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HONCHO

Real Name: James McDonald

Identity/Class: Human mutant

Occupation: CIA agent, stunt rider, adventurer

Group Membership: Central Intelligence Agency (CIA);

formerly Team America (Cowboy (Luke Merriweather), R.U. Reddy (Winthrop Roan Jr.), Wolf, Wrench (Leonard Hebb))

Affiliations: Marauder, New Mutants (Mirage (Dani Moonstar), Sunspot (Roberto Da Costa), Karma (Xi’an Coy Manh), Cannonball (Sam Guthrie), Wolfsbane (Rahne Sinclair)), Thunderiders (Cowboy, Georgiana Hebb, R.U. Reddy, Thing (Ben Grimm), Sharon Ventura, Wolf, Wrench), Tony Stark, unidentified CIA agent, Janet Van Dyne, Charles Xavier

Enemies: Monique Adreadite, Advanced Idea Mechanics, Mr. Ashe, Emperor of Texas, Agent Evens, Joseph Gill, Hydra, Mad Thinker and his Intellectual Robots, unidentified hired killer, the Mayhem Organization, Mr. Mudge, Silver Samurai, Adrian Turner, Viper;

briefly Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze)

Known Relatives: Father, mother (names unrevealed)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Mobile worldwide, esp. USA

First Appearance: Captain America I#269 (May, 1982)

Powers/Abilities: Honcho was a gestalt telepath. When he was in contact with other gestalts, he was able to psychically create a physical being dubbed the Marauder, or project the psychic energies onto a host body. Before he resigned, Hondo was a top CIA operative, and well versed in martial arts, small arms, explosives, and espionage. He was also an expert motorcycle stunt rider

History:

(Team America#10 - BTS) – Honcho often worked with fellow agent Joseph Gill. The two never agreed on anything and a deep animosity grew between them. 

(Team America#1 (fb) - BTS) –Honcho, tired of the red tape and bureaucracy of the CIA, left to become a freelance adventurer.

(Team America#1) – Honcho was in Daytona, Florida, investigating a tip that Hydra would try to steal an experimental motorcycle that was going to compete in the Unlimited Class Race the following day. Narrowly avoiding a knife-throwing assassin, Honcho found a note in his hotel room, instructing him to go a nearby garage. The next day, he went there and met former playboy R.U. Reddy and the outlaw known as the Wolf. After a tense standoff, the trio agreed to join forces. Honcho spent nearly his entire savings and called in every favor owed him, but he managed to procure three motorcycles and proper uniforms. The race was a relay, with three members of the team expected to perform 25 laps around the course. Honcho went first so as to best keep an eye on the experimental racer. When his laps were finished, Honcho retired to the pit as Reddy took over. When Wolf won the race, Hydra attacked in force. Honcho and the others fought off the Hydra agents until a Hydra blimp appeared and kidnapped Reddy and the other racer. The blimp crashed seconds later due to the efforts of the Marauder. The three of them were confronted by Hydra leader Mr. Davan at gunpoint. Using their mind link, they were able to dodge his bullets. When he committed suicide via a cyanide capsule, the three were left with more questions than answers. Regardless, the three took their place in the winner’s circle and enjoyed the moment. 

(Team America#2) – Honcho tried to cool the flaring tempers after Wolf’s attack on the press. Wolf left in a huff, as Reddy almost did when Honcho revealed that he had invested their winnings into another race. A few days later, Honcho was at the hotel bar when Luke Merriweather, AKA Cowboy, arrived and asked to be part of the team. Honcho hired him on the spot. Tracking down Wolf, they helped save Wrench and Georgiana from Wolf’s former gang. Hiring Wrench, the group headed toward Colorado for the race. Once there, encountered a hired killer. Honcho stayed back as Wolf and Reddy were knocked out. During the actual race, Honcho rode alongside the trail with Wrench and Cowboy when they were attacked by the killer. Cowboy made it to Wolf’s buggy and rode the rest of the race. Honcho and the others made it back (after subduing the killer) in time to see Cowboy and Wolf come in second. Honcho was disappointed, but vowed that the team would do better. 

(Captain America I#269) – The assembled Team America (Honcho, R.U. Reddy and Wolf) were hired to perform a charity show at Madison Square Garden with Captain America. When a giant yellow humanoid suddenly appeared and kidnapped a Nobel Prize winning scientist in the stands, Captain America followed the monster back through the strange portal it had created. Honcho and the others followed after him, finding themselves in a strange village. Greeted by Mark Twain and Albert Einstein, the foursome were taken to the town hall where they met the Mad Thinker. When Reddy was knocked out by the Thinker’s robot, Honcho and the Wolf attacked, only to be knocked unconscious just as easily. Caged, Honcho and the others were freed by the mysterious Marauder. Later, when the Thinker was being hauled off by SHIELD, Honcho and the rest rode off into the sunset on the way to their next show.  

