Nighthawk (Supreme Power)
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Nighthawk (Kyle Richmond) is a fictional comic book character featured in Supreme Power, written by J. Michael Straczynski, drawn by Gary Frank, and published by Marvel Comics under the mature-readers imprint MAX Comics. The series and characters are part of a rebooted version of the Squadron Supreme, a superhero team based on the Justice League; specifically, Nighthawk is loosely based on DC comics' Batman. This is the fourth Marvel Comics character named Nighthawk.
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[edit] Publication history
In Supreme Power, J. Michael Straczynski's update and revamp of the old Squadron Supreme characters in Marvel's mature line, Marvel MAX. Kyle Richmond is an African American entrepreneur. In the old Squadron Supreme, Nighthawk was Caucasian.
Also like Batman (as depicted by most writers since Frank Miller's seminal Batman: The Dark Knight Returns), Nighthawk keeps his distance from and feels some disdain for Hyperion, the Squadron Supreme version of Superman. Unlike Batman, Nighthawk is willing to kill. He referred to fellow African-American hero, Blur as an "Uncle Tom", and he perceives Hyperion as ignorant, or at least naive, about racial bias. He quotes Malcolm X.
Initially appearing in the Supreme Power series, he later gained his own title, Supreme Power: Nighthawk.
[edit] Fictional character biography
[edit] Supreme Power
Nighthawk is the alter ego of Kyle Richmond, a wealthy African-American who is driven to fight crime in Chicago after his parents, Titus Richmond and his wife, Rosalie Richmond are intentionally gunned down by racists when he is a child, before his eyes. He turned his father's investments into a thriving corporation, called The Richmond Foundalion.
Nighthawk discovers that Michael Redstone, a super-human serial killer, has been preying upon (mostly) African-American prostitutes and asks the Blur, and later Hyperion to team-up and help him stop the murderer. While working the streets, Nighthawk tracks down the serial killer, but Redstone sneaks up on his pursuer and seriously wounds Nighthawk, threatening to blind him if he doesn't tell him who he's working for. Hyperion and the Blur appear and save Nighthawk from Redstone. A fight starts between the Powers that causes the deaths of thirty-five innocent bystanders and destroys or badly damages millions worth of private property. The Blur disables Redstone by using a putty-like invention of Nighthawk's to cover Redstone's mouth and nose, rendering the serial killer unconscious from oxygen starvation. Nighthawk and Hyperion want Redstone dead, but the Blur demands that they stick to the original plan and insert a straw through the putty to keep the murderer alive until they can figure out what to do with him.
Doctor Spectrum arrives and takes Redstone into custody, flying him off to a government prison originally made for Hyperion. After a heated argument, Nighthawk, the Blur and Hyperion dissolve their temporary alliance. Nighthawk insults the Blur, and lambasts Hyperion for allowing Doctor Spectrum to take Redstone instead of holding him over for a public trial.
[edit] Supreme Power: Nighthawk
Supreme Power: Nighthawk was a six-issue limited series written by Daniel Way and illustrated by Steve Dillon. Nighthawk must locate and apprehend the serial killer Whiteface (based on DC Comics' The Joker and on John Wayne Gacy).
Nighthawk meets the Deputy Mayor of Chicago, who tells him that people are no longer reporting crimes in the south and west sides of the city because they want Nighthawk to take care of the crimes his way. Meanwhile, Steven Binst, an imprisoned and catatonic serial killer, suddenly wakes up after 10 years and walks out of his minimum security correctional facility, made up as a clown, after killing the original one and drives to Chicago.
Five weeks later, after saving a baby from death and taking him to a woman named Doctor Arredondo, Nighthawk sees an epidemic of drug addict deaths all over Chicago. As the death count rises to thirty-eight hundred over three days, the governor is helpless to stop the circulation of poisoned drugs. Nighthawk interrogates a federal judge to try to find the supplier, to no avail. Later Binst, made up as a clown, goes to a birthday party for the mayor's 6-year-old son, killing the mayor's son and wife using balloons filled with poison gas. The mayor, grief-stricken, commits suicide during a press conference, but not before calling on Nighthawk to kill Binst.
A manhunt for the killer starts in Grant Park, where the mayor's wife first met Steven Binst. Nighthawk tracks Binst down to an abandoned warehouse, but is knocked out by Binst with a sleeping gas. After escaping Whiteface, Nighthawk is exposed to the poison. Nighthawk out-of-costume goes to see Dr. Arredondo who helped him in the past. She now knows he is Kyle Richmond; after kissing him, he asks about a little baby he saved named "Baby Doe". After Kyle leaves, Dr. Arredondo goes to the nursery to look in on Baby Doe. Unknown to Dr. Arrdondo and Nighthawk, Whiteface enters, takes down Nighthawk, kills Dr. Arredondo and then takes Baby Doe.
After finding Dr. Arredondo dead, Nighthawk goes looking for Steven Binst. The Deputy Mayor of Chicago gives a press conference and says that "Whiteface is dead". Nighthawk tracks Whiteface to a water treatment plant with Baby Doe in hand. Face to face with Nighthawk, Whiteface said how the two men are "opposite sides of the same coin". After a fight and saving Baby Doe, Nighthawk fires a grappling hook gun through Whiteface's midriff, then snaps the killer's neck and drowns him in untreated sewage. Observing the infant for a second, Nighthawk and the child vanish into the night.
[edit] Squadron Supreme
The U.S. government knows that Nighthawk is an African American with no superhuman powers; while therefore having little concern for him, General Richard Alexander still sends two special agents to locate him. Nighthawk finds the agents first and imprisons them in an undisclosed location.
After Nighthawk beats up a pimp, Stanley Stewart tries to convince him to join the newly-formed Squadron Supreme. While Stanley is concerned with the activities of the team, Richmond says no, since he is focused on the goal of crime in Chicago, not the rest of the world.
Later, while in Chicago, Nighthawk and the Blur watch a televised fight between Hyperion and Redstone. The Blur races out of Nighthawk's mansion to come to Hyperion's rescue. Later the Blur and Nighthawk are in Los Angeles, California ready to "kick his sorry white ass".
[edit] Squadron Supreme: Hyperion vs. Nighthawk
In Squadron Supreme: Hyperion vs. Nighthawk, Hyperion and Nighthawk go head to head in Darfur, Africa.
[edit] The Future?
In a possible future shown in the Supreme Power: Hyperion mini-series, Nighthawk had asked the Blur to keep an eye on the Squadron. A year later, Blur saw Hyperion use behavior modification technology on Blue Eagle and tried to escape undetected, but was caught by Hyperion. After Hyperion took over Earth, Nighthawk is one of the last people who fights the superhumans, being hunted by them.
[edit] Powers and abilities
- Like his archetypal inspiration, Batman, Nighthawk uses a combination of high-tech weaponry, stealth and fighting prowess to overcome his foes. Nighthawk has no superhuman abilities, but he is highly athletic and an excellent combatant. His reflexes and agility have been described by authors as peak human ability.
- He appears to be acquainted with forensic science and various forms of applied technological science.
- He wears a costume that incorporates a variety of hi-tech and low-tech weaponry and equipment. He wears an armored bulletproof costume, with night vision goggles and other vision enhancements. He has a satchel full of throwing blades on his belt pack.
- High-tech computer with voice on-call and various forms of information
