Owl (Marvel Comics) - Fictional Character Biography

Fictional Character Biography

Leland Owlsley was once a successful financier and financial investor, nicknamed "The Owl of Wall Street" for his financial wisdom, until his criminal connections were exposed by the IRS. After this event he abandoned his profession and became a professional criminal and eventually a formidable crime lord, battling Daredevil in his first appearance. Though he later got a serum which gave him the ability to fly and slowly mutated him further, he was primarily a criminal mastermind and used his shrewd tactical intellect as a weapon more than his other abilities. He has used his powers in attempts to eliminate Daredevil. He has no criminal record outside of minor misdemeanors despite his once vast criminal enterprise.

The Owl kidnapped the judge who had previously sentenced him, and battled Daredevil using a giant mechanical owl. Owl later moved his base to San Francisco, and allied with Mr. Kline. He attempted to capture Daredevil, but was foiled by the Black Widow. The Owl then moved to Chicago, and acquired the technology to drain human brains of knowledge, and battled the Cat. The Owl returned to San Francisco, and briefly captured Daredevil and the Black Widow. The Owl was later stricken with a debilitating ailment resulting in the paralysis of his legs. He returned to New York, and recruited the Man-Bull. The Owl attempted to kidnap a neurologist to cure his ailment, but was foiled by Daredevil.

The Owl was later rescued by his henchmen, and fitted with a neurological pacemaker to cure his ailment. He battled Daredevil and Spider-Man, and was incapacitated when his pacemaker short-circuited. The Owl was confined to a life-support module designed by the Maggia. He schemed to loot New York under cover of a city-wide blackout, but was captured by Spider-Man, the Black Widow, and Simon Stroud. No longer confined to the module, the Owl later engaged in a gang war against Doctor Octopus in an attempt to usurp the Kingpin's position as the crime boss of New York's underworld. The Owl encountered Spider-Man and the Black Cat, and was beaten by Doctor Octopus. The Owl was later mystically summoned to Winnipeg, Canada, by Llan the Sorcerer. There, he battled Alpha Flight and Gamma Flight with Nekra, the Asp, and the Scorpion. The Owl was later among the criminals assembled by Doctor Doom to battle the Fantastic Four in Washington, D.C.

Over the years the Owl has become less and less human as a result of bizarre experiments he has subjected himself to in efforts to improve his natural ability to glide and repair damage to his spine that rendered him a paraplegic. The Owl once needed to use an exoskeleton to walk but has since recovered from this injury.

Although the Owl was Daredevil's arch-nemesis for much of his early career, he is no longer as prominent as some of Daredevil's other enemies, primarily the Kingpin and Bullseye. The Owl has started to re-establish his presence in the criminal underworld with the absence of the Kingpin. He began to enlarge his criminal empire by refining Mutant Growth Hormone from his own genetic material, though Daredevil was able to get him arrested (Despite some sources, the Owl is NOT a mutant. MGH has been refined from non-mutants in the past, such as Mattie Franklin, the mystically-powered Spider-Woman). During the Acts of Vengeance, Owl was one of the villains who attacked Alpha Flight. He was also seen attacking the Fantastic Four with other villains.

More recently so, he managed to manipulate behind the scenes and get the Kingpin arrested for a past murder when it looked like Fisk was going to make a deal with the FBI. As the Kingpin sauntered into his jail cell, the Owl taunted him with "Payback's a bitch."

The deal in question involved Matt Murdock being arrested for being Daredevil. When Foggy Nelson, representing Murdock in court, visited him in jail, he was apparently killed by the other prisoners. The Owl later taunted Murdock about this, and Murdock, who had become unhinged due to his friend's death, brutally beat the Owl. (Unbeknownst to the two of them, Foggy was alive at the time and in witness protection.)

Later, the Owl escaped prison and stole Deathlok from S.H.I.E.L.D., killing four agents in the process. He sets up an auction in hopes of selling him off to the highest bidder to other supervillains. However, he did not ask permission of the self-established 'kingpin of supervillains', The Hood, and the Hood subsequently stole Deathlok from the Owl and shot the Owl.

The Owl has since then appeared in police custody. He was subsequently freed by Wilson Fisk, Kingpin, who sought to employ him as part of his plan to take revenge on The Hand. He takes Dakota North captive and implies he will torture and sexually assault her in order to get information on Daredevil, who then appears and cuts every nerve in both his arms and legs using a sword the Owl had tried to attack him with.

Members of Owl's gang were shown fighting in a gang war with the Maggia at a scrapyard. Hammerhead shot the gang while Silvermane was fed to a metal crusher.

It was later revealed that Owl received his henchmen from Taskmaster who had trained them.

Owl was seen alive and purchasing a product called Ebony which came from the glands of Corruptor. He planned to synthesize it into a street drug only for Daredevil to arrive and steal it.