Eddie Harris
Edward "Eddie" W. Harris may be the local wiseguy around the Delmar Insurance offices, what with his overfamiliarity, uncouth gossiping, and general slacking, but at least he's hooked on gambling.
Fiction
Eddie worked for Delmar Insurance. During an important business meeting, he interrupted to quip that Delmar's recent misfortune was a plot by All-Country Insurance. Later, he clapped "Aarie" Stack on the back for resisting the charms of Maggie Jones, but Aaron brusquely dismissed him. Byte of the Binary Bug!
One day at work, Eddie was regaling Aarie with the tale of a hot date that went awry when the girl got a phone call from her mother. Maggie showed up to razz Eddie about his tall tales, but when Aarie snapped that he was trying to work, the duo went off in a huff. That evening, at a party for Tom and Ginny Williams, Eddie encouraged Aarie to toast the happy couple – with a glassful of 190 proof alcohol. The glop had the desired effect, knocking Aarie out, though he landed right on top of Maggie. At least Eddie got a laugh out of it. Xanadu!
Upping her game, Maggie pounced on Aaron for a kiss the instant he arrived at Delmar one day. In response, he stranded her on top of a tall filing cabinet, suggesting she kiss Eddie instead. Eddie cracked that her embarrassment was so good, he'd keep it all to himself. The Man Who Could Walk Through Walls
On one occasion, Eddie loudly gossiped about the passing "Mr Personality" with Maggie, saying how Aaron was making them look bad by doing things like arriving to work on time and completing his paperwork promptly. They were chided by file clerk Pamela Quinn, who told them to spend less time at the water cooler. In turn, Eddie rounded on Pamela, suggesting she had a crush on Aaron. Kill Me or Cure Me
When the Chem-Solar corporation decided to up its insurance coverage, Eddie and Aaron were dispatched to investigate the premises' security arrangements. Eddie took the job less than seriously, even believing that an alarm going off throughout the facility was merely a mock security drill to impress them. Daydreaming about the lunch menu, he didn't notice Aaron slip away in the commotion.
The alarm had been the result of a break-in by Baron Brimstone, the first in a series of heists with no clear connections between them. In the weeks that followed, Eddie noted to Maggie that Aaron had been acting like a man possessed, ignoring everyone except Pamela. Baron Brimstone and his Sinister Satan Squad!
When Aaron turned up for work with his arm in a sling, Eddie cracked to Maggie that he'd tried to pat himself on the back once too often. Maggie suggested that Eddie was just sore Aaron hadn't gone in on one of Eddie's ill-thought betting pools, though Eddie considered gambling to be a science. When Maggie asked why he was always broke, Eddie retorted in a way that was unprintable. Arms and the Robot!
On another occasion, Eddie tried to give Aaron a more secure investment for his future and offered to make him some money in the virgin unknown territory of betting on high school girls' badminton matches. Rebuffing him, Aaron asked why his funds were always depleted if gambling was a carefully investigated science, to which Eddie responded that even science requires research grants. Calling after Aaron that he'd never be a big time operator like him, Eddie turned to Maggie and asked for a loan of five bucks for lunch. Alone Against Alpha Flight!
One day in October, when head honcho Byron J. Benjamin called an emergency meeting, Eddie was given the task of tracking down Aaron, who was running late – and he managed to get a small loan from stone-face to make up for getting stung on the previous Sunday's football picks. In the meeting, Benjamin revealed plans to unveil Delmar's new super-embassy with a costume party no Halloween. Eddie attended the meeting, and as Benjamin called Aaron to stop behind for a further chat, he sneered that the boss's top investigator was buttering him up again.
The following week, Eddie attended the costume party with Maggie, Pamela, and Brock Jones, where he ran a best costume pool. Aaron again arrived late, his only concession to the season being a rubber mask paired with his regular business suit. As Maggie pulled his "man of steel" mask off, Eddie and his colleagues boggled and then laughed that Aaron had a robot fright mask on underneath.
Eddie was presumably still in attendance shortly afterwards, when the partygoers were trapped in the embassy by supervillain Jack O'Lantern. After Machine Man defeated Jack, he made tracks to avoid any of Delmar's employees asking why his face looked just like Aaron's costume. Jolted by Jack O'Lantern!
Notes
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- Aaron calls Eddie "Mr. Edward White" in "Byte of the Binary Bug!". The next time Eddie's surname is mentioned (under a different writer, we note), in "Kill Me or Cure Me", it is "Harris". No-Prize: Aaron got his name wrong, on purpose, as a diss.
- "Arms and the Robot!" has Maggie call him "Edward W. Harris". Maybe the W stands for White?
