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Charles Delazny Jr. (Earth-616)

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History

Charles Delazny Jr. was the son of Charles Delazny, who owned Delazny Studios in Los Angeles and rented studio production space to movie and television producers. Charles Jr. intended to enter the movie business too, and attended film school at the University of Southern California. However, while there he became a narcotics dealer, and dropped out of school to pursue a life in crime.[2]

Charles Jr. decided to become a criminal mercenary and assassin for hire. His first big contract was to wreck the San Diego Navy Yards on behalf of a foreign power. He used the advance money to hire scientist Ignatz Goldman to build him a armored, bulletproof costume and became the Enforcer.[2] He then heard that the Eel was in possession of matter-disintegrator device in Los Angeles, and hired the Gladiator to steal the device -- but also pursued the Eel himself, as the Enforcer. The Enforcer found Eel first and stole the device, leaving Eel unconscious. Gladiator came along shortly afterward and murdered Eel.[3]

Enforcer brought the matter-disintegrator device to Professor Goldman, who miniaturized it and placed it into an amulet. Enforcer then wore the amulet to a meeting with a criminal gang who had loaned his father money and were currently trying to take control of Delazny Studios. He disintegrated the gang's leader, and took control of the organization. The next day, after receiving an even more miniature disintegrator from Prof. Goldman (now in a ring), Enforcer left with some of the gang members to go to San Diego, and was spotted and followed by Ghost Rider, who was investigating who hired Gladiator to kill Eel. Enforcer arrived at the the San Diego Navy Yards and began trashing the place, including disintegrating an entire destroyer. He was confronted by the Ghost Rider, and after a short battle that ended with both of them in the harbor, Enforcer escaped capture but lost his disintegrator ring in the water.[4]

Enforcer hired the Weather Wizard to kill Ghost Rider and to create devices to find his ring underwater. Enforcer took the devices to San Diego and left Water Wizard to his task in Los Angeles. When Enforcer returned a day later with the ring, Water Wizard has just captured an unconscious Ghost Rider, who transformed back into Johnny Blaze. Enforcer decided to kill Blaze by faking a motorcycle accident, then he and Water Wizard left to kill Professor Goldman, who knew too much about Enforcer's plans. They were stopped by the Ghost Rider, who survived his death-trap. Ghost Rider left both villains unconscious and called the police.[5] Enforcer was somehow able to convince the police that he was Carson Collier Jr. (a childhood friend of Delazny's) and then escape. This lead to the police arresting the real Collier for the Enforcer's crimes.[2]

On the run without money, a gang or the disintegrator ring, Enforcer was hired by the Committee and outfitted with pistols that shot several types of specialized ammunition.[2] Enforcer's first task was to kill a magazine editor with his "tingler" ammo. The editor spontaneously combusted while asking writer Buck Cowan for help.[6] Enforcer's next target was Cowan, and the Committee warned him he may also face Cowan's friend Jack Russell, Werewolf by Night and provided silver ammo and armor. When Enforer tried to kill Cowan, he did face Russell as expected, but also Spider-Woman. With her resistance to toxins, Spider-Woman was unaffected by Enforcer's tranquilizer pellets and "tingler" ammo, and was able to capture Enforcer and save Cowan and Russell.[7] In police custody Enforcer still claimed to be Carson Collier Jr., even though the police had already released the real Collier. The police were not able to discover Enforcer's real identity.[2]

The Enforcer was visited in prison by corrupt local media mogul Rupert Dockery, who left his cane behind. The cane contained a hidden dagger, which Enforcer (and four other prisoners) used to escape prison. The cane also contained listening devices; Dockery had expected Enforcer to escape, and then planned to use the bugs to track Enforcer's crimes to get scoops for his newspaper and TV station. Enforcer convinced the other escapees to become his gang, and decide to steal a rare statue of spider-god Anansi from the Los Angeles Museum of Anthropology and Folk Art. Spider-Woman showed up during the theft, as the Enforcer hoped she would. Enforcer was able to capture Spider-Woman using his blindness-inducing ammo, and took her back to a cage in his hideout. Spider-Woman escaped the cage when her eyesight returned earlier than Enforcer expected, but just then her partner Scotty McDowell arrived, having tracked her down. Enforcer shot McDowell with new human combustion ammo he has obtained from Dr. Karl Malus, which would cause McDowell to burst into flame within hours, although it could be delayed by a cold environment. Enforcer told Spider-Woman he would provide an antidote once she helped him steal $10 million of goods (and until then, the now-comatose McDowell could stay in a refrigerated room). She agreed, and helped Enforcer and his gang on two daring heists. On the third heist, which involved robbing a 747 jet aircraft while in flight by landing on it with a specially-modified smaller jet, Enforcer was confronted by Spider-Man, who was on the plane because he was travelling to Los Angeles to investigate Spider-Woman's turn to crime. Enforcer and his gang escaped thanks to Spider-Woman. but when Spider-Man showed up at Enforcer's hide-out and Enforcer was about to shoot him with the Malus ammo, Spider-Woman had enough and blasted Enforcer and turned him and his gang into the police. While being taken away, Enforcer admitted he had no antidote.[8] Putting together Rupert Dockery's involvement, Spider-Woman dressed in Enforcer's armor and tricked Dockery into providing tapes that proved her innocence to the police.[9] McDowell was eventually cured by Dr. Malus, after spending some time in cryogenic suspension.[10]

