Carl Burbank (Earth-616)

Carl Burbank was originally a Catholic priest but abandoned his vows following the drug-related deaths of young parishioners.^[8] He joined the C.I.A., which outfitted him with a cybernetic arm and made him an assassin under the codename Bushwacker, but ultimately he became a freelancer.^[8]

Burbank took advantage of the mutant hysteria and used it to get work as people would pay top dollar to kill a mutant. He began hunting and murdering mutants, most often those mutants whose abilities Bushwacker perceived as making them especially talented in the arts. Burbank's killing spree brought him into conflict with both Wolverine and Daredevil. Wolverine learned of Bushwacker's activities and began to hunt the killer himself. At the same time, Burbank's wife believed her husband was insane and needed to be placed in a hospital. She sought aid from lawyer Matt Murdock (secretly Daredevil). Daredevil found Wolverine fighting Bushwacker, and he would have killed him if Daredevil hadn’t stopped him. Unfortunately, this allowed Bushwacker to escape and continue his rampage. Bushwacker was ultimately tracked down and defeated by the two heroes, which left the right side of his face horribly scarred, and he was placed in police custody.^[9]

Later, Burbank joined with Typhoid Mary and other Daredevil foes in a plan to defeat their common enemy. After the completion of the plan, Mary took Daredevil's body, and Bushwacker was left to his own activities.^[10] Druglord Nick Lambert hired Bushwacker, via a proxy, to track reporter Ben Urich, as Urich was receiving information from a traitor in Lambert's staff. Bushwacker murdered the mole but he then saw the info Urich was receiving, including incriminating pictures of Lambert. Bushwacker then changed sides and helped Urich, because Lambert had been one druglord active in Bushwacker's old parish. Thanks to Bushwacker's assistance, Lambert was judged, released on lack of evidence and then brutally murdered by Bushwacker.^[8]

Entering the Kingpin's employ, Burbank attacked the Punisher but was left for dead. It was during this time that his wife finally left him. He reappeared in the employ of a drug lord who hired Bushwacker to kill reporter Ben Urich who was about to run a story of his illegal activities. Instead, when Bushwacker learned the truth, he allowed Urich to live and to complete the expose. However, it was Bushwacker that was proved right, as the drug lord managed to bribe himself out of jail. Bushwacker shot him, instead.^[11]

His run-in with Nomad, in particular, was over the life of a young baby that Nomad had taken under his care. The baby was the daughter of Troy Donohue, Burbank’s ex-brother-in-law. Burbank hoped that his wife would approve of the rescue and welcome him back.^[12]

Bushwacker fought Daredevil and Deathlok, then decided that he was not being paid enough and tried to renegotiate his contract with Jenkins. Jenkins however failed to see the point in keeping a thug who had not proved his worth, and Bushwacker left.^[13]

Architect offered big money to the first assassin that could kill him. During the job Burbank faced off against Boomerang but were interrupted by Elektra who deflected Boomerang's razorang and it ended up severing his prosthetic arm.^[14]

Bushwacker was then hired by the Kingpin again to cooperate with assassin Bullseye, ninja organization The Hand and the Kingpin himself to capture a Russian ship loaded with weaponry that could unleash a war. Daredevil stopped them.^[15]

Burbank became a client of Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway after a rampage days before his court hearing. Burbank shot two armored guards that try to apprehend him but was confronted by the Two Gun Kid. The two men have an old fashioned stand-off, but he lost due to Two Gun Kid's superior skills.^[16] Imprisoned in the Raft, Burbank escaped during the mass breakout engineered by Electro.^[17] He was subsequently employed by the Jackal to kill the Punisher, but he was defeated once again by Daredevil.^[3]

Afterward, Bushwacker created a disturbance downtown and took a girl hostage to lure the Punisher out of hiding, so he could kill him. The Punisher showed up, but Bushwacker was shot down by G. W. Bridge and put back in jail.^[18]

