The Hood #1
The Hood #1 delivers the first appearance of Parker Robbins — a street-level Brooklyn criminal who stumbles into demonic power rather than heroic destiny — making it one of the most distinctive villain origin issues of Marvel's early 2000s output. Brian K. Vaughan deliberately inverted the Spider-Man power-and-responsibility template, showing what an ordinary, morally compromised young man would actually do with sudden supernatural abilities, which gave the Marvel Universe a compelling new kind of antagonist. Though the series initially concluded with the character in relative obscurity, writer Brian Michael Bendis later recognised Robbins' untapped potential and elevated him to the role of Marvel's pre-eminent crime-lord villain across the New Avengers and Dark Reign eras. The issue also marks the debut of John King, Parker's cousin and accomplice, whose dynamic with Robbins grounds the otherwise fantastical origin in recognisable human failure.
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
Writer Brian K. Vaughan pitched the project to editor-in-chief Joe Quesada shortly after finishing his run on Swamp Thing, framing it explicitly as 'the Anti-Ultimate Spider-Man' — a concept about an ordinary young criminal who acquires superpowers through sheer luck and exploits them selfishly rather than altruistically. The series was published under Marvel's mature-audience MAX imprint, which permitted the coarse language and adult moral ambiguity central to Vaughan's vision of a humanised, flawed supervillain. The creative team comprised Vaughan as writer, Kyle Hotz as penciller and cover artist, Eric Powell as inker, Brian Haberlin as colourist, and Randy Gentile as letterer, with Tom Brevoort serving as editor. The six-issue miniseries — whose first-issue story arc is titled 'Blood from Stones, Chapter 1' — was later collected in a trade paperback (2003) and a hardcover (2007), both titled The Hood: Blood from Stones.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Parker Robbins / The Hood (Earth-616), the issue's central character and a petty criminal from Brooklyn who kills a Nisanti demon and steals its mystical cloak and boots.
- First appearance of John King, Parker's cousin, best friend, and criminal accomplice, described in the issue as a recovering alcoholic and thief.
- The issue also contains a formative flashback establishing that a young Parker Robbins witnessed a battle between Daredevil and the villain Electro (Max Dillon), which inspired his fascination with super-powered individuals — contextualising the Spider-Man and Electro entries in the catalog.
- Published under Marvel's MAX imprint (cover date July 2002, on-sale May 2002), making it one of the earlier MAX-imprint villain origin stories alongside mature-audience titles like Alias.
- Written by Brian K. Vaughan with art by Kyle Hotz (pencils/cover) and Eric Powell (inks); Vaughan conceived the premise as a deliberate inversion of the Spider-Man origin — power without responsibility.
- The story arc across issues #1–6 is titled 'Blood from Stones'; the full miniseries was collected in a TPB (2003) and hardcover (2007) under that same title.
- The character lay largely dormant after the miniseries until New Avengers #35 (2007), where Brian Michael Bendis repositioned Robbins as the organiser of a large-scale supervillain syndicate — the 'Godfather of all supervillains' — a role that grew through the Secret Invasion and Dark Reign crossover events.
- Anthony Ramos portrays Parker Robbins / The Hood in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Disney+ series Ironheart (2025), marking the character's live-action debut.