Ringer is the name of three fictional supervillains appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.
Publication history
The fictional character of the Ringer was initially introduced in the Marvel comic book Defenders issue #51 (September 1977), and was created by writer David Anthony Kraft and artist Keith Giffen. He subsequently appeared in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #58 (September 1981).
The Ringer was one of the victims featured in the 1986 storyline involving the Scourge of the Underworld which spanned over several titles, where numerous minor supervillains were murdered by a vigilante. He was killed in the "Bar With No Name" massacre along with 17 other supervillains in Captain America #319 (January 1986). It was this massacre that served as the climax to the storyline, which gave Captain America the clues he needed to find and stop the killer. The Ringer has made posthumous appearances in Sensational She-Hulk #53 (July 1993) and #59 (January 1994), and the inter-company crossover Avengers/JLA #4 (December 2003). He later appeared again in Code of Honor #3 (April 1997), a series that took place before the massacre.
A "proto-husk" of the Ringer, an artificial copy of him, appeared in Deadpool #0 (December 1998), and was destroyed by Deadpool. The Ringer's wife, Leila Davis, survived him and became a supervillain in her own right, first appearing in the miniseries The Deadly Foes of Spider-Man #1-4 (May–August 1991), and subsequently appearing as Hardshell in the miniseries The Lethal Foes of Spider-Man #1-4 (September–December 1993), and as the new Beetle in issues #48-56 of the Thunderbolts series (March–November 2001). The Ringer appeared in flashbacks during a number of Leila's appearances. In fact, in a flashback in The Lethal Foes of Spider-Man #4, it was revealed that Davis had barely survived the massacre, and was transformed into a cyborg named Strikeback. Strikeback appeared as himself in issues #3-4 of The Lethal Foes of Spider-Man. However, he was killed off again, off-panel this time, as shown in a flashback in Thunderbolts #56. The Ringer had an entry in two editions of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, including issue #19 of the Deluxe Edition (December 1987), and issue #9 of the All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z (November 2006).
A second character named the Ringer was introduced in Marc Spector: Moon Knight issue #10 (January 1990), and was created by writer Chuck Dixon and artist Sal Velluto. He first appeared during the Acts of Vengeance storyline. This Ringer also had appearances in: The Incredible Hulk Annual #17 (1991), Marvel: Year in Review '92 (1992), Captain America #411-413 (January–March 1993), Sensational She-Hulk #59 (January 1994), and Punisher War Journal #4 (April 2007). This Ringer also had an entry in the All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z issue #9, where his real name was revealed as Keith Kraft—bearing the same surname as the creator of the original Ringer. This Ringer appeared as a member of Norman Osborn's "Shadow Initiative" in Avengers: The Initiative #26-35.
A version of the Ringer was introduced under the Ultimate Marvel imprint, in Ultimate Spider-Man #91 (May 2006), and was created by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Mark Bagley.
Fictional character biography
Anthony Davis
A former engineer for NASA, professional criminal Anthony Davis grew jealous of the wealthy Kyle Richmond. Designing a suit of battle armor that would be constructed by the Tinkerer, Davis, calling himself the Ringer, broke into one of Richmond's buildings to rob it. Richmond confronted the Ringer in his guise of Nighthawk II, breaking several of Davis's teeth in the process. Davis was arrested and jailed, where it took a prison dentist several weeks to rebuild his broken teeth.