Origin
Norton G. Fester discovers a small meteor after it falls from space. He has plans to make a fortune by proving that the meteor contains microscopic living matter. He tries to bring the meteor to a number of scientists for research but they fail to help him because he needs money. He is even denied loans from certain financial institutions so he decides to chip away at the meteorite and hopes to discover something special on his own. He hits a gas pocket on the meteor and the gases seep into his body. The gases have given him superhuman abilities and he decides to become the criminal known as the Looter.
He would rob a number of banks and armored trucks as the Looter. The more he seized, the more greedier Norton became. He would soon discover another meteorite displayed at a space exhibit. He attempts to steal the meteor to insure his powers do not wane and deplete. This would lead him to a confrontation with Spider Man. Looter manages to escape from Spider Man and stays low for a few weeks. He reappears when the space exhibit containing the other meteor is about to close. Spider Man confronts the Looter again at the exhibit but Norton tries to escape with a helium balloon attached to his costume. Spider Man manages to grab him as they float towards the sky. A fight ensues but Spider Man would knock the Looter out.
Story Arcs
Norton Fester would escape from prison and change his name to Meteor Man. Fester would come into conflict with Nighthawk after stealing a meteor from Kyle Richmond’s home after he purchased it from the museum. Meteor Man would face Nighthawk and Spider Man but would escape. Valkyrie from the Defenders helps Spider Man apprehend Meteor Man. Fester tries to escape on his balloon but Valkyrie throws her sword Dragonfang into the ballon causing it to pop. Meteor Man crashes into the ground and is hospitalized for a few months.
Meteor Man would reappear at the Empire State University campus to find components from a microwave energy exhibit to increase his powers. This would lead into another conflict with Spider Man. A special guest speaker on campus, Dr. William Foster sees the fight and tries to help Spider Man as Giant Man. Meteor Man manages to escape with a microwave generator but Spider Man puts a tracer on him as he flees. Fester created a transmitter that transmutes the energy in his meteors into microwaves which is then transmitted into his nervous system. Fester engages Spider Man and Giant Man once again with his new abilities. Fester is more powerful and has the ability to increase his size. However his transmitter was channeling too much power and the feedback caused it to explode and Fester was presumed dead.
Fester did survive and buried his failures in alcohol. He became a bum and would steal a watch from Nathan Lubensky and sell it to a pawn shop. Spider Man tries to help Nathan find his watch and ends up fighting Fester again. Fester attempts to attack Nathan and Aunt May but is beaten down by Spider Man and he surrenders to the police. Fester would reappear once again as the Looter after he broke into the Iron Rock Facility and stole various weapons from other criminals. He had weapons from the Ringer, Mauler, Unicorn, Shocker and Stilt-Man. He would commit crimes with their weapons and they would be suspected for the crimes while he would maintain complete anonymity. The Looter would eventually be defeated by Spider Man and his plans for world domination is again thwarted.
During Identity Crisis, the Looter is depicted as slightly insane, talking to his meteorite as if it’s his lover, and doing things to impress it. During this story arc, the Looter breaks into the Daily Bugle Building after hearing that Norman Osborn is offering a reward for the capture of Spider-Man, and that the reward is in the Daily Bugle. When he gets there, he’s confronted by Peter Parker in his Hornet identity, and takes Flash Thompson as a hostage to stop himself being captured. Luckily, Hornet distracts the Looter by saying that his meteor is damaged, before shooting him with sedative darts, enabling him to be captured.
Spider Man would capture Looter after a robbery and web him up against a building wall. Norton tells Spider Man that Norman Osborn is running the show and his stay in a jail cell wouldn’t be too long. The wall crawler gets in Norton’s face and gives him an ultimate wedgie before he leaves.
He, like many other villains, attempt to capture the baby of Lily Hollister, who they believe is the son of Norman Osborn. When Spider-Man begins to brutally capture villains after he thinks the baby has died, he tries to warn Screwball, who mistakenly calls him “The Loser” and brushes him off. Moments later she is stealthily captured by the wall crawler, leaving Fester, who pleads for his life, to face Spider-Man alone.
The Looter would get the ceremonial key to New York State dating back to 1702 and come into conflict with Spider-Man and the new Power Man. The Looter and some of his men enter Federal Hall on Wall Street when Spider-Man and Power Man crash through the roof. The location of Federal Hall used to be New York’s City Hall during the colonial times and it stored a secret inside a hidden chamber. Looter used the key to open a floor chamber and used his dazzle gun on the heroes to temporarily disorient them. Looter found the fallen star that was discovered by Free Mason Benjamin Franklin which was used for their rituals for centuries. Looter planned to use the vapors from the fallen meteor to increase his power when it started to crack. The meteor was actually an egg and an alien octopus creature emerged. Power Man killed the alien creature with the American flag and the Looter was taken into custody by Spider-Man.
In the first chapter of Spider-Verse, Fester attempts to rob a bank utilizing the abandoned equipment and the displaced henchmen of the Superior Spider-Man. However, his plans are thwarted by a gathering of divergent Earth Spider-Men, as well as the Earth-616 Peter Parker.
Powers & Abilities
The Looter received superhuman abilities from the meteor he discovered.
The gases from the meteor provided him superhuman strength, agility and leaping ability. He also used a number of gadgets like a dazzle gun and helium balloons during his first appearance.
Later in his career, Meteor Man used paraphernalia that originally belonged to other super villains. He once used Unicorn’s suit, which gave him the ability to create force fields for a variety of effects; Ringer’s rings which could freeze other objects as well as strangle, stab, increase strength, explode and hover; Stilt-Man’s elongated, super-strong limbs; Mauler’s suit which provided limited invulnerability, super-strength, and flight as well as a powerful laser cannon; and Shocker’s suit that also provided invulnerability as well as the ability to shoot powerful blasts of vibrations. Most recently, he piloted the Spider-Tank used by Otto Octavius as the Superior Spider-Man.
