The Origins of The Wall
If you’re familiar with the site, you have probably read our blog series “Where Are They Now: Forgotten Comic Book Characters.” In searching for the next subject for that series, we stumbled across a unique comic book character. This is a character so obscure, that he only ever appeared in one comic book. Because of the fact that the character never appeared again, this entry is going to be a little different. We are taking a look at quite possibly the strangest, most ludicrous, and most obscure character in comic book history. I’m talking about “The Wall.”
*First and only appearance: “Spidey Super Stories #8 (May 1975)
Now that sounds like a cool name for a comic book villain, right? One might initially assume to liken this character’s abilities to that of The Blob, Colossus, or maybe Juggernaut. Well… Sort of.. Not exactly… The Wall’s powers are a little bit different. You see, The Wall is literally a wall with legs.
A Happy Boy Becomes a Wicked Wall
Okay, let’s go back to the beginning. Surely, an origin story will shed some light on this perplexing character. You see, The Wall was once just like any other high school student in the 1970s. In fact, The Wall was born a normal boy by the name of Joshua Waldemeyer (Oh, I see what they did there). Like many students during this era, Josh worked a part-time job in his free time. He worked as a brick layer. Unfortunately for Josh, a very common occurrence in 1970s comic books occurred that would change his life forever; A sudden explosion toppled the brick wall that he and his boss (who for some reason looks like a mad scientist) were working on, burying poor Josh in the rubble. “That blast turned the happy boy into the Wicked Wall!”
As the Wall, Josh possessed superhuman abilities. Aside from the fact that he literally turned into a walking brick wall, he also was granted superhuman strength as well as the durability of concrete. Josh was also able to move at a speed far greater than that of a normal brick wall.
Choosing a Life of Crime
(Trespassing and 2 counts of assault)
One quiet day, Peter Parker decided to go to a Mets game while wearing his Spider-Man costume. For some reason, which has never been determined, The Wall decided he wanted to wreck Spidey’s off day. Rather than kidnapping his girlfriend or robbing a bank, the Wall had a much more nefarious scheme in mind. He decided to manipulate the ongoing baseball game by knocking out a player before he could catch a fly ball. This confused the umpire as, after leveling the outfielder, the ball then sailed over The Wall. Technically speaking, this meant the batter hit a home run.
The umpire then quickly pulled out his handy baseball rule book, as something of this nature was completely unprecedented. However, before the umpire could make a ruling, The Wicked Wall struck again, knocking the ump to the ground.
At this point, everyone’s favorite friendly neighborhood Spider-Man got involved, striking The Wall with the full momentum of his spider-strength. This had no effect on the concrete colossus. Spider-Man then used his webbing to ensnare the Wall before the umpire came to and ejected both of them from the game.
What Ever Became of The Wall?
This story has a happy ending though. It appears that whatever their differences were, Spider-Man and the Wall came to an understanding, as they were last seen sitting outside the stadium on a bench together. Perhaps Spidey talked some sense into Waldemeyer as the Wall never appeared again. Maybe he wasn’t so wicked after all.