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Bumblebee
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Real Name
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Karen Beecher
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First Appearance
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Teen Titans (Vol. 1) #45
(December, 1976) [as Karen Beecher], Teen Titans (Vol. 1) #48 (June, 1977) [as Bumblebee] |
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Creator
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Bob Rozakis
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Team Affliations
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Doom Patrol, S.T.A.R. Labs, Teen Titans, Justice League
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Alias
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Karen Beecher-Duncan
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Base of Operations
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San Francisco
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Powers
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Shrunk to insect-like size. Her solar-powered suit enables her to fly (via bee-like wings), fire sonic force blasts, and unleash electrical 'stings'.
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Skills and Abilities
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Fighting Experience
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Paraphernalia
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Special Flight Suit
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Bumblebee was the first African American superheroine of the DC Universe and a former member of the Teen Titans and the Doom Patrol.
Origin[]
A young scientific genius, Karen Beecher used her knowhow to create a super-suit in order to defend the honor of a young superhero and became a superheroine herself after proving herself to the Teen Titans.
Biography[]
Joining the Teen Titans[]
Not much has been established about the childhood of Karen Beecher or her life before her first encounter with the Teen Titans, save that she took night classes to study political science, physics, and computer technology. Karen first met the Titans when assisting young scientist Mal Duncan with the Gabriel Horn on behalf of the Teen Titans. In her work, Karen found that she felt that Mal was underappreciated in his work and as a team member named the Herald. She sought to remedy that by making a super-powered "Bumblebee" suit and used it to barge into the Titans Lair, causing them to mistake her for an enemy agent. When Mal fought her off, she escaped without her identity being revealed and Karen succeeded in having Mal seen as a hero. Later, she revealed her ruse and the Titans decided that her skills were impressive enough that she was invited to join them. Conversely, she realized that she underestimated the Titans trust in Mal when she saw them rally around him and accepted the invitation.
Retirement from Crime-Fighting[]
Soon after, Karen and Mal moved to San Francisco to help found the Titans West, the West Coast Titans team. When this team dissolved, Mal and Karen married and decided to retire from crime-fighting. She joined S.T.A.R. Labs as a designer of non-lethal weaponry soon after. She briefly assisted Titans West against members of the Justice League and personally fought the angel Zauriel with the assistance of Supergirl, only to be defeated. For a brief period after, she and Mal joined a new version of Titans West (called Titans L.A.) and despite their return to crime-fighting, lead relatively quiet lives.
This changed following Alexander Luthor's attempt to rewrite reality, during which Bumblebee assisted Adam Strange fight a dangerous foe in a distant quadrant of space. However, when she finally returned to Earth, the Zeta Rays (a form of energy used in long range teleportation) altered both her and Hawk Girl's physiology so that Hawk Girl was 25 feet tall and Bumblebee was only 6 inches tall. The effect had created serious medical issues for her, which caused her to turn to genius scientist Niles Caulder (the leader of the Doom Patrol known as the Chief) for medical help.
The New Doom Patrol[]
Soon Bumblebee joined the new Doom Patrol team, alongside Mal. The Chief provided her with a special medicine that prevented her from going into cardiac arrest due to her small size. Help from the Chief has still allowed her to grow from 6 inches to 7 and she currently lives within a doll house-sized designed for her.
Married Life[]
Years later she was seen reverted to her normal size and was still married to Mal (under thre name Karen Beecher-Duncan), this time pregnant with a child. She assisted the Titans in battle with the supervillain named Mister Twister, using energy blasts from her hands, a power she had never before utilized. She later gave birth to her child.
In other Media[]
In Young Justice and the television version of DC Super Hero Girls she depended on a costume, but in Teen Titans and DC Super Hero Girls on the web the power came from herself.