Origin

Pete Petruski used his knowledge of adhesives to fashion himself a criminal identity: Paste Pot Pete. After fighting the Human Torch and the Thing a couple of times, he noticed his nom de guerre was less than impressive and rechristened himself the Trapster. He's fought the Fantastic Four many times, most often as one of the mainstays of the Frightful Four. Recently, the Gideon Trust modified him and outfitted him with new weapons and traps. He led the N-explorers, a team exploring and looting the negative zone. Rejoining the Frightful Four, he was banished into a time loop when he threatened the Wizards experiments. Though he has returned.

Other Media

The Trapster was featured in the excellent short story "Traps" by Ken Grobe in ''The Ultimate Super-Villains''. In it, Petrusky is on probation and in Witness Protection, living under a false name and depressed that he is unable to find work. After establishing an internet friendship with an advertising guru, he relents and reformulates his super-paste into a household adhesive and his paste-gun into an all-purpose applicator. A late-night infomercial featuring his products make him a success, and he is eventually talked into doing a demonstration himself, showing off his paste-shooting skills.

When the Wizard sees him shooting paste on TV, he calls and threatens to blow his cover so he can blackmain Trapster into working for him again; the Trapster snaps, gets his old costume and weapons, and sabotages a live broadcast of his infomercial by taking the host and audience as hostages. After delivering a long, rambling rant/confession, a woman he has a crush on gets into the studio and talks him down. In the aftermath, the Wizard is outraged that these events have made Trapster a bigger celebrity than himself.