Powderkeg

Origin

Not too much is known of Powderkeg before he became an agent of Ms. Ramos. Powderkeg and his crew of Portuguese terrorist hijacked a cargo ship called the Tea Cake whose captain happened to be Monica Rambeau. The terrorist killed her crew and held several passengers hostage. Rambeau at the time had temporarily lost her powers and was no longer Captain Marvel. Rambeau managed to take down two terrorist and change into her Captain Marvel costume. She confronted the rest of the terrorist and they surrendered without a fight because they believed her bluff. Powderkeg blasted through a door and made a hole in the deck with his explosive punch. Rambeau fell in and Powderkeg jumped down after her. Rambeau managed to drop several tons of wheat onto Powderkeg and then she freed the rest of the passengers. Powderkeg would escape from the wheat pile and cause a huge explosion on the ship. Rambeau decided to get back onto the ship and try to rescue Powderkeg. She finds Powderkeg tearing up the cargo area with flames surrounding him. Powderkeg refuses to leave until he finds a certain box. For some unknown reason, Rambeau regained her powers at that precise moment and was Captain Marvel once more. She finds Powderkeg and a brief fight ensues on the burning ship. Powderkeg gets knocked out by Captain Marvel and she uses his explosive touch to break through the ship’s hull so they can escape. Powderkeg fails to deliver a certain package to Ms. Ramos and is apprehended by the authorities.

Creation

Powderkeg was created by Dwayne McDuffie and Doc Bright in 1989 and first appeared in Captain Marvel #1.

Story Arcs

Powderkeg would come into conflict with Deathlok when he holds a Symkarian Ambassador named Andre Blau and his family hostage after a failed kidnapping attempt. Deathlok crashes into the building and tells the super felon to surrender but Powderkeg threatens to squash the ambassador’s child. Deathlok tells Powderkeg that he would blow his arm off before he could do it so the mercenary lets the infant go. Powderkeg sucker punches Deathlok and the cyborg crashes through a wall. Powderkeg tells the cops that he wants his car now or the kid will be the next thing coming out that window. Deathlok recovers and throws Powderkeg through the building wall. He drops several stories until he crashes onto the streets below. Powderkeg is surrounded by the authorities and surrenders.

Infinity War

Powderkeg later became a member of the Masters of Evil being led by Dr. Octopus who plotted to storm the Avengers Mansion. Many of the heroes on Earth were occupied because of the Infinity War that was taking place and Dr. Octopus wanted to invade the mansion so he can steal their advanced weaponry and machinery. The initial group of Dr. Octopus, Powderkeg, Titania, Absorbing Man, Jackhammer, a nd Yellowjacket met resistance from the Guardians of the Galaxy. Powderkeg fought Starhawk but he disappeared behind a wall when he was hit with his explosive touch. Powderkeg took on Major Victory but was taken out when Talon flung Oddball at him.

Powderkeg would shakedown various shopkeepers on Yancy Street for protection money but one shopkeeper named Mr. Sheckerberg refused to give in. He received threatening phone calls and had letters appear under his door but the old man was stubborn. The Thing returned to Yancy Street and would help Mr. Sheckerberg with his problem. Powderkeg came to Sheckerberg’s shop to collect and would come to blows with the Thing. Powderkeg was just shaking down shopkeepers for pocket money until he gets in on the next big score. Powderkeg hits old blue eyes with an explosive slap and then flicks his nitroglycerin sweat onto Mr. Sheckerberg. Grimm punches Powderkeg and then the man with the explosive sweat gets a face-full of mace from a Yancy Street resident. The Things rips off a fire hydrant and hits Powderkeg with a stream of water. A Yancy Street member removes a manhole cover and Powderkeg falls in. Powderkeg explodes and then the Thing wraps him up with a street pole.

The Big Picture

Powderkeg would be incarcerated inside Pym’s experimental penitentiary commonly known as the Big House which was an entire prison shrunk down to miniature size. Mad Thinker devised a plan with numerous criminals inside the prison to escape by using a reducing gas to decrease their size so they could stow away on She-Hulk’s skin. Hank Pym used his re-enlarging gas to bring Southpaw back to normal size but the residual fumes increased the size of the criminals hiding on the emerald beauty by a few inches. Powderkeg and the other criminals ran off but they were all trapped inside the office building due to an impenetrable force field that was activated. She Hulk, Awesome Andy and Hank Pym started to hunt down these miniaturized felons one by one. She Hulk was able to take down Dragon Man and Powderkeg by throwing a fellow felon named Eightball into them. She-Hulk used Powderkeg’s body as a weapon to knock out Rhino with his explosive sweat.

Brand New Day

Powderkeg is later seen hanging out at the Bar With No Name with other super villains when a villain named Basher challenges Spider Man on television. A guy called the Bookie puts up various odds on the fight but Powderkeg decides not to bet. Powderkeg watches the fight with some of his buddies in the bar and some begin to realize that Spider Man is not using any of his webs and they don’t hear any of his wise cracks. They realize that were set up by the Bookie when he hired a villain named Screwball to impersonate Spider Man. The real Spider Man appears at the Bar With No Name to look for the Bookie and a brief scuffle ensues inside. Spider Man smacks Powderkeg’s head into Ramrod but the bartender stops the fight before anyone is seriously hurt.

Powers & Abilities

Powderkeg has superhuman strength, durability and resistance to injury. He also has the ability to secrete nitroglycerin through his sweat glands. He can cause small explosions when he slaps his hands together. Powderkeg will explode when he hits his enemies or whenever he gets hit.