(Team America#3) – Honcho and the rest of the team were at the race, unaware that they were being monitored by the Mayhem Organization. Honcho reflected on the team’s purpose and his own plans as they crossed the finish line. Once the race was over, they were captured and taken to the organization’s base. Freed by the Marauder, Honcho and the rest fought Mr. Mind, but the man escaped in the darkness. Honcho mused about the Marauder’s identity as they left. 

(Team America#4) – Honcho was with the rest of the team when Wolf was summoned to help an old friend. When Wolf later called for help, Honcho answered the call. By the time the rest of the team arrived, the criminals who had been brainwashing runaways had already been stopped and arrested.  

(Team America#5 - BTS) – Honcho was contacted by Agent Evens to become a mole within Adrian Turner’s organization. 

(Team America#5) – After a race, Honcho was contacted by Adrian Turner, a former associate from his CIA days. Turner claimed to be working for the president as part of a new espionage organization. Honcho agreed to join, with the goal of getting enough evidence to expose Turner’s group. Honcho was put through a series of grueling tests designed to test his skills and he passed them all. Contacting Evens, he told him of Turner’s plans and arranged for the FBI to arrest him. The next day, Honcho was taken to a private airfield. Informed that a departing plan was filled with double agents, Honcho took off on his motorcycle. Racing past the guards, he forced his way onto the airplane and made them land. Turner then explained that the plane was in fact carrying a Soviet defector and Secret Service agents. Honcho turned the tables on Turner and told him he was a mole sent by FBI agent Evens. Honcho was then knocked out by Evens. He came to and found himself tied to a chair. Turner explained that he and Evens were partners. He thanked Honcho for his aid in getting the defector to him, but he had to cut him loose. Flooding the room, Turner left to set the timer on a bomb that would destroy the facility. Honcho struggled with the ropes, but allowed the fibrous material to soak up the water, allowing it to enlarge and giving him enough wiggle room to free himself. Forcing his way out, Honcho knocked out Turner and managed to diffuse the bomb with seconds to spare. He left with the team members who had just arrived.  

(Team America#6) – Honcho chewed Reddy out for his grandstanding during their race.  

(Team America#7) – While the team was in Texas, Honcho stayed silent when Cowboy’s girlfriend went missing. When it was revealed that she and Cowboy had been kidnapped by the self-proclaimed Emperor of Texas, Honcho offered Team America’s services in the rescue. Due to a shift in the wind, Honcho and the rest of the team were separated from the Texas Rangers and wound up on the far side of the Emperor’s compound. They managed to make their way to Cowboy just as the Emperor died and the roof began to collapse. 

(Team America#8) – Honcho ribbed Wolf during their flight to Cairo for a race. Once they arrived at the airport, Honcho was contacted by a deep undercover CIA agent with a coded message. Dodging two armed men, Honcho managed to lose them and meet with the agent. The agent informed him of a secret weapons deal going down somewhere within Cairo’s city limits. Due to Honcho’s freelance status, it was determined that he would be the best man for the job. Honcho took the case and vanished into Cairo’s seedy underbelly for three days, not contacting his team at all. At one particular nightclub, Honcho, while in disguise, made his way past the patrons. Unknown to Honcho, one of the armed men from before recognized him. With Honcho distracted by a belly dancer, the man knocked him out and dragged him away. Later, after Team America failed to win the race, Honcho was driven back to his teammates by the winner of the race, Monique Adreadite. She congratulated the team on their efforts and told Honcho in no uncertain terms that while his presence had disrupted the weapons sale, all he really managed to do was set her back a week at the most. Honcho apologized for his failure, but the team forgave him.  

(Team America#9) – Because they had lost the Cairo race, Team America was forced to live in a camper in Brooklyn. Honcho stoically took the problems that arose from this living arrangement. When the Marauder dropped off his motorcycle, Honcho wondered if one of his teammates had driven it via remote control. With the bike in their possession, Team America began to win races once more. Each member of the team took turns with the bike, Honcho included. During this time, Wrench had sunk their winnings into building a new car. Honcho volunteered to drive it. The car handled perfectly, but in the final lap it overheated and caught fire. Honcho escaped, but the car was a loss.  Elsewhere, Mr. Mudge of Stark Industries had been watching the race intently. He approached Team America and offered them a job with Stark Industries. They accepted, although not without some dissension in the ranks.
    Honcho wasn’t impressed by the corporate big shots, and quickly found himself trying to keep Wolf from attacking a manager. His status at the company was high profile enough to earn the attention of Janet Van Dyne, who agreed to go out with him. When it was revealed that Mudge had only signed them to get his hands on the Marauder’s bike, Honcho and the others were dismissed. When the Marauder returned the bike to them, Tony Stark confronted Team America and apologized for Mudge’s actions. He cut them a check for their time spent at the company. Honcho and the others accepted and went on their way.  

