Bug-Eyed Bandit

First appearing in The Atom #26 (1966) as Bertram Larvan, the Bug-Eyed Bandit is presented in the comics as an inventor who designed mechanical insects to control pests but, lacking financial backing, turned to theft to fund his work. A later comic incarnation is described as the original's unnamed son (Justice League America #43, 1990). Television adaptations reinterpret the identity (Brie Larvan in the Arrowverse) as a scientist/former employee who uses remote-controlled robotic bees. Across media the name functions as a criminal alias taken by human inventors rather than as a supernatural or spiritual origin.

Portrayals vary by medium. Comic accounts describe Larvan as an inventor who employs insect-themed equipment and deploys hordes of mechanical insects (comic descriptions include stag beetle robots and spiders with load-bearing webs). The Arrowverse Brie Larvan is depicted as a human scientist operating remote-controlled robotic bees. Animated adaptations (e.g., Batman: The Brave and the Bold) depict insect-themed visuals and include size-manipulation effects in that continuity. There is no single canonical costume or physical form common to every appearance beyond the insect motif and inventor/technologist trappings.

Primary capabilities are technological and non-supernatural: skilled robotics and engineering, command and deployment of robotic/remote-controlled insect devices (robotic bees, stag-beetle machines, spider-robots with strong webs). Media-specific adaptations add further capabilities such as size manipulation or shrinking in some animated portrayals. Narrative devices have included specialized gases (an amnesia-inducing gas used in comics that backfired on the inventor). The identity functions as an episodic criminal inventor who uses gadgetry and insect motifs against heroes and institutions.