Superheroes Based on Insects:
Weirdly, Insects have been a huge inspiration for Comic Book writers and artists to conjure up new ideas for creating superheroes. There are so many examples in the comic books that we could lose count if we do this all day. We have chosen the most popular of the lot for your consideration. Prepare to be amazed!!
1. Bzzd
Bzzd is a rather obscure hero in the DC Comics lore. But what makes him unique is that he is also one of the most powerful Green Lanterns to ever exist that has never had an official action figure or canon appearance. Bzzd is an alien life form from a planet called Apiaton. He looks exactly and sounds pretty much like the irritating House Fly we have in our homes and kitchens. Bzzd is tasked with policing a faraway sector of space that lies on the outer fringes of the universe nobody likes traveling to. But Bzzd is not without his own set of adventures. Every police and cop has a buddy they can rely on. When Bzzd’s extremely imaginative abilities fail to protect him-self or other innocent lives, he relies on the support of his partner, who is actually a living planet!! That’s right people – Mogo the living planet is Bzdd’s Partner in the Green Lantern Corps.
2. Ant-Man
The name says it all – Ant-Man. Hank Pym was researching the ability to shrink the space between molecules down to a level that any object’s spatial dimensions could be altered dramatically. He ended up discovering something called the Pym Particles. Pym Particles allows a person to shrink them-selves in size but retain their regular strength even in their miniscule form. Ant-Man also has the ability to control the ants via an antennae array on his helmet which sends out vibrations that help Pym control an army of ants that are at his disposal the moment he puts on that helmet. Ant-Man is also one of the most gifted scientists in the Marvel Universe. Some claim his even smarter than Tony Stark and Reed Richards.
3. Black Widow
Okay, maybe spiders are technically not insects. They belong to the arthropod family. That does not make them any less icky to see or think about though. Black Widow’s real name is Natasha Romanova. She was recruited into the Soviet Red Room Project, the Russian equivalent to the American Super Soldier Program that gave birth to Captain America. Natasha was the top of her class and as one of the best candidates in the Soviet Arsenal, received bodily modifications and rigorous training in espionage, close quarter combat, and infiltration. She is a master spy and assassin. She also has several other superpowers like above-average speed and immense longevity and durability.
4. Blue Beetle
Blue Beetle is one of the oldest superhero characters to ever exist. The character was actually another comic book publications’ character and not an original DC creation. It was only in 1983 that DC Comics bought the rights to Blue Beetle after the character took a huge 15 year-long sabbatical from comic book pages. DC Comics turned Blue Beetle into a superhero on the same lines as Batman. He was a billionaire by day and vigilante by night that used his money, resources, extremely gifted intellect, and a busload of gadgets to get the job done. The latest version of Blue Beetle is Jaime Reyes, who derives powers from an alien artefact called the Scarab.
5. The Tick
The Tick is most well-known from the hit 1994 animated TV Series of the same name. The Tick was never supposed to be a part of the superhero genre or even its flag bearer. The reason a local comic shop created The Tick to be published in a newspaper outlet was that they wanted to parody the superhero genre for their overdramatization and cheesy plot lines. The Tick does not know how he got his powers. He claims that perhaps he became so strong and bulletproof after being hit in the head too many times. He works for a local newspaper, has a sidekick and his greatest ability is Drama Power – the more dramatic the climax is, the stronger the Tick gets. Amazon also has a Tick TV series to its name.
6. The Wasp
The Wasp is the wife of Hank Pym. She is herself one of the greatest superheroes of the Marvel Comic Book Universe and is seen as one of the first superhero members of the Avengers. Janet Van Dyne uses the same Pym Particles to decrease her size to microscopic levels if need be. She still has her full body strength in her minimal form. What sets her apart from Ant-Man is that she does not have the ability to control a colony of ants. Instead, she has the power to fly. Her wasp suit comes loaded with a pair of wasp-like wings. Her Bio Sting allows her to throw powerful energy blasts at her opponents that could rip through a wall at full power.
7. Spider-Man
There was once a time that Stan Lee considered changing Peter Parker’s origin story. He was supposed to get the powers of a fly, not a spider since Marvel Comics believed that Spiders were too scary and their target audience which was basically children at the time would not like to read it. Thank God Stan Lee chose otherwise. Again, Spiders are not insects but we have already mentioned why we have included them in the list in the above entries. Peter Parker aka Spider-Man is one of the most popular superheroes Marvel has to offer. He has spider-like abilities, can use webbings to swing from building to building, and also possesses a psychic intuition likeability that warns him against danger called the Spider-Sense.
8. The Green Hornet
The Green Hornet is not your regular Marvel or DC Comic Superhero. He is a figment of the erstwhile era. The Green Hornet is a legacy vigilante who was actually the owner of a popular newspaper publication. When he realized that criminals and evil men he read about and reported in his own paper were roaming around scot-free in the world because of a flawed justice system, he decided to become a vigilante. When roaming around the streets as a vigilante, the Green Hornet adopts green attire (staying true to his name), uses powerful knock out gas pellets, and drives around in a powerful beast of a car called the Black Beauty. He is also assisted by his trusted (and albeit racist caricature) assistant Kano, who is also his driver.
9. Red Bee
The story of the Red Bee is pretty whimsical and hilarious. The Red Bee is a superhero that came into being during the 1940s during the heat of the Second World War. Richard Raleigh was an Assistant District Attorney who tasked him-self to rid the world of all Nazis. And he had the most novel approach to address that problem – Bees!! Raleigh would dress in a clown-like red and yellow suit and use bees to attack and defeat Nazis and Criminals. He even had a specially trained bee called Michael that he kept hidden within his belt buckle. The idea of a grown man wearing a red and yellow suit and training bees for a living did not sit well with the audiences of that era! Richard Raleigh soon went out of business.
10. Mantis
Mantis is the daughter of a supervillain. She is half Vietnamese and half German be lineage. Mantis was trained from birth in the deadliest forms of Martial Arts known to mankind. She grew up in a temple where she was turned into a lean, mean killing machine by the Temple Priests. Mantis’ ability is the power to sense the weakest points in her opponent and striking those points to take down her enemy with the least amount of effort but with the greatest amount of pain dealt with her target. Mantis also has two antennae-like protrusions coming out of her forehead, the true purpose of which is yet to be revealed.
