Edward Koch (Earth-616)

Edward Koch
Name	Ed Koch
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	New York City
Marital Status	Single
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Hair	White
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Human
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-616
Personal Information
Identity	No Dual
Citizenship	American
Occupation	Politician, formerly Mayor of New York City
Base of Operations	Gracie Mansion, New York City
Creators and Appearances
Creators	David Michelinie, Bob Layton, John Romita Jr.
First	Iron Man #125 (May, 1979)
First	Iron Man #125 (May, 1979)

History

Ed Koch was the Mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989. To date most of his appearances in Marvel publications should be considered topical references per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616.

Apocryphal Appearances

In 1979, the Mayor of New York City, depicted as Koch, was not widely popular to certain people in nearby Sullivan County.

The villain Masked Marauder, then Big M (leader) of the criminal organization Maggia, contacted with the Mayor of New York City, depicted as Koch, via video-telephone, and interrupting the Mayor's meeting with trade unions, with a blackmail: The Marauder demanded the Mayor to surrender New York City to Maggia; otherwise, the Marauder would send his robotic Tri-Man, in combination with plutonium that the Marauder's people had just stolen in New Jersey, as a bomb that would devastate the whole city. This claim was interrupted by Daredevil, who bursted in the Marauder's lair and start an attack on the Marauder and his croonies, but the videoconference was not interrupted. The Mayor, aghast, witnessed Daredevil fighting the Maggiosi and considered his options, particularly when the bomb was launched. Luckily, Spider-man disabled the bomb and then Daredevil stopped the Marauder, leaving him for the police to arrest.

Later during the Mayor's tenure, a terrorist group secretly led by villain Lupinar threatened New York City with a nuclear bomb, demanding a billion-dollar ransom. The Mayor, supposed to be Koch, contacted the experts of N.E.S.T. (Nuclear Emergency Search Team), who asked the Mayor to not notify the media. N.E.S.T. identified and neutralized the threat with the help of Moon Knight and his ally Jean-Paul Duchamp.

As per his responsibility, the Mayor -with Koch's likeness- impounded Iron Man Armor MK V as the homicidal weapon used to kill the Ambassador of Carnelia. Once Iron Man's name was cleared of charges, the Mayor returned the Armor to its owner Anthony Stark.

Promises of a Mayor depicted to be Koch included increasing the security in the subway.

As of September 12, 1981 (topical date), Doctor Octopus phoned the mayor, depicted to be Koch, to the later's residence Gracie Mansion, to explain that Octopus intended to kill five million New Yorkers during the day, no matter what the Mayor did. The Mayor asked Octopus whether the later wanted money; Octopus claimed that he would murder all those people, then demand twenty million dollars in gem or he would kill other five million citizens. The Mayor mistakenly thought Octopus intended to poison the water supply; the plan was really poison the ink of the Daily Bugle. The Mayor notified the press, who reported the details. Octopus was later stopped by Spider-Man, albeith Daily Bugle editor J. Jonah Jameson tried to get the credit for that.

Similarly, the villain Magma, who had learned how to artificially erupt volcanoes, threatened to destroy New York City and asked for a ransom of $100,000,000, knowing well that the figure was too high to be raised in time (Magma wanted the Mayor to not pay so that the later could destroy the city). After sending warning tremors for several days, Magma debated his conditions with the Mayor, unnamed but physically depicted as Koch, in the outer steps of the city hall. Koch refused to capitulate to Magma, whom he perceived as a terrorist. Iron Man came to the rescue and fought Magma next to Koch while Spider-Man reprogammed Magma's doomsday machine just in time to send the shock wave to the nearby sea. To avoid capture, Magma apparently committed suicide by flying to his own earthquake and, soon afterward, the Mayor congratulated both Iron Man and Spider-Man.

A Mayor purportedly identified as Koch gave a public, open-air conference in front of the city hall along with visiting Japanese dignatary Trade Ministe Sakata, talking about trade relationships between their countries. As Sakata had been attacked at the JFK Airport, security was increased, but still was breached by the same criminal, Xenos, who tried to reach Sakata but was stopped by Moon Knight and forced to flee.

