Trapster

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Powers and Abilities

Petruski is a genius chemist, specializing in adhesives. He’s also a skilled gadgeteer .

His costume contains canisters with a number of substances, which may be projected via wrist shooters. Here are the main ones:

• His primary weapon is his original quick drying adhesive. It can adhere to most surfaces, and is strong enough to even hold the Thing.
• They can also shoot his Lubricant Z. This solvent can dissolve his adhesive, and can also be used as a grease to reduce traction.
• He has also developed an acid paste which he can fire at targets.

He is highly accomplished at firing these substances at targets, and he is even capable of lassoing targets.

Costume

As to his costume:

• It is covered in a greasy substance which makes him hard to grab.
• It has adhesive dispensers on his gloves and boots. These make use of his adhesives and solvents to allow him to walk on walls and ceilings.
• The boots also contain jets which allow him to fly.

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History

Peter Petruski was working as a research chemist in New York City when he invented an extremely adhesive “multi-polymer” liquid.

Motivated by greed, he decided to embark on a life of crime with his discovery, creating a paste-gun to spray his paste and adopting the identity Paste-Pot Pete.

He embarked on a series of thefts, including an attempt to steal a top secret U.S. Army missile. However he was thwarted and defeated by the Human Torch on a few occasions. Including one where he teamed up with the Wizard.

Jailed, he acquired an early parole by assisting the Avengers to produce a solvent to free the city from Baron Heinrich Zemo’s Adhesive X.

He soon returned to crime, however, developing stronger and more versatile pastes. But he was defeated by the Human Torch and the Thing.

Chercher la femme

Escaping from prison with the Sandman, they managed to hijack a small jet-plane.

During their escape came across the Wizard, heading upwards after his equipment malfunctioned during his most recent crime. They rescued him, and he convinced them to join him in forming a Frightful Four to oppose the Fantastic Four.

The Wizard also intended to find a powerful woman to be their fourth member. When he recruited Medusa, the four of them launched their first attack on the Four.

Frightful

They ambushed Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible Girl and the Thing. They affixed some of the Wizard’s anti-grav discs to them, sending them floating up into the air.

The Human Torch soon arrived, however, and forced the Wizard to help him rescue them. The Fantastic Four then gained the upper hand in the battle, until a distraction allowed the Frightful Four to escape.

Developing new equipment in preparation for their next clash, Peter also renamed himself the Trapster.

The Frightful Four then kidnapped the Invisible Girl. They used her to lure her team mates to a Pacific atoll where they rigged an experimental “Q-bomb” to detonate. But the Fantastic Four narrowly escaped the explosion.

They later captured the Thing, and the Wizard used his ID Machine to brainwash him. The Fantastic Four freed their team mates and defeated the Frightful Four, who were handed over to the authorities. However, Medusa escaped.

Sticky situations

Breaking out of prison, the Trapster returned to a solo criminal career. But he unwisely chose to continue attempting to get revenge on the Fantastic Four, continually failing to do so.

He once managed to defeat Daredevil in single combat. The victory was short-lived, as Doctor Doom interrupted his fight in a campaign of his own against Daredevil. Shortly thereafter, Daredevil avenged his defeat.

Rejoining the Wizard and Sandman in France, the Trapster tried to steal a new fissionable material called Quadranium from NATO. But the trio failed.

From Thundra to Brute

The Trapster continued to operate with the Frightful Four for the next few years. They attempted to catch the Fantastic Four unaware by attacking them at the home of Agatha Harkness, but were repelled by her witchcraft.

Enlisting Thundra to fill their open fourth place, the Frightful Four launched three attacks against the FF in quick succession. But they were ultimately betrayed by Thundra, and ended up in police custody.

Escaping, they again tried to defeat the FF. They breached the Baxter Building and took the FF captive. They also recruited a new fourth member, the Brute, a counterpart of Reed Richards from the artificial Counter-Earth. The Brute’s strength was not enough to prevent another defeat, though.

Frightfuller still

They later took on Electro as their fourth member. They broke into the Baxter Building again, this time by Trapster being disguised as Spider-Man. Following another defeat, the Frightful Four disbanded.

Petruski redeveloped his weaponry, with the Tinkerer’s help. He integrated his shooters into the sleeves of his costume rather than using a gun, and developed new substances.

Trapster then teamed up with Whirlwind, who had been sent to ambush Captain America (Steve Rogers). They tracked Cap down to the Mid-West. The Trapster set up some adhesive traps on a section of little used road, which Whirlwind led Cap into.

While Captain America had his boots trapped by the paste, he still managed to get the better of Whirlwind. Cap managed to jump out of his boots far enough to avoid the paste, and then took out the Trapster, handing the pair over to the police. The pair soon escaped, however, and went their separate ways.

When the super-villains were organised by the Acts of Vengeance conspiracy, Trapster was sent against Spider-Man. In his initial attack he covered Spider-Man in paste and dropped him into the river.