(Team America#10) – Honcho was in Las Vegas with the rest of the team. In his hotel room, he found a disciple of Mr. Ashe. After a brief struggle, the man fell from Honcho’s room, turning into dust on the way down. When Honcho rushed outside to investigate, Mr. Ashe kidnapped him. He later woke up Ashe’s compound. After barely avoided being murdered by another of Ashe’s followers, he was taken to Ashe’s private laboratory and interrogated. Honcho pleaded his ignorance, but Ashe continued, wanting to know about Joseph Gill’s plans against the group. When Reddy and Wolf were locked into tubes and threatened with Ashe’s deadly dust, Honcho managed to break them free when Reddy distracted Ashe with a flare. Fleeing outside, the team managed to escape as Ashe took off in a private jet. Later, Honcho and the others were ambushed by Ashe in Honcho’s hotel room. Honcho had received a letter Gill had mailed a few days before. Just as Honcho figured out what the envelope contained, Ashe pulled it from his hands and opened it. Honcho and the others were shocked as Ashe was exposed to his deadly dust, dying almost instantly. 

(Team America#11) – While the team was doing time trials for a rally in Oklahoma, Honcho busied himself trying to keep tempers from flaring out of control but did a poor job of it. Later, after everyone had finished, Honcho and the others found Wolf watching Johnny Blaze intently as the rider performed a dangerous stunt. During the day of the race, Honcho and the others were distracted when the supernatural Ghost Rider burst onto the track. Honcho ducked off the track, as it became a battleground between the demonic biker and the Marauder. When a contingent of Hydra troops attacked, Honcho and the other members of Team America fought them off until the Ghost Rider turned his full fury upon the terrorists. Later, when the wreckage was being cleared away and injuries tended to, Honcho and the others found the weakened Marauder. Honcho was shocked when he saw the masked rider's true identity.

(Team America#12) – Honcho found it difficult to believe the slender form of Georgiana in the Marauder’s clothes. Later, in their RV, everyone tried to figure out how Georgiana managed to pull off such feats. Honcho admired the Marauder’s uniform, noting that with the material and extra padding, she could have easily passed herself off as a man. When the Hydra leader attacked, Honcho was the one to finally subdue the woman. He listened when she told the team the truth; they were all the results of Hydra’s New Genesis project. The project had been deemed a failure but they came under Hydra’s attention when the Marauder hacked into their database and damaged their mainframes. 
    They agreed to let the woman go so she could say goodbye to her family, but secretly followed her. When she was outside her house, Honcho and the others attacked the assembled Hydra assassins and managed to drive them off. When it was over, they said goodbye to the woman and her family. Honcho offered to lead her to a CIA safe house in the area, but she refused. Later, after the excitement had died down and the other members of the team began to plan for the future, Honcho quietly decided to return to the CIA, feeling he could achieve more on the inside. At Leonard and Georgiana’s wedding, he was contacted by his superiors and whisked away for a secret assignment. 

(New Mutants I#5) – Honcho was roughly woken up by the Viper. He was informed that he had to lead Team America to break into a heavily guarded base and steal an artifact or else Dani Moonstar would die. Honcho reluctantly agreed. While meeting with the rest of the team, they were interrupted by Charles Xavier, who informed them of their status as mutants. He theorized they were a projecting gestalt group and warned them that if they were to succeed they would need his training. Honcho and the others agreed. 

(New Mutants I#6) – Honcho and the others were practicing their maneuvers in the New Mexico desert when Professor X mentally berated them for goofing off instead of training. Honcho apologized for the team, but still expressed some doubts as to their mission. Later, when they were at the Black Mesa base, Honcho and Wrench discovered they were stealing from Advanced Idea Mechanics. With Professor X in mental contact, they were able to slip inside and subdue two scientists. Donning their uniforms, they made their way into the base. Wrench accidentally triggered the alarm, forcing Honcho to hold the guards off while Wrench snagged the Cavourite Crystal moments before (unknown to them) the Shadow King destroyed the base in an attempt to kill Professor X. Honcho and Wrench barely made it out in time.
    Pursued by base personnel, Honcho and the others rode on as Wolf summoned the power of the Marauder. Witnessing the destruction, Honcho and the rest made their way back to the pick up point and found an unconscious Xavier. Rousing the man, they waited for Wolf and Reddy, who had been separated in the flight. Honcho looked on in concern when Xavier cried out that he could not longer feel the New Mutants’ presence.

(New Mutants I# 6/The Thing I#27 - BTS) –Honcho stayed with the reassembled team until they got a handle on controlling their power. When it was discovered that they lost the copyright to the name Team America, Honcho called it quits and headed back to Washington, D.C. to become a full-time CIA agent.

