Over the next several months, Steel made his presence known, attempting to insulate himself into the military’s graces as a special war operative.  In the process he battled a series of bizarre criminals including the Mineral Master (Steel #2), Sledgehammer (Steel #3) and the Gadgeteer (Steel #4). Eventually Gilbert Giles deduced that Heywood and Steel were one in the same, causing the elder man to suffer a heart attack.   As he lay in the hospital, he instructed Haywood to abandon his activities as Steel or to leave his daughter forever.  Despite Heywood’s rebuttals, Giles was adamant and Heywood left the Giles family, vowing never to return.

From there he traveled to London, where on a nightly patrol he spied German agents murdering two guards at the Ministry of War and dropped to the ground among them.  After a melee with the henchmen and their leader the Black Assassin, Steel emerged victorious just as the secretary of war, Winston Churchill emerged to investigate the ruckus.    Impressed by Steel, Churchill took him into his confidence and asked him to join a secret effort to infiltrate Germany itself and kidnap Adolph Hitler, a plan to which Steel eagerly agreed.

Steel and commandos with the British army landed behind German lines near a concentration camp headed by a man known only as “The Butcher”, who was expecting the Fuhrer to visit soon. Steel and his comrades were quickly captured by the Butcher and his men and taken to the camp, where Steel awakened in the mud.  His friend had been taken to a “hospital” where medical experiments in living subjects were conducted and racing to save them, he ran into an ambush and was subdued.  The fates of his comrades are unknown.

Awakened by the Butcher and his doctors, Steel was interrogated as to the source of his powers.  Once fully conscious, he again broke free and grabbing a bottle of acid as a weapon, left through a window where a bullet grazed his skull and again rendered him dazed.  The bottle rolled out of his hands and into that of a young Jewish prisoner, who smashed into the face of the Butcher, blinding and maiming him just as Hitler himself arrived.  Steele leaped toward the German dictator but was subdued and the prisoner who had maimed that Butcher executed on the spot.For months, Heywood remained captive in the camp, kept healthy until the Butcher could recover and exact his revenge in person.  The Butcher underwent a series of experimental procedures resulting in a new identity, Baron Blitzkrieg,  Steel underwent a series of procedures design to implant post-hypnotic suggestions that would turn him into a living weapon (originally Steel #6 but later revealed in All-Star Squadron #8-9).

Steel remained captive in Blitzkrieg's cam for the better part of the year while the Baron recovered. In the Winter of 1941, Steel was sent to the United States, ostensibly as a free agent.  He arrived just as another of the Baron's agents, the Black Assassin, was targeting Winston Churchill  Steel interceded, preventing an explosion with his body that killed the Assassin but saved Churchill.  He was revived and feted, given the new named "Commander Steel' as a result of his bravery.  Hours later, however, Baron Blitzkrieg activated the suggestion, seeing himself in Steel's mind and controlling his actions.  The controlled Steel attempted to assassinated Roosevelt and Churchill but was stopped by the All-Star Squadron when Robotman went toe-to-toe with him and Firebrand used her flame powers to blind him, causing a psychological feedback on the Baron that freed Steel's mind (All-Star Squadron #9).

From then on, Steel became a steady member of the All-Star Squadron, participating in cases that are well-documented such as battles against Hastor (All-Star Squadron #10-12), and the Ultra-Humanite and his allies (All-Star Squadron #18, 21-26).  He also participated in the first criminal excursion against Brain Wave, tho the villain did not make himself known (All-Star Squadron) and join the Justice League and Justice Society in a time-tossed case against Per Degaton which was erased from the timeline when Degaton was defeated (All-Star Squadron #14-15 and Justice League of America #207-209).  He attempted to re-establish connections to his prior life but learned that Gloria had married and that Dr. Giles had died.  Rather than attempt to return to that life, Steel told Gloria that Hank Heywood had died (All-Star Squadron #13).

Later in 1942, Steel traveled secretly to Berlin to rescue the husband of his former fiancée Gloria Giles Farley, U.S. Army Officer Brad Farley. Bursting in on Nazi scientists he holding him, he is initially captured but when the Crisis energy being monitored by the scientists goes awry, he uses that moment to escape.  Attempting to save one of the scientists captured in an energy surge resulted in a explosion, flinging . Steel and the dead scientist to what he later learned with Earth-One.  Realizing there was nothing waiting for him back on Earth-Two, Steel decided to flee Berlin and re-start his life on the new earth (All-Star Squadron #50).  What became of Brad Farley is unknown.

Once on Earth-One, Heywood appears to have largely abandoned the Commander Steel identity and it is unclear who, if anyone, knew his full history though he was found in his costume and some almost certainly knew.  He became a fighter pilot in WWII and Korea who originally rose to Chair the Joint Chiefs of Staff but how he could have passed a physical without detection is unclear.   It is also unclear whether he never used the identity at all.  He maintained some contact with Earth-Two allowing him to be aware of the existence of Infinity Inc. over the years (as revealed in Infinity Inc #19) but the nature and frequency of this contact is unknown.

In 1965, America was deep into the Vietnam War and Heywood’s son, Hank Heywood Jr. had followed his father’s footsteps as a fighter pilot.   Heywood was delighted to welcome his grandson – Henry Heywood, III – but his world came apart when his son was killed in Southeast Asia and his daughter-in-law died the following year of breast cancer, leaving Heywood and Dale Gunn, his son’s best friend, to raise young Henry.  As America entered more liberal years, militant Heywood became increasingly bitter, believing that the legal system lacked the vigor of that he was raised in.  At some point in the 1970’s, Heywood committed his teen age grandson to a series of surgeries, replacing his bone, skin and muscle in muscle the same his own had been replaced nearly 40 years before.  His rationale for doing this is unclear.  His grandson thought it was purely experimental and that his grandfather was quite mad (Justice League of America #238).  Heywood himself claimed that it was in part due to establishing his own heroic legacy and in part because he had was traumatized by the loss of his son and was desperate the Hank III not suffer than same fate (Justice League of America #246). He later stated without the surgeries, Henry III would have been long dead but it is not clear of what.

Heywood re-emerged in the mid-1980’s as the head of Heywood Industries in Arlington, VA.   He along with Gunn had designed a facility called the Bunker outside of Detroit, which he gifted to the Justice League for when his grandson joined. Not realizing that the Justice League had elected to de-globalize its operations and that most of the more powerful members had gone inactive, he resolved to correct matters directly. Using Mekanique, he travels to Earth-Two and deceives that members of Infinity Inc into joining him on Earth-One and attacking the Justice League, allowing him to kidnap his grandson and perform more surgeries.  He wanted to defeat what he saw as imposters while making Steel II even more worthy of his code name.  Infinity Inc eventually because wise to his deceit and the elder Heywood was undone by the arrive of the elder members of the Justice Society, whose combined strength defeated Mekanique. He was left at the mercy of his grandson, who delivered a several beating (Justice League of America #243-244, Infinity Inc #19). The two later achieved a measure of reconciliation (Justice League of America #246). During the end of the Crisis, Professor Ivo’s androids launched an assault on the Justice League, mortally damaging Hank Heywood III.  His final wish was to be returned to his grandfather, who eventually shut off life support when he realized nothing could be done (Justice League of America #260-261).

The final fate of the Earth-Two Commander Steel remains unrevealed.