"The COCKROACH CONSPIRACY"

COCKROACH COMMANDERS: Faceless One, Painter, Scarlet Beetle, and maybe Mad Jim Jaspers.

Membership: The cockroaches that destroyed the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrrier, The Cockroach, Father Darklyte, "Cockroach" Hamilton, The Inheritor from Beyond, Marcia Kenwell, The Leviotes, the Pursuer, Tordenkakerlakk, the Undying...
    cockroaches of Earth and all of its alternate/divergent/potential future realities

Affiliations: Insects (terrestrial, extraterrestrial, and extradimensional);
    The Locust, Scatter,

Enemies: Ant-Man (Lang), Ant-Man (Pym), Vance Astro (now Major Victory), Cable, Defenders, Fantastic Four, Howard the Duck, Hulk, Human Torch, Ms. Marvel (Danvers, now Warbird), She-Hulk, Hemlock Shoals, Son of Satan (now Hellstorm), Spider-Man, Spindrifter

• Captain Marvel (Genis) stopped himself when he almost stepped on a cockroach in Captain Marvel VI#10. However, he then picked it up, set it back down on a brick wall, and then punched it into the wall.
• Cockroaches were killed when Genosha was assaulted by Sentinels controlled by Cassandra Nova.
• Ice Phillips killed a cockroach in Punisher War Zone#27. Just a statement on how filthy the bar was, or something more...?
• Sheriff Sheryl Howards of Bone, Idaho, she smashed one with a newspaper, cursing the "damn bugs" (Avengers III#73)
• In Daredevil I#318, a large number of cockroaches plagued the Stilt-Man while he participated in a plot to obtain a million dollars worth of grease. Wilbur Day was helpless before their might...well, he was REALLY creeped out by them crawling all over him, anyway.
• Rey Trueno, the manager guy from the last few issues of the Thunderbolts...he killed one, too (Thunderbolts#79)...
• Venom (or another spawn of Venom anyway) once survived bonding to a swarm of cockroaches. Yes...but who was the true master and who was the true slave...maybe one day they will exert the control they might have gained by his exposure to and absorption of their energies (Venom#9)
• Mallory Book once stomped on a cockroach (She-Hulk II#21 (October, 2007))
  
  yes...but they'll pay...oh, how they'll pay!

Base of Operations: Unrevealed, possibly Earth

First Appearance: The Blue Blaze and his father first appeared in Mystic Comics I#1/2 (March, 1940)
    The Scarlet Beetle first appeared in Tales to Astonish I#39  (January, 1963)

History:
(Mystic Comics I#1/2 (fb) - BTS) - In 1852, Dr. Keen (father of the Blue Blaze), while working in the Midwest College science department, discovered an unusual energy source emanating from a blue flame during one of his experiments. He began testing the unusual properties on live subjects like insects and mice. Although contact with the blue flames killed his test subjects, he was alarmed to find that after a few months they had come back to life apparently stronger and healthier and showing signs of extended life spans. For reasons yet unknown, Dr. Keen decided that the mysterious blue flame had to be destroyed.

    Nuclear testing in the 1950s mutated a large number of cockroaches, not all of which were killed in the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier.

    In the 1970s, Marcia Kenwell gained the power to control cockroaches, only to inadvertently summon every cockroach in Manhattan into her apartment. Perhaps her form was consumed by them and she became a cockroach version of Swarm, and ever since, she has expanded her control to manipulate the cockroaches (and perhaps other insects) of the world, eventually forming an alliance...the Cockroach Conspiracy.

    After having two legs partially severed by Vance Astro in a battle against him and the heroine Ms. Marvel/Carol Danvers, the extraterrestrial known as the Faceless One decided that it would refrain from direct conflict with others. It discovered that its psionic abilities were most potent against more similar life forms, such as insects, insectoids, etc. This brought it into connection with the Scarlet Beetle.

    The Perilous Painter, who once blew up into a shower of cockroaches, could perhaps access and tap into the magical energy of the Tordenkakerlakk, recreating and controlling it on Earth as a powerful weapon.

It could be that the first battle of wills between Frank Johnson and Yucoya-tzin was witnessed by the roach-possessed prospector, Will Campbell, or one of his successors.  And, shortly afterward, some of the bugs were delegated to use those same magical paints (which created Zzutak) to create an alternate host body!    If such is the case, then the roach-possessed derelict on Broadway could have been spying on Wyatt Wingfoot (initially, a good friend of Johnny Storm's) rather than the She-Hulk!!

