Black Fox is a code name used by two unrelated fictional characters in the Marvel Comics Universe: a villain and Dr. Robert William Paine, a superhero.

Black Fox (Raul Chalmers)

Publication history

Black Fox is a villain whose primary appearances have been in Marvel Comics' Spider-Man titles. His first appearance was in The Amazing Spider-Man #255 (August 1984), and he was created by Tom DeFalco

Tom DeFalco

Tom DeFalco is an American comics writer and editor, well known for his association with Marvel Comics and in particular for his work with Spider-Man.-Career:...

 and Ron Frenz

Ron Frenz

Ronald Wade Frenz is an American comic book artist known for his work for Marvel Comics. He is well-known for his 1980s work on Amazing Spider-Man, and more recently, for his work on Spider-Girl...

. The inspiration for the character comes from safari cards

Safari cards

Safari Cards were a set of collectible cards featuring animals, sold by subscription mail order from the mid 1970s through the early 80s. Each card featured a different animal, with 4,200 different Safari Cards produced in total....

 bought by Tom DeFalco.

The character subsequently appears in The Amazing Spider-Man #265 (June 1985), #304 (September 1988), #348-350 (June–August 1991), Web of Spider-Man Annual #10 (1994), and The Irredeemable Ant-Man #7-12 (June–November 2007).

The Black Fox received an entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89

Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe

The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is an encyclopedic guide which details the fictional universe featured in Marvel Comics publications...

#1.

Fictional character biography

Black Fox is a jewel thief with a long international career. In his sixties, he yearns to pull off one last big heist so that he can retire for good to the French Riviera. However, his retirement plans continue to be deferred due to unfortunate encounters with super-beings. In each of his encounters the Fox, having no super-human powers of his own, is in way over his head. The thief's usual response when caught by a superhero is to surrender and negotiate release, which he accomplishes with fabricated stories about his poor wife and children or his poor deceased mother. However, in his last encounter with Spider-Man

Spider-Man

Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...

, the Fox was unable to pull the same trick and was carted off to jail.

In addition to coming into conflict with Spider-Man, Black Fox has been forced to lead the Red Ghost

Red Ghost

The Red Ghost and his Super-Apes are a group of Marvel Comics supervillains, who started their career fighting the Fantastic Four, before confronting other Marvel heroes like Iron Man and Spider-Man...

's super-apes on a robbery mission. He has also been pursued by Silver Sable

Silver Sable

Silver Sable is a fictional character from Marvel Comics, a female mercenary, hunter of war criminals, the leader of the Wild Pack, and CEO of Silver Sable International...

 and Doctor Doom

Doctor Doom

Victor von Doom is a fictional character who appears in Marvel Comics publications . Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in Fantastic Four #5 wearing his trademark metal mask and green cloak...

, and had his fiancee murdered by the assassin Chance.

Recently, he was defeated by Ant-Man

Ant-Man (Eric O'Grady)

Ant-Man is a fictional character, a superhero in the . He is the third character to use the name Ant-Man. He first appears in The Irredeemable Ant-Man #1 and was created by Robert Kirkman and Phil Hester....

, who took the jewels Fox stole to a pawn shop and sold them himself. Black Fox, however, tracked down O'Grady and forced the Ant-Man to repay him for the botched heist. Ant-Man and Black Fox then returned to the pawn shop together and held up the place. Since then Ant-Man and Black Fox have become partners in crime of sorts. Black Fox can often be seen at O'Grady's apartment playing on a Wii

Wii

The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...

 console.

External links

• Black Fox page at Spiderfan.org

Black Fox (Dr. Robert William Paine)

Publication history

Black Fox (Dr. Robert William Paine) is a superhero whose primary appearances have been in Marvel Comics' limited series, Marvel: The Lost Generation

Marvel: The Lost Generation

Marvel: The Lost Generation is a twelve-issue comic book limited series published by Marvel Comics in 2000 and 2001. The series was written by Roger Stern and drawn by John Byrne. Numbered in reverse order, it began with issue #12 and finished with issue #1 Marvel: The Lost Generation is a...

. He first appeared in Marvel: The Lost Generation #12 (March 2000).

Fictional character biography

Dr. Robert William Paine was born in the fictional city of Foxwood Farms, Illinois presumably in the early decades of the Twentieth Century. During World War II, Paine worked as an American intelligence agent and was assigned to infiltrate Nazi Germany. After the War, he took to living the life of a swashbuckler. It was during this time that Paine was driven to create his Black Fox identity. After a conflict with the vampiric villain Nocturne, in which Paine's true love Miriam was slain, Paine declares, "Before, I was just a masked swashbuckler. After that...that was the day the Black Fox was truly born." After many years of fighting crime, The Black Fox eventually retired to teach history and law at Northwestern University in Chicago. He later came out of retirement to help the superhero team First Line

First Line (comics)

The First Line was a fictional team of superheroes and adventurers from the Marvel Comics series Marvel: The Lost Generation. Essentially a retcon to fill the gaps caused by Marvel's "sliding timescale", in which the emergence of major superheroes and events was only supposed to have occurred...

 repel a Skrull

Skrull

The Skrulls are a fictional race of extraterrestrial shapeshifters that appear in publications by Marvel Comics.-Publication history:The Skrulls first appeared in Fantastic Four #2 and were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby....

 invasion of Earth. During the final battle against the Skrulls, most of the First Line team, including Black Fox, were killed.

Powers and abilities

Black Fox possesses no super powers but instead relies on his wealth, brilliant mind, and exceptional combat skills to fight crime. His secret hideout known as "The Foxhole" is located on his family farm near the city of his birth. The farm is called Foxwood Farms. Among the many devices at his disposal is a radar-invisible jet named The Flying Fox.