The Circus of Crime is the name of several supervillain organizations appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The villains have battled Hulk, Spider-Man, and Kid Colt.
The original group included the Ringmaster, Blackwing, the Clown, Fire-Eater, the Great Gambinos, Human Cannonball, Live Wire, Rajah, Bruto the Strongman and Teena the Fat Lady.
The Circus of Crime established themselves as recurrent antagonists in several Marvel Comics series, where they briefly attempted to recruit Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch into their ranks when the Avengers had been disbanded. The Ringmaster later hypnotized Thor into assisting with one of the Circus' schemes while the Thunder God was stripped of most of his powers except his strength. Battling the Avengers again, they attempted to sabotage the Wasp and Yellowjacket's wedding. Other encounters pitted them against Daredevil and Power Man. They later fought Power Pack and Generation X.
Initially depicted as credible villains, the Circus of Crime's members were gradually used by writers as comic foils, and were once defeated by Howard the Duck. They were featured as antagonists in the first issue of the Sensational She-Hulk series, in which writer John Byrne regularly used minor or forgotten characters for parodic purposes.
Current members[]
- Ringmaster (Maynard Tiboldt) - The hypnotist, ringmaster, and leader of the Circus of Crime. He is the son of Fritz Tiboldt.
- Princess Python - A snake charmer who is usually assisted by a giant ball python, she eventually leaves the circus to join the Serpent Society.
- Clown (Eliot "Crafty" Franklin) - A circus clown who is the Circus of Crime's occasional leader. He also works as a solo assassin and has a son named Corky Franklin. Clown later became Griffin of Gamma Corps.
- Clown II - The unnamed half-brother of Eliot Franklin became the second Clown.
- Clown III - A circus clown with an unknown background.
- Bruto the Strong Man (Bruce Olafson) - A strongman from Sweden.
- Teena the Fat Lady (Mary Stensen) - A sideshow performer. She left the circus in an effort to raise a family, but eventually returned.
- Human Cannonball (Jack Pulver) - A human cannonball.
- The Great Gambonnos (Ernesto and Luigi Gambonno) - Two Italian acrobats.
- Live Wire (Rance Preston) - A lariat artist and former agent of the Psycho-Man. He joined the Circus of Crime in Power Man #24 (April 1975).
- Rajah (Kabir Mahadevu) - An elephant trainer. He often fights while riding on an elephant.
- Fire-Eater (Tomas Ramirez) - A fire-eater who led the others to force Clown back into crime when he attempted to retire.
- Antoro - An animal trainer who specializes with working with gorillas, tigers, and other animals.
- Tarrax the Tamer - A big cat trainer. Not to be confused with Terrax the Tamer, a Herald of Galactus.
- Fifi - A female archer. Later knocked unconscious and impersonated by Kate Bishop, who stole her costume and bow.
- An unidentified protege of the Swordsman.
In other media[]
- The Circus of Crime appears in "The Incredible Hulk" portion of The Marvel Super Heroes.
- The Circus of Crime appears in the Spider-Man episode "Carnival of Crime".
- The Circus of Crime appears in the Avengers Assemble episode "Crime and Circuses". The members featured are Ringmaster, Strongman, the Great Gambonnos, Human Cannonball, and Trickshot. Hawkeye and Princess Python are both depicted as former members of the group.
- Captain Corbett and the entire 19th century Circus of Crime appear in Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2. During the Guardians of the Galaxy's fight with MODOK, Rocket Raccoon and Groot are captured by the Circus of Crime. Star-Lord then rescues his friends with help from Kid Colt and Arizona Annie.