Real Name: Tommy (presumably short for Thomas; last name unrevealed)
Identity/Class: Human technology user;
full name known to authorities
Occupation: Criminal;
former movie actor, dancer, doer of odd jobs
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Hodges (father-figure and ally), Maggia (allies, possible financiers)
Enemies: Defenders (Hulk/Bruce Banner, Nighthawk/Kyle
Richmond, Doctor Strange/Stephen Strange, Valkyrie/Brunnhilde)
Known Relatives: Parents (mentioned only, unidentified, deceased)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Currently unrevealed;
formerly an abandoned movie studio in Los Angeles
First Appearance: Defenders I#30 (December, 1975)
Powers/Abilities: Tapping Tommy is one heck of a
tap dancer. He can tap dance, and tap dance, and tap dance, like
nobody's business. He's actually well-balanced (...physically,
at least), and graceful, enabling him to dodge attacks.
He uses
his cane as an extension of his own hand, to strike or trip others. He
was talented enough to use the cane to disarm the Valkyrie in
sword-fight fashion. His cane has a blade that he can extend from its
tip.
Tommy kept a handful of high potency gas grenades (devised by
Hodges) in his top hat--this gas was the same one used in "that
awful gorilla movie back in the Thirties" (as per Tommy, presumably
the original King
Kong), and it was powerful enough to render even the Hulk
unconscious.
During his battle against the Defenders, Tommy utilized a
large robot (Behemoth) and several robot dancers, all built by Hodges.
Height: 6'1" Weight: 170 lbs. Eyes: Blue Hair: Brown
History:
(Defenders I#30 (fb) - BTS) - When Tommy was five years old (see comments), his
parents were arrested when the Los Angeles County Police busted into
their distillery on the movie studio lot. They died in prison.
Tommy was taken in by family
friend Hodges, who designed gadgets for special effects and crime.
Hodges treated Tommy like a son, and the two of them scraped by for
years, with Tommy acting as an extra on movie sets. Finally, Tommy got
a job doing movie musicals, and he thought he'd made it to the big
time...but those films went bust as well.
In recent years, Kyle Richmond's financier Pennysworth
bought the movie studio where the former lot of Tommy's parents had
been; Richmond planned to turn it into a housing project. That was the final straw, and Tommy swore he'd get Richmond! He
swore it! He contacted the Maggia, which supplied him with
some henchmen, and plotted to kidnap and ransom the wealthy Richmond for
millions. However, Tommy planned to keep the money for himself, kill
Richmond anyway, and then escape where no one would ever set eyes on him
again; "Tapping Tommy works for no man, you see!" Hodges prepared some
robots to use in Tommy's scheme (see comments).
(Defenders I#30 - BTS) - Kyle Richmond went to Los Angeles
to oversee his investment (Tommy's movie studio) but he was captured by
Tommy's Maggia henchmen.
(Defenders I#30) - One night in Greenwich Village, some
Maggia thugs confronted Dr. Strange while he was out on a walk; Richmond
had told them that Strange was the executor of his estate. When the
henchmen demanded a ransom payment for Richmond's return, Strange
invited them into his Sanctum Sanctorum, where his servant Wong served them drugged tea, which knocked out the
henchmen. Meanwhile, Strange made mental contact with Richmond
(aka his teammate Nighthawk), and confirmed that he was indeed
being held hostage.
Dr. Strange then gathered the two remaining Defenders -- the
Hulk and Valkyrie -- and he magically transported them all outside the
movie studio. After the Hulk broke through the wall, the Maggia hoods
confronted them, but their ordinary guns were no match for the
super-powered heroes. Hodges activated his large Behemoth robot and sent it after
the Hulk, which the Hulk...smashed. The other two Defenders defeated the
Maggia goons and freed Richmond, who changed into his Nighthawk costume;
but the heroes were soon rendered unconscious by Tommy's gas grenades.
The Defenders awakened to find themselves restrained to a
fancy movie-musical set, and Hodges' dancing robots began to smack them
to death with their canes, all the while singing, "We're In the Money."
The Defenders were initially unable to break their bonds and were
trapped, seemingly doomed to die at the hands of the cane-whacking, dancing,
singing robots.
Then they each found the strength to break free from their
bonds. Valkyrie was appanretly unable to strike the feminine robots due to her
anti-woman-fighting spell/curse, but she helped against the masculine cane-whacking ones. The
fight continued until the Valkyrie destroyed Hodge's control device,
which rendered the remaining robots inert. Dr. Strange stopped Tommy
from escaping by blocking his path with a wall of magical force (even
though Tommy said, "You'll not get me!"). Then the Hulk picked
Tommy up by the lapels of his tuxedo jacket and told him he wanted to be
friends, but Tommy needed to know that he was bad, and so the Hulk
head-butted him and knocked him out.
(Defenders: Strange Heroes) - Tapping Tommy and Hodges were turned over to
the authorities.
Comments: Created by Bill Mantlo and Sam Grainger.
The original story had Tommy being five years old during Prohibition, which is topical.
Tapping Tommy was probably a parody of real-life
dancer/singer/choreographer Tommy
Tune; and the title of this 18-page story--"Gold Diggers of
Fear"--may be a reference to The
Golddiggers, a female singing and dancing troupe, for which
Tommy Tune worked as an assistant choreographer.--Ron Fredricks
If you have a fast internet connection and you want
to hear the whole sucky song, click here: "We're
In the Money."
Tommy and Hodges either did quite well to be able to
afford all of the weaponry, or it was all financed by the Maggia (which
doesn't make sense, because the Maggia didn't know Richmond was
Nighthawk, and so had no idea that super-heroes would be involved). Or
it's just all fiction anyway. Carycomix
theorizes on that point: "He [Tapping Tommy] probably anticipated
Richmond Enterprises hiring Luke Cage to rescue Kyle. Or, maybe even
intervention by L.