He joined the Hood's criminal army.^[19] It was created to take advantage of the chaos created due to the Superhuman Registration Act.^[20] He was active with the group during the Secret Invasion of the Skrulls, where they worked with the heroes to defeat the alien army.^[21] He worked with the team on various missions,^[22] including facing the New Avengers.^[23] Burbank took part in the Siege of Asgard as part of the Hood's criminal army.^[24] Afterwards, he was arrested and imprisoned again in the Raft.^[25]

Burbank was next hired by the Assassins Guild to track down the money Domino stole and then kill her. Wolverine cut off his arm and then stabbed him in the throat.^[26]

At some point in time, Bushwacker was imprisoned by S.H.I.E.L.D. in Pleasant Hill, a prison in the form of a small town where its inmates had their memories and appearances tampered with using a sentient Cosmic Cube named Kobik, so they could be turned into model citizens. When a group of villains led by Baron Zemo snapped out of this fantasy world and returned to their true selves, they attacked the village from within, wrecking havoc and freeing the other prisoners from Pleasant Hill's control.

Bushwacker was one of these numerous villains. When the bad guys took notice of the presence of the Avengers on the scene, they used their numbers to their advantage and mercilessly struck down the heroes. However, Kobik took compassion on the Avengers and healed them.^[27] After saving the heroes, Kobik disappeared from the scene. Bushwacker was one of the villains sent by Zemo to find her, albeit to no avail.^[28]

After the Inhuman precog Ulysses Cain had a vision of Luke Cage orchestrating a prison break at Ryker's Island to free Danny Rand, Captain Marvel led a team to arrest him. During the subsequent battle, Centurius fired a blast at Storm, which struck the special detention unit and knocked the power dampening field offline, allowing Bushwacker to escape containment. After Luke Cage sacrificed himself to prevent Bushwacker from killing Captain Marvel, Carol overlooked Ulysses' vision, and allowed the Heroes for Hire to leave, while tasking Storm and Spectrum with coordinating the clean up and recapture of the inmates.^[29]

Bushwacker then attempted to kill his former employer, Wilson Fisk, who had recently returned to Hell's Kitchen from San Francisco. Kingpin shielded his newest lieutenant, Janus Jardeesh, from harm with his own body, then struck Bushwacker with a garbage can lid, disorienting him so that he could gain the advantage, ultimately stepping on the would-be assassin's throat until his neck snapped.

Spectrum, Captain America, and Night Thrasher later confronted Fisk concerning Bushwacker's whereabouts, after again receiving intel from Ulysses that Burbank was coming to see the Kingpin; however, Fisk denied any knowledge of the escaped criminal's present location.^[4] Bushwacker later returned through unknown means and attended a meeting to discuss the Hood's rise as the new Kingpin of crime.^[5] He later joined Hood's gang of villains and participated in a fight against Iron Man, War Machine, and a contingent of remotely-controlled Iron Man Armors.^[30] He also joined the Assassins Guild in going after Deadpool after he killed a number of its members, but he failed to get Deadpool.^[31]

Bushwacker was eventually hired by the U.S. Hulk Operations to monitor and possibly kill the Hulk. He watched as the Absorbing Man fought Hulk before becoming possessed by the One Below All and get ripped in half. As Absorbing Man ran away and Hulk was confronted by Gamma Flight and reporter Jackie McGee, Bushwacker took a shot at Hulk, hitting him in the eye but failing to kill him. Absorbing Man then absorbed the leftover gamma energy at the site where Bruce Banner became the Hulk which allowed the One Below All within Creel to used the Green Door to transplant the surrounding area into the Hell-like realm of Below-Place. Bushwacker was transported into Below-Place,^[32] and later returned back to Earth when Hulk defeated the One Below All.^[33]

