"The COCKROACH CONSPIRACY"

 Just for the record...this is not an in-continuity group/plot...just me theorizing...for now...

 

 

 

COCKROACH COMMANDERS: Faceless One, Elod Kisfaludi, 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, Litterbug, the Pursuer, Roachman, Superoaches, Tordenkakerlakk, the Undying...
    cockroaches of Earth and all of its alternate/divergent/potential future realities

Affiliations: Insects (terrestrial, extraterrestrial, and extradimensional) - see the list of insectoid races in the comments section
    Dr. Keen,
    Humbug (Buck Mitty), the Locust, Scatter, Flea Market-Eating Flea,

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, Bill Stiles, 

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.

(Marvel Graphic Novel#18: Sensational She-Hulk) - 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.

(Adventure into Terror#19) <1948> - Hungarian mystic Elod Kisdaludi accepted a deal to drive cockroaches from the overrun village Visegrad. When the people of Visegrad refused to pay him, Kisfaludi apparently transformed the villagers' children into cockroaches, leaving the villagers unable to kill the roaches.

(Mystery Tales#1/1) - During the 1950s giant superroaches planned to conquer the destruction of humanity. They started by killing every human that killed their kind like exterminators. At some point they caught an exterminator's son, who had saved many of them in the past, and mutated him into a human-cockroach hybrid. He was forced to live with them, but still tried to warn humanity of the cockroaches' plans.

(Mystery Tales#22) - Bruno, an exterminator, accidentally enlarged a cockroach to the size of an elephant using a formula he developed to make it easier to find and kill small insects. The cockroach kills Bruno by stepping on him, and then escapes, perhaps to join the ranks of the Cockroach conspiracy...

(Monsters Unleashed I#2) - 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 could have 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:

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

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

Extradimensional insect-like creatures (beyond those included above) could be involved as well:

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
Casper Green

FLEAS
Flea Market Eating Flea from the Hostess ad

OTHER
Sgt. Stinkbug and Dr. Dung Beetle...not really...

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 Kurt Busiek, Christopher Priest, Mark Waid, Fabian Nicieza, or Saladin Ahmed, 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"

Besides Bill Stiles and Casper Green there is this character from Marvel Tales I#105 (February, 1951) "The Spider Waits". I wonder how many other bug-people Atlas created?
--Gammatotem

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

The solicitation to December 2003's ANT-MAN#1: --I don't think this ever came out...Snood

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ANT-MAN#1 

Written by Daniel Way, cover and art by Clayton Crain.

Size does matter. And no one knows this more than Hank Pym - a.k.a. Ant-Man. Got a problem with Galactus? Call the FF. Got a problem with, say, mind-controlled cockroaches? Then Ant-Man's your man. And needless to say, it's done a number on the diminutive hero's self-esteem. When Ant-Man is tapped to infiltrate an international spy ring that has been siphoning secrets out of Washington, he jumps at the chance - unaware that he's being used as a pawn in a larger game of espionage.

----------------------

~Skullogeist
 

The truth is out there!

SAMSA - television character on Earth-928 circa 2099 A.D.; New York Police Department, transformed into human cockroach, continued to work as a cop
    Kylie Gagarin's parents were killed during the filming of an early episode
    --Ghost Rider 2099#8

Profile by Snood; updated/edited by Snood and Kyle Sims

Adventure into Terror#19) (1953) - Sam Kweskin (penciler)

 

First Posted: 01/11/2002
Last updated: 02/21/2025

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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