Returning to look for the body, to prove himself to his colleagues, he again encountered Spider-Man. But Spidey had been infused with the power of Captain Universe, and easily defeated Trapster.

Facts of vengeance

Transported to prison along with Titania and the Brothers Grimm, who had also been beaten by the Cosmic Spidey, they were released by Graviton, who had been similarly bested.

They were recruited to join in an attack on Spider-Man to gain a bounty offered by the Chameleon. Despite their power, Spider-Man survived the attack, and eventually managed to beat them.

The Trapster found his moment of victory over Spider-Man when he teamed up with the Shocker, and they had Spidey at their mercy. Before they could finish him off, their employers said their payment would be doubled if they left Spider-Man alone, so they complied.

Supergreen

He was later hired by Norman Osborn to kill someone and frame Spider-Man for the murder. In order to cover up his complicity, Osborn then put out a contract on the Trapster’s life.

The Trapster teamed up with Dusk (actually Spider-Man in disguise), to get back at Osborn. Petruski eventually confessed his part in the murder to the police, removing Osborn’s reason for wanting him dead.

Hired by Enclave, the Trapster helped the Genoshan Magistrates in an attempt to capture Mister Fantastic. Using equipment specially developed for the encounter, the Trapster captured Richards by neutralizing his costumes ability to stretch with him, with a similarly worked hood over his head.

He was later recruited to another iteration of the Frightful Four by the Wizard, alongside the She-Thing and the Punisher robot.

They tried to uncover a hidden vault at the Silver Rock Springs reservation. However, they were opposed by the FF and their new member Doctor Doom (actually Richards trapped in the armour). The villains eventually gave up rather than offend Doom.

A gang of four

When the Gideon Trust gained access to the Negative Zone, they hired the Trapster as one of their N-Explorers. He was to lead their expedition to take advantage of the untapped resources there. Their incursion, causing damage to the wall between the dimensions , was discovered by the Fantastic Four, whom they ambushed and left shipwrecked in the Zone.

Tracking a powerful energy source they came into conflict with Annihilus, managing to capture him. They were then attacked by the combined forces of the Fantastic Four, Maximus, and the natives of the Zone, and were beaten and captured.

Using a momentary distraction the Trapster and some of the other agents managed to escape, but were still trapped in the Zone.

He somehow managed to escape, and rejoined the Frightful Four alongside the Wizard, Hydro-Man, and Salamandra. Salamandra was the Wizard’s ex-wife and mother of his daughter, Cole. Using Cole to infiltrate the Baxter Building, they attacked the FF.

The Wizard had secretly ordered the Trapster to arrange for Cole to accidentally die in the midst of the battle. However, when the Trapster was poised to strike, the Wizard betrayed him. He trapped Petruski in a self-contained time-loop, so that he’d relive his final moments forever.

Rubber and glue

Via his connection with the Tinkerer, the Trapster was enlisted into the secret army of technological villains serving Lucia Von Bardas, former Prime Minister of Latveria. That was in return for upgrades to the technology. In Trapster’s case that included jets in his boots which allow him to fly.

She sent them after the group of heroes Nick Fury had previously sent to destroy her operations in Latveria. Namely Captain America, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Luke Cage and Daredevil.

When the heroes appeared to be winning, Lucia activated devices hidden in the technological upgrades her agents had received. That turned them all into one big bomb. Their lives were saved by SHIELD agent Daisy Miller. Peter may have escaped in the confusion following the conflict.

When the government enacted the Superpower Registration Act, Trapster joined Hammerhead’s super-villain army. But he was captured by Iron Man.

Personality

Trapster goes through periods of alternating confidence. Sometimes he’s a self-assured professional, and at other times he doubts his abilities, and needs the respect and acceptance of his peers, trying his best to impress them.

He had a strong trust of his team mates, especially the Wizard, although this has probably been destroyed by his betrayal.

He dislikes being reminded of his Paste-Pot Pete identity.

Quotes

“Imagine us beating the invincible Fantastic Four ! I can’t get over it ! We did what nobody else could ever do ! Not the Sub-Mariner ! Not Doctor Doom, or the Hulk ! Nobody — except the Frightful Four !”

“I’m through being called Paste-Pot Pete !.. It sounded too much like a comic title ! So from now on, I’ll be known as… the Trapster ! That’s a name with dignity… with drama to it !”

“I did it ! I really did it ! Me an’ Mister Fantastic went at it, one-on-one, toe-to-toe — an’ I beat him ! Heya, Mister Fantastic — who’s laughing now ?! Listen up, Paste-Pot Pete — this one’s for you !”

By Gareth Lewis.

Source of Character: Marvel Comics.

Helper(s): Marvel.com , Gamers Handbook of the Marvel Universe, Sébastien Andrivet (for the Grappling Immunity from the King Cobra write-up), Peter S Piispanen. Two illustrations from rapsheet.co.uk . M&M game stats by Pawsplay.