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Black Superhero: Nighthawk


Kyle Richmond of Earth 31916 was a young kid when he realized that racism is very real and it goes far beyond words. Racism is violent, abrasive, it stings and worst of all it kills. When Kyle was a kid he was out for a walk with his parents Titus and Rosalie. His father explained to him the nature of Night Hawk and why it hunts at night. That was the last happy moment he would spend with his parents. They were gunned down right in front of him. They were murdered by a group of white supremacists riding through his neighborhood shooting at black people.

Kyle spent the next decade of his life building a billion dollar corporation from the ground up with the small amount of money his parents had stashed away for the future. With the money he made he built an arsenal of weapons, vehicles, robots and high tech armor. He took the name of Nighthawk after the bird from the night his parents were murdered. His goal wasn't to rid the world of crime, but to rid the world of those that that would purposely harm black people.

Nighthawk quickly became what seemed to be a myth everywhere beyond the city of Chicago. The people of Chicago knew he was real and they knew they he was not to be crossed. Meanwhile the government had employed Hyperion (not the one from 2016's Squadron Supreme). Hyperion traveled to Chicago to investigate the myth of Nighthawk and found it to be true. 

Nighthawk paid Hyperion no mind and continued hunting down racists in Chicago and ending gang violence while Hyperion remained in the city and focused on other crimes. Hyperion finally approached Nighthawk about becoming a hero that would focus on all crimes. Nighthawk had no intentions of doing that and walked away from Hyperion to go stop some people from vandalizing a black church with racist language.

As Hyperion and Blur both became recognizable heroes, Nighthawk chose to remain as a myth. He did however research Blur since he was also a black hero. Eventually he reached out to Blur in an attempt at convincing him to be a better role model for black children. He wanted Blur to stop doing more to earn money and focus on being a better all around hero. This was because Nighthawk felt as if he was just too tainted to be a pure hero.

Nighthawk soon discovered a serial killer, Michael Redstone, who had been hunting those with super powers. He attempted to stop Redstone himself but recruited Blur to help in the fight. Eventually Hyperion invited himself along anyway. During their battle with Redstone, Nighthawk was seriously injured and 35 civilians died. Eventually Nighthawk was able to create a super strong putty and had Blur place it over the face of Redstone to suffocate him. Nighthawk and Hyperion wanted to murder Redstone on the spot but Blur begged them to let him live. Eventually Doctor Spectrum, a government agent like Hyperion, arrived to arrest Redstone.

The three attempted to work together a little longer but tensions kept rising. Nighthawk decided he works best alone and the world hero thing wasn't for him. He told them what he really thought about them. He let Hyperion know that he was weak minded to let Redstone be arrested just because his boss said so when he could have easily killed Redstone and beaten Doctor Spectrum if he needed to. During this argument he called Blur a house nigga. Later when Blur confronted Nighthawk about it, instead of apologizing Nighthawk doubled down and ended their relationship.



Nighthawk returned to Chicago where he went back to his standard operating. He soon had a meeting with the Deputy Mayor. Nighthawk was informed that people in black neighborhoods had stopped calling the police because they'd prefer Nighthawk to handle their crimes. His response was that the police should get better at their jobs.

Meanwhile a serial killer named Steven Binst had awoken from his coma after 10 years. Binst murdered a clown in his minimum security prison then just walked out. He drove to Chicago and started a new reign of terror. Binst poisoned majority of the drugs in the city somehow causing 3,800 people to die. Nighthawk, the police and even the national guard did what they could to stop it by taking down drug dealers 24/7 and destroying drugs but it seemed to have little effect. Nighthawk began interrogating federal judges with drug connections looking for answers. With no end in sight Nighthawk had been awake for several days with no sleep and was getting sloppy. However, it didn't stop him from saving a baby he nicknamed Baby Do and taking it to Doctor Arredondo, his secret medic.

Meanwhile Binst appeared as a clown at the mayor's son's sixth birthday party. Using baloons filled with poison gas he killed all of the guest including the wife and child of the mayor. The mayor appeared on television to talk about the events and simply begged Nighthawk to fix the problem before committing suicide live on TV. Nighthawk managed to track Binst to an abandoned warehouse however he was put to sleep as the building was already filled with sleeping gas when he entered. Nighthawk was set on fire and handcuffed but managed to still escape and make it back to Dr Arredondo. 

While Nighthawk was finally slept after kissing Dr. Arredondo and admitting his feelings, he awoke to find she had been murdered by Binst and the baby was kidnapped. Nighthawk had the Deputy Mayor give a press conference that Binst, now known as Whiteface was dead to lure him out. Nighthawk found him and made sure to get the baby to safety first. Then he just beats the crap out of Binst. When he's done he shoots a grappling hook through Binst's chest and breaks his neck before dropping him into some raw sewage. He takes the baby and vanishes for a while to recuperate. 