(The Thing I#27) – Honcho was in his office when Cowboy called to tell him about the Marauder’s return. Honcho tried to come up with a theory as to why the Marauder reappeared and attacked the Thing, but the best idea he could come up with was the group’s mental link wasn’t as strong as previously thought. 

Comments: Developed by J.M. DeMattis (script), Mike Zeck (pencils)and John Beatty, Mike Zeck & Joe Rubenstein (inks).

According to my research, the entire concept of Team America was created by Ideal Toys to sell a toy line and was later licensed by Marvel. The line actually began as Evel Knievel. According to the Evel Knievel Toy Museum, the line came about when Knievel was arrested for assault in the late 1970s. Retooling the line, the Evel Knievel figures became Honcho, R.U. Reddy, the Wolf, and the Marauder, with accompanying vehicles. 

In issue one, there is a slight mistake in coloring. Honcho was the first one in the race and wearing white, but Reddy was colored white by mistake. 

The team’s first appearance was in the Captain America issue (with the implication that they had been around a while), yet issue one shows the team coming together, and issue two opening seconds after the first. I put the Captain America issue between two and three. 

“Project: New Genesis”? Seems to be invoking the Forever People.

In issue 12, Honcho and the others are flatly told they are mutants, yet Professor X explains it to them again and they act shocked.

Also, as an aside, while Honcho was a member of Team America, he was NEVER a member of the Thunderiders, having left the team in issue 12.

Profile by David Lawrence.

CLARIFICATIONS :
Honcho has no known connections to:


CIA Agent

CIA Agent

An agent for the Central Intelligence Agency, his true name and face were never revealed. He had been assigned the task of briefing Honcho about the upcoming weapons deal. He also let Honcho know how leery the agency had become of him since his departure.

 

--Team America#8


images: (without ads)
Team America#5, p2 pan1 (full body uniform)
Team America#5, cover (head shot)
Team America#5, p2 pan3 (walking)
Team America#8, p5 pan1 (CIA agent)


Appearances:
Captain America I#269 (May, 1982) – J.M. DeMattis (script), Mike Zeck (pencils), John Beatty, Mike Zeck, Joe Rubenstein (inks), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Team America#1 (June, 1982) –Jim Shooter (script), Mike Vosburg (pencils), Vince Colleta (inks), Jim Shooter (editor)
Team America#2 (July, 1982) – Jim Shooter, Denny O’Neil, Bill Mantlo (script), Mike Vosburg (pencils), Vince Colleta (inks), Jim Shooter (editor)
Team America#3 (August, 1982) – Bill Mantlo (script), Luke McDonall (pencils), Mike Vosburg (inks), Jim Shooter (editor)
Team America#4 (September, 1982) – Bill Mantlo (script), Luke McDonall (pencils), Mike Vosburg (inks), Jim Shooter (editor)
Team America#5 (October, 1982)- Bill Mantlo (script), Alan Kupperburg (pencils), Vince Colleta (inks), Jim Shooter (editor)
Team America#6 (November, 1982)- Bill Mantlo (script), Alan Kupperburg (pencils), Vince Colleta (inks), Jim Shooter (editor)
Team America#7 (December, 1982) – Bill Mantlo (script), Luke McDonall (pencils), Vince Colleta  (inks), Jim Shooter (editor)
Team America#8 (January, 1983) – Jim Shooter, Bill Mantlo (plot/script), Don Perlin (pencils), Vince Colleta  (inks), Jim Shooter (editor)
Team America#9 (February, 1983) – Jim Shooter, Bill Mantlo (plot/script), Mark Bright (pencils), Vince Colleta  (inks), Jim Shooter (editor)
Team America#10 (March, 1983) – Steven Grant (script), Alan Kupperburg  (pencils), Vince Colleta  (inks), Jim Shooter (editor)
Team America#11 (April, 1983) – Jim Shooter, Tom DeFalco (plot/script), David Simmons, Sharon Weiss (pencils), Jim Shooter (editor)
Team America#12 (May, 1983) – Jim Shooter (script), Don Perlin (pencils), Vince Colleta  (inks), Jim Shooter (editor)
New Mutants#5 (July, 1983) – Chris Claremont (script), Sal Buscema (pencils), Bob McCloud (inks), Louise Jones (editor)
New Mutants#6 (August, 1983) – Chris Claremont (script), Sal Buscema (pencils), Armando Gill, J. Tartag (inks), Louise Jones (editor)
The Thing I#27 (September, 1985) –Mike Carlin (script), Ron Wilson (pencils), Paul Ryan (inks), Mark Gruenwald (editor)


First Posted: 10/13/2009
Last updated: 05/10/2011

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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