Jack Hawksmoor
Jack Hawksmoor is a male comic superhero who features in Wildstorm.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
John Cooper Hawksmoor
As a child, he was repeatedly abducted and surgically modified by humans from the 70th century, the result of which is he is linked to whatever city he finds himself in. These future humans modified Hawksmoor to provide him with the ability to combat a threat from the distant future, a gestalt being that was the entirety of Kansas City from the 70th century. Hawksmoor defeated the being by merging with—and transforming—the city of Tokyo into a giant humanoid being, battling and destroying the invader.
Jack Hawksmoor began quietly fighting crime in the city, later moving to strike higher, at politicians and corporations. He caught the attention of Stormwatch's Henry Bendix, who offered him a place in Stormwatch Black, the covert operations team of Stormwatch, alongside Jenny Sparks and Swift. Hawksmoor helped remove power-mad, super-powered cops, stop biological warfare in a small American city, solve the murder of ex-Stormwatch member Undertow and he personally fought and killed the insane, murderous, illegitimate son of a revered American president.
Jenny Sparks and Stormwatch Black were in hiding when most of Stormwatch died at the hand of the insane Henry Bendix. Jenny recruited new versions of the Engineer and the Doctor, and along with Swift, Jack Hawksmoor, Midnighter and Apollo they formed the Authority to take the place of Stormwatch as the world's first defense against superhuman menaces. They discovered the Carrier, a sentient ship that could travel the Bleed, the space between worlds in the multiverse, and used it as their headquarters. The terrorist Kaizen Gamorra later attacked Moscow, causing untold loss of life, and Jenny contacted her old handlers Jackson King and Christine Trelane for information on him. The Authority had already done their research, but she wanted her ex-handlers, who were still connected with the UN, to feel important. Jack visited Moscow, and realized the Children of Gamorra used teleporters with a unique energy signature. The signature appeared next in London, and the Authority arrived to defend Jenny's home. Jack was excited at the prospect of punching people in the head, something he'd waited all day for. The Authority violently murdered a number of the Children of Gamorra, forcing the rest to teleport away. Apollo had wrecked the teleportation gear of one of the Children, who was forced to fly back to Gamorra Island, with Apollo in pursuit. Kaizen put up his island's force field to rethink his strategy, and the Doctor saved Apollo from splattering himself on the forcefield. The Doctor reminded him that although he was new to superheroics his mind was as old as human existence. Jenny split her team to offer emergency aid to Moscow and London. Jack thought that the more responsibility Jenny got the more she tended to yell and became more horrible as a result but he still supported her. Jenny told Apollo that she was uncomfortable with leadership, and haunted by past mistakes, but she'd resolved that there had to be people ready to save the world and then change it. (The Authority v1 #2) Apollo kept nagging Jenny about how they were going to get past Gamorra's forcefield, and Engineer had been working with the Carrier, which showed her it could open a gate directly to the island. Jenny told Midnighter to do recon on the island, while the rest of the team traveled to L.A., where they predicted Gamorra's next attack would come. Jack noted that they were resembling a team even though they knew virtually nothing about each other. Jenny contacted the UN to alert them to the danger to L.A., but before she could make any more preparations the Children of Gamorra arrived. The Doctor felt out of his element, but his predecessor spoke to him, reminding him that the world was his village, and he had every Doctor in his corner to help him realize his potential. The Doctor turned half of the attacking Children into trees, but the strain of such powerful magic left him unconscious, and he was returned to the Carrier. Engineer reminded her teammates she wasn't a soldier, but Jack convinced her she had to learn to fight, and she created a web of knives that cut a number of the Children to shreds. Midnighter made his way to Gamorra Tower, and discovered the bioreactor Gamorra was using to pump out more and more superhuman soldiers. Midnighter was trained to beat problems until they were dead, but he realized that strategy would not work against two miles of machinery. He returned to the Carrier, and plowed it into Gamorra Tower, destroying it. Jenny alerted the UN to send inspectors to Gamorra so they could recover Kaizen's technology, and she told the world they would make it better. (The Authority v1 #4)
Post-Flashpoint
Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events.
