Hydro-Man: Bio, Origin & History

Real Name: Morris Bench

First Appearance: Amazing Spider-Man #212 (January, 1981)

Powers: Can transform into water, controls water

Affiliation: Sinister Syndicate, Sinister Six, Fearsome Four, Masters of Evil

Did You Know:Hydro-Man can travel at a molecular level. This means that he can disperse himself into droplets of water and fit through the smallest of pipes.

A Little History

Created by Dennis O’Neil and John Romita Jr., Hydro-Man is one of the more lesser known villains the Spider-Man’s rogues gallery.

While aboard the U.S.S. Bulldog, Morris Bench, a crewman of the ship, was inadvertently knocked overboard by Spider-Man. This happened as a consequence of the wall-crawler’s battle with Namor The Sub-Mariner.

Coincidentally, Bench’s fall from the ship happened at the same time as a new and experimental generator was being tested in the ocean. The unlikely combination of water and radiation from the generator caused Morris Bench to change.

Upon exiting the water Morris learns that he can control water and he has become the living embodiment of it. Further to this, he blames Spider-Man for his misfortune and begins to hunt him down. Unfortunately, this accident did not heightened his intelligence any.

Hydro-Man, like many other ‘C-List’ Spider-Man villains, is a bit player in the Spider-verse. While alone he isn’t too formidable of a foe, he has, for the sake of revenge and financial gain, partnered up with numerous other supervillain groups. The most widely known of these being the Sinister Six and Masters of Evil.

For all that he possesses, Hydro-Man is not the most intelligent of Spider-Man’s enemies. In fact, he actually attempted to purchase the Venom Symbiote as a means of escaping The Raft. Worse yet, at one point he merged with Sandman to become a sort of “mud/muck monster. 

Cheers,

Joel