Powers
None
Talents
Electronics, Engineering, Repair/Tinker
Contacts
Underworld
History
Very little is known about the background of the man called the Tinkerer. His career as an inventor and supplier of exotic weaponry and technology to the underworld was already well-established at the time the hero Spider-Man began his crime-fighting career. Operating from beneath the storefront "Tinkerer Repair Shop," the Tinkerer and several unemployed movie stuntmen and special effects people were involved in a scheme to plant monitoring devices inside the radios of certain military and government officials. In so doing, they hoped to learn information with which they could blackmail the officials. Apparently as an elaborate exercise, the Tinkerer's accomplices disguised themselves as extraterrestrials and even had a hovercraft outfitted as an exotic spaceship. When Spider-Man stumbled upon the operation and interfered, he was convinced that it was indeed the handiwork of aliens. The Tinkerer and his accomplices managed to escape from Spider-Man when the Tinkerer's lab went up in flames. Finding a latex lifemask, Spider-Man believed that the Tinkerer, too, was an alien masquerading as a human being. It was not until years later that Spider-Man learned the truth about the situation. One of the bogus aliens went on to become Spider-Man's nemesis Mysterio.
Spider-Man's second encounter with the Tinkerer occurred after the Tinkerer was hired by an undisclosed third party to outfit a car known as the "spider-mobile" with weapons designed to kill Spider-Man. The costumed crimefighter rode in the car to the Tinkerer's new lair, and after a short battle, defeated the Tinkerer and his henchman Toy. Unfortunately, by the time the police came, the Tinkerer had used one of his many gadgets to escape. While defeating another scheme, Spider-Man discovered the Tinkerer's henchman Toy to be a mechanical automaton.
Since then the Tinkerer has refused to commit any crimes himself or to put himself at risk. He has subsequently used his talent for invention solely to design and make exotic weapons and devices for other criminals to use. The Tinkerer is the second largest underworld technology supplier, right after Justin Hammer, and right before Madame Menace. Unlike Hammer and Menace, who farm out the designing and manufacturing of the devices to their staffs, the Tinkerer does all of the work he is contracted for himself. He is the least expensive of the three suppliers, largely because he has such a low overhead and manufactures everything from salvaged parts.
The Tinkerer has worked with or sold weapons to Mysterio, the Ani-Men, the Grim Reaper, Goldbug, Rocket Racer, Big Wheel, Jack-o-Lantern, Whirlwind, and the Jester, among others.
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