The Man In The Beehive

History: Secretly born a mutant, millionaire Lucius Farnsworth was able to work near miracles with the power of his brain. Having a way with bees, Farnsworth was the most successful honey producer in the state. One night, Eric (one of Farnsworth's beekeepers) broke into Farnsworth's mansion to rob the safe. Discovering Eric, Farnsworth used his superior mind to overpower him, making him hand over his gun. As punishment, Farnsworth shrunk himself and Eric down to the size of bees. Both entered a beehive, and Farnsworth commanded the bees to terrorize Eric. When he saw that Eric had learned his lesson, to never rob Farnsworth again, Farnsworth returned himself and Eric to normal size, telling Eric that all of the events were just an illusion brought on by a hypnotic trance.

An older, powerless Lucius Farnsworth was threatened by the menace of The Weed, which would have conquered the world if not for Farnsworth's gardener unwittingly destroying it.

Height: 6 ft.
Demonstrated Powers: Lucius Farnsworth was a mutant whose brain powers included the ability to shrink himself and others to the size of bees. He could mentally dominate the wills of others, and could also command bees. It is unknown if Farnsworth had any other psionic abilities.

Comment: Speculation - Although there is no proof that these were the same characters (the “Weed” Farnsworth was older and displayed no powers), both characters had similarities (same name, both were millionaires, both had mustaches). There are two possibilities to explain the differences:
1. The “Weed” Farnsworth was an older version of the “Beehive” Farnsworth, years after his mutant powers had faded.
2. The “Weed” Farnsworth was the father of the “Beehive” Farnsworth, never having the mutant abilities his son had.

Comment: It is not known if Farnsworth ever used his powers for a career as a super-hero (or super-villain).

Comment: It is possible that mutant Lucius Farnsworth is related to Vincent Farnsworth. a man who discovered that he was a mutant with the ability to move through solid matter in the story “The Mutants and Me!” by Joe Sinnott in Tales of Suspense # 6.

Comment: In the Manoo story in Amazing Adventures # 2, a “Farnsworth College” is mentioned. Is this college somehow connected to Lucius Farnsworth?

Reasonably recent comments from several authorities in such things — Mark Evanier, for one — suggest that the very early Marvel at least toyed with building a super-hero feature around this character.

Having seen only the reprints, not the original stories, I wonder if a third possibility exists: that the “Weed” Farnsworth had latent mutant powers activated by the encounter and became the “Beehive” Farnsworth. Certainly, the “Weed” story appeared first (March 1962 versus August 1962 for “Beehive”), but one can't rely on strict chronology in these stories — for example, according to internal evidence, years passed between the Gargantus stories in Strange Tales #80 (Jan 61) and #85 (Jun 61). In the reprints, “Beehive” Fransworth appears younger than “Weed” Farnsworth, having brown hair versus white — is that true of the originals, too? However, even so, one could speculate that “Beehive” Farnsworth's powers also rejuvenated him somewhat, as the two characters are drawn almost identically except for color, or that the coloring difference was artistic license.

If I have to pick one interpretation, I'll stay with chronology and claim the stories show Farnsworth's developing powers.

Perhaps it was Farnsworth's very powers which made him vulnerable to the Weed's insidious influence, while his normal (if not actually dull-witted) gardener was simply deaf to the wicked plant.

I can't help wondering if Farnsworth's powers would make him vulnerable or immune to the psionic powers of the apian gestalt entity known as “Swarm.”

One wonders if Farnsworth's powers would have enabled him to control the likes of GROTTU, INSECT MAN, RORGG or KRANG.

I'm suprised Farnsworth never showed up as a villian somewhere in the Marvel Universe… He would make a great villian if the MONSTER HUNTERS series were ever revised.

I wondered why John Byrne didn't have Farnsworth appear in X-Men: The Hidden Years (when the other pre-Marvel mutants appearred) or in The Lost Generation mini-series.

Lucius Farnsworth - he's a millionaire and an mutant - was he ever approached by Sebastion Shaw to be a member of the Hellfire Club's Inner Circle?

“The Mutants and Me!” by Joe Sinnott in Tales of Suspense #6
Can anyone help?

A similar story in some respects to the Man Inside The Ant Hill.
Dr. Pym was not evil of course but the shrinking angle is the same.

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