STEED

Real Name: None

Identity/Class: Ant

Occupation: Helper of Ant-Man

Group Membership: His colony of ants

Affiliations: Ant-Man, the Avengers (Beast, Captain America, Iron Man, Ms. Marvel, Vision, Wasp, Wonder Man, Yellowjacket), Jocasta

Enemies:  Dr. Pernell Solomon, the Taskmaster

Known Relatives: Presumably numerous other ants in his colony

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Unrevealed

First Appearance: Avengers I#195 (May, 1980)

Powers/Abilities: Steed had the normal abilities of any other ant, including strong legs for quick movement, antennae for touch and smell, scissor-like jaws, compound eyes, and strength capable of lifting 20 times their own weight.

History:  (Avengers I#195) - While searching for the kidnapped Wasp inside the Solomon Institute, Yellowjacket warned Ant-Man of something behind him. Ant-Man turned and happily announced the arrival of Steed, who he said had found the Wasp. Steed and a small army of ants then led Ant-Man and Yellowjacket to the Wasp's location, where they attacked the guards present and rescued the captive Wasp. Wasp, Ant-Man, and Yellowjacket were soon captured by Dr. Pernell Solomon, who revealed that his institute was actually a training grounds for villainous lackeys. The trio soon made an escape attempt and when Dr. Solomon ordered his guards to fire on them, the guards noticed that their guns had been jammed by numerous ants. The three insect-based heroes made their way to Solomon's clone Selbe until they were halted by the institute's headmaster, the Taskmaster.

 (Avengers I#196 - BTS) - As the other Avengers waited outside for a signal from Yellowjacket and Ant-Man, Iron Man's vision was soon blurred by a swarm of ants crawling all over his helmet. Realizing that the ants were a signal from either Yellowjacket or Ant-Man, the Avengers rallied together and busted in on the Taskmaster, who escaped after a battle with the team.

Comments: Created by David Michelinie, George Perez, Jack Abel, and Dan Green.

One could argue that Steed would be behind the scenes in every appearance that Ant-Man used the aid of ants, but there's nothing to say he specifically used Steed, so I'm only going with the appearances that I know that Steed was definately in. Near as I can tell, Ant-Man never called an ant by the name of Steed in any of his other appearances.

Despite appearing red in the panel where he was named, I don't believe Steed was a fire ant or anything. In the next panel, Ant-Man and Yellowjacket are seen with a group of darker-colored ants, so I think the red coloring was either a mistake or Steed was colored red to show the light reflecting from outside of the air vent that the heroes were in.

While Steed wasn't named as one of the ants in #196, the Official Marvel Index to the Avengers II#4 stated that Steed was indeed behind-the-scenes in #196, so it can be safely said that Steed was among the ants crawling on Iron Man's helmet.

Avengers I#195-196 is a great read. I didn't realize how much I enjoyed the Scott Lang Ant-Man until I re-read this story. I sure hope someone brings him back soon! Perhaps the Ant-Man that was killed was not really Scott, but one of those illusions created by the Scarlet Witch? Perhaps the skeletal hand that the Avengers found in the Mansion rubble was that of the Jack of Hearts? Wasp said it was Scott, but since when is she qualified to identity skeletal records of a person? My theory is that Scott shrank down real quick and took cover in a small groove in the ground, which to him would be a trench....

....and oh yeah, fun facts about ants!

Profile by Proto-Man.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Steed has no known connections to

• Steed, New Men, horse, killed saving Quicksilver, @ Quicksilver#1
• Steed, John, @ Captain America I#401