    Soldiers of STRIKE wearing Beetle-like costumes served Mad Jim Jaspers.
In addition, in Mighty World of Marvel#11, just after creating his version of the Crazy Gang, the Earth-616 Jaspers says:

I made you. I made everything, actually. I made the sky. I made the tiger and the lamb...I put the Bop in the Bop Shebop Shebop and the Ram in the Rama Lama Dingdog! I made the stars and the cockroaches...the trees, the winklepicker shoe..."

Perhaps, he was just making crazy talk (he is Mad Jim, after all!). Maybe he was just making a statement to include the cosmic and the mundane. Or, maybe, just maybe, there's more to it! Maybe Jaspers had something to do with the Cockroach Conspiracy. Maybe he's one of the Cockroach Conspiracy Commanders

Other humans may be part of the Conspiracy also:

• A legion of cockroaches marched out of the lantern (focus or source of power) of Father Darklyte after his seeming destruction. 
• The Medallion, who tangled with the Punisher in Punisher VI#9-12: "He thinks he's GOLDFINGER, and these schemes of his never go anywhere. This time it's the taxi war. Before that it was the cockroach army. Nobody ever saw one single radioactive cockroach..."
• Litterbug, of the Morlocks-Chicago Sect, is pretty cockroach-like.
• Cockroach Hamilton, Locust, Odd John, and Humbug would gladly serve the insect empire.

Besides the roaches mutated in the '50s, there are several transformed terrestrial cockroaches that may be a part of the conspiracy:

• The Cockroach, an enemy of Hemlock Shoals, represents another source of potential magical power, in that he was mutated by and formerly possessed the Cosmic Key.
• The Inheritor from Beyond was a cockroach evolved into humanoid form by the High Evolutionary.
• The original Pursuer was a mutated cockroach, empowered by the Kree Pursuer template. The same template later empowered its creator, Korath the Pursuer. (Korath is covered in the OHotMU Master Edition.)

In addition, there are tons of extraterrestrial insect-based groups and races that could be interested in an interstellar alliance:

• Back in Tales to Astonish I#41, Ant-Man took control of a group of cockroach-like extradimensional insects to help him overthrow Kulla... but what if the insects were in fact trying to overthrow Kulla so they could start off the Cockroach Empire? The rebels who took over after Kulla's death were pretty peaceful, and could probably be easily overthrown. And after that, the cockroaches could then break the Window Washer out of his prison, and use him to bring other members of the CC over to Slaveworld! ---James Murton
• The Brood (AKA the Sleazoids from UNCANNY X-MEN)
• The dwarf/servants of Bianca LaNiege are transformed "giant Squid/Cockroach aliens."
• The new Marvel Boy, Noh-Varr, is a Kree gene-spliced with a cockroach, possibly from a similar line of research as the Pursuers. 
• The Scatter are an insectoid alien colony race that move from planet to planet, consuming the bodies of its inhabitants and then wearing them afterwards.  Pretty much the same as the Cockroaches and the Thousand.  Maybe these kind of hive-humanoids are a 'common' course of evolution as insects become sentient...
• The Stenth use giant insect and spider vessels as cities.
• The extraterrestrial race known as the Undying (Cable II#79, 84) were trapped in the forms of cockroaches by Cable and his allies.

Extradimensional insect-like creatures could be involved as well:

• In Defenders I#115, page 5, in the first three panels, a cockroach-like insect on and from Earth-712 interferes with the mechanics of the Squadron Supreme's inter-dimensional teleporter sending part of the Defenders home and other members to a different dimension.  Coincidence?  Or was it another piece in the intricate scheme of the COCKROACH CONSPIRACY!!!!???
  --Kyle Smith
• The Leviotes (Fantastic Four III#60, 65, 66) are another race of extradimensional cock-a-roaches!
• The Possessors have a hive-like mentality and are possibly semi-insectoid.
• Psyklop and his race -- if any survived -- would be natural allies
• In the Ultraverse, there is a race of insectoid conquerors known as the Progeny, who have been referred to as cockroaches,
  @ All New Exiles#4, Ultraforce#12, Ultraverse Unlimited#2, Phoenix Resurrection: Aftermath.
• Back in Tales to Astonish#41, Ant-Man (Pym) took control of a group of cockroach-like extradimensional insects (Slaveworld insects) to help him overthrow Kulla... but what if the insects were in fact trying to overthrow Kulla so they could start off the Cockroach Empire? The rebels who took over after Kulla's death were pretty peaceful, and could probably be easily overthrown. And after that, the cockroaches could then break the Window Washer out of his prison, and use him to bring other members of the C[ockroach] C[onspiracy] over to Slaveworld! 
  --James Murton
• The Darvinians are a race of metallic ant-creatures, though the Beast referred to them as "chrome-plated cockroaches"
•   The Worker and Sovereign caste drones that guide the Exiles via the Panoptichron @ Exiles#62. This shows that the cockroaches will one day rule the Omniverse!!!