In later elections, opposing candidate Randolph Cherryh defeated the Mayor, depicted as Koch, in a predicted landslide victory -the greatest in the city's history, even with defeated candidate depicted as Koch publically refusing to admit defeat until the end of the vote counting. Three hours after taking office, however, Cherryh resigned, admitting links with organized crime (and apparently the previous mayor re-took the office).

Later, when New Yorkers were mysteriously infected by the so-called "green flu" (an evil, secret plot by The Leader), the Mayor, again depicted as Koch, contacted superhero scientists including Reed Richards, Henry Pym and Henry McCoy to prompt them to research the cure. Richards was already too ill to do so, but he agreed to forward his notes to the others.

Later, SHIELD forces under Wing Leader Gabriel Jones were unable to stop the monstruous Hulk -who had lost every trace of his human part Bruce Banner- from rampaging in New York City with a never-seen brutality and savagery. The Mayor, depicted as Koch, was informed and he agreed that Hulk had become a menace to destroy. The Mayor then ordered to evacuate Manhattan and asked governor, depicted as Mario Cuomo, to send the National Guard to help policing the evacuation. He also contacted the Avengers, as he considered only they could stop the Hulk. However, when the Avengers were fighting the Hulk (and damaging the city), the magician Dr. Strange joined the fight and sent the Hulk away from Earth.

An undepicted Mayor, who would be chronologically Koch, was notified of superpowered criminal Morpheus kidnapping a number of patients at Seaview Research Hospital just when a demonstration was being held in front of it. The mayor demanded that the police be painstakingly vigilant to prevent any patient from being hurt by their actions. The situation was solved by a team-up of NYPD and Moon Knight, with only patients under Morpheus' mind control being battered.

When IRA-related criminal The Gael escaped NYPD custody while in hospital, the news reported that the Mayor was out of himself. Several New Yorkers including Becky Blake believed that the Mayor tended to be so. Soon afterward, when the terrorist villain Cossack demanded a ransom in diamonds while threatening with a sight-depriving weapon, the Mayor refused to deal with the criminal, as reported in the radio. Becky Blake compared the Mayor with a gorilla. When police sergeant Tyrone King stopped a store robbery by shooting three criminals with a shotgun and causing them crippling injuries while they were holding hostages, the mayor of New York City harshly reprimanded the police chief, who in turn moved the admonition through the hierarchy until it reached the nonplussed King. In these cases, the Mayor is not directly depicted as Koch, but Koch was simply the acting Mayor when the comic-books were published.

Corrupt journalist Simon LaGrange manipulated the "Caviar Killer" to provide viral coverage on the latter's murders - to the point that the Mayor had ask the media to stop covering those murders. Again, the Mayor was not depicted directly as Koch.

The New York City mayor, depicted as Koch but not named, accepted the site of the destroyed Avengers Mansion as a gift to the city from the Avengers in a public ceremony.

The mayor, again portrayed with Koch's likeness, exceptionally minimized the restrictions for the Fantastic Four to rebuild their headquarters as the Four Freedoms Plaza in New York City; the mayor wanted the Four, the inaugural and primary superhero team, to remain in his city. The mayor even attended the building's opening.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

At a point, he held Iron Man Armor MK V but never made use of it.

Trivia

• Spider-man once daydreamed that the Mayor, depicted as Koch, awarded him the keys of the city in a public event featuring the Avengers, the Fantastic Four and J. Jonah Jameson. Once the attendees noticed that Spider-man's reflection in Captain America's shield showed a skinny kid -a young Peter Parker-, they all lost respect for him and left.

See Also

• 23 appearance(s) of Edward Koch (Earth-616)
• 8 mention(s) of Edward Koch (Earth-616)
• 1 image(s) of Edward Koch (Earth-616)

Links and References

• Edward Koch on Wikipedia.org