Squid (Marvel Comics)

Squid is the name of four Marvel Comics villains.

Publication history

The Donald Callahan version of Squid first appears in Peter Parker: Spider-Man Vol. 2 #16 and was created by Howard Mackie and John Romita Jr.

Fictional character biography

Namor foe

The first villain called The Squid battled Namor in the 1940s.^[1]

Scungili family

The second Squid was a gangster and youngest member of the Scungili Crime Family who battled Spider-Woman.^[2]

The School

The third Squid is the leader of The School (which also consisted of Crab, Minnow, Mussels, Seahorse, and Seaweed) who had fought Namorita.^[3]

Don Callahan

The fourth villain to take up the name was Don Callahan. After his mother died, Don had a hard time relating to his father "Big Mike" Callahan. He eventually fell into the wrong crowd and ended up transformed into a mouthless squid-like creature. In his first outing as a supervillain, Squid and his girlfriend Ms. Fortune battled Spider-Man on a rooftop. Spider-Man defeated them.^[4]

After their failure, the ones responsible for Squid's creation attacked him and Ms. Fortune (who barely survived). She broke up with Squid. Squid was later hired by an unnamed Upper West Side crime boss to eliminate the local businessmen that won't sell their properties to him. Squid later dragged a cigar store owner named "Old Man" Frenzetti into the sewers and later killed him. He later confronted his father at a bar and then stormed out as Peter Parker entered. Squid later came up through the sink pipes of Miguel Vargas' coffee shop in an attempt to kill him. Miguel escaped as Mike Callahan attacked him with a baseball bat. Squid broke the bat, but was blindsided by Spider-Man. Both Spider-Man and Mike managed to calm Squid down with Mike telling his son his apology for the way he treated him. After a long talk in the night, Squid was presumably taken away by the police.^[5]

During the Civil War storyline, Squid was among the villains recruited into Hammerhead's unnamed supervillain army to take advantage of the Civil War. Unfortunately for the assembled villains, Iron Man and a number of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents raided their headquarters.^[6]

Squid was among the villains recruited into Hood's unnamed crime syndicate.^[7]

He's recently appeared in Brand New Day as one of the villains (consisting of Coachwhip, Discus, Doctor Nemesis II, the Enforcers, Fer-de-Lance, Hydro-Man, Poundcakes, Powderkeg, Puff Adder, Rattler, Rock Python, Scorpia, Stiletto, and Trapster) in the Bar With No Name watching a fight between Spider-Man and the "Basher" on YouTube. He was among those that placed their bet with the Bookie.^[8] When the real Spider-Man arrived after the Spider-Man that fought Basher was actually Screwball in disguise, Squid was among the villains that fought Spider-Man until the bartender Deke broke up the battle telling them that the Bar With No Name is a sanctuary for those on the run from the law.^[9]

During the Secret Invasion storyline, Squid is one among many supervillains who joined the Hood's crime syndicate in attacking the invading Skrull force.^[10]

During the Dark Reign storyline, Squid is seen assisting some of Hood's operatives in a raid; he and Man-Fish go into the water to get to secure a valued ship.^[11] He is seen relaxing in a lounge area inside one of the Hood's facilities.^[12] Squid accompanies Hood when his Crime Syndicate attacks Mister Negative and his gang.^[13] He alongside Answer, Lightmaster, Scorcher, Speed Demon, Spot, and White Rabbit are knocked down by Spider-Man (who was corrupted to Mister Negative's side). The Squid also attacks one of Mister Negative's criminal operations, a brothel.^[14]

Squid is later recruited by Max Fury to join the Shadow Council's incarnation of the Masters of Evil. He and Whiplash helped to subdue John Steele who is then taken down by Vengeance.^[15] Boomerang and Owl then hire Squid onto the Sinister Sixteen, assembled to distract the Chameleon's forces while Boomerang steals from him.^[16]

During the AXIS storyline, Squid and his gang called the Tentacles commit a robbery and take a family hostage. Spider-Man heads out to save the day, but is beaten to the scene by the morally-inverted Carnage who defeats and webs up Squid leaving behind a note that reads "From Your Friendly Neighborhood Carnage!" Spider-Man is surprised at this heroic action that Carnage committed.^[17]

Squid was among the villains that joined Swarm's Sinister Six at the time when Spider-Man and the students of the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. After Hellion defeated Swarm, Squid and the other villains surrendered.^[18]

During the Avengers: Standoff! storyline, Squid is among the inmates at Pleasant Hill where this S.H.I.E.L.D.-established gated community serves as the most unlikely supervillain prison.^[19]

Squid later appears as a member of the Hateful Hexad alongside Bearboarguy, Gibbon, Ox, Swarm, and White Rabbit. During the Hateful Hexad's disastrous fight against Spider-Man and Deadpool, the battle is crashed by Itsy Bitsy who threw one of her swords at the forehead of a webbed-up Squid.^[20]

Unanmed criminal

Following Spider-Man's fight with Goblin King, it was revealed that Roderick Kingsley had sold some of Squid's equipment to an unnamed criminal as he was seen at the Bar with No Name with the other former Hobgoblin minions when they encounter Electro.^[21]

Powers and abilities

The fourth Squid can shift between his human form and his mouthless squid-like form. In his squid-like form, he possesses extendable tentacles that restrain a human with Class 10 strength. Squid can also emit foul-smelling ink from his hands. He later had an ability to emit ink constantly from his entire body. Seeing how he can fit through pipes, Squid is presumably boneless in this form.

References

External links

• Squid (Scungli) at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
• Squid (The School) at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
• Squid (Don Callahan) at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe