History
Howard Mitchell was the owner of an armored truck company, but was unsatisfied with his personal profits. He decided then to steal his own trucks. To do so, he created a costumed identity including independently developed technology. He used a knock-out, amnesia-inducing gas he learned about from a voyage to Peru, wearing a gas-mask to became the Hijacker.
As the Hijacker was familiar with all of the secrets of Mitchell's company, he managed to perform four successful thefts. He never killed a witness, because witnesses could not identify him due to temporary amnesia. The police was unable to stop the Hijacker. Mitchell, feigning anger, demanded the help of a superhero: Ant-Man (Hank Pym). Mitchell felt that such a small hero could be no threat to him.
The Ant-Man in turn understood that someone in the company was helping the Hijacker, or was the Hijacker himself. After seeing some Peruvian statues in Mitchell's office, he related them to the Peruvian gas used by the Hijacker and immediately suspected of Mitchell. Thus, the Ant-Man pretended to suffer from appendicitis and in secret hid in one of the trucks: In other case, the Hijacker would not attack.
The Hijacker attacked the truck believing that he would not have to fight, but he met the Ant-Man, who was using a gas-proof mask of his own. Ant-Man fought the Hijacker, defeated him and revealed he knew it had been Mitchell all the time. Mitchell was then sent to jail.[3]
Mitchell eventually escaped or was freed, and decided to change his modus operandi: The Hijacker would steal technology and re-sell it in black market auctions. He tried to steal Anthony Stark's designs at Stark West, but he met with Black Goliath and the Thing, who were performing some tests. Hijacker understood he was no match for both of them together, so he escaped and returned with a new trick: His own armored tank. Nevertheless, in a fight, Black Goliath and the Thing destroyed the tank and captured the Hijacker. When the Hijacker tried to reveal his real name (probably thinking that cooperation would reduce his term), the Thing showed little interest on anything he could say.
Months after that, the Hijacker discovered that the Thing was hospitalized due to injuries caused by Gladiator and the Champion of the Universe. It was a great chance for getting his revenge on him. Other villains had also thought about it, but in fact superheroes who were the Thing's friends had thought of that, and gathered in the hospital to protect him. Although the Hijacker used a new tank in the attack, it was destroyed by Iron Man, who also apprehended him.
Free again through unknown means, the Hijacker was contacted by Gary Gilbert, a former customed criminal turned into business agent for criminals. Gilbert was worried about the Scourge of the Underworld, a masked figure who was killing customed criminals such as Gilbert and Mitchell. Gilbert organized a meeting in the Bar with No Name, Medina County, Ohio, to discuss potential counter-attacks. As the Scourge was known to use weapons instead of powers, weapons were to be left at the door, leaving Mitchell helpless. However, the Scourge infiltrated in the meeting disguised as the bartender and shot down all the seventeen criminals (including Mitchell) wielding a cut-down .50 submachine gun in each hand.
After Spider-Island, Mitchell - who somehow survived his apparent death - decided to rob a bank with his truck, but was chased by Venom after he ran over a security guard. During the pursuit, Hijacker squashed a mother and his son, killing them. Enraged, Venom hid in Hijacker's truck and faced him in his hideout. He broke Hijacker's fingers, hit him many times and bit his head off before spitting it out.[4]Attributes
 |
Powers
Abilities
Paraphernalia
Equipment
Weapons
- Vario-Blaster: A short-range multi-function gun attached to his belt throughout a cable. It had different settings such as:
- "Ionic bolts", which mostly were energy attacks.
- "Nuclear flame", which mostly caused a great fire damage.
- Projectiles.
- Stunning gas that cause lapses of memory.
- An "activator beam" that switched on any nearby machine.
- The Hijacker also used gas grenades, including knock-out gas and tear gas.
Transportation
The Hijacker used three different armored tanks during his career:
- The first tank was mostly a truck so big that it could hold one of the armored trucks of Mitchell Armored Truck Company in the hold. It also had a magnet to pull the truck in, avoiding brakes or any other available measure.
- The second tank had spiked treads and was able to ram into the Thing. As the first one, it had a magnet, that could be used to hurl heavy objects as weapons.
- The third tank was similar to the second one; it was destroyed before any important difference could be appreciated.
See Also
- 10 appearance(s) of Howard Mitchell (Earth-616)
- 3 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Howard Mitchell (Earth-616)
- 2 minor appearance(s) of Howard Mitchell (Earth-616)
- 2 mention(s) of Howard Mitchell (Earth-616)
- 2 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Howard Mitchell (Earth-616)
- 4 image(s) of Howard Mitchell (Earth-616)
- 2 quotation(s) by or about Howard Mitchell (Earth-616)