Comic Book Character Spotlight - The Hood

I kicked off my Comic Book Character Spotlights with last week's Sodam Yat profile. On the weekend, I did a follow up with a spotlight on the current Blue Beetle, Jaime Reyes. Today, I'll be taking a look at Marvel's newest super-villain kingpin, Parker Robbins, better known as The Hood! He's making waves over in The New Avengers and was the source of much controversy with the attack on Tigra. Find out who this guy is and why you should care about him in this week's spotlight.

Who Is The Hood?

Name: Parker Robbins

Associates: John King, Madam Masque, Jigsaw, Chemestro, Jonas Harrow, Crimson Cowl, Wizard, Blackout, as well as various other super-villains

First Appearance: The Hood #1 (2002)

Required Reading: The Hood #1-6, Beyond! #1-6, New Avengers #33-37, Annual #1

Powers & Abilities: The Hood has no natural abilities. His hood and boots give him limited invisibility, flight and demonic powers, which can manifest through increased strength, electrical discharges and demonic transformation.

Origin

Parker Robbins was recruited by his cousin, John King, to break into a warehouse, with light security, rumoured to be housing unknown, but highly valuable goods, and took the job in order to make some money to help move his mother, who suffers from an undisclosed degenerative mental illness, to a better health care facility.

Once at the warehouse, Robbins and King discover an abandoned mystic ritual. Upon further investigation, both are startled by a demon, later revealed to be the Nisanti - Runaway fans might recognize the name as Brian K. Vaughan references it in that series. Robbins instinctively shoots the demon as it leaps at them, apparently killing it. Not wanting to leave empty handed, Robbins takes the demon's cloak and boots before leaving.

Later, after being accosted by several gang members, Robbins flees. As he runs, he puts on the Nisanti boots and discovers that he can levitate with them on. Further exploration of the demonic items reveals the hood's ability to turn the wearer invisible, provided they hold their breath.

Putting his new found abilities to the test, Robbins attempts to steal some diamonds. During his escape he shoots a cop in the neck before fleeing. The police sketch depicts a hooded individual and labels the villain The Hood.

Why Should I Care About Him?

Regardless of what you think of his current role in Brian Bendis' New Avengers, The Hood's original Marvel MAX mini-series by BKV was one of the best works to come out of that imprint and somehow managed to get lost in the shuffle for whatever reason when it first launched back in 2002.

By the end of that series, Vaughan had sowed the seeds for a potential follow up mini-series or possible ongoing with several unresolved plot threads, such as The Golem's retaliation for Hood's transgressions or the new hero/villain White Fang, who wanted revenge on Hood for the death of her husband, the cop he shot during the diamond heist, and so on. Whether Bendis will follow up on these lost threads or not is still open to debate. Either way, this mini-series will give you the much needed back story and insight into this new character that will give you a new found appreciation for him.

Current reasons to care about The Hood lie in Bendis' desire to make him "the ‘Godfather’ of all super villains" in the post-Civil War Marvel Universe over in his New Avengers title. Bendis has an obvious desire to build this character up and as one of the major creative driving forces in the Marvel Universe, Bendis has the means to do so.

Recent New Avengers issues has Robbins working with his cousin, King, to establish his super villain empire. Many minor villains have fallen under Hood's sway, including Madam Masque, Crimson Cowl, Jigsaw and a number of others.

Various exploits by The Hood under Bendis' care include going toe-to-toe with Wolverine, with The Hood coming out victorious, apparently killing The Owl for operating without The Hood's permission, reprogramming Deathlok and using him to steal over 4 billion dollars in cash and, finally, acquiring detailed information on several heroes working under the Super-Hero Registration Act and using that knowledge to send a message to other heroes by brutally beating Tigra as well as showing the villains that he can protect them from said heroes if they ever become a problem.

The Tigra beating by The Hood has been a major source of controversy and even required an interview with Bendis by Newsarama, which you can read here. Whether you believe the scene was an misogynistic 'women in fridges' moment or not, the scene has put a major focus on The Hood and elevated him from a simple villain and helped establish his rule over the other super-villains. So, while you might hate the character after this, the scene has given the viewers a much more vested interest in seeing the New Avengers get their eventual pay back on the fledgling, would-be 'godfather of super-villains'.

What Does The Future Hold For The Hood?

The Hood's rise to power will continue to unfold in the pages of New Avengers for the rest of the year before concluding in the New Avengers Annual #1 in January. Even with this storyline set to end with a large dust up with the New Avengers team, I doubt Bendis will simply throw away all the work he has put into building up The Hood by simply incarcerating or tearing down his newly built empire. I predict a draw when these two teams meet later this year and fully expect Bendis to continue to build on The Hood's story over the next year or two in either New or Mighty Avengers, or possibly both.

Also, many rumours and various interviews have linked The Hood with the Skrulls and Bendis' upcoming Secret Invasion event in some form or another. While I doubt he will end up being a Skrull or end up working with them, I do believe his super-villain army might pose a threat to the Skrulls, leading to their attempt to take over or eliminate the group. Whatever ends up happening, Hood will be featured in the event in some capacity and should further raise his stock.

Conclusion

As I said earlier, with Bendis pushing him, The Hood has no where to go but up as the biggest creative driving force in the company pushes him into the spotlight in Marvel's biggest and highest profile book, The New Avengers. Combined with the strength of his debut mini-series, which was recently re-released in hardcover format to coincide with his introduction in New Avengers, The Hood is set to become one of the biggest players in the Marvel Universe.

Personally, I'm curious to see if Bendis will bring in the various back story elements from The Hood's original series. Will we see a retaliation for the attack on Tigra on Robbin's girlfriend or child, who was recently born, in some form or another? Will the White Fang or Golem be re-introduced to throw a wrench into his plans? The character has a lot of potential with the excellent work Vaughan did establishing him and I hope we get a chance to see Bendis expand upon it as he builds his criminal empire.

Interested in The Hood? Check out these various Hood related trades from Amazon.com and help support The Weekly Crisis!

• The Hood by Brian K. Vaughan
• Beyond! by Dwayne McDuffie

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