Douglas Powell (Earth-616)

Powell
Name	Douglas Powell
Current Alias	Powell
Aliases	Doug; Dougie (by his sister Sam); Farmboy (by Crippler); Hayseed (by Larry Arnold)
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Wild Pack
Relatives	Siblings: Samantha (sister)
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Hair	Brown
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Human
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-616
Place of Birth	South of the United States of America
Personal Information
Identity	No Dual
Citizenship	American
Occupation	Mercenary; former bodyguard
Base of Operations	Castle Sable, Symkaria; Symkarian Embassy, New York City
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Chuck Dixon, Sal Velluto
First	Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #1 (April, 1992)
First	Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #1 (April, 1992)

 Roll out the welcome mat, kiddies! The Wild Pack is here! Yeeeee-hah! 

—Powell

Powell had a controversial past that made his later employment difficult. He had been a bodyguard of the Ku Klux Klan's Grand Wizard, and was prejudiced towards people of other races, especially blacks, due to an incident in his past in which they harmed him; but he was unhappy with his own behavior. Attempting to be a Southern gentleman, he was gallant with any beautiful woman regardless of her race. He was recruited by Silver Sable to her personal elite team in the Wild Pack when Powell impressed Sable with his stamina. Powell tried in vain to seduce Sable with his macho attitude.

Powell's racism generated tension between him and his female Vietnamese teammate Chen, and later even greater tension between him and male superhuman African American Battlestar, who joined the team later and became a better field leader than Powell. Powell's sister Sam later joined Silver Sable International as a PR specialist; her being romantically interested in Battlestar particularly distressed Powell. Eventually, Powell would make an effort to mellow out his sexism and racism. Powell also worked hard with his teammates, regardless of their race or the race of other involved people; although he did disapprove of Sable's black lover, Jacques Girard. Powell also tried to be friendly with the Pack's later addition, African American Larry Arnold, but it didn't work.

At some point, Powell stopped working for the Wild Pack; his subsequent activities are unknown.

History

A proud Southern and trained soldier, thou not a very seasoned veteran, Powell had worked as a bodyguard for the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan; while not a Klansman himself, Powell did support the Klan's ideas and was a religious conservative. Powell was deeply prejudiced against black people due to an event in which he suffered some kind of damage due to them; details on this event are unclear, except for the fact that Powell was unable to forget it; Powell's sister Samantha Powell was not intolerant like he was. He also had a controversial background in which he was likely to have misbehaved, to the point that he barely had any chance to find a legitimate job.

Wild Pack

Powell's endurance was superior, but several ladies went after the family jewels.

Powell became a recruit in the international mercenary corps Wild Pack. Along with other recruits and veteran members of the Pack, Powell participated in a CTF test, challenging the leader of the Pack, Silver Sable, in the group's base, Castle Sable, and the forest around it. Sable easily won the test and Powell was defeated, but in the process, he had faced Sable three times and received two kicks to the face, a side-hand blow to the jaw and a kick to the crotch, as well as being briefly drowned in the Castle's moat. Sable was reasonably satisfied with Powell's performance handling pain, and she accepted him into her group, despite protests from her manager Lorna Kleinfeldt about Powell's past. A Wild Pack superhuman agent, Sandman, who had also participated in the test, sponsored Powell's candidacy for the Pack's elite unit, earning Powell's early friendship (and also a bonus from Sable). Powell received standard Wild Pack member gear, including a uniform that he modified to allow his ponytail to be visible.

In his first Wild Pack uniform during the Long Island operation.

Shortly after, Sable went alone to Long Island because the Cranewood School for Girls had been seized by terrorist members of Hydra; however, this mission had not been approved and she had left only for personal reasons (Her relative was a hostage). Sandman, worried about Sable, organized an unauthorized operation to go to her aid aboard a Stealthcraft, and Powell was invited. On the trip, Powell acknowledged that he found Sable very attractive, and bet money with Sandman that he could seduce her. As soon as the group arrived at Cranewood, Powell helped Sable by breaking a door on a Hydra agent, whom he immediately pinned down while he trying to flirt with Sable. Sable questioned Powell regarding her presence, and then gave him orders to deal with the terrorists, although she disapproved of his presence. The operation ended when all the enemies were captured, and Powell reported victory to Sable; he also told her that he had heard how the enemy leader, Dmitri Petrovich, admitted to having been Sable's romantic partner, and tried to take advantage of that information in his own amorous approach. Sable however was angry with her own team and punished them with a fine and by freezing their salary for two weeks, for having spent corporate resources and put themselves in danger without permission; Sandman received a three-week punishment.