A.'s Champions!Anything was possible with Marvel during
the 1970s, and they had shameless fun doing it!"
My guess is that Hodges already had all those robots
built as leftover props for some science fiction movie, but the
defunct movie studio closed down before that film was made.--Ron
Fredricks
Worst character, ever! [You'd
almost think that Tapping Tommy wanted the ransom payment to be made
in the form of Hostess Twinkies.--Ron Fredricks] I
can't begin to comment on the story, but it was so goofy that it was, at
least, entertaining (and yet annoying at the same time). Get it and read
it. Your Defenders collection can't be complete without it.
Maybe his real name was Timothy von Tapperson (ok, not really). The Tappinest Tapper that ever did Tap (ok, I made that up, too) --Snood
Cleaned up main and head shot by Loki.
Profile by Snood. Edited and updated by Kyle Sims. Expanded by Ron Fredricks.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Tapping Tommy should not be confused with:
Tommy
- fan of the Fantastic Four, visited in the hospital by Mr.
Fantastic--Fantastic Four I#6
Tommy
- British Sleeper robot from World War II, took form of Black Knight
(Nathan Garret)--Plasmer#1
Tommy
- Morlock, killed by Marauders--Uncanny X-Men I#210
Tommy
- Thames University, friend of Jacko Tanner--Captain Britain I#4
Tommy
- Trust, former aid to Warden Gerty--Punisher I#2
Tommy
- mutant, Xavier Institute, taken out by X-Men on Halloween--X-Men
Unlimited II#1/2
or any other "Tommy" characters.
Hodges has no known connections to:
Hodges
- board member of Imperial Industries International--Strange Tales
I#137
Miss
Hodges - nurse for Karl Lykos' practice--X-Men I#60
Zeena
Hodges - symbiote host, Phage victim--Venom: The Hunted#1
Manipulator
- robot built by Machinesmith--Avengers I#178
Manipulator
(Ferrel J. Thompson) - human mutate, former agent of the
Conclave--Avengers West Coast#85
any other characters or items with similar names
Hodges
Hodges (first name unrevealed) may
have been an old friend of Tommy's parents. In the past, he was a
special-effects designer for movies of the time. He took Tommy in and
raised him after Tommy's parents were incarcerated.
An inventive genius, Hodges created and controlled a
number of sophisticated robots that he activated with his trusty remote
control, the Manipulator. He used the robots for Tapping Tommy's
elaborately staged movie-musical execution of the Defenders.
But after the Defenders escaped from the death-trap,
Valkyrie hurled her sword and destroyed the Manipulator in Hodges'
hand--without the remote control unit, the robots were rendered inert,
and Hodges was up sh!+'s crick, so he promptly surrendered.
--Defenders I#30
Behemoth
This giant automaton was "one of Hodges' most brilliant
creations" (as per Tapping Tommy), and it was even bigger than
the Hulk. Although semi-sentient, it was controlled by Hodges' hand-held
Manipulator.
Hodges sent it to attack the Hulk; but although it struck
first, the robot was out-matched by the jade giant's strength, and it
was swiftly smashed to pieces.
--Defenders I#30
Hodges' robot dancers
A group of perhaps fifteen humanoid automatons built by
Hodges, they were activated by his hand-held Manipulator control box.
The robots continuously sang "We're In the Money," and they were used
for Tapping Tommy's elaborately staged movie-musical-style execution of
the Defenders.
The "male" robots were attired in tuxedos and top hats,
and they used their canes to strike Dr. Strange and Nighthawk. One group
of "female" robots used their steel-claw "fingernails" to rake the
captured Hulk's flesh, while another "female" robot repeatedly struck
Valkyrie.
But the Hulk broke free first and squeezed his robotic
tormentors into scrap. Then Valkyrie freed herself, and although her
powers were useless against women--even metal
ones--she had no such limitation keeping her from stopping the
mechanical men who were beating Strange and Nighthawk.
After breaking from their bonds, Doctor Strange blasted
one robot with a bolt of magical energy, while Nighthawk grabbed two
others and flew them up to the high ceiling, then dropped the automatons
to the floor.
When Valkyrie noticed the control box in Hodges' hand, she
hurled her sword and sliced the box in half--with their main control
unit destroyed, the rest of the robot dancers ceased to move and drooped
where they stood, their singing forever silenced.
--Defenders I#30
images: (without ads)
Defenders I#30, p7, pan5 (main image - Tapping Tommy)
Defenders I#30, p18, pan3 (head shot)
Defenders I#30, p8, pan7 (headshot with top hat)
Defenders I#30, p8, pan1-4 (Tapping Tommy demonstrates some of his fancy dance moves)
Defenders I#30, p8, pan5 (Tapping Tommy points his sword-cane at captured Kyle Richmond)
Defenders I#30, p18, pan5 (Hulk gives Tapping Tommy a "Glasgow kiss")
Defenders I#30, p8, pan6 (Hodges)
Defenders I#30, p17, pan4 (Hodges has his robot-controlling Manipulator destroyed by Valkyrie's sword)
Defenders I#30, p10, pan5 (large robot attacks Hulk)
Defenders I#30, p10, pan6 (Hulk retaliates against large robot)
Defenders I#30, p13, pan4 (Defenders restrained on movie-musical set; female dancer robots)
Defenders I#30, p14, pan4-6 (male and female dancer robots attack Defenders)
Appearances:
Defenders I#30 (December, 1975) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Sam Grainger
(pencils), Jack Abel (inks), George Roussos (colors), Karen Mantlo
(letters), Marv Wolfman (editor)
