The Prowler is an alias used by several fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. These characters are primarily depicted as wearing a green and purple battle suit with a cape and clawed gauntlets.
The original version, Hobie Brown,[a] was created by Stan Lee, John Buscema and Jim Mooney,[1] based on a drawing by 13-year-old John Romita Jr., who also named the character.[2] The character was introduced in The Amazing Spider-Man #78 (November 1969) as an adversary to the superhero Spider-Man.[1] An African-American teenage prodigy, Hobie created the Prowler technology to operate as a petty thief, but following his encounter with Spider-Man, he was convinced to turn his life around. Since his redemption, Hobie has served as a valuable ally to Spider-Man, as well as a superhero in his own right, leading the 1994 limited series Prowler.
Additionally, several other characters have used the Prowler alias and technology in the mainstream Marvel universe, including an unnamed self-titled "Second Prowler" (created by Lee and Steve Ditko) and medical intern Rick Lawson (created by Todd DeZago and Mike Wieringo). A clone of Hobie Brown (created by Dan Slott and R.B. Silva) serves as the lead character of a second Prowler limited series, which ties in with the 2016–2017 storyline "Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy".
The Ultimate Marvel equivalent, Aaron Davis, was created by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli, and was introduced in Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #1 (November 2011) as the career criminal uncle of this reality's Spider-Man. Davis was incorporated into the primary Marvel continuity following Secret Wars as a separate version operating independently from the others.
Both Hobie Brown and Aaron Davis have appeared in several media adaptations outside of comics, including films, animated series, and video games. Davis in particular is portrayed by Donald Glover in the live-action Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) and voiced by Mahershala Ali in the animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018). Additionally, both actors make cameo appearances in the animated film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023), in which Jharrel Jerome also voices Miles G. Morales, an original incarnation of the Prowler who will return in Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse (2027).
