One of the best galleries of super-villains belongs to Spider-Man. With villains like Green Goblin, Dock Ock, Venom, Mephisto, Venom, and others, it is difficult not to fall in love with them and their stories.
Hydro-Man, despite being rather awesome and giving Spider-Man a run for his money, does not receive as much adoration as the other villains. Originally named Morris Bench, he was a regular crew member. He was unintentionally knocked overboard while stationed in his ship during a conflict between Spider-Man and Namor, or the Sub-Mariner.
Meanwhile, in the ocean, a strong experimental generator was being tested. During the testing, Morris falls into the ocean, and the energy from the generator mingle with gasses from the undersea volcanoes. Morris’ body mutated abnormally as a result of its influence, and he turned into water. Morris turned to a life of crime after being unable to reclaim his human form. Spider-Man diffused the situation by making him disappear, but after the particles re-integrated, Morris returned to his old ways.
Morris Bench originally appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #212, which was published in January 1981. Dennis O’Neill collaborated with artist John Romita Jr. to create him.
Hydro-Man has appeared in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Fantastic Four: The Animated Series, and Spider-Man video games, in addition to the comics. A creature based on Hydro-Man featured as one of Mysterio’s water elementals in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Far From Home.
Hydro-Man first appeared in Spider-Man: The Animated Series as a stand-in for Sandman, who was unable to appear due to the fact that James Cameron’s Spider-Man film had not yet been released.
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Psychotic Origin of Hydro-Man
The episodes of Spider-Man: The Animated Series take heavy inspiration from the source material i.e. the comics and the episodes revolving around Hydro-Man are no strangers to that.
Here, it took inspiration from 1981’s The Amazing Spider-Man #212 i.e. his debut issue.
Spider-Man reads the Daily Bugle while at Coney Island where he finds out that he is being blamed for the crimes by a mysterious thief. He wishes for Mary Jane to come to Coney Island with him but she had been giving him the cold shoulder lately to ward off entering into a serious commitment.
Meanwhile, a pearl necklace, which was kept safely in one of the tanks of a local aquarium, gets stolen. The guards look inside the tank and see a man inside. A metal wall comes down to surround him, while the alarms begin to blare but the man escapes easily before Spider-Man’s arrival.
Spider-Man rushes to the scene and catches a whiff of the perpetrator, who hits him with a wave of water, making him fall into one of the tanks. Spider-Man escapes while the guards blame him for the theft. On the other hand, the thief holds up the two million dollar pearl necklace and exclaims that it is all for Mary Jane.
Peter Parker meets with Mary Jane at the Coffee Bean but Mary Jane turns down his proposal to go to Coney Island together. She suddenly gets a phone call from a man named Morris Bench, who asks her to meet him at the Seville Hotel. With a shocked face, Mary Jane leaves in a hurry and Peter notices how worried she had gotten. So, he follows her as Spider-Man.
At the hotel, Morris Bench places the pearl necklace around Mary Jane’s neck but she tells him that Morris had made her life miserable. She returns the necklace and asks him to leave her alone as she did not want to be with him. Spider-Man overhears this conversation and looks back into the hotel after Mary Jane leaves but realizes that Bench has vanished, which he finds suspicious given how fast it was.
Bench follows Mary Jane to Washington Square Park and Spider-Man is shocked by how Bench is reaching the spots before he himself can. Morris tells her that he can control water sources near him as he turns the fountain in the park into a geyser. Mary Jane is terrified and Spider-Man intervenes, grabbing Morris’ hand. He attacks Spider-Man who is unable to fight back due to his web fluid dissolving in Morris’ water.
Morris’s bursts control of the area’s water to burst through the fire hydrants and the sewers, creating a huge wave that carries Mary Jane away but Spider-Man manages to save her and take her to a safe spot.
Morris, or Hydro-Man, catches up to Spider-Man and completely nullifies his attacks with his liquid body, allowing his hits to pass through. He blasts Spider-Man with a powerful wave but Spider-Man chooses to make a run for it.
He asks Mary Jane about Hydro-Man and finds out that the two dated in high school but she had no idea how he had gotten his superpowers. With Morris ruining her life as she had confessed, Spider-Man realizes why Mary Jane was afraid of committing to him or rather, Peter.