Bushwacker continued to track Banner and eventually found him holed up in the home of his estranged wife Betty Banner. Bushwacker was eager to kill Banner even if it meant hitting Betty as well. Even though his boss General Fortean ordered him to wait, Bushwacker fired anyway and struck Betty in the head. Banner became the Hulk and attacked Bushwacker. When Bushwacker couldn't kill Hulk, he panicked. He was unexpectedly saved from the Hulk's wrath by Banner's longtime friend Doc Samson. While Samson held off Hulk, Bushwacker made his escape.^[34]

When Hulk and Samson went looking for the body of Rick Jones after it was taken by the Hulk Operations, the Hulk Operations set up a trap in its former base in New Mexico. After Hulk and Samson fought gamma-mutated creatures, Bushwacker surprised them and forced Hulk to revert back to Banner using solar emitters. After killing Samson with a shot to the head, Bushwacker shot Banner, causing Banner's Grey Hulk to persona to emerge. Banner used the Grey Hulk's cunning to escape from Bushwacker by first throwing ants in his face and then overpowering him temporarily. After recovering, Bushwacker chased after Banner and shot him multiple times. However, Banner was able to access the base's computer system and take control of the solar emitters, making them emit gamma energy instead of solar energy. Banner once again became the Hulk and killed Bushwacker before destroying the entire base using the excess gamma energy he absorbed.^[35]

After Ben Reilly once again took over the mantle of Spider-Man, he fought Bushwacker in Texas, rescuing the mutant's hostages at the behest of the Beyond Corporation. During this encounter, Bushwacker's face was free of scarring, possibly related to whatever brought him back after his death at the hands of The Hulk.^[7]

He later began killing mutants that were specifically artists, when Cerebra and the Marauders confronted him in order to protect a young mutant. This confrontation resulted in him being turned into an artist and no longer a killer.^[36] This change didn't last long as Bushwacker joined a new version of the group Night Shift, which was formed by the Offer in order to protect him from the new Punisher, Joe Garrison.^[37]

Cybernetic Enhancements: Burbank possesses various superhuman physical attributes as a result of various cybernetic enhancements.^[38]

• Superhuman Strength: Burbank's limbs have been replaced with advanced cybernetic components, granting him superhuman strength of an unrevealed limit.^[38]
• Superhuman Durability: Burbank's body is considerably more resistant to physical injury than that of an ordinary human. Burbank's skin has been replaced with an artificial type of plastic that looks identical to human skin but is much more durable.^[38]
• Regenerative Healing Factor: Bushwacker's cybernetics/mutation extends not only from his limbs but his whole body.^[39] Turning much of which into polymorphic elastoid substance whenever he incurs physical damage enabling him to recover from the most extensive injuries.^[26]
• Weapon Transformation: His skin is composed of a malleable plastic that appears human, but can stretch into a variety of shapes around his transformable musculature. Burbank's cybernetic arms conceal a variety of firearms; he prefers to transform only his right arm, but has occasionally changed his left, too, when circumstances dictated the need.^[3] It can transform into one of three modes:^[38]
  • Arm Mode: In arm mode, he has a functional human arm.^[38]
  • Pistol Mode: Where his fingers become hollow and can fire small-caliber handgun rounds.^[38]
  • Machine Gun Mode: Where his forearm resembles an automatic carbine complete with handgrip and stock. In machine gun mode, he can rapidly fire armor-piercing bullets from four separate barrels simultaneously.^[38]
  • Ammunition: Precisely where his body stores ammunition is unknown, but he ejects spent casings in machine gun mode rather than retaining them.^[38]

Bushwacker is a trained covert operative with skills in assassination and espionage.^[38]

• Bushwacker at one point revealed to Daredevil that he had made the ironic discovery that he was a mutant himself, and that the C.I.A. had not altered his physiology in any way outside of activating his dormant X-Gene. This revelation instilled in Burbank the new belief that he was "born to kill."^[3] Psylocke would later call Bushwacker "a mutant who kills mutants."^[36]

• Wolverine believes that Bushwacker views himself as an artist more than an assassin and that he is obsessed with killing in an 'aesthetically pleasing' way.^[40]