ARMADILLO (COMICS)

'Armadillo' ('Antonio Rodriguez'), is a fictional character, a minor former supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe. He first appeared in ''Captain America'' #308.

Contents

Fictional character biography

Origin

Life of Crime

Ultimate Fighting League

Civil War/The Rangers

Powers and abilities

Bibliography

List of titles

Footnotes

External links

Fictional character biography

Origin

Antonio Rodriguez was born in San Antonio, Texas. He was given superhuman strength and durability by an organization of the Power Broker. Unfortunately, this process bonded his costume to his body giving him a freakish appearance.
The Armadillo's original motivation during his criminal career was to get enough money to be able to pay a doctor to discover a way to cure his girlfriend, Maria, of an unspecified terminal illness. When she was cured from her treatment, Maria abandoned him because of his appearance. Since that time his motive has been to secure enough money to pay the Power Broker or some other scientist to reverse the process which transformed him.

Life of Crime

He was later seen incarcerated in the Vault, following a rampage after discovering his estranged wife with another man. Having been talked out of a criminal career by Captain America and his allies, Armadillo only wished to serve out the remainder of his sentence. To this end, he fought against various supervillains who wished to engineer large-scale breakouts, including Venom and later various supervillains released by the Thunderbolts as they broke out Moonstone.

Ultimate Fighting League

After being released from the Vault, Armadillo became the regional champion of the Ultimate Fighting League. After his defeat by Daniel Axum (formerly the villain Battler), Armadillo was reduced to begging in an alleyway. There, he talked Daniel Axum out of joining a Spider-Man Revenge Squad.
Having fallen on hard times, Armadillo proceeded to join the Constrictor and Jack O'Lantern in robbing an armored car. After his defeat by Hercules, Armadillo was incarcerated at The Raft, and chained to Tiger Shark. During the break-out initiated by Electro, Armadillo and Tiger Shark escaped and hid out in the town of Fairbury, Illinois. There, they were confronted by the New Warriors, resulting in a battle in which both fugitives were defeated. Afterwards, Armadillo joined Vil-Anon, a twelve-step group dedicated to helping individuals overcome their criminal tendencies.

Civil War/The Rangers

Recently, during the Civil War,^[1], he was spotted at the funeral of Stilt-Man. After poisoning the guests, the bar that the wake had been held in was blown up by the Punisher. It was later mentioned that "they all had to get their stomachs pumped and be treated for third-degree burns."^[2]
The Armadillo later took place in the 50-State Initiative, as a member of Texas' superhero team, The Rangers. Unfortunately, he was fired shortly after; when the Rangers went out for Happy Hour at Billy Bob’s Texas in Fort Worth, he got drunk and touched Shooting Star inappropriately.^[3] He was next seen doing lucha libre wrestling in Mexico for money, but has now been recruited by MODOK.

Powers and abilities

Due to a muscle-enhancing procedure performed on him by the villainous Power Broker, the Armadillo has superhuman strength and durability. Originally it was thought that his costume, a scaly nine-foot-tall orange armored hide with claws useful for digging through earth, was bonded to his skin by this process. It was later revealed that it was not a costume, but part of his body that had been mutagenically altered with the genetic material of an actual armadillo. His armor is bulletproof and his claws can tear through all but the most dense of substances.
The Armadillo is an excellent hand-to-hand combatant as he was a skilled street fighter prior to his superhuman transformation.

Bibliography

List of titles

★ ''Avengers Spotlight'' #26

★ ''Avengers: Deathtrap, The Vault''

★ ''Captain America'' #308, 316, 340

★ ''Fantastic Four'' #336

★ ''Sensational She-Hulk'' #9, 30

★ ''Thunderbolts Annual'' '97

★ ''Civil War'' #7

★ '' #3

★ '' #1

★ ''Deadline'' #2

★ ''Thunderbolts (1st series)'' #76-81

★ ''New Avengers (4th series)'' #1-4

★ ''New Warriors (3rd series)'' #1

★ ''Spider-Man Unlimited (3rd series)'' #12

★ '' #4

Footnotes

1. ''The Punisher War Journal'' (2nd series) #4
2. ''She-Hulk'' (2nd series) #17
3. http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=122418

External links

★ Armadillo at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe

★ Armadillo Bio on Marvel.com