Comics Explained: Bushmaster

Bushmaster

The new season of Luke Cage is now out on Netflix with a new villain stealing the scene: Bushmaster. Bushmaster is a perfect main antagonist for the second season and today we'll look at the two individuals who have claimed the moniker of Bushmaster. There won't be any spoilers for the Netflix show ahead; mostly as I have only watched the first two episodes of the second season as of writing.

Real World Origins

Iron Fist #15 where he debuted

Bushmaster isn't a major Marvel villain and he never became one of Marvel's major villains, like the Kingpin. As a result his publication history is fairly simple and straightforward compared to other comic book characters. He first appeared in Iron Fist #15 in 1977 in an issue written by X-Men titans Chris Claremont and John Byrne. Like with Luke Cage, which you can read about here, Bushmaster was born thanks to the Blaxploitation of the 1970s. In fact, Bushmaster's first appearance combined two aspects of the crazes of the 1970s: Blaxploitation and martial arts. Bushmaster was from the Caribbean and appeared in Iron Fist who was a martial arts expert combining the two together.

Origins

John McIver grew up in the Caribbean, although not Jamaica as he is in the Netflix series, with his younger brother Quincy. Growing up in poverty the brothers were forced to steal from shopkeepers and merchants, although John had far greater street smarts so managed to evade capture far more easily. However, John had a homicidal streak to him as shown when once Quincy ratted him out to a shopkeeper who had caught him. Furious John savagely beat Quincy and then went on to murder the shopkeeper. Eventually John managed to get a job with the Maggia, an international crime syndicate, and through that got Quincy a job with them which ended in disaster. Revealed in Captain America Annual #10 John and Quincy went on a job and to avoid the police Quincy hid underwater. However, this brought him dangerously close to a boat's propeller which resulted in Quincy's limbs being cut off. John later visited Quincy only to laugh at his brother's misfortune. Years later John, now changing his surname to Bushmaster, managed to become the head of the European branch of the Maggia but wanted to expand his criminal syndicate to New York. This brings us to his debut in Iron Fist #15. Bushmaster was visiting New York in order to begin his criminal empire there attracting the attention of Interpol and the FBI. Misty Knight was sent undercover with the name Maya Korday to see what Bushmaster was up to. He warmly greeted her and was completely oblivious that she was an undercover agent, so much so that he openly stated that he was putting a hit on her boyfriend, the Iron Fist, in front of her. Angered Misty used her bionic arm to attack Bushmaster resulting in him calling the hit off but also vowing revenge.

Other Incidents

After his debut Bushmaster would become determined in taking down Misty Knight or drawing her over to his side. In Marvel Team-Up #63 she even faked a relationship with him in order to take him down. Bushmaster also was the one who brought Luke Cage and Iron Fist together, other than the real world drop in popularity of martial arts and Blaxploitation stories. In Power Man #48 Bushmaster claimed that he had evidence that the heroin found on Luke Cage had indeed been planted and that he was willing to give it to Cage for a favour. In return for the evidence Bushmaster wanted Cage to capture Knight for him. To make him more compliant he also captured two friends of Cage: Claire Temple and Dr. Noah Burstein (who gave Cage his powers). Cage's attempt to capture Knight brought him into conflict with Iron Fist but the three teamed up to take down Bushmaster. However, part of this story, Power Man #49, saw Bushmaster making Dr Burstein repeat the experiment he had done on Cage on him. This resulted in Bushmaster receiving the same powers as Cage: super-strength, durability and stamina. However, this did not help him and he was even paralysed thanks to the fight and procedure.

Death

Bushmaster before his death

In 1981's Power Man and Iron Fist #67 Bushmaster met his end. In an attempt to end his paralysis his was subjected to a process which turned his body into a liquid metal like substance. He knew that he had to have Dr. Burstein reverse the procedure he had done to him so had his agents capture Burstein, his wife, and Cage. Taken to Seagate prison Burstein started the procedure until Iron Fist arrived and destroyed the equipment before Bushmaster could kill Burstein's wife. This resulted in Bushmaster being reduced to a metal skeleton and Cage briefly losing his powers. When Cage got his own title again in Cage #1 in the early 1990s Bushmaster made a return with his son, Cruz. Cruz wanted to rebuild his father's fortune and he believed that to do so he needed the powers his father once had. In Cage #12 Cruz managed to obtain his father's skeleton and captured Cage with the intention of Luke being his shield. Cage would receive the negative effects of the procedure which had resulted in his father's paralysis and death. However, the process revived Bushmaster who then proceeded to kill his son and start draining the energies of Luke Cage and Iron Fist, who arrived too late to stop the procedure. However, in doing so he absorbed Iron Fist's chi energy which was too much for his untrained body which then exploded from the energy overload. Bushmaster now permanently died.

Quincy as Bushmaster

The second Bushmaster

In 1985 in Captain America #310 we were introduced to Quincy McIver. In Marvel there is the Roxxon Oil Company, a multinational conglomerate infamous (although the general public are unaware of this) for funding supervillain activity or aiding Hydra. The reason for this is that they can later use villains to distract heroes from their other shady deals. The Oil Company gave the quadriplegic Quincy and gave him a bionic suit in the shape of a snake. Adopting the name 'Bushmaster' after his deceased brother he joined the Serpent Society, a group of snake themed criminals, and would fight MODOK for the organisation A.I.M. The second Bushmaster would be like his brother and many other Marvel villains where he would appear as a minor antagonist for other heroes, and even then he would appear alongside other villains fighting the Avengers and other heroes. He wouldn't have a big role until Civil War and even then it was alongside other villains. Bushmaster and a few other villains working for Baron Zemo were defeated and left for the authorities at the very start of the Superhero Civil War by Captain America's group; despite being underground and fighting the government they still wanted to fight crime. After Civil War Bushmaster would continue his bit parts appearing in various criminal groups including Kraven's zoo - a team of animal themed villains working under Kraven the Hunter. However, Bushmaster was seemingly killed by Kraven who left him beaten and face-down in some water just before the Punisher attacked in Punisher War Journal Vol. 2 #15. It later turned out that he survived and has again continued in bit parts including being in Purple Man's Villains for Hire in X-Men: To Serve and Protect #2-4.

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