Jeff Hagees was a professional pool player born in Duluth, Minnesota who had a gambling problem. He started gambling as a way to get his mind off of his job as a defense contractor and missile propulsion engineer for the Department of Defense, but quickly found himself owing thousands to pool sharks. Eventually, he was fired because his employer was worried he would sell their secrets to pay his debts despite having no proof that he did anything. Penniless and still owing the sharks, Hagees became 8-Ball to steal the money he owed, combining his pool and engineering interests to start his own organized crime business that went on a spree in New York.^[4]

Sleepwalker tracked down 8-Ball on two occasions. During the first encounter, Sleepwalker won the fight and demanded to know who he was and what he was doing before he handed him over to the authorities. Rick Sheridan, however, woke up, and Sleepwalker was forced to escape. During the second encounter, 8-Ball won the fight and shot innocent bystanders, but Sleepwalker escaped.^[4] 8-Ball frequented The Bar With No Name, a popular super-villain hangout, where he often played pool with Oddball.^[5]

8-Ball once challenged Hobgoblin to a $100,000 round of pool, but Macendale changed the prize during the game to who got to kill Sleepwalker, now Hagees' nemesis. The game of pool turned into the challenge of actually being the first to kill Sleepwalker and get $100,000 as well. During said challenge, both 8-Ball and Hobgoblin realized that Sleepwalker wasn't fighting as hard as he usually was (due to a mind-transfer with Rick Sheridan), and he did not want to kill the weaker version. He ended up beating up Hobgoblin to make him stop, but Rick was already dying, and 8-Ball left him to his fate.^[6]

Eventually, Hagees was arrested and sent to prison in the Big House. He eventually escaped on She-Hulk's hand, (since the inmates stayed shrunk by Pym Particles), along with a group of villains including the Mad Thinker. He was eventually returned to prison by She-Hulk, but managed to escape again, this time organizing thefts in order to help his sick grandmother instead of paying off his debts.^[7]

8-Ball helped Whirlwind, Humbug, and Freezer Burn steal a computer chip from Ricadonna while she was at a party. Unknowingly, the chip contained a deadly computer virus, and they were caught on tape. Ricadonna put out contracts on their lives, and 8-Ball was subsequently killed by the Wrecker, who fired an RPG at the car that Misty Knight and Colleen Wing were using to transport him, having tracked him to his grandmother's hospital room. Ricadonna was arrested, and 8-Ball has had two successors since.^[2]

When The Hood used magic to resurrect several minor super villains, 8-Ball was one of those returned to life. Hagees eventually broke off on his own,^[3] and butted heads with Moon Knight during the vigilante's search for his new nemesis, Zodiac. Moon Knight threatened to kill 8-Ball and let him go after he revealed that he knew Manslaughter Marsdale was involved with Zodiac.^[8] Shortly afterward, Hagees ended up at The Myrmidon, a superhuman prison, following Mayor Wilson Fisk's crackdown on super heroes and super villains. His cellmate happened to be Moon Knight, who struck up a friendly relationship with Jeff, going as far as to protect him from other inmates. 8-Ball became Moon Knight's confidant as he climbed the ladder up The Myrmidon's underground fighting ring.^[3]

None

Skilled gymnast, expert pool player, experienced designer of missile propulsion systems, gifted inventor

Those of an ordinary human

Synthetic stretch fabric costume and bulletproof metal helmet

Cue stick (equipped with mechanism enabling it to magnify any force applied to it more than a thousandfold and transmit that force to anything it strikes), ball-bombs (pool balls containing explosives which detonate on impact)
Special weaponry: Ball-bombs (pool balls containing explosives which detonate on impact

Other accessories: Giant floating explosive pool balls

Hover-rack (a four-man hovercraft in the shape of a pool rack), floating 8-Ball

• Jeff had a gastrointestinal disorder, causing him to need to use the bathroom frequently.^[9]
• Jeff enjoys bubble baths and Johnny Cash, having been seen singing his song "the Baron" while in the tub before taking a call from Moon Knight.^[10]