Senator Boynton

Back to The Avengers, there’s a couple of cameos during the tv roll at the end of the movie, with people commenting over the news the Battle of New York. Among them there’s US Senator Boynton, portrayed by James Eckhouse, who’s very vocal about the Avengers‘ responsibility in the destruction of New York City and calls for a form of regulation of masked heroes, something he’ll be happy to see happening in Captain America: Civil War, probably. In the comics, Boynton is indeed a Senator, and has some history with a specific Avenger. Let’s take a look.

A politician his entire life, Boynton, first name unknown, was elected to the Senate in his (unspecified) state, and moved to Washington D.C. to serve his mandate and his people. Those were worrying times: more and more of the so-called “superheroes” were popping around like mushrooms in America, and they seemed to be an uncontrollable phenomenon. Boynton was appointed to one particular committee who monitored said masked heroes, and followed with apprehension the escalation of violence regarding Iron Man, the armored bodyguard of billionaire businessman Tony Stark. First, a battle in space put Iron Man against another man wearing one of his armors (the future War Machine), then another battle between Iron Man and two Roxxon Oil operatives, Sunturion and Stratosfire, costed the life of the latter and caused a lot of property damage. Boynton monitored all these developments with growing concern, and he finally was assigned to the specific mission of developing a security protocol in case Iron Man or someone else went completely rogue. Together with a military representative, General Meade, Senator Boynton looked for a solution, and apparently found it in Edwin Cord, CEO of Cordco Inc., another tech company. Cord had acquired stolen blueprints of Iron Man’s armor from Justin Hammer, and volunteered to build a heavily weaponized super-suit that would have allowed the government to create a special corps equipped to take on rogue superheroes. Senator Boynton and General Meade gave the project green light, and funded the construction of the most powerful super-armor ever seen.

When Iron Man murdered Titanium Man, for the US Government it was the final straw: Senator Boynton and General Meade were allowed to deploy the super-armor, and they in turn asked Cord for a demonstration. They went to Arizona, where Cord’s pilot, Jack Taggert, was waiting for them: Boynton offered one of his best consultants, Dr. Abrams, to guide him through the maneuvering, but Cord trusted his man, and sent Abrams away. He was apparently right: Taggert had complete mastership over the armor’s controls, and he was already an incredibly destructive force. As Firepower, he proved to be able to take on several heavily armed foes at once, and came out of the fight without a single scratch. Boynton was impressed, but Meade wasn’t happy with the lack of security for civilians, so he insisted that Firepower had to take on Iron Man in a deserted area. In following test trials, even Boynton became worried, this time for the excessive enthusiasm of Taggert: he expressed his doubts to Cord, but once again he insisted that Taggert was the right man for the job. Cord proceeded to set a trap for Iron Man in the desert, and Senator Boynton, along with some men from the Defense Department, contacted Tony Stark: Boynton believed that the man could be reasoned with, he pointed out that his employee was without control, and that he had to be contained. He asked Stark for help in the ambush, and was happy when the businessman accepted to send Iron Man to the appointed location with a pretext. Things went as planned, and Iron Man was apparently destroyed by the overwhelming power of Firepower. Satisfied with the results, Senator Boynton and General Meade came back to Cord to take possession of the armor… but the CEO refused, instead ordering Taggert to destroy the truck they had arrived with. Maybe, in their effort to rid the world of the menace of Iron Man, Boynton and Meade had unleashed an even more dangerous threat in his place…

Senator Boynton is a clever and careful man, used to move in the difficult territories of politics, always planning his steps ahead. A natural leader, he’s good in convincing people to do what they wouldn’t have done on their own, and for this reason he’s always able to present himself as the man for the job. In good faith but mislead, Senator Boynton seeks to make a better and safer world… with the worst possible means at his disposal and in the worst possible ways.