Brendan Doyle (Earth-616)

Mauler
Name	Brendan "Bren" Doyle
Current Alias	Mauler
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Formerly Edwin Cord, Mandarin, United States Marine Corps
Relatives	Children: Danny Blaire (son, deceased); Two unnamed sons
Marital Status	Single
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Height	6′2″ (1.88 m), 6′5″ (1.96 m) (in armor)
Weight	210 lbs (95.25 kg), 400 lbs (181.44 kg) (in armor)
Eyes	Irises: Blue
Hair	Red
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Human
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-616
Place of Birth	Londonderry, Northern Ireland
Personal Information
Identity	Secret
Citizenship	British, American
Occupation	Mercenary
Education	High School Graduate
Base of Operations	Los Angeles, California Formerly Mandarin City
Creators and Appearances
Creators	David Michelinie, John Romita Jr.
First	Iron Man #156 (December, 1981)
First	Iron Man #156 (December, 1981)

History

Brendan Doyle was a former US Marine hailing from Ireland. He served alongside Jim Rhodes in Siancong. The duo were also mercenary partners after their service until Rhodes started working for Stark International. During their final mission together in Somalia, Rhodey saved Doyle's life. As he continued working as a mercenary, Doyle came under the employ of convicted industrialist Edwin Cord. Cord intended for Doyle to steal an outfit called the Mobile Armored Utility Laser Emitter, Revised, "Mauler" for short, and then rent out Doyle's service as a super-powered mercenary.

The suit had been developed by Cord's company, Cordco, for a government agency until the cancelation of its contract, and it was unwittingly acquired by Stark International, as one of the many assets absorbed from buying Cordco. Doyle stole the suit from its storage warehouse before it could be taken into inventory, and took the suit's codename as his own. The Mauler then attacked Stark International's computer central in an attempt to retrieve all records of the suit's development to cover Cord's tracks. However, he escaped empty-handed following the appearance of Iron Man. Having noticed Rhodes at the scene, Doyle broke into his apartment and took him at gunpoint to infiltrate the computer central. Following Iron Man's intervention, technician Scott Lang devised a plan to copy and transmit the records Doyle wanted expunged to every Stark International branch in the world. With Rhodes becoming the only person between the Mauler and the records, Doyle decided to repay his debt. He spared Rhodes' life and retreated, taking advantage of Cord's plan being ruined to strike out on his own and keep working as a freelancer.

One of Doyle's past clients was security expert Daniel Steyr. When Steyr set his sights on reverse-engineering Spider-Man's web-fluid for protection against bullets, he hired the Mauler to capture the hero after luring him to a fake demonstration claiming to showcase a fabric stronger than his webbing. One of Steyr's employees, the reserve Avenger Wonder Man, turned against him to free Spider-Man. When police arrived at the battle, Steyr had activated a series of gun turrets to stop the hero. One of the officers moved into the line of fire, and Steyr shielded him with his own body. With the only reason for him to be involved in the battle dead, the Mauler escaped.

In his civilian life, Doyle had a lover named Sharon Blaire, who conceived his baby without telling him. When Brendan learned the existence of baby Danny, he tried to take him, hoping to have something for himself that wasn't his unfulfilling mercenary life. He confronted Sharon, but she dropped the baby off her first-floor apartment window and into a dumpster to keep him away from Doyle. Spider-Man's civilian alter ego of Peter Parker stumbled into the baby, he fended off Brendan when he tried to claim it, and took the infant to St. Vincent's Hospital. After being denied a visit because he had no parental rights, Doyle suited up as the Mauler and stormed the hospital, fighting Spider-Man in the process. Doyle managed to shake off the hero and take off with Danny, but found himself in a stand-off with the police. Doyle intended to use the baby as a human shield, and Spider-Man convinced him that meant he wouldn't put the kid before himself. Realizing that maybe it was too late for him, the Mauler placed Danny on the ground and took off.

When Tony Stark discovered that his technology made its way to the black market, he targeted the Mauler due to being one of many armored criminals who could benefit from an infusion with it. As Iron Man, he confronted Brendan in Denver, Colorado, where he had attended the Soldier of Fortune Annual Convention. Brendan surrendered the suit without a fight, thinking that he could always steal himself another one. Some time later, Brendan would don an identical suit of armor during an attempt to kidnap Canadian hero Vindicator as part of a hired job alongside the Raiders on behalf of Roxxon Oil. The Mauler and the Raiders stormed the Montreal Forum when Alpha Flight was attending a hockey game, and Vindicator chased the Mauler as fought him in the air as he tried to escape to the American border. She resorted to triggering an electromagnetic pulse that disabled both her and Doyle's suits, and beat him up.

