Real Name: Abner Jenkins, currently goes by Matthew Davis
Occupation: Former mechanic and professional criminal, now practicing hero
Identity: (as Jenkins) publicly known, (as Davis) secret
Legal status: Citizen of the United States with a criminal record
Place of Birth: Baltimore, Maryland
Marital Status: Single
Known Relatives: None
Group Affiliation: (Former) employee of the Collector and Justin Hammer, (former) partner of the Gladiator, (former) member of Egghead's Masters of Evil, (current)Thunderbolts
Base of Operations: Mt. Charteris
First Appearance: STRANGE TALES #123 (as the Beetle)

History: Abner Jenkins was a master mechanic at an aircraft parts factory who became dissatisfied with his boring, low paying job. Using his considerable mechanical knowledge, Jenkins built an armor-plated, strength-augmenting suit, a pair of gravity-defying wings, suction-fingered gloves, and a cybernetic control helmet. Calling himself the Beetle, Jenkins decided to use his battle-suit for fame, wealth, and adventure. The Beetle chose to lure the Human Torch and the Thing into battle believing a victory over half the Fantastic Four would make him an overnight sensation. Unfortunately, the Thing and the Torch defeated him, and he was sent to prison. Paroled a short time later, he sought revenge on the Torch, but found himself in battle with Spider-Man instead. Once again he was defeated. Upon his release, he decided to forego petty revenge and concentrated on the acquisition of wealth. He battled Spider-Man and Daredevil separately on various occasions, and once recruited by the Collector to serve as his unwilling agent. Under the Collector's domination, the Beetle faced the Avengers.

Losing every battle against costumed crime fighter and failing to accumulate very much wealth, the Beetle offered his services to underworld financier Justin Hammer, who kept various superhuman criminals on retainers. His offer accepted, the Beetle was dispatched against the original Iron Man, as part of a battalion of costumed criminals. His Beetle armor was severely damaged by Iron Man during the fight.

Jenkins then invested all of the capital he could acquire into the modification and refinement of his Beetle armor. With the assistance of the Thinker, he produced a new battle suit with far greater capacities than his old one. Before launching his comeback, the Beetle recruited the criminal Ringer to put Spider-Man through his paces. The Beetle wished to study Spider-Man's fighting style and program it into a computer system so he could anticipate his opponent's moves. Despite his preparations and new battle-suit, the Beetle was defeated by Spider-Man. He was later freed from prison by Egghead who recruited him for his Masters of Evil organization. The Beetle and other Masters of Evil were defeated by the Avengers and arrested.

When most of Earth's costumed adventurers, including the Avengers and Fantastic Four, seemingly died battling Onslaught, Baron Zemo recruited Jenkins and a number of other villains to trick the world into believing they were heroes called the Thunderbolts. Jenkins adopted the guise of Mach-1. Zemo's plan ultimately failed, but Jenkins and other members decided to try making the Thunderbolts a legitimate team. When Hawkeye took over the group's leadership, he convinced Jenkins to serve out the remainder of his prison term as a show of good faith to the public. But when another criminal used the guise of the Beetle to frame him, Jenkins escaped from jail. Rather than return to prison, he underwent plastic surgery, drastically altering his looks. Ogre also improved on his flight suit, and Jenkins adopted the codename Mach-2.

Height: 5 ft. 11 in.
Weight: 175 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown, black after facial surgery
Other Distinguishing Feature: Due to advanced plastic surgery, Jenkins now appears to be African American.

Strenght Level: (As the Beetle) He possessed the normal human strength of a man of his age, height, and build who engages in moderate regular exercise. When his strength is augmented by his Beetle battle-suit, he can lift (press) about a ton, 1000 pounds per arm.

(As Mach-2) Unknown.

Known Superhuman Powers: None.

Paraphernalia and Weaponry: (Beetle) The Beetle wore a battle-suit constructed of a magnanium alloy, providing him with a high degree of protection against injury. The suit contains power-boosting circuitry which augments his strength to several times that of a normal human being. The suit's power source is a microwave processor built into his helmet. The helmet has a antenna path that allows reception and ultra-efficient conversion into energy of microwaves at many prevalent frequencies, giving his suit a constantly-replenishing power supply. This microwave processor sometimes jams nearby television reception. Amini-computer built into his chestpiece feeds data to his helmet on his opponents' probable movements enabling him to anticipate their moves. In order for the computer to provide this tactical information, it must have sufficient data on that opponent.

The battle-suit contains a number of other special features. The gloves of each hand contain pneumatic suction-grippers, enabling the Beetle to cling to walls or lift thing with his fingertips. Also, each glove contains circuitry that enables him to shoot an electrostatic blast he calls his "electrobite." He discharges the electro-bite by touching the second and third finger sheath of each hand together and pointing with the first and fourth fingers. The elctro-bite has sufficient power to blast a one foot diameter hole through a 3 foot thick brick wall at fifteen feet. (Such a blast would, however, necessitate his diverting all available power to his gloves, thus temporarily immobilizing his other weaponry.)

The final feature of the Beetle's armament are his ultra-though mylar wings powered by super-efficient micro-motors which enable him to fly by mimicking the complex motion of an actual beetle's wings. Stored beneath dome-like armored sheaths on his back when not in use, the wings can be unsheathed by cybernetic command. The wings enable him to fly at a normal crusing speed of 60 miles per hour. By diverting all of his power into his wings, he can reach a top speed of 100 miles per hour for as long as his power holds out.

Mach-2's suit allows him to fly at great speeds, and fire heat-seeking missiles and rubber bullets. The exoskeleton also carries a sophisticated array of sensor equipment and provides Mach-2 with a high degree of protection against injury.