When he returns he's back to keeping a low profile and working in darkness. The government had been recruiting super soldiers to work for their Squadron Supreme. They had no intentions of bringing Nighthawk in because they learned he was just a black guy with no super powers. However they did attempt to send two agents to watch him but he captured them and locked them in a makeshift prison. Eventually Blur asked him to join because he didn't trust the government and realized Nighthawk was right earlier after all his sponsors dropped him. He tells Blur he's concerned with Chicago not the world all while beating a pimp.



When Nighthawk sees Hyperion and Blur fighting Red Stone in LA he contacts Blur. Blur rushes out to Chicago to grab Nighthawk so he can help in the fight. The fight was brief and wasn't recorded for television because Nighthawk shut down the cameras and civilians had been evacuated this time. 

After the fight Nighthawk used a piece of metal stolen from Hyperion's ship to lure him to Darfur. Nighthawk fills up on pain killers and lines his gloves with extra kevlar to fight him. He has the upper hand using a detailed plan the element of surprise. He's also stolen plans for a small device and created a copy that would cause Hyperion to feel pain by tricking his brain into responding. He eventually manages to knock Hyperion out and drag him to a shack even after Hyperion broke his jaw and a few ribs.

The reason he had done this was to force Hyperion into stopping a racial genocide in Darfur. When Hyperion awoke Nighthawk pretended he had super powers and that's why he beat him. He also pretended that he could read Hyperion's mind, in reality Hyperion is just predictable. Hyperion helps him stop the genocide and the two agree never to work together again.

So before the next major event in his history there's a story called "Ultimate Power." This had the Squadron Supreme of Earth 31916 (they kidnapped Nighthawk and forced him to help) fighting the X-Men, Fantastic Four and Ultimates of Earth 1610 and the Squadron Supreme of Earth 712. The event had no real effects on any of these universes and was never mentioned again other than Earth 1610 Reed Richards becoming evil. That's all you need to know about it. It was a mess.

Later Hyperion disappears along with most of The Squadron Supreme. During this time more people with super powers began to appear. Blur once again turns to Nighthawk for help and asks him to help train some of these people or search for Hyperion. He is unconcerned stating he only cares about Chicago. He keeps out of the remaining confrontations which eventually lad to many people losing their powers.


Shortly afterwards the Cabal from Earth 616 destroyed his world but he somehow found his way to Earth 616. He wasted no time assembling his own Squadron Supreme made up of heroes similar to those of his world. Stating he preferred the Blur and Hyperion of alternate worlds because they followed orders but didn't need him to make every decision. The first act of the new Squad was to murder Namor on live television. The team's violent nature caused them to clash with the Avengers Unity Squad as well as Blue Marvel and Inhumans. Together they work to stop secret threats that other teams don't deal with like secret alien alliances attempting to takeover Earth.

Kyle didn't come to Earth 616 and slack off. He quickly built another empire in Chicago including real estate as well. The biggest change was he changed his name to Raymond Kane so not to be confused with the Kyle Richmond and Nighthawk of this new world. He was however attacked one night by the other Nighthawk, but he had been expecting it. He defeated him with some struggle but after attempting to kill him he realized he was just a Kree clone.

His actions in Chicago saw him taking down secret alliances to push black people out of their communities. He also came into conflict with white supremacist selling weapons and being supplied by a wealthy and well respected business man. The biggest issue he faced was a serial killer that murdered racist government officials. The hardest part for Nighthawk was accepting that deep down he could have been the killer if there was just one or two different moments in his life. Because of the increased attacks from white supremacist, gang violence and the serial killer Chicago almost goes up in flames during a riot. Through the night of violence he takes out gangs, police, white supremacist and anyone else causing problems putting his life on the line. Eventually he puts an end to the serial killer no matter how much they were alike. 

Abilities and Equipment
  • Genius level intellect
  • Master strategist
  • Expert in hand to hand combat
  • Nighthawk Suit
    • Completely bulletproof
    • Kevlar gloves
    • Shurriken
    • Lockpicks
    • Tazers
    • Lenses allow for minimal x-ray vision and zoom
    • Yeezy Boosts 
    • Other various gadgets
  • Nighthawk mech
    • Reverse engineered Iron Man suit from Earth 1610 - Only used once
  • Glider
  • Nighthawk drones
  • Motorcycle
You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He also plays classic arcade games on The Cabinet. You can also check out his playthrough of Sleeping Dogs or Skyrim

1 Comments

  1. This is great. I've been doing a Black Superhero Project during Black History month putting attention on these heroes. Its always appreciated. Same way I appreciated reading this.

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