Mandrill (comics)

Mandrill
The Mandrill in Defenders #79 (Jan 1980).
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Shanna the She-Devil #4 (June 1973)
Created by	Carole Seuling (writer) Ross Andru (artist)
In-story information
Alter ego	Jerome Beechman
Species	Human Mutant
Team affiliations	Black Spectre Mutant Force
Partnerships	Nekra
Notable aliases	Hensley Fargus, Monkey Face
Abilities	Gifted planner and strategist Skilled acrobat and hand to hand combatant Superhuman strength, speed, agility, dexterity, flexibility, reflexes, coordination, balance and endurance Above-normal intellect Sex pheromones generation and manipulation

Mandrill is a fictional character, a mutant supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Mandrill first appeared in Shanna the She-Devil #4. He was created by writer Carole Seuling and artist Ross Andru. Steve Gerber dialogued his first appearance and wrote several subsequent appearances, but denied having a hand in the character's creation, saying he was all Seuling's.

Jerome Beechman was the son of Frederic Beechman, a physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and Margaret Beechman. Before conceiving his son, an explosion breached the facility's nuclear reactor, bombarding Frederic and a cleaning woman with radiation. When Jerome was born a year later, he possessed black skin (despite both of his parents being Caucasian) and tufts of body hair. Jerome was despised by his family because of his freakish appearance, and when he was ten his father drove him out into the New Mexico desert and abandoned him.

While wandering the desert, Jerome encountered Nekra Sinclair, the daughter of the cleaning woman who had been bombarded by radiation in the same accident that had affected Beecham's father. Although her parents were black, she had been born albino white and had developed vampiric features. For six years they lived by theft and scavenging until they were attacked by a lynch mob that thought they were monsters. The hatred triggered by the attack manifested Beecham's ability to control women with his pheromones, as well as Sinclair's powers, which the two used to kill some of their attackers and escape the rest.

Now possessing a more monkey-like appearance, Beecham became a professional criminal and took the name Mandrill. Traveling to Africa, the two plotted to overthrow and seize control of three small nations through a cult of personality powered by the Mandrill's pheromone ability. They intended to create a society free of the values that had led them to be rejected when they were young. This effort was thwarted by Shanna the She-Devil. After their battle, Beecham and Sinclair were captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. The two escaped, kidnapping Shanna's father in the process and eventually killing him.