Firehawk

Firehawk was the first known superhuman being on Earth and arch-nemesis to Liberty Torch.

Personality and Appearance
Firehawk was cold and imposing, rarely speaking or making signs of emotions. His handlers in Germany reported him as being difficult to work with. He would often ignore missions assigned to him by high ranking ministers, officers and even Hitler himself. He would vanish without notice at the slightest hint of Liberty Torch's location. In fact, the entirety of his existence seemed to be centered around the American hero.

Firehawk wore a black leather outfit in the style of the SS, decorated with a stylized eagle emblem on the chest. He wore two masks during his career, the first was a simple facemask that covered everything but his eyes. The second mask, a gift from the Emperor of Japan given to him in 1937, was a more elaborate full helmet sculpted to look like the skull of a hawk. He was never seen by the public without a mask on. The majority of the witnesses to his true identity perished or disappeared during/after the war, leaving his origins a mystery.

Abilities
Firehawk showed physical attributes beyond the limits of any normal human being. He could lift several tons with seemingly no effort, stand up to anywhere from small to heavy munitions with no damage to his person. His flight capabilities were far beyond any aircraft of the time, making him a much feared adversary in the sky. Firehawk's body also produced a constant stream of an unknown radioactive energy. He could project this energy into bolts or streams of devastating heat and force or unleash it in an area around himself with horrific results.

A favorite tactic of the Reich's was to release newsreels of him exhibiting his abilities to intimidate other nations into docility towards Nazi Germany.

Known History
Firehawk was revealed to the world at a conference in Berlin by the Nazi Party on November 16th, 1935. He was touted as the champion of National Socialism and the Aryan people, reportedly given his abilities by the powers of destiny to aid Germany in leading the world out of darkness. His presence was mainly used as propaganda at first but it didn't take long until Firehawk was being deployed on combat missions in Hitler's conquest of Europe.

As the years wore on, Firehawk seemed to be growing disinterested in his role within the Reich. He frequently vanished or never appeared to missions and meetings and went through a constantly rotating list of overwhelmed handlers. It wasn't until 1943, with the appearance of Liberty Torch, that Firehawk's interest in world affairs was renewed. The two were typically deployed against each other, effectively nullifying their presence in the battles of WW2 to little more than elaborate airborne melee battles.

Finally in May of 1944, Firehawk and Liberty Torch met for the last time in a battle that would take them into low Earth orbit. A series of blinding flashes were recorded in the sky for several hours culminating in one final explosion thought to be the equivalent of a 10 megaton bomb. Neither of the superpowered combatants were seen or heard from again.

Rumors

 * Firehawk was given his abilities by the Event.
 * Firehawk was an extraterrestrial being discovered by German scientists and indoctrinated into the ways of the Nazi party.
 * Firehawk won his final battle with Liberty Torch and went into hiding somewhere on the moon.

Quotes About Firehawk
"This is one sunuvabitch I wanted to personally introduce to my fist. I practically begged the top hats to let us go after him but by they time any of 'em would even listen, those two yahoos had already blown each other up. Good riddance. The world ain't ready for that kind of raw, uncontrolled strength. Rotterdam's proof of that." - Brock Jackson

"I saw firsthand some of the Firehawk's work in Rotterdam. The Germans threatened to bomb the place if the Dutch didn't capitulate. Both sides agreed, and they sent him in anyway. Over a thousand dead, a city levelled and all the result of his 'incredible' power.' I'd never seen that kind of power before. And I didn't see it again until 1945." -Dr. Wallace Bannon, The Pursuit of Justice: A Frontliner's Memoirs

"The grandiose displays of power he and the Torch were capable of strongly remind one of the grudging... tch, not peace, but simple nonaggression, between the United States and Russia. It was exactly these displays that prompted me to leave my homeland. Men like Firehawk are all that I mistrust in the world - possessing all of the power that he did, he cared nothing for the ramifications of its exercise, and grew bored of 'his lessers'. Disgusting." - Karl Ruprecht Wulff