Boomerang (comics)

Boomerang
Boomerang on the cover of The Spectacular Spider-Man #144 (November 1988). Art by Sal Buscema.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Tales to Astonish #81 (July 1966)
Created by	Stan Lee Jack Kirby
In-story information
Alter ego	Frederick "Fred" Myers
Team affiliations	Sinister Syndicate Sinister Twelve Secret Empire Assassins' Guild Thunderbolts Masters of Evil Sinister Six Sinister Sixteen
Partnerships	Viper Silver Samurai Kingpin
Notable aliases	Boomer, Fred Slade, Outback
Abilities	World-class baseball pitcher Skilled marksman and street fighter Wields variety of lethal and gimmicked boomerangs Flight via jet boots

Boomerang (Frederick "Fred" Myers) is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He has been a member of several prominent supervillain teams and clashed with several heroes throughout his career, most notably Spider-Man.

Boomerang first appeared in Tales to Astonish #81 (July 1966), and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

He appeared as a regular character in Thunderbolts beginning in issue #157, and remained with the team after the title transitioned into Dark Avengers beginning with issue #175 through the conclusion of the series.

Boomerang features as one of the main characters in Superior Foes of Spider-Man.

Fred Myers was born in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia and was raised in the United States. As a young boy he developed a love for baseball, and spent years training and perfecting his pitching arm. By the time he was a young adult, Fred had realized his dream of pitching for a major league team. However, he foolishly began accepting bribes, and was drummed out of the major leagues after being discovered. Shortly thereafter, Myers was contacted by the Secret Empire, an international criminal organization that saw the potential of his skills. Myers agreed and was given a new costume and an arsenal of deadly boomerangs, from which he derived his new code name. He battled the Hulk after taking Betty Ross hostage to get plans, but the Hulk rescues Betty.

After the Secret Empire collapsed, Boomerang returned to his native Australia and laid low for a few years, perfecting his deadly aim and making modifications to his weapons. Once he was ready, he returned to America and began offering his services as a freelance assassin-for-hire. His first mission was to assassinate Iron Fist, though he was defeated. He was next hired as part of a large group of superhuman criminals employed by Libra to battle the Defenders. He was hired by Viper to participate in a plot against S.H.I.E.L.D., and battled Spider-Man, Nick Fury, Shang-Chi, and the Black Widow. Boomerang next sought to kill Spider-Man in order to impress the Kingpin of Crime and thus gain employment; however, he was defeated by the wall-crawler and apprehended by the police. He was seen next helping the Punisher escape from prison. Boomerang was eventually released from prison. He was hired by Max Stryker to coerce Bruce Banner into using an experimental cancer cure that uses gamma rays on Stryker, but wound up battling the Hulk, Banner's alter ego, instead.