Overdrive (James Beverley) is a fictional

villain A villain (also known as a " black hat", "bad guy" or "baddy"; The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.126 "baddy (also baddie) noun (pl. -ies) ''informal'' a villain or criminal in a book, film, etc.". the feminine form is villai ...

, appearing in

American comic book An American comic book is a thin periodical literature originating in the United States, commonly between 24 and 64 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publ ...

s published by

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

. The character is usually depicted as an enemy of

Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appearance, first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in ...

Publication history

Created by

Dan Slott Daniel "Dan" Slott (born July 3, 1967) is an American comic book writer, known for his work on Marvel Comics books such as ''The Amazing Spider-Man'', as well as ''The Superior Spider-Man'', ''She-Hulk'', ''Silver Surfer (comic book), Silver Surfe ...

and

Phil Jimenez Phil Jimenez (born July 12, 1970) is an American comics artist and writer known for his work as writer/artist on ''Wonder Woman (comic book), Wonder Woman'' from 2000 to 2003, as one of the five pencilers of the 2005–2006 miniseries ''Infinite C ...

, Overdrive first appeared in ''Amazing Spider-Man: Swing Shift'' (May 2007), a

Free Comic Book Day Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) is an annual promotional effort by the North American comic book industry to attract new readers to independent comic book stores. It usually takes place on the first Saturday of May and has historically been cross ...

issue set after the events of the '' Spider-Man: One More Day'' storyline. Something of a throwaway joke character, Overdrive made a few inconsequential appearances throughout Slott's run on ''

The Amazing Spider-Man ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' is an ongoing American superhero American comic book, comic book series featuring the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man as its title character and main protagonist. Being in the Earth 616, mainstream continuity of t ...

''. Overdrive joined the

Sinister Six The Sinister Six are a group of supervillains in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, mainly those featuring Spider-Man. The members are drawn from the character's list of enemies, with the original members forming the team in ''T ...

during the

Marvel Now! Marvel Now! (stylized as Marvel NOW!) is a comic book branding for the relaunch of several ongoing comic books published by Marvel Comics, that debuted in October 2012 with new #1 issues. The relaunch also included some new titles, including ''Un ...

relaunch and featured as one of the main characters in ''

The Superior Foes of Spider-Man ''The Superior Foes of Spider-Man'' was an ongoing series, ongoing comic book series published by Marvel Comics that debuted in July 2013. The series was written by Nick Spencer with artwork by Steve Lieber. It debuted as part of ''Superior Spider- ...

''.

Fictional character biography

James Beverley is a race car driver who had dreams of being a superhero. When every attempt failed and he ended up in an accident, he gained the assistance of Power Broker.

Mister Negative Mister Negative is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is usually depicted as an enemy of Spider-Man, the Punisher, Shang-Chi, and Cloak and Dagger. The character was created by Dan Slott and ...

approached him and offered him a job in his criminal organization.''

'' (vol. 5) #39 (April 2020) Overdrive was hired by Mister Negative to steal an artifact from a museum, but was unable to deliver it because of interference from

. Overdrive led Spider-Man on a high-speed chase through the streets of

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. When Spider-Man smashed the windshield of Overdrive's car, it revealed dozens of pieces of Spider-Man-related merchandise such as bobble-heads, air-fresheners, and action figures. Overdrive declared that he was Spider-Man's "biggest fan", even asking for an autograph as Spider-Man was trying to stop him. The chase finally culminated in a car-wreck that had Overdrive and his vehicle hanging from a bridge in New York by Spider-Man's webbing with Spider-Man's trademark note, "Courtesy of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man". Overdrive asked the police who were on the scene to arrest him if he could keep the note. Overdrive was then sent by Mister Negative to steal the Sonic Pulse Generator from a laboratory but he failed again when he met Spider-Man once again. Negative told his men to dispose of Overdrive and they put him in the trunk of Negative's limo and Overdrive was able to escape them by converting the limo into one of his "tricked out" cars. In ''

'', Overdrive joins

Boomerang A boomerang () is a thrown tool typically constructed with airfoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight, designed to return to the thrower. The origin of the word is from Australian Aborigin ...

. Overdrive stole the original Big Wheel vehicle and upgraded it through his powers. However, the

Superior Spider-Man Superior may refer to: *Superior (hierarchy), something which is higher in a hierarchical structure of any kind Places * Superior (proposed U.S. state), an unsuccessful proposal for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to form a separate state *Lak ...

defeats Overdrive and the rest of the Sinister Six using a power-dampening field. Overdrive later worked for Mister Negative again and became a getaway driver for his henchmen. Following a bank heist, Overdrive drives the Inner Demons away from the police. He is attacked and killed by the

Sin-Eater A sin-eater is a person who consumes a ritual meal in order to spiritually take on the sins of a deceased person. The food was believed to absorb the sins of a recently dead person, thus absolving the soul of the person. Cultural anthropolo ...

, but mysteriously comes back to life. Following Sin-Eater's suicide, which caused those that he purged of their sins to regain them, James Beverley encounters

Carlie Cooper Carlie Cooper is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is named after Joe Quesada's daughter. She is friends with Peter Parker, Harry Osborn, Vin Gonzales, and Lily Hollister. She is one ...

and reveals that he is considering reforming.

Powers and abilities

Overdrive can generate

nanites Molecular machines are a class of molecules typically described as an assembly of a discrete number of molecular components intended to produce mechanical movements in response to specific stimuli, mimicking macromolecular devices such as switche ...

which transform vehicles to his will, improving its physical abilities. These changes will revert if Overdrive is away from the vehicle for too long.

In other media

* An original,

Marvel 2099 Marvel 2099 was a Marvel Comics imprint, started in 1992, that was originally about one possible future of the Marvel Universe, but later revealed to be the Earth of the main Marvel continuity in the distant future. It was originally announced ...

-inspired incarnation of Overdrive appears in the

Nintendo DS The is a foldable handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens worki ...

version of '' Spider-Man: Edge of Time'', voiced by

Kari Wahlgren Kari Wahlgren (born July 13, 1977) is an American voice actress who has provided English-language roles for animated movies, TV series, and video games. She got her start in anime voice-overs as List of FLCL characters#Haruko Haruhara, Haruko H ...

. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information. * Overdrive appears in the ''

'' episode "Bring on the Bad Guys", voiced by

Ryan Blaney Ryan Michael Blaney (born December 31, 1993) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 12 Ford Mustang (seventh generation), Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Team Penske. He i ...

References

External links

* Overdrive at Marvel Wiki
Overdrive
at Comic Vine * {{Sinister Six Characters created by Dan Slott Comics characters introduced in 2007 Fictional henchmen Fictional racing drivers Fictional technopaths Marvel Comics male supervillains Spider-Man characters