Created by writer Dennis O'Neil and artist John Romita Jr., the character first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #212 (January 1981).

[4] Once an ordinary crewman, Morris Bench was accidentally knocked overboard while stationed on his ship during a battle between Spider-Man and Namor, and fell into the ocean, where a powerful experimental generator was being tested.

This led to his transformation into Hydro-Man who, blaming Spider-Man for what happened to him, turned to a life of crime while seeking revenge against the web-slinger.

Bulldog, having been knocked overboard accidentally by Spider-Man (right after the hero finished a fight against Namor) while a powerful experimental generator is being tested in the ocean.

[7] When he realized that he had become a man-of-water, he blamed Spider-Man for his accident and started to hunt him (through many showers, sewers and water valves),[8] in order to get revenge on the hero, but was defeated in combat.

[9] Soon after that in the story arc "Eye of the Beholder", he teams up with and briefly becomes merged with the Sandman into a composite mud monster called Mud-Thing.

Unfortunately, when the show proved to be a huge success, Sadie accidentally kissed Travis out of excitement, thereby enraging the jealous Mud-Thing.

Spider-Man managed to save Sadie from her plummet, but she ended up being genuinely upset over the loss of Mud-Thing, knowing that all it had ever done wrong was simply love her.

This group attempts to rob Baily's Auction House but are interrupted by Spider-Man and then Initiative members War Machine and Komodo.

[26] Hawkeye and a displaced version of Red Wolf from Earth-51920 later encounter Hydro-Man who is working for a group called Oasis Spring Water that has been draining the underground reservoir that's on the property of the Sweet Medicine Indian Reservation.

After resurfacing in a pond, Hydro-Man sees someone by the campfire and plans to rob him only to discover that the man was a somehow-revived Wolverine.

When the rest of the Adored Ones accompanied by Spider-Man did infiltrate the undersea facility where a potential WMD of the wives in waiting's design was kept.

[30] At some point, Hydro-Man was captured and imprisoned in Atlantis, with Namor stealing his hydrokinesis to aid in his latest attack on the surface world.

Hydro-Man assists Boomerang, Shocker, and Speed Demon in fighting Foreigner's group to buy Overdrive time to get Spider-Man away.

He can turn parts of his body to liquid while retaining the rest of his human form, allowing him to slip from a foe's grasp or have projectiles like bullets harmlessly pass through him.

[37] His abilities were further augmented through the use of re-purposed super community technologies processed by Damage Control from the corrupt and deranged former CEO of the company, Walter Declun.

[39] Hydro-Man possesses a certain degree of superhuman strength, and has been shown to be an exceptionally skilled fighter, and adept at using his powers for that purpose.

Though cunning, he has been consistently depicted by writers as a low tier henchman with little formal education and is often tricked into using his powers in ways that incapacitate him (as explained above).