

## Powers and Abilities

Boomerang is an expert pitcher whose accuracy has few rivals.

### Arsenal

* **Costume:** Boomerang's costume contains a wide variety of hidden pockets and pouches for his smaller, specialized boomerangs, in addition to attachments for securing the seven larger primary boomerangs.
	+ **Light body armor:** Boomerangs costume acts as light body armor.
	+ **Boot Jets:** Boomerang's costume is equipped with boot jets which are mentally commanded using cybernetic circuitry built into the cowl. These are capable of two hours of flight at 30 mph before needing to be refueled, and generate enough thrust to support Boomerang's own weight plus an additional 100 lbs. The boot jets can be used as offensive weapons when fired at close range.
* **Specialized Boomerangs:** Boomerang's primary weapons are the boomerangs, which he wears on his uniform. There are seven boomerangs attached in plain sight, each of which is rigged with special gimmicks.
	+ **Shatterangs** - These detonate with a force equivalent to twenty hand grenades.
	+ **Gasarangs** - These release highly concentrated tear gas upon impact.
	+ **Razorangs** - These razor-edged boomerangs are capable of slicing through steel.
	+ **Screamerangs** - These generate high-intensity sonic waves as they fly through the air.
	+ **Bladarangs** - These whirling boomerangs cut like buzz-saw blades.
	+ **Gravityrangs** - These create a local gravity field around their target.
	+ **Reflexerangs** - These are solid-weighted boomerangs.
	+ **Electrorang** - These are electrically charged and can cause the Vision pain while he is in an intangible state.
	+ **Multirangs** - These are just standard boomerangs which he can throw dual handed.