Identity/Class: Human mutate
Occupation: Serial killer, con artist; former scientist
Group Membership: None; formerly Night Shift (Brothers Grimm/Percy and Barton Grimes, Dansen Macabre, Digger/Roderick Krupp, Skein/Sybil Dvorak)
Affiliations: Zodiac (unrevealed);
formerly Superior Spider-Man (Otto Octavius)
Enemies: James Martin, Moon Knight (Marc Spector), Sally Quant, Soldier, Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew), Dr. Andrea Sterman, Superior Spider-Man (Otto Octavius), Terrax the Tamer, Tigra (Greer Nelson), Rutherford Winner, various unidentified victims
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Eric, Bill, Jessica Drew, Dr. Andrea Sterman (latter two impersonated)
Base of Operations: A steel sphere under a condo building in New York City, New York;
formerly San Francisco, California;
formerly Los Angeles, California
First Appearance: Spider-Woman I#17 (August, 1979)
Powers/Abilities: The Waxman is composed of a skeleton covered with a waxy goo which can separate from its frame and move around on its own.
The Waxman possesses the ability to copy the appearances of other individuals. He can create a mold from the faces of other people and use the self-same molds as masks that apply directly to his face. This process usually kills the person whose face he is copying. He can also fire his liquid flesh as a weapon that can smother and suffocate to death his victims.
Limitations: There was some indication that the Waxman's mutation had affected his long-term memory since he did not recognize Jessica Drew after he had assumed another identity. Either that, or each "face" he procured caused him to assume another personality akin to multiple personality disorder (or Dissociative Identity Disorder), an aspect associated with schizophrenia. This latter explanation might be correct considering the disjointed connection he had in recalling his past in front of Spider-Woman.
History: (Spider-Woman I#18 (fb)) - The man known as the Waxman was once a brilliant scientist who devoted his life to the elimination of disease. He, however, discovered that he was dying and decided to use a new theory to regenerate his cell structure. The treatment had the unexpected result of mutating his flesh into numerous one-celled organisms capable of moving and creeping from his body and imitating the flesh and features of other people. Once devoted to science, he used this mutation to impersonate rich and powerful people. Gradually, he even started losing the influence he had over his living cells of his body as his skin started getting attracted to the warmth of other people.
(Spider-Woman I#18) - Jessica had blamed "Eric's" aloof attitudes on the pheromone powers connected to her powers as Spider-Woman, but she was disgusted and frightened off by his appearance. She used her bioelectricity to burn it off her and affect her escape. As Spider-Woman, she trailed the Waxman back to the disco and noticed another man leaving with another girl named Sally Quant. When Quant wound up dead, Spider-Woman realized that her killer must have been the Waxman using another face. She staked out the disco again, this time as Jessica Drew, and encountered the Waxman, who was now using the name Bill. He didn't recognize her and took her back to the home Jessica was renting from Priscilla Dolly, the mother of the original Brothers Grimm. Leaving him to change into something more comfortable, Jessica instead changed into Spider-Woman to come in later and charge him for the death of Sally Quant. Rushing upstairs for a place to hide, the Waxman tried to impersonate Jessica Drew to escape Spider-Woman, but she knew better. She used her bioelectricity to burn up too much of his skin for him to survive and eventually left him behind as a partial skeleton, leaving her a bit queasy from her experience. After her departure, a partial amount of his still-animate skin pulled itself together.
SECRET WARS III HAPPENED (Superior Octopus#1 (fb) - BTS) - Waxman joined Night Shift. (Superior Octopus#1) - The Night Shift, including Waxman, robbed a bus full of rich folks in San Francisco. Waxman was in the process of killing a security guard when the Superior Octopus stopped him by using a sonic attack to blow him apart. After the Night Shift's defeat the Superior Octopus offered to pay them for becoming his informants if they left their criminal endeavors behind them in return. (Superior Spider-Man II#2) - The Night Shift, including Waxman, joined the Superior Spider-Man in his battle against Terrax, but fled after Digger was cut in half by the cosmic villain. (Superior Spider-Man II#4) - The Superior Spider-Man summoned the Night Shift to help with the clean-up and saving civilians after the battle against Terrax. He sent Waxman into the remains of a collapsed building because his Spider-Bots had detected movement and needed someone to determine if there were survivors. Though Waxman wasn't thrilled to squeeze through the dirt he followed the Superior Spider-Man's orders. He found a young boy named James Martin and his dead mother under the building and was going to kill him, but the Superior Spider-Man, who had informed Anna Maria Marconi about Waxman's aid, had learned from her that Waxman was a known serial killer. Superior Spider-Man lifted up a collapsed wall despite his broken arm and ordered Waxman to unhand the boy. Waxman had enough of the Superior Spider-Man and assaulted him only to get flash-frozen by him and smashed to pieces. The Superior Spider-Man was mad at the other members of Night Shift that they didn't tell him that Waxman was a serial killer, but they didn't know either because they never asked any members about their past. (Moon Knight IX#10 (fb) - BTS) - Waxman was