Anyway, Sable decided to create a team of elite Wild Pack agents who would answer directly to her, including Powell, Amy Chen, Raul Quentino, and the newly recruited bounty hunter Crippler. Powell was taken to the Symkarian Embassy in New York City, where he put Crippler to a test in a sparring match in which barbs were exchanged. Powell demonstrated his stamina in that fight, but Crippler eventually bested Powell, only to be then bested by Sable. Following that exercise, the group received new uniforms, redesigned by Sable's uncle and manager, Morty. Immediately, Powell adapted his uniform, putting on a scarf around his neck and a bandana on his head, in addition to leaving his chest uncovered.

The group was hired to protect Reverend Donald Smithfield during his public appearance at Madison Square Garden. When intruders were detected, Quentino directed Powell to intercept them, and Powell was surprised to see four members of the right-wing terrorist organization Watchdogs, whom he expected to be Smithfield supporters. Powell reported the encounter to Crippler; Crippler told him that he also had enemies in his position, and that he hoped Powell wasn't calling for reinforcements, so, in a competition of machismo, Powell told him that he didn't need help against just four thugs. After dealing with their individual enemies each, Crippler and Powell reunited, discovered that the security guards had been captured, and worked together to protect Smithfield's audience. When the armored assassin Gattling appeared, Crippler used his flamethrower, but Powell reproached him for his irresponsible use of the weapon in an area with innocent civilians. Gattling and some Watchdogs managed to escape, with Sable reprimanding the group for their failure; Crippler and Powell argued about it, and Sable criticized them for that too; Sable wasn't sure if the entire team was going to last in their ranks, but specifically she hoped she could keep Crippler and Powell because she wanted to help them (although Kleinfeldt would have preferred to replace those two precisely.)

Collaborating with Quentino, Powell discovered Smithfield's connection to drug dealer Maxwell Wilson, who had also been seen with Smithfield's rival, Reverend George Chesterford. Powell expressed his southern conservative and racist views, and was then introduced to a new member of the group, the African-American superhuman Battlestar, who immediately unnerved Powell. Understanding his discomfort, Sable ordered Powell to personally provide Battlestar with a quick orientation, to force him to work with Battlestar. Sable also appreciated Powell's discovery and concluded that Chesterford was attempting to assassinate Smithfield, with the Watchdogs as mere pawns. Shortly after, the Watchdogs attacked the Embassy to try to rescue their captured comrades, and Powell collaborated with the rest of the Wild Pack to defeat them. When Gattling appeared, Sandman sent Powell and his group after him in a Stealthcraft, with Powell in command, to aid Sable. However, Battlestar disobeyed Powell's orders to jump on Gattling using his powers to stop him, defeating the enemy and impressing Sable.

Shortly after, Sable went to Latveria on a diplomatic visit to Doctor Doom while Powell and the rest of the Pack stayed at Castle Sable. Due to the sudden appearance of doppelgangers to many American superhuman, and as they were unable to contact Sable or her chauffeur, Morty authorized the Wild Pack to check the situation in Latveria. Powell joined the group in a Stealthcraft piloted by Quentino, like his companions unaware that Sandman had been replaced by a duplicate. En route, Powell mistakenly deduced that Sandman was especially sullen because he was going to lose her bet with Powell, and Powell further suggested that when he rescued Sable from Doom, he would win her affections, although Crippler said Powell was exaggerating. Powell also made a pass on female teammate Chen, only to receive threats, and then the fake Sandman attacked Quentino. Battlestar saved Quentino, and Powell confronted the fake Sandman, but Sandman caught Powell by surprise, suffocating Powell with his powers. Chen and Crippler helped Powell while Battlestar tried to protect Quentino so Quentino would prevent the Stealthcraft from crashing into the mountains. Eventually, Battlestar managed to free Powell; due to his racism, Powell did not feel at ease. Once the fake Sandman was defeated and his imposture discovered, Crippler explained to Battlestar that Powell was rude to everyone, but was also a bigot, which explained his attitude towards Battlestar. Chen added that Sable was giving Powell a second chance because of his troubled past, like she was doing for Chen herself and many others, and that Powell had a chance to redeem himself.