Continuing his search, he came to find a section of the city transformed and seemingly composed of humans that were merged to the buildings. It was then that he was attacked by creatures of flesh and metal where he gained assistance from an avatar of the Parliament of Trees with this being Levi Kamei. (The Swamp Thing v1 #12) Working together, they came to find that a new nascent idea was taking shape where it embodied the spirit of industry with it forming the Parliament of Gears. Forming the spirit of industry, it looked to produce and created the Factory within Detroit where it targeted the homeless in order to process them. The two heroes looked to stop this operation where Hawksmoor intended to use his power to starve the Factory of power supplied by the city. This resulted in another flesh/metal construct being sent to battle the pair with Kamei battling the creature. He delayed the construct long enough for Hawksmoor to join him where he critically damaged the creature allowing for Levi to have the plants consume it into the earth once more. (The Swamp Thing v1 #13)
Overview
Personality and attributes
He had said that he did not like the police. (Secret History of The Authority: Hawksmoor v1 #1)
Powers and abilities
He is physically unable to survive outside of an urban environment for long; however, when he is within an urban environment, he has vast, vaguely defined superpowers linked to the city, such as superhuman agility and strength, and telepathic control, such as animation and possession, of infrastructure and architecture, and allowing him to experience precognition and psychometry as if he and the city were one being. In some instances, he has transformed an entire city into a humanoid battlesuit and used it to fight. Jack treats individual cities as if each were their own being. Jack does not need to eat, as he can convert air pollution into nourishment. He can also transport between cities, originally inside a womb-like construct, though this may have changed. Also, he doesn't always estimate the time for womb-transport correctly.
He could feel every heartbeat in a 3 square mile radius of him though the loudest was the pulse of a city. (Secret History of The Authority: Hawksmoor v1 #1)
Extra chronal-scientists came to re-wire his cerebellum to resonate in a frequency above consciousness with this being the closest state of dreaming for himself. There was a part of his brain that was never really awake as at the bottom of his brain was the place where cities spoke to him. (Secret History of The Authority: Hawksmoor v1 #1)
Behind his spleen, there was an extra-human organ capable of sensing when a city was in danger with him able to receive an alert 10 seconds ahead of the Carrier's systems. (Secret History of The Authority: Hawksmoor v1 #1)
Extra organs were capable of increasing his density in order to prevent high impact from injuring him. (Secret History of The Authority: Hawksmoor v1 #1)
It was said that his stomach had been taken out so that he could live on pollution. (Secret History of The Authority: Hawksmoor v1 #1)
Through his link, he could make a city form a limb to attack an enemy with these capable of battling giant mechs or to grab such a machine's legs. Alternatively, he could cause it to influence the landscape such as shifting to allow water in to strike a target with a small wave. (Secret History of The Authority: Hawksmoor v1 #1)
Jack tends to use the artificial transporter mechanisms of his team's headquarters to facilitate transport from city to city, as seen in Wildstorm Summer Special.
His powers and weaknesses are entirely symbiotic; the larger or more populous the city, the greater his abilities; and, conversely, if the city is damaged, he becomes less effective or develops an injury. Jack has been shown commanding cities to literally swallow people whole, sometimes Jack has caused parts of the city to erupt, damaging enemies. He also has showed to be able to fix damages and renew cities parts.
Notes
- Jack Hawksmoor was created by Warren Ellis and Tom Raney where he made his first appearance in Stormwatch v1 #37 (July, 1996).
Alternate Versions
Appearances
- Stormwatch v1: (1996)
- The Authority v1:
- Secret History of The Authority: Hawksmoor v1:
- The Wild Storm v1:
- The Swamp Thing v1: (2022)
External Links
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