The Bee-Keeper
Brian Nisbet
Ever since his youth, Brian Nisbet admired the fuzzy yellow-and-black perfection that is the bee. The socially awkward and bullied boy envied their ability to work together in perfect harmony and–if provoked–to sting with a ferocity that belied their size. The insects became the focus of his scientific genius, and in all the fields he excelled in, his studies and inventions all centered around bees.
By the 1940s, Nisbet was among the world’s leading bee experts, and yet was somehow neither rich or famous. As he saw it, instead of celebrating and rewarding his achievements, the human race chose to plunge itself into madness and the most devastating wars it had ever fought. In time what began as simple jealousy and resentment on his part gradually turned to mania, of the sort that leads someone to don a fuzzy yellow-and-black business suit with matching mask.
As the super-villainous Bee-Keeper, Nisbet resolved to use his knowledge to make the world feel the sting of his vengeance. Once all mankind feared and respected him, he would then teach humanity to live as the bees do: working long and hard for the betterment of all, and for its unchallenged leader most of all.
Unfortunately, his plans–in addition to being completely insane–required lots of cash; much more than even the best-paid apologists had, in fact. As a result, Nisbet was forced to put world domination on hold in favor of knocking over a few liquor stores, banks, and jewelers. In the process, Hepcat, the famed Freedom City beat poet/costumed vigilante became the Bee-Keeper’s very first archenemy.
The defeats suffered at Hepcat’s hipster hands prompted a chastened Nisbet to take the initial steps towards founding Troublemakers, Inc. Though not its most powerful or brilliant member, the Bee-Keeper devised the team’s criminal schemes and was the essential beeswax holding its members together. The Bee-Keeper was the only one who never threatened to punch out the Amazing Rando, and whose leadership kept up Calendar Girl’s courage and focus. He alone had Dr. Zorka’s respect as a scientific peer, and joined the Smoker for post-heist beers. Without Nisbet’s coelacanth-finding acumen, there would have been no Teen-Age Caveman around to do the team’s grunt work.
Brian Nisbet started out as a small-time crook working the Troublemakers, Inc., back in the 1950s. After a number of thefts (the most spectacular being robbing every Studebaker dealership in Freedom City), the gang eventually broke up. Nisbet did his share of time in prison, but dedicated himself to further understanding his precious bees. By the time he got out, he had expanded the science tremendously.
So the infamous Bee-Keeper returned with a new costume and motif and control over strains of mutant bees with tremendous powers, enough to make him an occasional foe of The Centurion. He attempted to steal various supplies and scientific secrets to further his own experiments and to blackmail the city and the country with the threat of deadly “killer bee” swarms or giant bees, even established a massive hive in the superstructure of a construction site in Freedom City. Each time, the Bee-Keeper met defeat at the hands of the Centurion and other heroes.
The threat represented by the Bee-Keeper was not necessarily in his own capabilities (although he could handle himself in a fight, when it came to that), it was his talent for creating and training different sorts of bees and bee-like creatures to do his bidding from swarms of conventional-sized “killer bees” to human-sized (or larger!) mutant bees.
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