Fixer (Marvel Comics)

The Fixer is the name of two characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics: Roscoe Sweeney and Paul Norbert Ebersol.

Roscoe Sweeney was portrayed by Kevin Nagle in the Marvel Cinematic Universe series Daredevil while Paul Norbert Ebersol has appeared in animated media.

Publication history

The first Marvel Comics character known as the Fixer was Roscoe Sweeney. He first appeared in Daredevil #1 (Apr. 1964), and was created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Bill Everett.

The second iteration of Fixer was long-time supervillain Paul Norbert Ebersol, first appearing in Strange Tales #141 (February 1966) and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.^[1] Much later, he appeared as a regular character in Thunderbolts, until he was forced to leave the team.

Fictional character biography

Roscoe Sweeney

Roscoe Sweeney was a gangster and crooked fight promoter who was involved in extortion and illegal gambling who operated as the "Fixer". He paid

In his first appearance, he escaped from prison,[4] teamed with his partner Mentallo in an attempted takeover of the New York S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, and even captured Nick Fury.^[5] Fixer and Mentallo were defeated by Tony Stark and S.H.I.E.L.D. troops.^[6] His connection with THEM was revealed; and THEM was later revealed as part of HYDRA.^[7] Behind the scenes, he was even revealed as the chief of the HYDRA Science Division.^[8]

With Mentallo, the Fixer later escaped prison again. They invaded the New York S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters and captured the

Fixer and Mentallo then aided Professor Power in his attempt to add Professor X's powers to Mentallo's, but they were defeated by Spider-Man.^[12] Fixer attempted to loot Northwind Observatory of Bruce Banner's inventions, but was captured by Captain America.^[13] Fixer then invaded the West Coast Avengers Compound in an attempt to steal Iron Man's armor, but was defeated by Iron Man and Ka-Zar.^[14]

When

In Zemo's second incarnation of the Masters of Evil, the team changed their identity to the Thunderbolts, while Fixer adopted the alias of Techno.^[20][21] He was then apparently killed when his neck was broken by Iron, one of the Elements of Doom,^[22] and he transferred his mind into a robotic body,^[23] and this Techno sided, alone among the Thunderbolts, with Zemo when he went ahead with his scheme to conquer the planet.^[24]

Zemo and Techno decamped to one of Zemo's bases, where Techno began to experiment with cloning, offering to clone Zemo an unscarred body, and even cloning

Techno's impersonation of Ogre ended when Scourge of the Underworld stowed away inside him, shrunken, and destroyed his body from the inside, while he refused to kill Jolt again to allow him to construct a new body. However, his backup plan worked, and his consciousness was returned to his original human body—mostly healed, although the nerve damage in his neck meant he required his tech-pac to bypass the damage—and the human Ebersol, initially amnesiac of the robot's exploits, returned to calling himself the Fixer.^[28]

Fixer then became one of the

Ebersol has been identified as one of the 142 registered superheroes who appear on the cover of the comic book.[29]

During the "Heroic Age" storyline, Fixer works as the Raft's supervisor in its section for male supervillains when Captain Steve Rogers and Luke Cage arrive to recruit Ghost.^[30] As well as working with the Thunderbolts, Fixer has also been seen working with Baron Zemo.^[31]

During the "Fear Itself" storyline, Fixer was seen working on a forcefield to secure the rounded up prisoners that escaped from the Raft after Juggernaut, in the form of Kuurth: Breaker of Stone, leveled it.^[32]

After escaping the Raft by time-traveling, the Thunderbolts wound up meeting their counterparts - the first Thunderbolts team.^[33] Being as arrogant as they are, present-Fixer and past-Fixer got into an argument in which Fixer impulsively killed his past self.^[34] To preserve the timeline, Fixer surgically changed himself to restore his younger appearance and preserved his age by a blood-transfusion from Centurius. Fixer and the past Thunderbolts' memories were wiped, stranding Fixer in a stable time-loop and preserving the timeline after his mistake.^[35]

During the "

Following the Pleasant Hill incident, Fixer joined up with Winter Soldier's incarnation of the Thunderbolts with the goal to keep S.H.I.E.L.D. from continuing the Kobik Project.[39]

At the time when Baron Zemo formed the fourth incarnation of the Masters of Evil, Fixer joined the Thunderbolts into fighting them which ends with the Thunderbolts being defeated.^[40]

During the "Opening Salvo" part of the Secret Empire storyline, Fixer defected to the Masters of Evil after Winter Soldier was sent back in time to World War II and Kobik had shattered. While Atlas and Moonstone worked to gather Kobik's pieces, Fixer maintained the inventory of the pieces he has with Erik Selvig. Fixer was later present when Baron Helmut Zemo is advised by the Kobik-reprogrammed Captain America into having the Masters of Evil be part of the Army of Evil.^[41]

Powers and abilities

The second version of Fixer is an intuitive genius at the invention of weapons and other electrical and mechanical devices. He has designed numerous devices and paraphernalia for himself, including his body armor. As for weaponry, he has used various devices including bombs, electronic jamming devices, guided missiles, sonic amplifiers, brain-wave scanners, and mind-control pods. He has also built anti-gravity discs which are affixed to his feet and allow flight at the speed of sound, as well as a special mask that contains a three-hour air supply and acts as an air pressure reduction valve, together with enabling flight at high velocity and high altitude. Fixer's Techno body can mentally control his robotic body which is capable of assuming virtually any form from blast cannons to pile-drivers to even the form of a space station. To take on larger shapes, Techno physically absorbed the mass of other mechanical materials nearby into himself. Techno's body also could morph into forms that appeared completely organic, as with his assumed guise of Thunderbolt machine-smith Ogre.

In other media

Television

• The Paul Norbert Ebersol incarnation of the Fixer, renamed Mr. Fix, appears in Iron Man: Armored Adventures, voiced by Donny Lucas.^[42] Introduced in the first season, this version is a genius inventor and high-tech arms dealer with ties to the Maggia who employs highly sophisticated communications and weaponry. In the second season, Justin Hammer injects Fix with a nano-virus to force him to make weapons for the former, primarily the Titanium Man armor. Following a disastrous first outing in it however, Hammer activates the nano-virus, killing Fix's physical body and transforming him into an artificial intelligence. Calling him "Mr. Fix 2.0", Hammer forces him to keep working on the former's projects to the exclusion of all else. Unbeknownst to Hammer, Fix secretly begins plotting revenge against him for this. Over time, he blackmails Hammer before eventually exposing his criminal activities and creating "zombification gas" to turn Hammer into a zombie, though Iron Man destroys Fix 2.0's console.
• The Paul Norbert Ebersol incarnation of the Fixer appears in Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers.^[43]
• Roscoe Sweeney appears in
  Elektra so Jack's son Matt Murdock can exact revenge. Matt grievously beats Roscoe, but turns him over to the police instead, to Elektra's disappointment.^[45]
• The Paul Norbert Ebersol incarnation of the Fixer, hybridized with and named after
  Ralph Roberts, appears in Avengers Assemble, voiced by Rick D. Wasserman.^[42][46]