Origin

Flatman was a mutant from the Midwest to flatten his body and stretch it to great lengths. After dropping out of school, he got a job impersonating Reed Richards at parties for his boyfriend, a party organizer named Andrew. After Andrew mocked him for being the opposite of Reed Richards (poor and uneducated), Matt decided to become a superhero, not only choosing Flatman as his superhero alias but choosing Dr. Val Ventura as his secret identity.

Creation

Big Bertha first appears in West Coast Avengers (1985) #49 by John Byrne

Major Story Arcs

Great Lakes Avengers

Ashley answered a personal ad placed by Mr. Immortal for a new superhero team. After the Vision appeared on The David Letterman Show to introduce his new look to the public, the team decided to call themselves the Great Lakes Avengers and act as the team's Midwest branch. Hawkeye and Mockingbird, who had only recently quit the Avengers, were curious and investigated the team. Hawkeye decided to take the young heroes under his tutelage and shape them into a real team.

When the team detected an emergency summons from the real Avengers, Hawkeye led the team in a battle against the threat of That Which Endures which had already possessed The Avengers' Scarlet Witch and She-Hulk in a bid to push evolution forward. As Ashley and the team battled against the possessed Avengers, Mr. Immortal saved the day by destroying the Assimilator, which freed everyone from its influence.

Lightning Rods

After the Avengers seemingly perished after battling Onslaught, the Thunderbolts took their place as the premier superhero team. The Great Lakes Avengers decided to abandon the Avengers name and attempt to become the West Coast equivalent of the Thunderbolts, taking the name The Lightning Rods.

Eventually, The Lightning Rods were frustrated to learn that the Thunderbolts were actually the Masters of Evil in disguise. The team decided to try and arrest the Thunderbolts, but they were humiliatingly defeated by them and had their costumes stolen. The Lightning Rods tried again to get even with the Thunderbolts, only to be defeated once again. They eventually just gave up trying.

50-State Initiative

After the New Warriors took on villains that they were ill-equipped to handle, Standford, CT was destroyed in a nuclear-like explosion. To get the superheroes a semblance of checks and balances, Tony Stark sponsored the Super-Hero Registration Act, which would require all superheroes to work for the government. Part of the act was the establishment of the 50-State Initiative, where each of the U.S. states would receive their own version of the Avengers, with heroes trained by former and active Avengers. The Great Lakes Avengers (renamed the Great Lakes Initiative) were assigned to Wisconsin.

GLA Again

Due to legal issues with Stark Holdings, they had lost the trademark to the Avengers name, which then went to the only other person who attempted to trademark it: Flatman. Avengers legal counsel, Connie Ferrari, offers Flatman the legal rights to the Great Lakes Avengers for the return of the Avengers trademark, which was good enough for Flatman, so he got the gang back together, except Squirrel Girl, who had become too popular for them. They even got a defunct Detroit Stark factory for their new headquarters; however, they got into a feud with a masked supervillain named Nain Rouge, who owns a neighboring club.

After causing chaos at this club, the group was arrested and ran into Goodness (aka Good Boy), a female blue-haired humanoid wolf shapeshifter who threw a bottle at the Detroit councilman, Dick Snerd, who is also secretly Nain Rouge. He continued to spout propaganda regarding poor communities being breeding grounds for crime while sending in his own superhuman goon squad to tear them up. To keep them out of the way, Snerd used the GLA and Good Boy’s recent arrests to have them barred from acting as heroes.

Bertha and Goodness did not care about the injunction and went to confront Nain Rouge again. They found him, drunk and passed out without his mask, revealing he was Snerd. The duo decided to kidnap, and, in a fit of rage, Goodness attacked and injured him. The team had to ditch him after Connie found out about it, dropping Snerd off at a hospital with his mask pinned to him. The city appreciated what the GLA did, as well as their other acts of heroism, however, a court ruling did not rule in favor of Flatman’s trademark, so the Avengers sent Deadpool, active member of the Avengers Unity Squad at the time, to fire them.

Powers

Elasticity: Flatman has the mutant ability to stretch any part of his body to great lengths and possesses a flat, nearly two-dimensional body. He uses his flatness to help dodge attacks like thrown shurikens, slip through very thin spaces like under doors and appear invisible by turning to just the right angle. He uses his elasticity to help "launch" attacks like sling-shotting rubber ducks into orbit.

• Combat: Flatman's mutant powers can attribute his mastery of the deadliest martial arts fighting form of all... Origami-Fu! Deadpool can attest to this, as he has experienced first-hand Flatman's crane, monkey, tiger, and frog styles.

Education: Flatman is also adept at accounting and has even itemized all of Deadpool's outrageous expenses during his brief stay as a reserve member of the Great Lakes Initiative.

• Card Shark: Flatman has proven himself to be an excellent poker player. He and his teammates were invited to the first annual Superheroes' Poker Tournament. In the end, Flatman becomes tournament champion by defeating Thing's four fours with a straight-flush.
• Fashion: Flatman possesses extensive knowledge of fashion, which he was reported to have "studied in college." He is able to identify a women's shoe and describe it in detail.

In Other Media

Television

• Fantastic Four (2006): He appears in the episode The Cure, as Thing's rock like mutation has been "cured" the Fantastic Four hold auditioning for potential recruits. Flatman auditions but is dismissed by Reed Richards as they have similar powers, with Reed being far superior in power strengths and levels.
• The Superhero Squad Show (2010): Flatman appears in the "Cometh the Iceman" as a teacher for the Squaddies, even though most of the information he tells them is wrong. He is portrayed as extremely boring and monotone. He uses Reptil as his assistant but dismisses anything he says as incorrect.