Upon arriving at Castle Doom, the Stealthcraft was shot down by the castle's defenses. Powell and the rest of the group disembarked within the castle grounds, with their weapons ready, to combat the robot defenders of the castle. Powell saw Sable, dressed as Dr. Doom, fighting a Doctor Doom impersonator. When Sable put her enemy against the ropes, Powell prepared to deliver the final blow, but Sable shot the gun out of Powell's hand, because she wanted to see who was hiding under the armor. Removing the fake Doom's mask, Sable revealed a beast made of tentacles, and Powell insisted that they had to destroy it. He also asked Sable if she was going to dock their payment for that operation, and Sable reassured him that she was not. The group returned to Symkaria, then went to the Embassy in New York.

At the Embassy, Sable again defeated Powell and the rest of her team in a CTF exercise and was then informed by Morty that they had been hired to investigate the theft of the Statue of Liberty, and recover it. Sable explained that Sandman had taken a few days off and that they needed a replacement "muscle"; Powell tried in vain to impress her by flexing his arms, and Crippler and Quentino concluded that Powell's feelings would not be hurt by repeated rejection. At Quentino's suggestion, Sable recruited cyborg and computer expert Deathlok, whom they picked up in a Stealthcraft shortly after Powell flirted with Chen again. Although Deathlok was physically impressive, Powell insisted that they did not need him, but Deathlok was able to find the Statue hidden in Grand Canyon. When Deathlok made a piloting error on the Canyon, Powell scolded him and reaffirmed his initial opinion.

The Pack entered the lair of villainess Cathode, who had stolen the Statue and other works of art. The group was intercepted by intangible robots; Powell was the first to confront this enemy, only to discover that he could not attack them directly. Only later did Sable figure out how to defeat them in their unprotected backs, and then the group faced Cathode's human hitmen. Using advanced technology, Cathode reduced the size of the Wild Pack (including Battlestar, Chen, Crippler, Powell, and Quentino; but not Deathlok or Sable) and teleported them to lock them in a container. During their confinement, when Chen became aggressive with Crippler, Powell attempted to seduce her again, but she kneed his crotch. Crippler implied that Chen had rejected Powell simply because, as she was a lesbian, she was not interested in any male; but Chen interrupted to make it clear that she personally despised Powell.

Shortly after, the Pack was rescued and restored to normal size by Deathlok, although Powell lamented that such a defeat would hinder his romantic possibilities with Sable. Once Sable and her allies defeated Cathode, Cathode activated the base's self-destruct mechanism. Deathlok and Sable attempted to stop the explosion, and Sable ordered the group to leave the Canyon: Powell carried Cathode as a prisoner and planned to return to the base to try to get Sable out, but the base exploded before he could. Half-jokingly, he mentioned how Sable's death affected her bet thou, like his teammates, he was refusing to believe Sable could be dead. Deathlok and Sable emerged from the base, having rescued Cathode's people and recovered the loot. Deathlok said goodbye to the group while mentioning his own family life, the very existence of which surprised Crippler and Powell. Deathlok became on good terms with Sable, and Sable even promised to return him the favor.

Sable led the Wild Pack to South America on a mission to eliminate Nazi war criminal Franz Lubischt who, along with Sable's personal enemy Petrovich, had teamed up with the criminal organization Genesis Coalition and was conducting experiments on humans and animals to create hybrid super-soldiers. The mercenary Paladin, hired by Sable, had found the Coalition in South America, and joined them on that mission, searching for the Coalition's secret base. A Coalition agent attempted to flee the Pack on a skycycle, but Chen managed to follow him unnoticed, and Sable took another skycycle from a defeated enemy to go after them, with Powell as a passenger. They managed to interrogate an enemy agent to discover where the base was - hidden behind a waterfall. They infiltrated, but Sandman set off an alarm. The Wild Pack arrived at Lab 3, where there were several man-animal hybrids locked up and under torture, one of which, a tiger-man hybrid, revealed to them where Lubischt was; Paladin and Sable went there, leaving the rest of the group to free the experiments. Powell opened the cage and shackles of a huge gorilla-human hybrid, but the latter had suffered so much that he or she would not leave the cage. Powell mocked the experiment subject, enraging it, and then the gorilla attacked Powell, accusing Powell of humiliating him or her, and shaking Powell by the leg; Battlestar and the weretiger helped Powell. The operation ended satisfactorily, and Powell went to report to Sable that they had freed all the "creatures" who agreed to be free, and the rest would be taken to a med lab in Symkaria; also, they were ready to destroy the enemy base. Sable was shocked because, after she had killed Lubischt, Petrovich had told her that her father was alive and in the hands of the Coalition.

