One of the things that Jonah says about Spider-man is that he creates his own villains. No one is more true of this statement than Hydro-man. Introduced in Amazing Spider-Man #212 (1981) by Dennis O’Neil and John Romita Jr., Morris Bench was an ordinary cargo ship worker, when Spidey, exhausted from battling Namor, knocked Bench overboard. At the same time an experimental generator was been lowered into the waters. The energy from this generator merged Bench with the surrounding waters turning him into Hydro-man. He blamed Spidey for this and hunted him down. He was defeated and later teamed up with Sandman, who would merge with him to create the Mud-Monster. The two were eventually separate, with Sandman trying to become a hero.

He later joined Sinister Syndicate but the team was beaten by Spidey, Silver Sable and Sandman. He later joined the Wizard’s Frightful Four, with Titania and Klaw to battle the Fantastic Four. During the Act of Vengeance, he joined the Assembly Of Evil to battle the Avengers and the Cosmic Spider-man. He rejoined the Sinister Syndicate and fought the New Warriors. After that, he started popping up in various places like the AIM Expo and Absorbing Man and Titania’s wedding. He then joined Justine Hammer’s Masters of Evil. He returned to the Frightful Four and was then sent to the Raft, where he escaped during Electro’s breakout. Shortly before the Civil War, he was one of the members of Green Goblin’s Sinister Twelve. He was captured during the Civil War by the Scarlet Spiders. After rejoining the Frightful Four against the F4, Black Panther and Storm, he joined Hood’s gang. He went onto battle various heroes such as Deadpool and Hawkeye.

Hydro-man grew in popularity when he was featured heavily in 90’s Spider-man cartoon. (It should be noted that the comic’s Hydro-man has no relationship to MJ in any form or capacity.) Because of the nature of his powers (hard to show the water effects), he has had very few figures over the years. Toybiz release his second Frightful Four costume in their Amazing Spider-man line. Hasbro also did a Hydro-man in his classic costume outfit in their Far From Home wave.

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Have

Classic

Recommend Figure: Hasbro Marvel Legends Spider-man: Far From Home Molten Man wave Hydro-man

• Background:
  • Throughout most of his early career, Hydro-man didn’t wear a “costume” per say. But he did generally wore the same outfit, with it being a black/navy/blue shirt with jeans.
•  Why you need it for your collection?:
  • This is a big part of Spidey’s rogue gallery, so it can be used for that. However, it can also be used for the Fantastic Four, being that he has been a part of several Frightful Four teams, as well as part of several Avengers’ villain teams. Out of the 2 figure available, this is the one to get.
• Does it need a remake?:
  • No.

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Second Frightful Four costume

Recommend Figure: Toybiz The Amazing Spider-man Series 2 Hydro-man

• Background:
  • When Wizard gathered a new team of Frightful Four, along with his ex-wife and daughter, he upgrade Hydro-man’s and the Trapster’s powers and costume. This would go onto to be used for a while.
•  Why you need it for your collection?:
  • Given that none of the other member have been made and that it has a silly action feature, I would say skip this one. It was also part of Toybiz classic line that was shortpacked so it might be hard to find now.
• Does it need a remake?:
  • If they do the other members of the team in this design, yes. Otherwise, no.

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Needs

Below you will find a gallery of suits that still need to be made. I have included what I think are the possibilities of them being made. Note that these are my personal opinions and not fact. Please let me know if I have missed anything.