Ringer (comics)

The Ringer
Ringer I from Spectacular Spider-Man #58 Art by John Byrne.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Defenders v1 #51 (Sep 1977)
Created by	David Kraft and Keith Giffen
In-story information
Alter ego	Anthony "Tony" Davis
Partnerships	The Beetle
Notable aliases	Strikeback
Abilities	Skilled inventor and engineer Wears battlesuit that grants him the ability to condense and use several ring-based weapons As Strikeback: Gifted mechanical engineer Levitation Energy projection Teleportation

Ringer is the name of three comic book supervillains in the Marvel Comics Universe.

The fictional character of the Ringer was initially introduced in the Marvel comic book Defenders issue #51 (September 1977), and was created by writer David Anthony Kraft and artist Keith Giffen. He subsequently appeared in Spectacular Spider-Man #58 (September 1981). The Ringer was one of the victims featured in the 1986 storyline involving the Scourge of the Underworld which spanned over several titles, where numerous minor supervillains were murdered by a vigilante. He was killed in the "Bar With No Name" massacre along with 17 other supervillains in Captain America #319 (January 1986). It was this massacre that served as the climax to the storyline, which gave Captain America the clues he needed to find and stop the killer. The Ringer has made posthumous appearances in Sensational She-Hulk #53 (July 1993) and #59 (January 1994), and the inter-company crossover Avengers/JLA #4 (December 2003). He later appeared again in Code of Honor #3 (April 1997), a series that took place before the massacre. A "proto-husk" of the Ringer, an artificial copy of him, appeared in Deadpool #0 (December 1998), and was destroyed by Deadpool. The Ringer's wife, Leila Davis, survived him and became a supervillain in her own right, first appearing in the miniseries Deadly Foes of Spider-Man #1-4 (May–August 1991), and subsequently appearing as Hardshell in the miniseries Lethal Foes of Spider-Man #1-4 (September–December 1993), and as the new Beetle in issues #48-56 of the Thunderbolts series (March–November 2001). The Ringer appeared in flashbacks during a number of Leila's appearances. In fact, in a flashback in Lethal Foes of Spider-Man #4, it was revealed that Davis had barely survived the massacre, and was transformed into a cyborg named Strikeback. Strikeback appeared as himself in issues #3-4 of Lethal Foes of Spider-Man. However, he was killed off again, off-panel this time, as shown in a flashback in Thunderbolts #56. The Ringer had an entry in two editions of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, including issue #19 of the Deluxe Edition (December 1987), and issue #9 of the All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z (November 2006).