Circus of Crime/Ringmaster

First Appearance in Hulk comic: The Incredible Hulk #3

Core members of the Circus of Crime: Ringmaster, Princess Python, the Clown, Cannonball, Flying Gambonnos

Origin: The Circus of Crime is a group of circus performers who decided to use their abilities for crime purposes and just give performances as a front.

Powers/Abilities: The Ringmaster uses an artifical device to hypnotize people. At first the device was in the tophat he wore but later his eyes were modified to create the same effect. The Clown is an expert with various weapons and combat methods. Prince Python mentally controls a large constrictor. Cannonball wears a strong, bullet-shaped head piece and fires himself out of a cannon at objects or people. The Flying Gambonnos use their acrobatic abilities during fighting.

Artist Representation Gallery

Origin: During an experiment to create a new weapon, AIM took on of their own workers for the experiment. That man turned into MODOK and took over control of AIM.

GREAT MOMENTS IN HISTORY

The Incredible Hulk #3: Two FBI agents come into a town full of hypnotized people who have been robbed, much like other towns they have seen. The only thing that seems common is a circus which has been there. At another town, the Ringmaster hypnotizes his audience and his Circus of Crime robs them and the town. Later, the Circus of Crime goes to another town and Rick Jones is in the audience. As he gets hypnotized, the Hulk senses Rick is in trouble, so he goes to help him. The members of the Circus attack the Hulk and he is finally knocked unconscious. The Ringmaster hypnotizes the Hulk and the Circus leaves the town with them. Rick gets the FBI agents and they catch up to the circus. When the Hulk hears Rick's voice, he snaps out of the trance and defeats the Circus of Crime.

The Incredible Hulk #217: The Hulk happens across some sideshow freaks, befriends them (including one who is extremely sick), and joins them on their journey. Shortly thereafter, they are attacked by the Ringmaster and Circus of Crime who are trying to stop the freaks from escaping with Meriam, the one who is sick. The Ringmaster manages to hypnotize the Hulk and capture him along with the all the freaks. Later, the Hulk sits hypntoized in a circus wagon while the other freaks are trapped in another. The Ringmaster asks Meriam to tell him her secrets to make him a wealthy man. Meriam refuses even with threats of harm. The freaks manage to get out of their wagon and way the Hulk from his hypnotic state by reminding him of Meriam. The Hulk breaks into the wagon with Meriam and the Ringmaster and a fight ensues between the Circus of Crime and the sideshow freaks. While the freaks manage to defeat the Circus of Crime, the Ringmaster tries to hypnotize the Hulk again but the shear fury of the Hulk actually manages to scare the daylights out of the Ringmaster, who just crumbles in fear. The Hulk takes Meriam and sets her free in the ocean, where she came from.

The Incredible Hulk #292: In Mexico, the Ringmaster and the Circus of Crime perform legitimate cicus performances due to being wanted by the authorities in teh United States. The Ringmaster, depressed by what has become of his life, uses a hypnotized Dragonman in his act to amaze the audience. One night, the Dragonman escapes and feeds upon gamma radiation-developed crops which are being grown with the help of Bruce Banner. The Ringmaster manages to hypnotic the Dragonman and bring him back to the circus. Bruce and Kate Waynesboro visit the circus and the Clown recognizes Bruce and tells the Ringmaster. The Ringmaster decides to try and get back some confidence by defeating the Hulk, the person who first defeated him those years ago. During the performance, the Ringmaster hypntoizes Bruce and makes him come down and turn into the Hulk. Since he was controlling the Hulk, the Ringmaster manages to loose control over the Dragonman who snaps out of it and wants to get revenge on the Ringmaster. The Ringmaster orders the Hulk defend him and the Hulk and Dragonman fight each other. The fight brings down the tent on most of the Circus of Crime. Kate points Cannonball at the Ringmaster as he fires out of the cannon and the Ringmaster looses his hat. The Dragonman steps on the hat and the Hulk breaks free of the hypnotic spell.

The Incredible Hulk #377: As part of a work-release deal with the prison, the Ringmaster is released and helpd Doc Samson with Bruce Banner, who is falling apart due to conflicts with his multiple personalities. The Ringmaster uses his hypnotic disk to bring all the personalities together in Bruce's mind to help merge them into one personality (although it was later determined to be a fourth personality and not actually a merger).

The Incredible Hulk #379: The Hulk takes Doc Samson and the Ringmaster out for drinks to celebrate. When some rough-type of guys say that the three of them are sitting in their seats, the Ringmaster offers to use hypnosis to make them go away but the Hulk manages to "persuade" them to leave.

