NIGHTWATCH

 

NIGHTWATCH

Real Name: Kevin Trench

First Appearance: Web of Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #97, February 1997

Powers: A baseline human with no superhuman powers, Dr . Kevin Trench became a super-hero after his own future self traveled back in time from 10 years in the future, dying in his arms while handing over the Nightwatch body suit. The suit employed self-regenerating material and adrenal stimulation techniques to give Trench superhuman abilities. The costume's effect on his body gave him superhuman strength, speed, agility, reflexes, hearing and healing powers, while the lenses were designed with heat-sensitive night vision, and can also detect trace amounts of radioactivity in the air. This adrenal stimulation had dangerous side effects, though, and Nightwatch could not employ the costume for extended periods of time without risking his own health. The costume itself absorbed electromagnetic energy more than reflecting it, causing darkness to "cling" to the suit so that he almost disappeared in the shadows.

Nightwatch's cape would expand and react to his thoughts, striking out like a whiplash, coiling around people or objects to lift them off the ground or immobilize them in place, manifesting razor-sharp edges to cut through steel, and creating unique aerodynamic properties that allowed him to glide and then fly in open air. The costume was capable of regenerating its material even faster than it enhanced Trench's own healing, and thus proved to be all but indestructible. The individual pieces of the armor were sensitive to each other as well, allowing Nightwatch to track down his missing power gauntlet on one occasion. The costume reacts uniquely to other sharkskin technology created by Morelle Pharmaceuticals. After being damaged battling the prototype sharkskin mercenary named Salvo, Nightwatch's costume absorbed Salvo's tech to rebuild itself and added reinforced armor plating to the outfit for protection. It later upgraded again against Morelle's Carvers, growing long razor-lined blades from the sides of his gauntlets, and yet again after interacting with the ultimate sharkskin project, Warbringer, developing the power to manifest highly advanced energy weapons by growing them straight out of his costume.