Little is known of the early career of the criminal known as the Foil and indeed, even his first criminal activities are unrecorded.  Hawkman and the Foil seemed familiar with each other but the circumstances of an initial meeting are unknown. 

In the Fall of 1987, the Foil was known to be in prison and the results of a recent robbery had left $50,000 unaccounted for.  To recover it, the warden solicited the aide of Hawkman and Hawkgirl with a plan to allow the Foil to escape and be followed to recover the stolen loot. 

On the evening of the planned escape, the Foil and two subordinates, Lefty and Sam, approached the prison wall.   Alarms sounded and the Foil, believing that Lefty had ratted them out, produced the foil that was his primary weapon of choice and impaled Lefty with it.   The two then made their way to a waiting helicopter and took to the skies.   As the Hawks gave chase, the Foil caught sight of them and produce a bucket of oil with which he doused Hawkgirl's wing.  No longer able to fly, she began to fall to the Earth, forcing Hawkman to break off the chase and allow the Foil to escape.

Seeing Hawkgirl safe, Hawkman picked up the trail and followed the Foil to his hideout.  There he witnessed an argument between the Foil and hiss underling in which he learned that the murdered Lefty had kept the map which described that hiding place of the $50,000.  The Foil resolves to break back into prison, steal the map from the morgue where Lefty's body and escape via the sewers behind the prison.  

As the return to the prison with explosives to block their pursuit,  Hawkman intervenes and a melee ensues, the Foil slips past and into the morgue.   Victorious over the henchmen, Hawkman arrives at the morgue and sees  the Foil slip into the sewers, leaving the explosives behind.  As the sewer grate closes, the morgue is destroyed in a vigorous explosion.  Hawkgirl, having been clued in by observant hawks, arrives on the scene and believes Hawkman dead.  Instead, the explosion had flung Hawkman onto a roof, from which he slipped away and resumed his identity as Carter Hall.

Reconnecting with Shiera, the two compared notes.  Learning from her that the Foil's body had not been found in the rubble and that he likely escaped led the two to don their uniforms and find the outlet to the prison sewers.  There they found that the tide had rise and with no way to escape out and the rubble blocking the way back, the Foil had begun to drown.  Rescuing his unconscious form, they returned the Foil to the prison hospital to await further trial.  Whether  the $50,000 was ever recovered is unknown (Flash Comics #87).

The subsequent activities of the Foil and any further encounters he may have had with the Hawkman have not been revealed.