Back at Castle Sable, Powell participated in training, proving to be Quentino's superior in wrestling as the weretiger joined in with them. In the same session, Sable lost her temper against Chen, and Battlestar had to forcefully restrain Sable. Sable then turned on Battlestar, and then Powell and Quentino calmed her down, reminding her that Battlestar had superhuman strength and she had no powers. Sable apologized to everyone present and temporarily left.

Shortly after, Powell, Battlestar, and Chen heard Morty inform them that the Wild Pack was withdrawing from an ambassador murder case after the Pack's Team Delta lost two men; Powell regretted that it had not been the "Team A" he was in that was dealing with that case, and also mentioned that he had not seen Crippler or Quentino despite the fact that they had a workout scheduled; Morty explained that Quentino reported feeling unwell. Team Delta, led by Henson, stormed in to protest the dropping of the case, and Morty redirected them to Kleinfeldt; Henson left, hinting that Sable would also get tired of her Team A members and reassign them sooner rather than later.

Deathlok collected his debt from Sable by asking her for help in an operation in Paris that pitted him against Deathlok's enemies, former members of Cybertek turned into developers of mindless cyborgs called Cyberwarriors, to sell to the highest bidder. With the help of the Wild Pack, Deathlok found a warehouse belonging to the terrorist organization ULTIMATUM, which had purchased Cyberwarriors, and attacked it with the help of Sable and the Wild Pack, including Powell. They discovered the location of the secret underground laboratory where the Cyberwarriors and their enemies were, and attacked it afterwards. During that battle, Crippler and Powell again scoffed at each other. The enemies decided to abandon their base, flooding it, to flee with their Cyberwarriors, and the Wild Pack retreated, much to Powell's chagrin. Additionally, Sable discovered that the Genesis Coalition had purchased Cyberwarriors, and decided to abandon that mission to track down the Genesis Coalition.

Once the Wild Pack discovered that the Coalition was in a stolen Hydra Mobile Base in the Mediterranean Sea, Sable organized an operation in which the group went there in a Stealthcraft. Sable's plan included infiltration; Powell proposed simply attacking the enemy, but Crippler made it clear that they did not know enough about the Base's firepower. Following Sable's plan, Coalition cannons destroyed the Stealthcraft, but the Pack abandoned it in time, submerging and reuniting with their ally, superhero oceanographer Stingray, who brought them closer to the base in a cloaked submarine. Powell and the rest of the Pack fought off the underwater troops the Coalition sent against them, and then they fought the Coalition's surface guards. Sable ordered Powell to collaborate with Quentino to breach the Base's hull to enter; Powell covered Quentino during this part, but once inside, the Wild Pack met the band of superhuman mercenaries Next Wave, also infiltrating the base. Next Wave, less careful, had set off alarms, and the Genesis Coalition attempted to submerge the Base to drown the intruders while sending Cyberwarriors to kill them. The Wild Pack and Next Wave made a common front, although Sable and Powell were dissatisfied with Next Wave's unprofessional attitude. During the fight, Powell became trapped under a broken machine, and when Sable saw this, she sent Battlestar to rescue Powell. Powell did not hide his surprise because he had been openly racist towards Battlestar; but Battlestar told replied that, even if Powell wanted to hate Battlestar, Battlestar didn't have to hate Powell. Battlestar helped the group out of there shortly after, and Powell thanked him; Crippler and Battlestar mocked Powell. The group escaped the Base, boarded another Stealthcraft, and tracked the Genesis Coalition leaders to Mount Wundagore, Transia, where the Cyberwarriors were locked in combat against the Knights of Wundagore. Powell collaborated with the Pack, the Knights, and other allies to destroy all the Cyberwarriors.

With the Wild Pack.

