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| As a result of the New 52 in 2011, the entire line of DC characters was relaunched, incorporating properties belonging to the company's imprints: Wildstorm, Milestone, and Vertigo. As such, elements of this character's history have been altered in some way from the previous incarnation. For a complete list of all versions of this character, see our disambiguation page. |
Rick Raleigh was the Red Bee, an obscure World War II-era superhero who fought crime with his trained bees and sidekick Ladybug.
History
During the Golden Age of superheroes, Rick Raleigh was a Superior City Assistant District Attorney with an avid interest in bees, which he translated into a superheroic career: he took on the name the Red Bee and, with the help of local beekeeper Miguel Rivera,[1] he trained a pair of crime-fighting bees,[2] and wore a pouch on his belt in which he carried one named Michael,[3] his favorite. He took down a conspiracy between the police and mob to extort protection money from Rivera's Big Bee Ranch, and adopted the ranch as his headquarters.[1]
He developed a lasting enmity with the villain Professor Pollen, confiscating from him a size-changing device. When Rivera's daughter Rosibel stumbled upon the Bee's lair and the device, she was shrunken to the size of an insect, and though Raleigh was able to reverse the effect and the device was destroyed, she retained size-changing powers. Dubbing herself "Ladybug," she became the Red Bee's sidekick for a few adventures, providing encouragement and motivation to the Bee, who lacked confidence in his own abilities,[1] until she vanished in 1944.[2] Though he was little-known compared to his fellow heroes,[4] he famously fought a giant swordfish, and during the Second World War, a time-displaced Forager was mistaken for him and temporarily assumed his identity.[3]
He traveled forward in time to retrieve fellow Golden Age hero Captain Triumph who was stranded in the 21st Century,[5] and, as an obscure hero unlikely to be sought out by his peers, was the target of abduction by the Alien Alliance in the aftermath of their invasion of Earth. A robotic replica, created for use in experiments on the emergence of the metagene,[6] in the likeness of the Red Bee was destroyed by the Shaggy Man at the Alliance's test site in Dangerfield, Arizona.[7] He defeated the small-time supervillain Amberjack,[8] and after his eventual death was resurrected by Batman in the fight against The Darkest Knight.[9] The Red Bee had a granddaughter, Rachel Raleigh, who had purchased the Riveras' ranch by the time of Ladybug's decades-later return.[2]
Powers and Abilities
Abilities
Notes
- Red Bee was created by Toni Blum and Charles Nicholas, first appearing in Hit Comics #1. However, in the Prime Earth continuity, Red Bee first appeared as part of the New 52 DC Universe in Harley Quinn (Volume 3) #52 by Sam Humphries and Sami Basri.
- Although the character was first mentioned in Bug! The Adventures of Forager #2
Related
- 16 Appearances of Richard Raleigh (Prime Earth)
- 9 Images featuring Richard Raleigh (Prime Earth)
- Quotations by or about Richard Raleigh (Prime Earth)
- Character Gallery: Richard Raleigh (Prime Earth)
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 The New Golden Age #1
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Justice Society of America (Volume 4) #6
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Bug! The Adventures of Forager #2
- ↑ Stargirl: The Lost Children #3
- ↑ Harley Quinn (Volume 3) #52
- ↑ Inferior Five (Volume 2) #5
- ↑ Inferior Five (Volume 2) #4
- ↑ Black Lightning: Cold Dead Hands #2
- ↑ Dark Nights: Death Metal #5
- ↑ Harley Quinn (Volume 3) #52
  This character is or was a member of the Freedom Fighters, a team of American super-heroes who fight threats to the nation and its ideals under the leadership of Uncle Sam. This template will automatically categorize articles that include it into the "Freedom Fighters members" category. |