Fictional Character Biography
Fritz von Meyer was born in Leipzig, Germany and became one of Hitler's top scientists. Escaping capture after World War II, he became a beekeeper or apiarist in South America, and discovered a colony of mutated bees. Intrigued by their intelligence and passive nature, von Meyer attempted to enslave the queen bee, but failed and the bees devoured him, leaving only his skeleton. The unique qualities of the bees caused his consciousness to be absorbed into them, allowing von Meyer to manipulate the hive to do his will, although some of his skeletal remains are inside the swarm itself. His consciousness merged with the swarm to the extent that they become one being.
Calling himself/their-self Swarm, the reborn scientist battled The Champions of Los Angeles.
After that defeat, Swarm resurfaced to battle Spider-Man, in the first of many fights against him, Spider-Man prevailing against him by dosing his costume in a new type of Raid that hurt the bees if they got too close to him. Swarm lost his/their skeleton in this battle, but returned to fight again (no longer having the skeleton but still possessing von Meyer's consciousness), first teaming with Kraven against Iceman and Firestar, then against Spider-Man, but feedback from a weapon fired by Rhino caused Swarm's bee body to disperse temporarily.
Swarm next appeared when a Super-Collider from Rand Industries was activated and called his/their attention. Swarm decided mankind should be exterminated so insects can rule the world. Doctor Druid convinced Swarm that mankind will exterminate themselves and the age of insects can begin.
Eventually however, Swarm tired of waiting and, after a psychic wave generated by Onslaught disrupted the psychic field that bound him and his bees together, returned to New York, forcing a group of scientists investigating energy fields to help him not only restore his original field, but expand it to grant him control of every bee on Earth. As New York was invaded by bees, Spider-Man tracked the bees to their destination and- taking advantage of the fact that the swarms' instinctive memory of Peter's use of Raid caused them to automatically flinch away from him- infiltrated the building and contacted the scientists. By claiming that the scientists' equipment was having trouble broadcasting a sufficiently powerful signal through the dome of bees, Spider-Man was able to trick Swarm into allowing him to construct a device designed to negate the vibrational frequency that the bees created to allow themselves to fly. With the bees now grounded, Spider-Man subsequently recovered the Queen of Swarm's hive and left her in the care of the authorities, reasoning that without her Swarm wouldn't be a future threat.
Swarm (now back with an internal skeleton) felt that the fall of the criminal organization called Pride allowed access to their former territory, specifically Los Angeles. However, he/they are defeated by the Runaways, protectors of the city, when his/their body of bees' mental link is disrupted by electrical blasts.
He/they regained control over his colony and joins the Chameleon's Exterminators to kill Spider-Man, now that Peter Parker had revealed his true identity. Swarm attacked Mary Jane Watson, who sprayed Swarm with water while a co-worker smashed Swarm's skeleton, but the bees reformed around it as bodyguards from Tony Stark take him/them away.
When Alyosha Kravinoff (the son of Kraven the Hunter) began collecting a zoo of animal themed superhumans, Swarm was in one of the cages. He fought Gargoyle as Punisher passes them and escaped.
Swarm next turned up in Denver, Colorado, having amassed enough bees to become giant-sized. The Thunderbolts face him/them unsuccessfully until Norman Osborn dispatched Venom, who devoured Swarm's bones. Osborn speculated this was, by now, a minor inconvenience that should not prevent Swarm's return.
Next, Swarm turned up in Buenos Aires having his intelligence again. He fought the Mighty Avengers by creating 'avatars' made of bees. Notably, the Avengers roster included Wasp, Stature, and Amadeus Cho (wearing a copy of the Ant-Man helmet). Stature placed an inhibitor collar on the queen bees which caused Swarm's intelligence to somehow disperse.
He was briefly seen trying to launch an attack of the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning only to be almost instantly thwarted by the Krakoa school grounds Bamfs and Doop.
Read more about this topic: Swarm (comics)
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