A few months later, the Wild Pack tracked down the anarchist Viper in the United States. Facing Viper's hitmen, Powell attempted to team up with Battlestar to overcome his own racist attitude. The raid was successful, but Viper was not there, instead having used a Pit-Viper impersonator. Upon returning to the Symkaria Embassy, Powell had two surprises: The first, Crippler showed him a pornographic magazine, Petshop, with an alleged photo report of Sable; Powell believed that Sable's then-lover, Jacques Girard, had manipulated her into posing in those situations. The second, Kleinfeldt and Morty had hired Powell's sister, Sam, as the Wild Pack's public relations manager. Sam immediately fancied Battlestar, finding him very attractive, which Powell did not like even though Powell was beginning to relax his racial prejudices. Shortly after, tracking down Viper again in Bronx, Sable apprehended what appeared to be the real Viper, but then the superhero Captain America appeared to ask Sable to not to hand Viper over to his employer, because he had discovered that this employer was an even worse villain, the Red Skull. Powell and Chen found this surprising. Sable agreed to work with Captain America against Skull, and she ordered the Pack to hand the Viper's hitmen to the proper authorities. Meanwhile, Captain America and Sable stopped Viper's plan and thwarted the Red Skull.

The American government hired the Wild Pack to ensure that shipments of food and medicine reached war-ravaged Somalia without being intercepted by rebels or raiders. On that occasion, Sable brought along his elite group and several other agents, such as Man-Eater and Paladin. In Somalia, Powell bumped into Girard and reproached him for his alleged participation in Sable's pornographic photo report. Girard denied knowing anything about it; but the discussion attracted the attention of Sable, who saw that magazine for the first time; she was furious at Girard. Shortly after, a group of Somali superhumans, the Bio-Genes, attacked a nearby U.S. Marine outpost. Sable and Powell were ordered to reach the Marines for support. The battle was complicated by the effects of the Infinity Crusade, in which many people lost their desire to fight, and by the sudden arrival of Hydra under the command of Baron Strucker, in an attempt to take over Somalia and capture Crippler, a deserter from their side. Sable and the Wild Pack defeated the enemies, and then Powell helped serve food to Somalis in need.

Powell with the Wild Pack

Shortly after, J. Jonah Jameson of the newspaper Daily Bugle hired the Wild Pack to capture the superhero Human Torch, at that point a fugitive after causing a wrecking fire. Powell and the rest of Pack stocked up on specialized weapons; Powell had a gun that fired a net, and rode in a helicopter piloted by Quentino, while Battlestar, Chen, and Crippler had individual jetpacks. They harassed the Torch, although the Torch dodged Powell's net. They were humiliatingly defeated when the Torch destroyed the helicopter, with Battlestar, Chen and Crippler injured; Powell informed Sable of the failure, explaining how they had barely survived, but Sable was especially unhappy.

Jameson later hired the Wild Pack again to track down the vigilante Venom, in a new attempt to get the scoop of the year. Powell and many others in the Pack used sonic weapons, since they knew that Venom was especially vulnerable to sonic attacks (Crippler kept his flamethrower). They found Venom in Brooklyn, arguing with Spider-Man; when the Pack revealed their presence, Venom believed that Spider-Man had betrayed him by bringing people to apprehend him. Unstable, Venom started a fight. Spider-Man struggled with Chen to find out who the Pack were and what they were doing there. In an attempt to help Chen, Powell fired to get Spider-Man to release her, but his shot hit Chen's gun, and Spider-Man reacted by knocking out Powell. Quentino later discovered that Powell's shot had not damaged Chen's gun. However, the Wild Pack was defeated again, and Venom and Spider-Man reached an agreement not to pursue each other.

In "urban cowboy" casual outfit

Back at the Embassy, Sable reviewed the mistakes made by the Wild Pack in the Human Torch and Venom operations, especially because they had damaged her group's reputation and encouraged clients to seek alternatives from competitors. Battlestar had been in command, but did not coordinate teamwork, allowing for solo, emotion-driven actions. Reminding the group that the Torch was no longer a target as he had cleared his name, Sable prepared a new mission to capture Venom in San Francisco but, should they failed, she would kick them off the elite team. Powell and others were given jetpacks and sonic weapons to attack Venom, but suddenly both the Pack and Venom were surrounded by magical smog, and then attacked by monsters. Venom offered to help them to show them that he acted heroically without expecting payment, unlike the Wild Pack mercenaries did, and made a deal with Sable so that she and the Pack would stop harassing him, in exchange for an alliance. Quentino then defined a plan: If he could climb over the Golden Gate Bridge, he would possibly be above the fog and summon the Stealthcraft using a remote control. Sable ordered Powell to cover Quentino during that job, and Powell complied. On the way, they were attacked by flying harpy-like monsters that launched poisoned spikes and injured Powell. Sable ordered Sandman to help Quentino, but Venom beat him to the punch, grabbing Powell and Quentino, and carrying them to their destination, although Powell was unhappy that he had to owe Venom anything. The plan worked, and the smog disappeared thanks to other superheroes, after which Sable agreed to let Venom go, and not punish the Pack for the outcome of that mission. Instead, she gave them a night off.

