Cannonball

 In: Characters
 Posted: 2003
 Staff: Al Sjoerdsma (E-Mail)
File Photo
Attributes
Eyes:

Beady.

Features:

Wears a bullet-shaped hat on his head.

Hair:

Unknown for most of his career (it was covered by that bullet-shaped hat) but now gray.

Height:

5'8" (Approximate.)

Weight:

180 pounds (Approximate.)

Powers
Abilities:

Can be shot out of a cannon, can deliver a mean head-butt, drives the circus truck on occasion.

Equipment:

A cannon, a catapult.

Limitations:

Take away his cannon and he's reduced to running at you with his head down.

Strength Level:

Norman human.

Weapons:

A replica of Thor's hammer, a flame thrower, that bullet-shaped hat.

Summary
Citizenship:

USA.

Created By:

Stan Lee, Jack Kirby.

Current Occupation:

A resident of Seagate Prison.

Dual Identity:

Known to Authorities.

Education:

Unknown but, believe me, he's not walking around with advanced degrees.

Former Aliases:

The Human Cannonball, The Man Called Cannonball.

Former Bases:

All Over the US and Europe.

Former Groups:

The Circus of Crime, The Masters of Menace.

Former Occupation:

Acrobat, Human Cannonball, Crook, Armed Robber.

Known Allies:

The Circus of Crime (The Ringmaster, Bruto the Strong Man, Teena the Fat Lady, Clown, Princess Python, the Great Gambonnos, Ulik, Blackwing, Iron Jack Baker, Fire-Breather (Fire-Eater), Terrax the Tamer, Live Wire) , The Masters of Menace (Clown, Princess Python, the Great Gambonnos).

Known Confidants:

Howard the Duck.

Legal Status:

In the Big House.

Major Enemies:

Hulk, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Thor, the Vision, Howard the Duck, Sub-Mariner, the Shroud, Blossom the Fat Lady, the Thing, Iceman, Giant-Man, Cynthia Randolph, Ben Reilly, Devil Dinosaur, Moonboy

Marital Status:

Single.

Place of Birth:

USA.

Real Name:

Jack Pulver.

Background

Jack Pulver was an acrobat who developed an act whereby he was shot out of a cannon. He joins the Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime from the very beginning and calls himself the Human Cannonball. He initially wears a red crash helmet and purple jumpsuit. In a battle with the Hulk, he has himself shot out of his cannon at the green goliath with no other weapon but a replica of Thor's hammer. The Hulk punches him right up through the top of the circus tent. This stunt, and subsequent dialogue, makes it pretty clear that Jack is not all that smart.

When the Circus of Crime next appears, Jack has changed his outfit. His costume is now orange and he has replaced the crash helmet with a metal bullet- shaped hat so he can use his head as a battering ram. It doesn't help him. Spider-Man rides him through the air like a bucking bronco and steers him into a crash with a whole group of circus rubes.

Now simply calling himself "Cannonball", Jack joins with the Clown, Princess Python and the Great Gambonnos in ousting the Ringmaster and starting up the Masters of Menace. Since he can't tote his cannon around wherever he goes, Jack is reduced to using his bullet hat as a weapon. He head- butts the Ringmaster in the stomach and head-butts J. Jonah Jameson in the forehead. This latter attack puts JJJ in the hospital with a severe concussion. Spider-Man, in his battle with the Masters, saves Cannonball for last because of this cowardly attack on Jameson. The web-slinger "wonks" Cannonball on the top of his bullet hat, crumpling it and knocking it down over his eyes.

Reuniting with the Ringmaster, Cannonball and the other Masters invite Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch to join them but a fight breaks out instead. Cannonball tries to charge, head down like a bull, at Quicksilver but the super-fast mutant has no trouble disposing of him.

When the Circus of Crime try to use Thor to steal a huge bull made of gold, Cannonball's job is to be catapulted through an upstairs museum window and use a flame thrower strapped to his back to open a section of wall. When the plan goes wrong, he manages to escape with the others.

