Daniel Whitehall

Daniel Whitehall is a male comic supervillain that features in Marvel Comics.

Biography

Origin

Daniel Whitehall was a male human who was a member of Hydra and had taken the role of the Kraken where he helped men become who they were always meant to be. (Secret Warriors v1 #16)

Around 22 years ago, the Kraken was in charge in the indoctrination and training of orphans that were placed in one of the eight great houses that had twelve girls in each dwelling. He oversaw their development to ensure the most ambitious, determined and aggressive passed through the trials with Viper passing through this process. (Secret Warriors v1 #15)

Three years, Whitehall was now a sickly and elderly men confined to a bed in a hospital with him being hooked up to life support equipment. Around this time, Jacob Fury had gone to his home and went through his items to find a journal that detailed Daniel's life as Kraken. He then arrived at the hospital to confront that Hydra member who offered no regrets but Jacob said he had not come for a confession but instead revealed his findings that Daniel Whitehall and the Kraken were the same man from the journals. Fury then took the Kraken's helmet over Whitehall's objections and wore it as he decided to take over the role. As the new Kraken, Jacob Fury then proceeded to shut down the life support equipment keeping Daniel Whitehall alive seemingly killing him whilst he proceeded to infiltrate the leadership of Hydra. (Secret Warriors v1 #16)

Legacy

Due to the actions of the Cosmic Cube Kobik, Captain America Steve Rogers timeline was rewritten at the request of the Red Skull to create a history where as a child he was inducted into the ranks of Hydra. In this alternate timeline, Daniel Whitehall had operated in the early part of the 20th century with him meeting Elisa Sinclair who he later owed a great debt and came to rely on her judgement and her visions. (Captain America: Steve Rogers v1 #6) He was part of Hydra's leadership alongside Elisa Sinclair, Dr. Sebastian Fenhoff and Heinrich Zemo with the four discussing allying with Germany and the Axis powers. (Captain America: Steve Rogers v1 #8) A young Steve Rogers was taken from his mother in 1926 to join the secretive Hydra society by Elisa Sinclair who brought the boy to their home as she sensed a great destiny in him. Daniel Whitehall was present at the time with fellow Hydra member Dr. Fenhoff believing Sinclair was a charlatan in her belief in Rogers. An angry Elisa Sinclair made Fenhoff believe that he was coughing blood but was stopped by Whitehall (Captain America: Steve Rogers v1 #5) Over the next two years, Daniel was kept informed on the progress of the training and indoctrination of Steve Rogers at the Keep. In 1934, the young Steve Rogers attempted to flee from the Keep in the night but waiting for him was Daniel Whitehall in his guise as the Kraken who revealed his identity and that he helped people become who they were meant to be. He spoke to the young Rogers about the destiny Sinclair had seen for him and offered him the chance to change the world which he accepted. (Captain America: Steve Rogers v1 #6)

Overview

Personality and attributes

He was said to hold no regrets over his actions in his life. (Secret Warriors v1 #16)

Jacob Fury said that in a room of dangerous men that Kraken had always frightened him the most. (Secret Warriors v1 #16)

Powers and abilities

In his role as the Kraken, he claimed that he helped men become who they were always meant to be in their lives. (Secret Warriors v1 #16)

Whitehall had kept with him a journal titled Kraken that detailed a running record of his activities over the last 20 years that documented every dark deed that was possible. Among these included the indoctrination of innocents, the buying and selling of people's live, theft, murder along with alliances with people whose agendas were as grand and evil as his own as well as his activities with the Great Wheel of the Zodiac. (Secret Warriors v1 #16)

Notes

• Daniel Whitehall as Kraken was created by Brian Michael Bendis, Jonathan Hickman, and Stefano Caselli where he made his first appearance in Secret Warriors v1 #11 (February, 2010).
• In an interview on CBR, Jonathan Hickman commented on the character, "Kraken is a new character. The other HYDRA character with that name [Commander Kraken] was a real b-list character and pretty lame. It’s the same case with this Leviathan thing that’s coming down the road. That’s not that character either. It’s a repurposing of a cool name. Our Kraken is very important going forward. He has a long and elaborate history and we’re going to be delving into that in a major way."

In other media

Television

• In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Daniel Whitehall appeared as an antagonist in the live-action television series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with him being portrayed by actor Reed Diamond. Originally known as Werner Reinhardt, he was born 9th October 1904 in Arnsberg, Germany with him joining the Nazi regime in Germany after World War I with him rising in the ranks before joining HYDRA. During World War II, he participated in the conquests in Europe and later began to search for ancient artifacts. Among the relics he sought was the legendary occult book known as the Darkhold but was unable to find it. He later discovered ruins with the corpses of blue-skinned extraterrestrials and his research led him to learn about the Obelisk which he sought out. Reinhardt travelled to a village in China where he discovered the Diviner and learnt of a race of people that could activate it after capturing a woman by the name of Jiaying. Before he could experiment on her further, he was captured by the Strategic Scientific Reserve led by Agent Peggy Carter. He remained trapped at in prison that was later managed by S.H.I.E.L.D. by 1970 with him learning that HYDRA had rebuilt itself and Reindhart maintained some influence within it. His own research looked into the founding of the organization and its belief in the entity known as Hive but as a man of science he felt the religious devotion was nonsense and dismissed it. When the head of the Malick family died, Werner Reindhart was visited by the man's sons namely Gideon Malick and Nathaniel Malick. At the time, the boys were undertaking the ritual of the Traveler where one was chosen as a sacrifice to go through the portal of the Obelisk to Maveth to find the HYDRA god Hive. Reinhardt urged the boys to abandon this faith and instead adopt science but they accused him of being a traitor and left him. In 1989, the now elderly Reinhardt was released from his prison cell by medical parole and the actions of Alexander Pierce. He resumed his operations with his agents finding the elders from the village he had intended to experiment on in China with one of the captives being Jiaying. To his shock, she had not aged in the years since he last saw her and decided to experiment on her to find the source of her eternal youth. Following torturous experimentation, he had her organs removed with Jiaying seemingly killed and used them to regress his own age making him young again with him taking a new identity of Doctor Daniel Whitehall.

Appearances

• Secret Warriors:
• Captain America: Steve Rogers:

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