Powell and his allies dressed to go out, with Powell choosing his urban cowboy look; Sable, who had reconciled with Girard, had a date with him. By then, Sable had hired Lightbright, one of the superhumans who had fought against the Pack in Somalia. Seeing Lightbright elegantly groomed, Powell offered Lightbright his company, while Sam tried to cast her own net on Battlestar; but they discovered that Battlestar and Lightbright were on a date with each other, much to the disappointment of both Powells. After a brief mockery of his new failure, Chen, Crippler, and Quentino took Powell with them, to get drunk at the Naked Soul, a seedy joint in Greenwich Village. Under the influence of alcohol, Powell acknowledged that he liked Chen and Quentino at times, and that he did not like to be racist. Powell eyed a pretty female customer and tried to talk to her, but she was a criminal ready to rob the place with her accomplices (and possibly was not impressed by Powell). At the beginning of her heist, she hit Powell's belly with the butt of her gun, but Powell held on without problems, and then attacked the girl. His companions took care of the rest of the gang. To cheers from the other patrons, the Wild Pack left when Chen suggested that someone might want to collect damages from the fight. Upon returning to the embassy, Powell noticed that Sable was returning alone, when she was scheduled to return with Girard, and correctly deduced that something bad had happened.

Powell and Crippler turned their competitiveness into a friendship.

A group of more than one hundred teenage gangs from South central Los Angeles attacked the city and took over the Beverly Hills Police Precinct, overpowering the LAPD. The heist had been secretly organized by crimelord Justin Hammer, with Latisha Arnold managing the attack. Rich people who saw their properties affected, hired Sable to eliminate this threat. She sent the Wild Pack to rescue the precinct, with Battlestar, Chen, Crippler and Powell storming the building while Quentino covered them. Powell reacted brutally against his enemies, who were mostly young black and Hispanic men, choosing to beat them unarmed, much to Chen's chagrin. Although the Pack recovered the precinct, Hammer reacted by sending a team of supervillains in battle armor as reinforcements. One of them, Backlash, snared Powell with his whip.

The Pack managed to defeat these enemies, but Quentino suffered serious injuries and had to abandon field work. At Quentino's own suggestion, Sable hired Larry Arnold, a short African American man, as a replacement. Arnold joined the Pack as a member on trial and, as soon as he interacted with the rest of the team in the gym at the Embassy, Powell became angry at having to work with him. When Powell attempted to assert his authority and called Arnold "boy", Arnold slammed Powell unconscious. Crippler found the situation so amusing that he tried to wake Powell up so Arnold could knock him down again. Powell later acknowledged that Battlestar had already earned his respect, but Powell would have preferred not to have more black people around him.

Shortly after, during a spike of terrorist attacks in New York City, the Empire State Building was captured by Hydra agents. Sable and the Pack went to rescue the hostages and free the building, going up the elevator shaft. The Pack managed to save the civilians while Daredevil dealt with their leader; Hydra did not consider this heist particularly strategic and did not send reinforcements.

Powell was a recovering racist.

Sable was decorated at the Royal Palace of Symkaria in a ceremony which the Wild Pack attended as additional security. The event was attacked by Sable's old enemy Petrovich aboard a Hydra Issue Fighter. Powell used a two-handed weapon developed by Quentino that shot an electrified cable at the vehicle; but being a massive and moving flying target, Powell could not keep it restrained, so his companions Arnold and Battlestar helped him, and together they downed the fighter - Despite knowing that his black teammates had helped him, Powell continued to have problems with them. Sable then defeated Petrovich, and the Pack defeated the fighter's crew. Captured, Petrovich revealed to Sable where the Genesis Coalition's secret lair was, and she traveled there with the Pack. Once at the Coalition base, Sable divided the Pack into groups of two, pairing Powell with Chen, to explore the area. Sable encountered her missing uncle Fritz Sablinov, infiltrated the Coalition; Sablinova killed Petrovich and explained his plan to destroy Hydra and the Coalition, but demanded that the Pack allow themselves to be captured. Powell was not happy, but the Pack knew that Sable always had several tricks up her sleeve - in this case, including another team heading towards a war zone in Bosnia, which was a strategic battlefield in the Coalition's plan. Powell and the rest of the Pack were locked in a submarine under the Black Sea, and the leader of the Coalition, Ivan Trefkov, reveled in their capture, vowing to kill Sable later. Shortly after, when Trefkov left for the war zone, Sable's enemy/ally/lover Foreigner rescued the group, taking them to where Sable's father was locked up for them rescue him, and then Sable and the Pack attacked Trefkov in a battlecruiser that was participating in the attack on Bosnia. Sable killed Trefkov, but then Fritz Sablinov attempted to kill Sable, only to die at the hands of the Foreigner. Before the eyes of the Pack, Sable beat up the Foreigner for that murder, but spared his life.

