DARK
WIND
DARK
WIND
Real Name: Kenji Oyama
Identity/Class: Human (samurai weapons and
advanced technology user);
World War II through modern eras
Occupation: Warrior, inventor; former soldier
Group Membership: Led own army of samurai warriors; formerly the Japanese army
Affiliations: Kira, numerous samurai and ninjas;
formerly Bullseye
Enemies: Blindspot, Daredevil, Mystique,
Rogue, USA, Tomo Yoshida, modern Japanese government
formerly Yuriko Oyama
Known Relatives: Yuriko Oyama (Lady Deathstrike, daughter), unidentified son (deceased)
Aliases: Lord Dark Wind
Base of Operations: An unidentified island off the coast of Hokkido, Japan
First Appearance: Daredevil I#196 (July, 1983)
Powers/Abilities: Dark Wind is a scientific genius (or possibly he just employed scientific geniuses) and a skilled swordsman. He employed a large group of warriors, mostly samurais using swords and bow and arrow, but he also used a number of ninja as well (or perhaps these were purchased/loaned from the Yakuza).
History:
(Daredevil I#197 (fb) - BTS / Alpha Flight I#34 (fb)) - In 1945, during World
War II, Kenji Oyama was a famous pilot and war hero.
(Daredevil I#197 (fb) - BTS / Alpha Flight I#34 (fb)) - As the tides of war turned against Japan, he volunteered for a Kamikaze suicide mission. He crashed his explosive-laden plane into an American aircraft carrier, but the bombs he carried did not go off for some reason, and Oyama was somehow denied his glorious death.
(Alpha Flight I#34 (fb)) - Scarred and shamed, Oyama became a prisoner of war.
(Daredevil I#197 (fb) - BTS) - Considering his survival a great disgrace, Oyama spent the rest of his life atoning for this.
(Daredevil I#198 (fb) - BTS) / Daredevil I#199 (fb) - BTS) - Oyama took to wearing a hood over his head to hide his face as his nation hid its shame. He vowed to restore Japan's tarnished honor and his own, and not to reveal himself until Japan was righteous again.
(Alpha Flight I#34 (fb)) - Oyama's code of honor attracted devotees.
(Daredevil I#198 (fb) - BTS) - Oyama made a bundle after writing a book about his war experiences. He bought an island and set himself up as its lord, after which he married and had two sons and a daughter.
(Daredevil I#198 (fb) - BTS / Alpha Flight I#34 (fb)) - He branded his children's faces and spirits as a sign of superiority, perhaps to mirror his own scarred life.
(Daredevil I#198 (fb) - BTS) - He financed a lot of reactionary political activity, and it is believed that his sons were killed trying to assassinate the Japanese prime minister. He was also known to employ the Yakuza and to have killed anyone that got near his island.
(Daredevil I#199 (fb) - BTS) - Oyama became disgusted with
changes towards a "New Japan," a nation of merchants who bought their conquests
instead of claiming them with blood and steel. Seeing this as a disgrace to
Japan's samurai ancestors, he plotted to return Japan to its values of old.
Dark Wind's samurai were fiercely loyal to him, valuing that
he gave them something to die for: him and his ideals.
(Daredevil I#199 (fb) - BTS) - Oyama named himself Dark Wind, symbolizing a wind that would come from the past to sweep the shame from the land.
(Alpha Flight I#34 (fb)) - Believing that a soldier of his empire must be strong in both body and mind, Dark Wind began his quest for the ultimate warrior. Turning to science, Dark Wind invented a process for bonding to human bone the rare near-indestructible metal Adamantium.
(Alpha Flight I#34 (fb) - BTS / Wolverine minus 1) - Dark Wind's formula and notes were stolen by parties unknown to him. It took him decades to reinvent the process.
(Alpha Flight I#34 (fb) - BTS) - Dark Wind's formula was obtained by Department H and the Weapon X program and used on the mutant Logan, who became Wolverine.
(Rogue III#10 (fb)) - Tomo Yoshida sent his nephew, Sunfire, alongside Mystique, Rogue, and Blindspot, to steal Dark Wind's formula from his facility in Yokohama, intending to use the formula to create his own army of warriors to fight his American enemies and to restore Japan's honor. They defeated Dark Wind's ninja warriors, but Dark Wind escaped with his computer hard drives before Mystique and Blindspot could reach him.
(Daredevil I#196 (fb) - BTS) - Dark Wind decided to use his Adamantium-bonding process to replace/repair the broken bones in the assassin Bullseye's spine to restore his mobility and make him stronger than ever before. In exchange, he intended that Bullseye would serve him, training Dark Wind's people in his skills, and kill for him.
(Daredevil I#196 (fb) - BTS) - Learning that a Japanese outfit, possibly connected to those who bonded Adamantium to Wolverine's skeleton, was trying to abduct the then-crippled Bullseye from hospital custody, Wolverine traveled to Manhattan to investigate.
(Daredevil I#196) - Despite Wolverine's efforts, Dark Wind's
men escaped with Bullseye, and Wolverine teamed with Daredevil to recover him.
Dark Wind, meanwhile, met with the Kingpin, offering him a large sum of money to
aid in getting Bullseye to Japan so they could reconstruct his shattered spine;
the Kingpin accepted, and put 20 men at Dark Wind's disposal. As Dark Wind
explained his plans to Bullseyse, the heroes tracked Dark Wind's men to the
Osama Maru ship on the East River. Daredevil and Wolverine took out the
Kingpin's men, but while Wolverine went after three of Dark Wind's men,
Daredevil decided to take a critically injured attacker to the hospital, and was
thus unable to stop Dark Wind from escaping with Bullseye.