Cutting Edge #1: The Ringmaster walks into a base and past the captured Hulk (actually the Savage Hulk's mind trapped in Bruce Banner's body). The Ringmaster goes to visit Major Talbot. Talbot tells the Ringmaster that he wants his help in researching how and why the Hulk changes. The Ringmaster doesn't want to help but Talbot threatens to tie him up in court for years for the crimes of the Circus of Crime if he doesn't agree to help. The Ringmaster had been recently working on a disk which created almost solid objects. Talbot gives him money and a lab to build a machine that creates solid objects. Omnibus, in disguise as Talbot's assistant, gives Talbot technology to help the Ringmaster create his machine. They start up the machine and the Ringmaster does a few experiments by creating different versions of the Hulk in front of the Hulk along with some villians. When the Ringmaster creates an image of Betty, the Professor persona appears. The Hulk then breaks the cell bars and the Ringmaster makes it appear as if they reformed. Suddenly, there are handcuffs on the Ringmaster out of thin air and a giant boar resembling a German boar appears and attacks the soldiers. The Hulk realizes it is just an image and jumps out of the cell at the boar. The Ringmaster realizes that the images are from his mind as German soldier and tanks via WW II appear and start shooting at everybody. The Hulk defeats them. Then a large, demonic-looking Uncle Sam appears and reaches for the Ringmaster, representing his fear of small-minded Americans afraid of foreigns much like the same that sent his parents back to Germany to die during the war. The Hulk saves him in time and then the Ringmaster tires to control his mind and fears until sandstorm kicks in out of nowhere. They are in the middle of a soldier's fear of what Desert Storm could have been as the Ringmaster explains to the Hulk about the machine he created. They push forward to try and find the machine somewhere in the nightmare they are in. The Ringmaster tries to program his control disc to override the main unit when he sees something coming his way. All the 'rubes' he had conned in his life had caught up with him. A giant worm-like creature representing the Ringmaster's father pops up out of the ground adn saves him from the 'rubes' as the Hulk continues to fight other fears. The Ringmaster yells to everybody that they have to banish the images or they will be destroyed but the tail of the worm hits him. The Hulk notices a cord and jumps to pull it out, stopping the machine. The Ringmaster takes money from Major Talbot but feels dirty about it because he knows that even though he was helping the government, it was not the right thing to do.

The Incredible Hulk #469: In the optics Division of Devlin DeAngelo's company, a team of scientists are seen working on the eyes of the Ringmaster. Later, when Bruce is drinking coffee at a diner, the Ringmaster comes in and Bruce asks him to sit, confident that he can not doing anything to him since the Ringmaster does not have his hat. Bruce finds out too late that the hypnotic disks have been implanted in the Ringmaster's eyes and he manages to hypntoize Bruce and tell him he will go to Las Vegas to visit a circus.

The Incredible Hulk #470: The Clown relates to Doc Samson what has related recently in regards to the Circus of Crime and the Hulk. It started off with the Ringmaster visiting with the Clown, who is now running the Circus of Crime. The Ringmaster first tries to hypnotize the clown but it doesn't work on the clown. The Ringmaster then tells the Clown that he has a new plan but he will have to eliminate his past for it to work so he just wanted to say good-bye to him. Later, the Clown and the rest of the C of C rob a bank. The crew decides to knock over a casino later but it is also being hit at the same time by some mob guys who have Bruce with them because he was trying to help Marlo out of some trouble. A fire fight starts and Bruce turns into the Hulk. The hypnotic spell put into Bruce by the Ringmaster makes the Hulk go after the Clown to kill him. He takes most of the Circus of Crime out before he gets to the Clown. Before the Hulk can kill the Clown, Python Princess's snake wraps around the Hulk's head and cuts out his oxygen long enough for the Hulk to pass out.

The Incredible Hulk #471: The Circus of Crime has Bruce drugged up and in chains and start to bicker with each other when work leaks out in Las Vegas that the Hulk is in town. People place bets as to what the Hulk is going to do while in Vegas. The Circus performs their usual show until Bruce wakes up, thanks to Marlo and Dr. Spar, and turns into the Hulk. He goes after the Clown again and defeats the rest of the Circus along the way. The Hulk stands in front of the Clown and when the Clown's gun clicks empty, the Hulk just knocks him unconscious and jumps away. Unbeknownst to anyone, the Clown had made a bet with the bookies in town as to what the Hulk was going to do and made a ton of money just in the fact that he was defeated.