BLACK DEATH
Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Human mutate or mutant (see comments)
Occupation: Criminal;
Group Membership: None
Affiliations:
None;
Enemies: Gravity, the Jester (see comments), Professor King, Rage
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Greenwich Guardian
Base of Operations: New York University, Manhattan, New York, USA
First Appearance: (As
Black Death) Gravity#1 (August, 2005);
Powers/Abilities: As the Greenwich Guardian, Black Death possessed enhanced strength, stamina and the ability to leap long distances with ease. As Black Death, he had the ability to envelop his body in darkness and create controlled darkness-energy blasts, as well as flight.
History: (Gravity#5 (fb) - BTS (see comments)) - Prior to receiving his powers, the man who would become the Greenwich Guardian used to read books and watch girls on the NYU campus.
(Gravity#5
(fb) - BTS) - Adopting the Greenwich
Guardian identity, he had his first fight as a superhero on the NYU
campus.
Some time later, in
his student guise, the Greenwich Guardian received a
failing grade in social
psychology from Professor King. He then began spending a great deal of
time
studying in the Bobst Library.
(Gravity#4 (fb) - BTS) - The Greenwich Guardian fought the Jester at NYU and was defeated. He disappeared soon after this.
(Gravity#5 (fb) - BTS) - Feeling unappreciated as a hero, a series of disheartening events in NYU's Hayden Hall led the Greenwich Guardian to become Black Death.
(Gravity#1 (fb) - BTS) - Black Death based himself out of midtown Manhattan, making his presence known. He later encountered Rage. A fight between the two nearly ended when Rage knocked Black Death down.
(Gravity#1) - The fight between Black Death and Rage continued into NYU and into a building where freshman Greg Willis was meeting with an adviser. Donning his suit and leaping into action as Gravity, Willis mistook Rage for the villain of the fight and pushed him though several walls with his gravity powers. Ambushing Gravity, Black Death used his powers to pin him against a wall and taunted him, calling him "Guppy." As he left, Black Death warned Gravity they'd meet again.
(Gravity#2)
-
The Greenwich Guardian encountered Gravity while patrolling Greenwich
Village and congratulated him on defeating Rhino earlier that day. The
Guardian asked Gravity if he'd like to join him on patrol, and offered
to show the novice hero the ropes. Gravity accepted and they agreed to
meet the following day at midnight.
The Greenwich Guardian and Gravity
formed a partnership that continued over several nights, stopping ATM
robbers in skeleton costumes and saving a family from a burning
building. During a fight against gang members in an alley, the
Greenwich Guardian's aggressiveness against their enemies forced
Gravity to intervene. The Greenwich Guardian scolded Gravity and told
him the gang members wouldn't hesitate to murder either of them, and
that Gravity should be more interested in watching his back. Gravity
was able to
talk the Greenwich Guardian into continuing the patrol. The duo soon
spotted a jewelry
store robbery and leapt into action. Making short work of the thieves,
Gravity was blasted from behind by Black Death.
(Gravity#3) - Gravity rose to his feet, unable to stop Black Death from using his powers to kill one of the jewelry store thieves. He launched a full assault at Black Death only to be thrown back through a window. After a one-sided fight, Black Death collapsed a portion of the ceiling on Gravity, but was enraged that to learn Gravity escaped through an air duct.
(Gravity#4)
- The Greenwich Guardian
returned weeks later. Telling Gravity he'd been in the hospital since
their encounter with Black Death and that he left the fight as suddenly
as he did to get needed medical attention. The Guardian told Gravity
he'd been tracking Black Death and learned of his plan to steal an
experimental seismic pulse generator to destroy Manhattan. The Guardian
proposed they steal it first and talked a reluctant Gravity into it.
After the successful theft of the device, Gravity handed it over to the
Greenwich Guardian and the duo continued to work together.
Some time later, the Guardian tracked
Gravity down on the NYU campus with news that he'd finally tracked down
Black Death. As Gravity got into position in Black Death's warehouse
lair, the Greenwich Guardian put the seismic pulse generator on and
told Gravity that the device was actually a graviton trap. And that
he's actually Black Death.