hired by Zodiac to pose as Moon Knight's psychologist Dr. Andrea Sterman. Unfortunately he couldn't resist murdering three women by suffocating them though he made sure that Moon Knight wouldn't notice by spreading the murders across the city as far away from Moon Knight's territory as possible. (Moon Knight IX#9) - While posing as Sterman he had a session with Moon Knight, who explained to "her" why he had been missing for four days and missed the last few sessions. Moon Knight had gotten trapped in a living house (which he later learned was the House of Shadows). Moon Knight was surprised that it wasn't "Sterman," who had informed the Avengers that he had gone missing. As the session continued "Sterman" tried to make Moon Knight question himself, his allies and his actions. (Moon Knight IX#10) - "Sterman" had another session with Moon Knight. He told "her" that Rutherford Winner, another one of "her" patients, had come to meet him at the new Midnight Mission (the House of Shadows). "Sterman" tried to discredit Winner as a dangerous, delusional man that could not be saved before Moon Knight could even go any further with his story. Moon Knight continued to reveal that Winner wanted to know what Moon Knight had done to Dr. Sterman. "Sterman" ignored this completely and tried to convince Moon Knight that Zodiac was possibly right about Moon Knight needing to let loose to unleash his true self. "She" didn't care about Winner's fate while she continued to try to discredit Winner. Moon Knight finally revealed that Winner had told him that Sterman had been replaced by something else and threatened the Sterman imposter's life if anything had happened to the real Sterman. Moon Knight had come to the conclusion that it was Waxman posing as Sterman because of the three murdered women in recent weeks and Waxman finally dropped the facade. Though he knew Zodiac would not be happy about it Waxman planned to just kill Moon Knight now, but Moon Knight came prepared and used liquid nitrogen grenades to flash-freeze Waxman. (Moon Knight IX#10 - BTS) - Moon Knight and his allies Tigra and Soldier placed the frozen Waxman inside an airtight steel sphere at a building site. (Moon Knight IX#10) - When Waxman finally came to he found himself trapped inside a steel sphere with a walkie-talkie in front of him. Moon Knight threatened to pour concrete over the sphere and bury Waxman alive if he didn't tell him what had happened to Sterman. Though he didn't need to eat, drink or breathe Waxman got scared enough to reveal that Sterman was still alive and only taken hostage by Zodiac. He was ready to tell Moon Knight everything he wanted to know, but Moon Knight already had all the info he needed and poured concrete over the sphere to bury Waxman alive even though he had complied because he was a serial killer and actually deserved worse. Comments: Created by Mark Gruenwald, Carmine Infantino and Mike Esposito.
Possibly one of the most offbeat killers in the MU, this character wasn't called the Waxman until after the fact. He wasn't really named as such until Spider-Woman reflected on her past foes.
The Waxman unknowingly impersonating the secret identity of the superhero pursuing him and getting caught doing it has been done before between the Chameleon and Spider-Man (Peter Parker).
The Waxman is seemingly left for dead in the home of Madame Doll, widow of Mister Doll and "mother" to the original Brothers Grimm. Any return he might make could coincide with a connection to her.
It took him some time, but he returned in 2018 as a new member of the Night Shift. Profile by Will U. Update by Markus Raymond. CLARIFICATIONS: Sally Quant is not to be confused with:
She met the Waxman at the Monte Disco in Los Angeles and was killed by him in her own home. Her roommate found her lying on the couch dead. The roommate thought she was sleeping, but when she touched her, she realized she was dead and covered in a strange substance. --Spider-Woman I#18 images: Appearances:
First Posted: 04/10/2004 Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info
(Spider-Woman I#17) - Now calling himself Eric, the Waxman encountered Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) as a pool of his liquid skin nearly killed a woman who had briefly taken Jessica's Spider-Woman costume to wear in a dance. As the woman tumbled to her death from the balcony of the cliffside disco, Jessica saved her life and retrieved her costume. She returned to "Eric" and left the disco with him, but after they parked to be alone together on a lonely back road, his skin began to melt.
--Markus Raymond
The Waxman is not to be confused with:
Moon Knight IX#10, p14 (main)
Spider-Woman I#18, p14, left page panel (faces)
Spider-Woman I#18, p16, pan7 (powers)
Superior Octopus#1, p2, pan5 (with Night Shift)
Moon Knight IX#10, p1, pan1 (as Dr. Andrea Sterman)
Spider-Woman I#18, p9, pan2 (Sally Quant)
Spider-Woman I#17-18 (August-September, 1979) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Carmine Infantino (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks), Roger Stern (editor)
Superior Octopus#1 (December, 2018) - Christos Gage (writer), Mike Hawthorne (pencils), Wade von Grawbadger (inks), Nick Lowe (editor)
Superior Spider-Man II#2 (March, 2019) - Christos Gage (writer), Mike Hawthorne (pencils), Wade von Grawbadger with Victor Olazaba (inks), Nick Lowe (editor)
Superior Spider-Man II#4 (May, 2019) - Christos Gage (writer), Mike Hawthorne (pencils), Wade von Grawbadger (inks), Nick Lowe (editor)
Moon Knight IX#9-10 (May-June, 2022) - Jed MacKay (writer), Alessandro Cappuccio (artist), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Last updated: 05/07/2023
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