Next stop: crashing the wedding of Yellowjacket and the Wasp. During the ensuing fight, Jack tries to head-butt the Vision, only to knock himself out on the android's diamond hard body. Cannonball gets carted off to prison with the rest of his teammates.

Jack is merely a bystander in the affair involving Thor and Ulik. When the Circus fights Daredevil, Cannonball's only contribution is to rush at the Man Without Fear, miss, and clobber Princess Python's snake instead. But when Howard the Duck is kidnapped by the Ringmaster and forced to join the Circus, Cannonball is the only one who befriends him. He tells Howard that everyone in the Circus originally tried to play it straight but times were too hard for a small circus to survive. He asks Howard not to judge them too harshly because "We seen hard times, too". In the end, though, Cannonball fires himself at the duck. Howard jumps on Jack's back, covers his eyes, and causes Cannonball to plow into a tent pole.

Cannonball travels to Latveria with the rest of the Circus, gets sat on by Blossom the Fat Lady in a battle with the Hulk, gets his bullet hat caved in when he gets fired at the Thing, and flies out of the tent altogether when he's fired at and misses Giant-Man.

When the Clown leaves the group to rejoin his father with the Quentin Carnival, Cannonball is in the vanguard of the group trying to coerce him back. When the gang attacks the carnival, reporter Cynthia Randolph redirects Jack's cannon before it goes off which causes him to be fired right into the Ferris Wheel.

From there, it's just more of the same versus the Hulk, Power Pack, the Ben Reilly Spider-Man, Howard the Duck (Jack gets a nifty new outfit with a bigger bullet hat and spikes on his shoulders but it doesn't do him any good), Generation X, Devil Dinosaur, and Moonboy (he gets to head-butt Moonboy in the stomach, which I know we'd all like to do, but still loses in the end).

Finally, he joins the Clown, Princess Python and the Gambonnos in Hollywood to commit armed robberies. He ends up in the same place he started; having himself fired at the Hulk and knocked through the top of a circus tent whereupon he must have been captured since he was last seen having a conversation with Abner Jenkins in the cafeteria of Seagate Prison.

Image Gallery

Appearances

Cover Date Appearance Information
Sep 1962 App: Incredible Hulk (Vol. 1) #3 (Story 1)
  First Appearance with the Circus of Crime.
Sep 1964 App: Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #16
Mar 1965 App: Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #22
  The Masters of Menace.
Nov 1965 App: Avengers (Vol. 1) #22
  Rejoins Ringmaster and the Circus of Crime.
Oct 1967 App: Thor (Vol. 1) #145
Nov 1967 App: Thor (Vol. 1) #146
Dec 1967 App: Thor (Vol. 1) #147
Jan 1969 App: Avengers (Vol. 1) #60
Feb 1970 App: Thor (Vol. 1) #173
Feb 1975 App: Daredevil (Vol.1) #118
Date TBD App: Howard The Duck #25
Date TBD App: Howard The Duck #26
  Chats with Howard the Duck.
Date TBD App: Howard The Duck #27
Oct 1976 App: Super-Villain Team-Up #8
Nov 1977 App: Incredible Hulk (Vol. 1) #217
Jun 1981 App: Marvel Two-In-One #76
Sep 1982 App: Ghost Rider #72
Oct 1982 App: Ghost Rider #73
Feb 1984 App: Incredible Hulk (Vol. 1) #292
Oct 1990 App: Power Pack #59
Dec 1996 App: Spider-Man Team-Up #5 (Story 1)
Date TBD App: Generation X #32
Year 1998 App: Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) Annual 1998
  Head-butts Moonboy.
Date TBD App: Incredible Hulk (Vol. 1) #470
Date TBD App: Incredible Hulk (Vol. 1) #471
May 1999 App: Thunderbolts #26
  Chats with Abner Jenkins in Prison.
 In: Characters
 Posted: 2003
 Staff: Al Sjoerdsma (E-Mail)