Ringmaster

Origin

Ringmaster was once known as Maynard Tiboldt, from Europian decent, he witnessed the horrors of war. The only thing in his life that had brought him joy was the circus he would visit often as a child and in his young adult life. Eventually Maynard traveled to America to full-fill his dream, to start his very own circus. He gathered a group of formidable talents and started his own circus, traveling America. Financially things where however very rough, with his circus barley making ends meet. Maynard, now calling himself the Ringmaster, eventually thought of a different solution.

Creation

Ringmaster was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appeared in The Incredible Hulk Vol.1 issue 3 (1962).

Major Story Arcs

Becoming the Circus of Crime

Although Ringmaster’s dream was to have a true circus, financial troubles perverted his dream as they came to another solution. Ringmaster and his artistic talents agreed together to still perform as a circus, but Ringmaster would use his skills of great hypnotic powers for evil. Often, they would attract people to his circus only to place them under his hypnotic spell and rob them. Once, while attempting to do this he even had to gain complete control over Spider-Man. However when Daredevil came to the rescue, Ringmaster found he could not hypnotize him, as Daredevil is blind! But Ringmaster was not defeated, since he couldn’t beat Daredevil, he used Spider-Man to do it. Spider-Man did not defeat Daredevil because he wasn’t acting of his own free will. Daredevil took Ringmaster’s hat and freed Spider-Man with it. Spider-Man then managed to overcome Ringmaster by keeping his eyes closed while fighting him, and so Ringmaster was once again defeated.

Meeting Howard

When the Ringmaster and his circus found Howard the Duck during their travels, they kidnapped him and hoped to use him in their act. Howard was not willing to do this, and when he remarked that Ringmaster’s circus was a charade, it struck a nerve to Maynard. Later, one of Ringmaster’s friends told Howard the back-story of the Ringmaster, giving him more compassion for his deeds.

Freedom Ring

Over the years, Ringmaster and his circus traveled to many places, often encountering superheroes whom foiled their plan. Some years later, Ringmaster had forged a ring with the power of a Cosmic Cube. He was defeated by a collection of heroes, ending with the Punisher shooting his ring finger. Captain America (Steve Rogers) took the ring and went en route to delivering the ring to SHIELD.