Peter studies a sample of Hydro-Man’s water and uses it to create a web fluid that turns to concrete on coming in contact with water. Peter goes to Mary Jane’s apartment but Hydro-Man beats him to it, once again. He carries Mary Jane away in a wave and Peter gets into his Spider-Man suit and follows them. However, Hydro-Man plunges into the river with her and they arrive at a pumping station. He shows her all the jewelry he had stolen for her and she realizes that he is the mysterious man behind all the thefts. She asks him where he had gotten his powers from.
After Morris was expelled from high school, he was made to enlist in the Navy. He was assigned to the special research division. One day, an accident with a mini-submarine falling off the ship caused Morris to fall off the ship and into the water. The sub crashed into the ocean floor while Morris drowned and the impact cracked the ground. A strange gas seeped from beneath the ground and mutated Morris’ body into living water. He dubbed himself as Hydro-Man and began to commit robberies.
When Mary Jane tells him that she doesn’t love him, he threatens to flood New York City. However, Spider-Man arrives and engages Hydro-Man in a fight, except it is a lot fairer this time with the new web fluid working like a charm. Mary Jane and Spider-Man getaway but Hydro-Man free himself to pursue her. The power of a simp.
Mary Jane runs into a recycling center where she pushes a heavy pile of paper atop him. She then throws a bucket full of dust at him and climbs to the roof. Hydro-Man, now weakened due to being away from a water source, gets on top of the roof as well. He begins to fall apart and he charges at Spider-Man. But Spider-Man dodges him and Hydro-Man’s body falls apart as he evaporates. Mary Jane asks him if he is dead but Spider-Man claims that he could return in the form of rain.
Hydro-Man Returns
Mary Jane and Peter get married and they head to Niagara Falls for a late honeymoon celebration. Mary Jane tells Peter about being plagued by a dream where she keeps getting chased and attacked by clowns and pirates while she wears a wedding gown.
The couple reaches their destination and boards a boat. They spend their moments together but Peter’s spider senses get triggered and rightfully so, as Hydro-Man returns. He wants to make Mary Jane her lover and takes her away to New York with Peter chasing after them.
In New York, Peter searches every water-based location but is still unable to find Mary Jane. The police look into the matter as well and Terri Lee asks Peter not to intervene. Meanwhile, Felicia dons the Black Cat’s costume and goes to find Mary Jane by herself.
Spider-Man steals a sample that Terri Lee had been investigating to narrow down the geographical location of Mary Jane. The unrefined hydrocarbons give away the fact that Mary Jane is being kept in an oil drill. He succeeds at finding them and the Black Cat catches up as well.
As Mary Jane tries to evade Hydro-Man, Spider-Man arrives and engages him in a duel. He freezes Hydro-Man but he escapes soon enough. He traps Spider-Man in a steel structure and breaks the oil drill fortress, hoping to get him electrocuted. However, Black Cat saves him while Hydro-Man escapes.
Mary Jane steals a boat and arrives onshore but gets arrested for theft. Hydro-Man attacks the police and Mary Jane escapes to a nearby facility. Hydro-Man catches up but she uses the chemicals from a storeroom and sends out red fumes, which allows Spider-Man and Black Cat to locate her. They arrive in time to fight Hydro-Man. However, Hydro-Man turns his water arms into a drill and advances at Spider-Man with the intent to kill but Mary Jane knocks him away, exhibiting that she has the power to control water as well.
Spider-Man Finds Out That Mary Jane Is The Clone Of The Real
With her newfound power, Mary Jane takes the issue to Terri Lee for investigation. She also goes to Dr. Curt Connors with Peter. He unearths her repressed memories using hypnosis and she relives the nightmare that had been bothering her.
Meanwhile, Hydro-man is unable to re-materialize and Miles Warren tries to help him out but Hydro-Man leaves to spy on Aunt May instead. He eavesdrops on her phone conversation and learns of Peter and Mary Jane’s location. At the same time, Mary Jane turns into the water against her will and Peter realizes that her dreams are the key to saving her – he had to decode it.
He goes to a themed restaurant and follows one clue after another until he finds a tunnel. Mary Jane is also taken to a lab which she recognizes from her dream. Spider-Man reaches the lab via the tunnel and attacks Hydro-Man. In a while, Miles Warren appears and Spider-Man recognizes him as his cloning experiments were banned.
What Miles Warren reveals shocks everyone. Not only is Hydro-Man a clone but Mary Jane is also a clone as she was made from her hair sample and Hydro-Man’s water molecules. In the end, she begins to evaporate as Hydro-Man destroys the place but before she goes away, she tells Peter that the original Mary Jane must’ve loved him a lot as she herself felt so strongly for him despite being just a clone.
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