Sometime later, Dark Wind informed Bullseye that they were
leaving United States territorial waters and the no one could interfere with
them now.
(Daredevil I#197 (fb) - BTS) - Dark Wind gave Bullseye preliminary treatment during their voyage.
(Daredevil I#197 (fb) - BTS) - The Osama Maru stopped about 10
kilometers offshore, and Dark Wind and his men took Bullseye via a smaller boat
to an island off the coast of Hokkido.
(Daredevil I#197) - After receiving a mild concussion,
Daredevil flew to Japan and investigated the Osama Maru, but found Bullseye,
Dark Wind, and his men long gone; instead he found Yuriko Oyama chained up. She
offered to lead him to Bullseye, and he broke her free and then fought his way
past Dark Wind's men.
Dark Wind noted that the preliminary treatments had been
successful, and he told Bullseye that after his damaged bone would be replaced
by metal, he would be treated with herbs to insure his body he wouldn't reject
the artificial parts. In addition, they would pray to a Kami, the warrior god of
Dark Wind's household (see comments). Bullseye would either be better or dead
within a week.
(Daredevil I#198) - Dark Wind sent agents to kill Daredevil, but not to harm the woman he was with. Daredevil defeated the attackers, and as and Yuriko approached Hikkido and then took a boat to the island, he and Bullseye began to sense each other's presences, and Dark Wind acknowledged the psychic bond between the two. Bullseye had recovered to the point of walking on crutches, and Dark Wind instead sent his samurais against them, though he held back Kira (Yuriko's lover), who was not yet sufficiently trained. Bullseye subsequently informed Dark Wind that Daredevil had beaten three of his samurais. Meanwhile, Daredevil correctly determined that Yuriko was Dark Wind's daughter.
(Daredevil I#199) - As Bullseye demonstrated the recovery of
his throwing skills, Dark Wind explained his plan for him to assassinate Japan's
minister of trade the next week in New York City. After Dark Wind explained his
motivations, Bullseye told him he was a nut case. Dark Wind again forbade
Bullseye to yet confront Daredevil, instead sending more samurai against him and
leaving himself as the final challenge should Daredevil defeat the samurai. In
addition, Dark Wind again forbade Kira from confronting Daredevil, instructing
him to instead take Bullseye back to the mainland and see that he boarded an
aircraft for America. When questioned by Bullseye, Dark Wind told him that the
mission was repayment for restoring him to health. As Kira rowed Bullseye across
the sea, however, Bullseye revealed he had no intention of doing Dark Wind's
mission for free. Kira attacked him, and Bullseye knocked him overboard and then
rowed himself back to the mainland.
Knowing Yuriko was with Daredevil, Dark Wind had his archers
dispatched with the instruction of aiming well. As Daredevil defeated the
assassins, an earthquake began, and he became trapped under a caved in room.
Dark Wind then appeared, intending to execute the helpless hero, but Yuriko
instead slashed him across his back with a sword she had taken from an assassin.
Dark Wind dropped, apparently dead.
Yuriko met Kira as he swam to shore, attempting to soothe his
woes for failing his master and telling him he was free of Dark Wind forever.
(Alpha Flight I#34 (fb) - BTS) - Unable to live with his failure, Kira committed suicide. Yuriko studied her father's past to learn what bred such fanaticism, and she came to embrace his goal of restoring Japan's honor through the creation of an army of super-soldiers. As Lady Deathstrike, she attempted to track Bullseye by his Adamantium implants, but she instead was led to Wolverine.
Comments: Created by Denny O'Neil, Larry Hama, and Klaus Janson.
Please let me know if I missed any appearances.
If we put Oyama as 20 years old in 1945, that would have put him at close to 80 years old when he met Daredevil. Not completely unreasonable with good, clean living, but he's soon going to be old enough that he may need to have had some sort of age suppression factor.
A sword slash to the back? Since when is that fatal to a comic book character? Especially when he may have subjected himself to some sort of chemical that extended his life? C'mon...Dark Wind ain't dead!
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
No KNOWN connections to:
images: (without ads)
Daredevil I#197, p19, panel 6 (masked face),
panel 7 (Kami/war
god)
#199 cover (main image)
Appearances:
Daredevil I#196 (July, 1983) - Denny O'Neil (writer), Larry Hama (breakdowns),
Klaus Janson (artist), Linda Grant (editor)
Daredevil I#197 (August, 1983) - Denny O'Neil (writer), William Johnson (penciler),
Mike Mignola (inker), Larry Hama (breakdowns p2-6), Klaus Janson (artist, p2-6),
Linda Grant (editor)
Daredevil I#198-199 (September-October, 1983) - Denny O'Neil (writer), William
Johnson (penciler), Danny Bulanadi (inker), Linda Grant (editor)
Alpha Flight I#34 (May, 1986) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Sal Buscema ("storyteller"
- penciler), Gerry Talaoc (finisher/inker), Carl Potts (editor)
Wolverine minus 1 (July, 1997) - Larry Hama (writer), Cary Nord (penciler),
Scott Hanna (inker), Mark Powers (assistant editor), Bob Harras (editor)
Rogue III#10 (June, 2005) - Tony Bedard (writer), Karl Moline (penciler), Rick
Magyar (inker), Molly Lazer (assistant editor), Stephanie Moore (editor), Tom
Brevoort (supervising editor)
First Posted: 11/24/2007
Last updated: 11/24/2007
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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