WANTED: Earth-Two's Most Dangerous Super-Villains
Hawk's Monster
Personal information
Residence: Upstate New York, United States
Occupation: Silent Film Actor, Accident Victim, Monster
First Appearance (Post-Golden Age): Steel, the Indestructible Man #5 (October 1978)
Character History
Born in the early part of the 20th century, Jonathan and Andrew Hawk grew up in privilege. In his prime, the handsome Andrew became a star in the early silent film industry and his brother Jonathan became his manager. The two enjoyed nearly a decade of wealth and fame that came to abrupt halt when films developed the ability to record sound. Because Andrew's voice was high-pitched and faltering, his career as a film star was ruined.
The two brothers drowned their sorrow in a party lifestyle, drinking heavily and carousing around town. One night in 1928, Andrew was particularly intoxicated and insisted on driving home, even tho Jonathan objected. Losing control of the car, the vehicle crash, leaving Andrew badly injured with a broken spine and Jonathan presumably dead. The family estate was re-imagined as the Hawk Medical Research Center with the singular goal of treating Andrew Hawk.
Ten years later, a shipment of bio-retardant material was being shipped in a truck across upstate New York by Dr. Olivia Brown. Unknown to Dr. Brown, the adventurer known as Steel the Indestructible Man was hitching a ride after his recent severe injuries from a battle with the Gadgeteer (Steel the Indestructible Man #4). To the astonishment of both, a shambling monster emerged from the roadside, blocking the truck and causing it to crash. The driver attacks the creature but is quickly killed but Steel intercedes as it tries to kidnap Dr. Brown. Steel week from his injuries, Steel is thrown into quicksand by the beast, who turns back to Brown and takes her unconscious along with her supplies into the forest.
Recovering, Steel gives chase and finds the dilapidated Hawk family
home. Admitted by the elderly butler, Steel is rebuffed but refuses to
be turned away. Barging into the home, Steel runs a gauntlet of traps -
, giant blades, embedded machine guns and eventually being dropped into
a giant aquarium of sharks. Steel breaks the glass wall of the tank,
killing the sharks and freeing himself only to be confronted by Dr.
Gunnerson, the head of the Hawk Center.
As Gunnerson reveals the
tragic history of the Hawk brothers, he leads Steel to a room where Dr.
Brown is being held. Watching over her is the monster Steel had battled
before. Steel leaps into the fray but having not fully recovered from
prior injuries, the monster gains the upper hand. Watching Gunnerson
reveal in his seeming defeat, he realizes who the monster must be and
smashes his fist into it's spine. Screaming at the injury, Steel tells
Gunnerson that the monster is indeed Andrew Hawk. Gunnerson concedes,
revealing himself to be Jonathan Hawk claiming that early versions of
the bio-retardant formula had healed his brother's spine but turned him
into the monster before them.
Steel quickly free Olivia Brown but
as he turns back to the brothers, the decrepit Hawk House had began to
collapse from the strains of the battles Steel had waged across it's
interior. Scooping up Brown, he shouts to the Jonathan that his brother
is beyond help but that the house will claim them both unless he
flees. They ignore Steel as he escape and the ceiling collapses in on
them, leaving them presumably dead.
Whether either of the Hawks survived or had further activities on Earth-Two is unknown.
Powers and Abilities
Andrew Hawk, in his human form was a handsome and talented actor in the silent film industry. Jonathan Hawk was an accomplished financier and manager and both were possessed of considerable wealth, likely from inherited and earned resources. At some point, Jonathan Hawk either acquired knowledge of and access to bio-retardant materials, tho his use of them may have been strictly amateur based on the results. After treatment, Andrew Hawk assumed a monstrous form with superhuman strength, speed and reflexes. His morphology changed to a more animal form with bulbous red eyes and thick fur, the characteristics of which are not well defined.
Weaknesses and Limitations
Jonathan was an ordinary middle-aged male with limitations typical of age and physical condition. The monstrous form of Andrew Hawk appeared to have lost most of his human intelligence and retained a weakness near the spine, where Andrew had been injured in a car accident a decade before.
Multiversity
No other version of the Hawk Brothers and their monstrous outcome are known to exist outside the Earth-Two timeline.
Appearances
Issue | Comment | Reprinted in |
Steel the Indestructible Man #5 |
First appearance, vs. Steel |
|