In a later mission, the Wild Pack entered Mayan Pyramids, Mexico, to protect them from damage caused by graverobbers. Entering the labyrinthine, dark interior, they were attacked by the graverobbers. As Sable demanded live prisoners for questioning, Powell attacked them with his fists. However, a trap was activated that transported the Pack and the robbers, apparently, to pre-Columbian times when the Mayans forced the Pack to face the robbers in a brutal ceremonial game. Powell obeyed Sable's instructions and participated in the game, during which Arnold helped protect Powell. Sandman intimidated the Mayans by pretending to be their deity, and thus covered them while the Pack escaped with the captured robbers, back to their time.

However, when they returned to the Embassy, Sable was arrested for conspiracy and various crimes, and sent to Ryker's Island Maximum Security Prison. The Pack tried to mobilize her contacts and find a way to free her, but the people who had framed Sable, had prepared a very efficient case. Sable ordered the Pack to be taken to Symkaria before they too were arrested; Sandman objected out of loyalty, but Powell and Crippler were willing to obey, both to protect themselves from her and because Sable had had daring plans before that required her team to obey. Battlestar accused Powell of betraying her, and Powell replied that Battlestar, unlike Powell and the others, had no compromising past, and that perhaps Battlestar had even betrayed the Pack to the authorities. Chen stopped the argument, demonstrating her loyalty to Sable by deciding to stay and help Sable, even if Chen was the one most likely to end up in jail. However, it was Morty who ensured that Sable was freed. She was no longer welcome in the United States, so she decided to move to Symkaria, but the rest of her team could still conduct operations on American soil, with Battlestar leading those activities. Powell and the others spent quite a bit of time between the New York Embassy and Castle Sable, and Powell went on to train with Arnold.

Not long after, Sable gathered the entire team to tell them in person that she was withdrawing from active missions to participate only in business activities. Battlestar was not able to lead as efficient a teamwork as Sable had done even though got somewhat satisfactory results, as demonstrated in a mission against arms smugglers in New Orleans and in sixteen other missions. At that time, Powell tried in vain to be friendly with Arnold.

The Pack was hired by CIA agent Bogart Jeffries to recover stolen experimental weapons and eliminate those responsible. Despite Jeffries' insistence, Sable refused to participate in that operation, and her father decided to be in charge of the tactics. After getting clues in Chile, the group found the weapons at a base in the Pacific Ocean, but Sablinova's tactics were inadequate and put the Pack at risk unnecessarily. Sable spied on this operation, and decided to rejoin, participating in the mission. With Sable's leadership, the enemies were captured, the weapons were destroyed, and she convinced the CIA that this mission had been successful, after which she admitted that the Wild Pack was family to her.

After the Onslaught crisis, Doctor Doom was missing and given for dead, and several pretenders tried to take over Latveria. One of them was the Dreadknight, with secret illegal backing from American company Roxxon. Doom's Zefiro Clan (Earth-616) hired the Wild Pack to stop Dreadknight from conquering their lands, and Sable hoped to uncover the people who were funding the Dreadknight. With support from Spider-Man, whom Sable hired, the Pack traveled to Latveria and met with the Zefiro to plan strategy. Sable knew that the enemy and his enemies used high electronic technology that depended on a central generator behind Castle Doom. While Sable and Spider-Man went to sabotage the generator and render it unusable for at least three minutes, the Wild Pack would attack the Castle with conventional weapons to distract the troops. Powell, along with Battlestar, Chen, and perhaps others, went to the Castle in a vehicle that was detected and shot down, but by then the Pack had already parachuted down to attack Dreadknight's well-trained guards, using mercy bullets. When the high-tech weapons stopped responding, the Dreadknight forces were intimidated and many surrendered. After three minutes passed, the enemies received reinforcements, but even those surrendered when their leader was defeated.