During the superhuman civil war, Hammerhead began amassing a criminal syndicate both to contest the power of the Kingpin and to brace for the crackdown on illegal superhuman activity caused by the Superhuman Registration Act. The Mauler was one of the villains recruited into Hammerhead's army, and he was presumably arrested after the Kingpin tricked Iron Man and the pro-Registration forces into raiding Hammerhead's hideout. After the civil war, Mauler was one of several villains who joined forces to kill Taskmaster, who had a contract put on his head. At this point in time, Taskmaster was one of the instructors at Camp Hammond, and they intercepted him when he and other staff members were off-site confronting a group of trainees who had made an unauthorized trip off-base. During the fight, Doyle attempted to take hostage the trainee Butterball, unaware that his power was invulnerability, so the instructors simply fired at the two of them without concern.

When the Mandarin allied himself with Ezekiel Stane to take down Iron Man, they assembled an army of the hero's villains in Mandarin City, including the Mauler, and revamped their technology and equipment. After Tony Stark stepped down from being Iron Man due to the external pressure caused by the Mandarin's machinations, the villain enlisted the Mauler and Chemistro to kill him. The two witnessed as Stane attempted to rebel against the Mandarin, and he encouraged them to do the same. The Mandarin subdued him, and Doyle and Chemistro carried out their mission. They were intercepted by the brand-new and anonymous Iron Man, who was secretly Rhodes colluding with Stark. After Iron Man killed Chemistro, Doyle tried to avenge him, but he was stripped of his armor in the spot by Rescue using magnetism before being knocked out by Tony Stark. Somehow returning to the Mandarin's employ with his armor intact, the Mauler joined forces with Firepower when the Mandarin deployed his super villain army around the world to steal materials for his Titanomechs. Doyle and Firepower ransacked a mine in Botswana.

Following the Mandarin's death, Doyle returned to America. Not long afterward, he learned that his son Danny had died in a car crash. While driving around in a grief-induced state of stupor, he came across Bobby Morris, a child that resembled Danny, and kidnapped him in order to raise him the way he couldn't raise Danny. He was intercepted in the highway by the Avenger Hyperion. Brendan suited up to fight him, but his attacks were ineffective. Hyperion managed to get Brendan to snap out of it and surrender to authorities.

At some point in time, Brendan bore two more sons with a woman named Haley Davis. Wishing to escape him, Haley faked her and her sons' kidnappings to join Moon's Hollow, a secluded community for families and lovers of criminals. The leader of Moon's Hollow, Cat, posed as the kidnapper to coerce the criminals to steal for their partners. When the Porcupine risked the secrecy of the operation by bringing it to Spider-Woman's attention, the Mauler was part of a group of villains ordered by Cat to restrain the Porcupine, unaware that it was actually Spider-Woman impersonating him for a chance to infiltrate the operation.

Attributes

Power Grid

Paraphernalia

Equipment

• Mobile Armored Utility Laser Emitter, Revisited
  • Superhuman Strength: The armor grants its wearer increased strength and allows to lift 5 tons.
  • Superhuman Durability: The armor is composed of flexible molecular-scale woven metal fabric.
  • Energy Projection: The left gauntlet is equipped with the primary weapon: a 600 watt powerful laser cannon named the "Blaze Cannon" and a 400 watt laser-guided electron beam particle gun.
  • Electrokinesis: The right gauntlet is charged with a pulsed electrical shock.
  • Life Support: The armor can provide life support for up to three and a half days in hostile environments.
  • Flight: Micro-turbines allows the wearer to fly at 1250 mph at 80,000 feet.

Notes

• Doyle has an extremely strong brogue.
• In Iron Man #156, it is stated that Doyle served in the Vietnam War. Due to the sliding timescale the Marvel Universe operates within and the subsequent conception of the Siancong War as a stand-in for the Vietnam War not tied to real-life chronology, Doyle would have served in it instead.

See Also

• 15 appearance(s) of Brendan Doyle (Earth-616)
• 5 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Brendan Doyle (Earth-616)
• 2 minor appearance(s) of Brendan Doyle (Earth-616)
• 3 mention(s) of Brendan Doyle (Earth-616)
• 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Brendan Doyle (Earth-616)
• 7 image(s) of Brendan Doyle (Earth-616)
• 1 item(s) used/owned by Brendan Doyle (Earth-616)

Links and References

• Brendan Doyle on Wikipedia.org