Enforcer escaped police custody,[2] and was hired by a gambling cartel to "fix" an upcoming motorcycle stunt competition between Johnny Blaze and Flagg Fargo in Las Vegas so that Fargo would loose. Enforcer traveled to Las Vegas is a car that could fire bullets, tranquillizer darts and explosive missiles, and tried to intimidate Fargo to throw the competition by threatening to kill him. When that failed, Enforcer sabotaged the competition by shooting Fargo with a tranquillizer dart during a stunt jump, causing Fargo to crash. Then Enforcer stole the box office receipts in the confusion, and tried to make his escape in his car, pursued by the Ghost Rider on his motorcycle. Eventually, Enforcer and Ghost Rider found themselves in a game of "chicken" on a narrow road above a lake. The Enforcer lost his nerve, choosing to drive off the cliff into the lake. He survived and escaped, but lost his car and money.[11]

When Locksmith began kidnaping and imprisoning superhumans, whom he mostly found by tracking Spider-Woman and capturing superhumans she interacted with, he included Enforcer, even though Enforcer wasn't superhuman. Other prisoners included Shroud, Tigra, Werewolf by Night, Poltergeist, Angar the Screamer, Daddy Longlegs, Dansen Macabre, Hangman, Killer Shrike, Needle, Nekra, Gypsy Moth, Tatterdemalion, and Flying Tiger. When Locksmith finally captured Spider-Woman herself, she defeated Locksmith and freed the prisoners she trusted. Enforcer (and the other criminal prisoners) were turned over to the police.[12]

The Enforcer escaped police custody again, and received a diagnosis of stomach cancer. Coming to the realization that his job will eventually kill him even if he survives the cancer, he began giving life advice to his nephew Mike Nero, based on all the things he learned in his life of crime, and then started training Nero on skills needed to be a mercenary/hitman.[13]

The Enforcer was hired by Madame Masque (working for Obadiah Stane) to kill the super criminal Termite. However, shortly after accepting the job, Enforcer became the first known target of the Scourge of the Underworld. Scourge disguised himself as a bag lady with a hidden gun and tracked the Enforcer, shooting him point-blank and killing him before he could confront Termite.[14]

After being captured by Captain America, Scourge claimed to be Enforcer's younger brother, taking revenge on him for besmirching the family name.[15] However, the "Scourge of the Underworld" was later revealed to be an entire organization with multiple Scourges, who typically claimed to be related to or personally menaced by supervillains when caught, throwing his story into doubt.[16] After his uncle's death, Mike Nero appropriated his uncle's armor and weaponry and became the new Enforcer.[13]

Attributes

Abilities

The Enforcer was an expert at using firearms, a skilled hand-to-hand combatant, and a trained hypnotist.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

The Enforcer wore a mask that included infrared lenses, to enable him to see in the dark.

He also wore a lightweight suit of armor that included a silver-nitrate-covered vest to protect him from werewolves.

Weapons

The Enforcer wore a disintegrator amulet, later a disintegrator ring that could disintegrate matter by weakening its molecular bonds. It was efficient, although only at short range.

When the Enforcer was hired by the Committee, they provided him with two .45-caliber guns loaded with special ammo, including silver bullets, tranquilizer pellets, "pyrogranulate" capsules (that exploded into flames on impact), "blackout" darts (that caused a human to go blind for several hours) and the "tingler" -- a substance that made victims susceptible to hypnoses and induced a metabolic change making them prone to spontaneous human combustion. He would shoot people with the "tingler", hypnotize them in to doing (or avoiding) a selected task, and then when the task was complete (or when they tried to do a prohibited task) their own minds would trigger their combustion. Later he added new ammo (obtained from Dr. Malus) that caused human combustion directly (without all the psychoactive components), but not immediately.

The "tingler's" effects could be cured by doctors; to prevent this Enforcer commanded victims to not seek medical treatment. The Malus ammo could not be easily cured, although combustion could be delayed by keeping the victim in low temperatures; when Scotty McDowell was shot, he was eventually put into cryogenic suspension to avoid combusting, and could only be cured by Dr. Malus himself.

Notes

  • As the History section explains, the Scourge of the Underworld who killed the Enforcer was almost certainly lying when he clamed to be his younger brother, because Scourges were trained to lie when captured. However, given that Charles L. Delazny, Jr. has a nephew (Mike Nero, the new Enforcer), he must have at least one sibling. And since Mike Nero is just (approximately) a decade younger than Charles L. Delazny, Jr., the sibling is probably an older sibling.

See Also

Links and References

References

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