(Gravity#5)
-
Bringing Gravity back to the NYU campus, Black Death explained that he
used "camera things" that measure fluctuations in gravity to figure out
how Gravity's powers worked, giving them to the thieves he set up to
rob the jewelry store. Wanting to use Gravity's powers to further his
own agenda, Black Death used the graviton trap to destroy buildings and
other parts of the NYU campus that reminded him of his days there. Able
to assert control over his powers, Gravity destroyed the graviton trap
and leapt at Black Death, who grabbed Gravity and flung him through the
Washington Square Arch.
Trapped under debris, Gravity could only
listen while Black Death told him about his aspirations as the
Greenwich Guardian, how he thought he'd be the next big thing, and how,
feeling unappreciated, he chose to use his powers for himself. Lifting
debris off to Black Death's surprise, Gravity hit the villain with a
massive punch and left him laid out on the ground. Black Death's form
disintegrated into a black smear.
Black Death recovered, albeit with minor injuries to his human form. He broke into an admissions office and began a search for freshman students from Wisconsin.
Comments: Created by Sean McKeever (writer), Mike Norton (pencils) and Jonathan Glapion (inks).
The source of Black Death's powers were not revealed, nor was it explained if he had his Black Death powers while active as the Greenwich Guardian or gained them separately (as is slightly implied in Gravity#5). Black Death's powers may be Darkforce related as all "shadow-based" powers seem to be. While acting as the Greenwich Guardian in Gravity#4, he seemed to be flying, although it's not entirely clear from the art if that's the case or if he's simply leaping. It's possible that the Greenwich Guardian had flight as a power, something that carried over when he became Black Death
The chronology of the prior events mentioned by Black Death in Gravity#5 are recounted in the order given above, but it's unclear if they actually occurred in this sequence.
Black Death rather pointedly asked Gravity if he was a member of the X-Men when the latter was misidentified in the Daily Bugle as one in Gravity#2. It's possible he was making sure Gravity wouldn't have back-up following him, but it may well have been an indication that Black Death was either anti-mutant or a mutant himself.
Black Death's backstory isn't totally clear, but there's enough there to piece together that his humbling and humiliating defeat by the Jester was the cause for his abandonment of the Greenwich Guardian identity and that he continued to attend NYU until just recently when he was pushed too far and -- through unknown means -- gained the powers he would use as Black Death just prior to the start of the Gravity limited series. It's not clear which Jester he encountered, but it's probably the second version, the late Jody Putt, although the Greenwich Guardian may have been active early enough to run into Jonathan Powers during his heyday.
The end result of Black Death's revenge against Gravity is unrevealed.
Profile by G Morrow .
CLARIFICATIONS:
Black Death has no known connections to
images:
(without ads)
Gravity#2, p22, pan1 (main image)
Gravity#5, p23, pan2 (Black Death unmasked)
Gravity#2, p12, pan1 (Greenwich Guardian)
Gravity#3, p6, pan4 (Gravity vs. Black Death)
Appearances:
Gravity#1 (August, 2005) - Sean McKeever (writer), Mike Norton
(pencils), Jonathan Glapion (inks), Mackenzie Cadenhead (editor)
Gravity#2 (September, 2005) - Sean McKeever
(writer), Mike Norton (pencils), Jonathan Glapion (inks), Mackenzie
Cadenhead (editor)
Gravity#3 (October, 2005) - Sean McKeever
(writer), Mike Norton (pencils), Jonathan Glapion (inks), Mackenzie
Cadenhead (editor)
Gravity#4 (November, 2005) - Sean McKeever
(writer), Mike Norton (pencils), Jonathan Glapion (inks), Mackenzie
Cadenhead (editor)
Gravity#5 (December, 2005) - Sean McKeever
(writer), Mike Norton (pencils), Jonathan Glapion (inks), Mackenzie
Cadenhead (editor)
Last updated: 11/12/07
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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