NIGHTHAWK

 

NIGHTHAWK

Real Name: Kyle Richmond

First Appearance: Avengers (Vol. 1) #69, October 1969

Powers: Kyle Richmond drank a special alchemical serum cultivated from the Universal Wellspring by the Grandmaster, which gave him superhuman physical abilities away from direct sunlight. His strength, speed, endurance, and reaction time all increased marginally in the shade, and more than doubled during the night-time hours. For a time, he was also paralyzed from the waist down during the day, but his serum restored his mobility at night in addition to heightening his prowess. When the Wellspring was stirred up during New Thunderbolts, Nighthawk's powers increased by several magnitudes, and he also developed increased senses of sight, hearing, and smell during the night as well. Nighthawk's winged costume enables him to fly using jet propulsion, and even without his thruster, the wings can be used as shields or gliding instruments.

An auto-pilot program could also fly the suit without Kyle's mental commands, carrying him to a pre-programmed location if he's knocked unconscious. He has telescopic and infrared vision lenses built into his goggles, on-board navigational radar, proximity alarms, pneumatic titanium claws which pop out from over the back of his hands, and laser cannons affixed to the tops of his wings. He briefly possessed precognitive powers allowing him to witness crimes before they happened, due to a pair of enchanted eyes given to him by Mephisto, but had this ability mystically removed.