ANTS
Grottu...leader of an army of ants...or Krang, another giant ant...or Thok (also a giant ant, from the Hyborian era).

BEES
Swarm

FLEAS
Flea Market Eating Flea from the Hostess ad

OTHER
Sgt. Stinkbug and Dr. Dung Beetle...

Psyklop (from THE INCREDIBLE HULK);  

The not necessarily on Earth-616, the Sleeze Brothers landlord was called Mr. Cockroach.
I found this great site with online Sleeze Brothers comics:
http://www.themagiccauldron.com/pages/indexs/sleeze.html
--Changeling

In "Godzilla on Monster Island" (known to purists as "Godzilla vs Gigan")?   The ringleader of the disguised aliens had himself spotlighted...and the shadow was that of a bipedal, human-sized cockroach!

..In the far-off future of "The Hulk: The End" (originally from "The Last Titan" short story), the only things left alive on the Earth are the Hulk, and a bunch of giant mutant cockroaches! Never underestimate them cockroaches!!

COMMENTS: Created by Jeff Christiansen.
    Ok this story hasn't been told in Marvel Continuity...yet. However, there are some pretty powerful bugs out there that have to have some connection. I'm sure Steve Gerber, Kurt Busiek, Christopher Priest, or John Byrne could write a great story explaining some master plot.

Thanks to Flank McLargehuge for adding the Scatter.

An apropos quote per Will U regarding cockroaches:
"They were here before man; they will be here after man and why? Because they eat crap !"
- Al Bundy, "Married With Children"

And a bunch of additions from Carycomic@aol.com.  In fact, here's a possible Cockroach Conspiracy theory as presented by Cary:

          When in crime-fighting mode, the symbiotes [of Scott Williams AKA Hybrid] form an outline that's very similar to Abner Jenkins'  second-generation Beetle-armor.   Except, of course, for being reddish-black in color (sort 
          of like dried blood).  *Insert  "EWWWW!"  here.*    I guess what I'm driving at is this.  Wouldn't it be great if Marvel Comics did a story where the Locust wore a suit of exo-skeletal armor just that color?  And, thus, 
          renamed himself...the Scarlet Beetle?    The NYPD's Code: Blue team would, of course, initially be looking for Hybrid.  And so would Spidey and Venom, probably.  But it would all turn out to be an elaborate ruse by the 
          Cockroach Conspiracy to reassert control over the Venom-symbiote!  That way, they could separate it from Eddie Brock and use it to take over his cousin (and Code: Blue's newest member), Officer Kyle Brock [AKA 
          Earth Lord]!!   Knowing of his secret identity as Earth-Lord (occasionally giant-sized member of Earth Force), the Cockroach Conspiracy would then send him to battle the ultimate threat to their long-range plans for world 
          domination;  Thor, Lord of Asgard!  Imagine it!!  Spidey, Hybrid,  Code: Blue, and the Thunder God against the Venomized Earth-Lord and Scarlet Beetle II (with perhaps the Thunder Cockroach thrown in for good measure?).

Cary also speculates about the Looter: Maybe the meteors that empowered him were dormant eggs laid (outside a parasitized host) by a mutant Broodqueen.  You know; as a new contribution to their ongoing part of...THE COCKROACH CONSPIRACY?

The Fraudulent Furniture Federation is just another front for...THE COCKROACH CONSPIRACY. The Hostess-ad villain known as "Chairman" is actually Kulla of Slaveworld's former collaborator: the Window Washer! The new insectoid rulers of Slaveworld freed him, and gave him a molecular rearranger (similar to the one used by Ultron to re-shape adamantium). For what purpose? To test its effectiveness on organic molecules.
 
  You see, the Darvinians know that the Avengers recently disbanded. So, they -- with the help of their Slaveworld allies -- have been infiltrating Earth disguised as pieces of office furniture! And, when the time is ripe, they will resume their true form, and conquer the Earth, alongside their Terran brethren.
 
  Of course, they didn't anticipate the Avengers being reassembled by Iron Man and Capt. America, or that a certain wall-crawling webslinger would be among its newest members. The latter's infernal "spidey-sense" could ruin this latest dastardly plan before it's even implemented!
 
  So, right now, they have manipulated the Federal government into spying on the New Avengers. Let us hope the Good Guys discover the truth, before it's too late.
--Carycomic