Leila Davis is a fictional character, a comic book supervillainess and later costumed hero in the Marvel Comics universe. She first went by Hardshell and later as the second version of Beetle. She was primarily an enemy of Spider-Man and the original Beetle.
Fictional character biography
Leila is at first the wife of the Ringer (Anthony Davis). After Anthony is manipulated by the original Beetle (Abner Jenkins) into a life of crime which included multiple conflicts with Spider-Man, he is eventually killed by the anti-hero Scourge. Leila swears revenge on all three of them. She joins the Sinister Syndicate team led by Jenkins, in order to get close to him. She also serves as the group's getaway driver.
Once Boomerang was captured by Spider-Man on the group's first mission, she began dating Speed Demon. Eventually, the Shocker engineers a breakout for Boomerang and the team fractures, with Boomerang, Rhino, and Leila (using her husband's old weapons) battling Beetle, Speed Demon, and Hydro-Man in the middle of New York City.
After attempting to kill Beetle, Leila is disarmed by Spider-Man and arrested along with Jenkins and Boomerang.
Sometime later, she is paroled from prison and immediately went back to her old ways. Donning a new red and black suit of weaponize armor and referring to herself as "Hardshell", she allies herself with Boomerang, Rhino, and the Vulture. The group became involved in a massive fight that also involves Stegron, Doctor Octopus, Swarm, the Answer, Jenkins, and Spider-Man, with each party trying to gain control of a highly experimental gun. Spider-Man eventually stood victorious and most of the costumed criminals are taken into custody. Leila is teleported away by her husband Anthony, who had been turned into the cyborg Strikeback by the criminal organization 'Advanced Idea Mechanics'.
She reappears years later taking on the Thunderbolts team (which a reformed Jenkins helped found), ironically now referring to herself as the "Beetle". She is wearing a tank-like exoskeleton painted in the same paint scheme as both of Jenkins' previous Beetle costumesâ€"a new iteration of the Beetle armor which Jenkins himself had designed while working for the Commission on Superhuman Activities.
As the second Beetle, Leila eventually joins the group known as the Redeemers, which actually includes several former members of the Thunderbolts. The group takes on the powerful super villain Graviton who would nonchalantly use his power to crush the Beetle armor - with Leila inside - into a small cube.
References
External links
- Beetle on the Marvel Universe Character Bio Wiki
- More on Marvel.com: Beetle on the Marvel Universe Character