Sandman left the Wild Pack and returned to his previous activities as a supervillain. Sable was hired to protect an object at Davis Gallery that Sandman tried to steal; Sable had Battlestar, Chen, Crippler, and Powell hide in the area. When Sandman appeared, Sable confronted him and asked for an explanation, without telling him that the Wild Pack had surrounded him. When Sandman insisted on fighting, the Wild Pack revealed his presence and attacked him with weapons that apparently destroyed him, but Sandman actually escaped.

Some time later, Powell and his Wild Pack partners were on guard protecting Castle Sable from its many terraces. Around this time, Sandman attacked the castle to get revenge on Sable, first knocking down Chen and the Crippler, and then defeating Powell and other Pack members easily. Sandman was stopped by the Thunderbolts, who tracked him there, before he could continue his attack.

Eventually, Sable decided to dissolve the Wild Pack. It was reformed by Andreas Vadas, who was defeated soon afterward, but the Wild Pack continued operating in Symkaria as an organization with access to sizeable resources, and counting with some of the previous Pack members such as Chen among its members. Powell has not been seen since, and his later activities are unknown.

Personality

In addition to being a soldier first and foremost, Powell was a proud Southerner with a conservative and arrogant attitude, and several easily identifiable rural behavioral patterns that highlighted a certain naïveté. He liked being in nature more than in urban environments (although his favorite building was the Empire State Building, possibly because of its historical importance in his country); he respected authority figures in his culture, including preachers; and he spoke with a heavy accent. In combat, Powell was reckless and willing to take personal risks, partly to demonstrate his superiority, but he also remained focused on the mission and the safety of his teammates. Powell trained hard and took special pride in his resistance to damage. Although he was prone to bold schemes, Powell knew how to obey his superiors even when he did not understand the nature of their orders or when it meant losing a battle, something that Powell detested. He was willing to kill when the situation warranted it.

Powell considered himself a womanizer and always tried to flirt with the most beautiful women in his environment, even when they had already rejected him; Powell's ego was fireproof in this sense, he interpreted rejections as a challenge, and was unable to consider the possibility that a woman might no longer be interested in Powell himself, nor that a woman may not be attracted to men at all. When the objects of his affection were also fellows in his military unit, Powell behaved professionally in combat, respecting his female partners' skills, but he also took advantage of tense situations to say his lines.

Powell was proud of his muscles, thou they failed to get him the attention he craved.

Powell's wardrobe style was urban cowboy, but in general Powell wore a uniform, adapting it to add Confederate Army details such as neckerchiefs, bandanas, star symbols on the boots, and cowboy hats. Proud of his physical form, he would occasionally open his uniform to show off his muscular chest. He liked to flex his muscles, although he ironically criticized other boastful people or people whose appearance was more impressive than Powell's himself. Even when his uniform was more standardized, such as when he joined the Wild Pack, Powell adapted it to allow his long ponytail to flutter visibly. Powell also took care of his dental health, having brilliant teeth. The Crippler criticized Powell's breath once, but it could have been merely a joke.

Powell was a bigot and openly racist, supporting the views of the Ku Klux Klan due to a past event in which black people had harmed Powell. Powell's racism did not extend to other ethnicities, such as Asians, Hispanics, or Japanese, and he tried hard to overcome his own prejudices. Especially when African American Battlestar was recruited to serve in the same Wild Pack unit as Powell, this posed a series of problems for Powell, which were compounded when Battlestar saved Powell's life repeatedly (even after Battlestar had understood that Powell was racist), so Powell had to admit, even to the rest of the group, that he respected his partner Battlestar. Similarly, his other unit-mate Amy Chen, Vietnamese (whom Powell considered a "China doll"), violently rejected Powell's advances, but went drinking with Powell and the rest of the group. Although Powell was opposed to his sister Sam seeking Battlestar's affection, Powell himself attempted to court Somalian superhuman Lightbright, who was black (and he failed to woo her). He attacked with special eagerness if his enemies were black, and when another African-American, Larry Arnold, entered the group, Powell again had problems, although he desperately tried to get along with him.

Beyond his racism, Powell was quite misanthropic and detested almost everyone, but with different intensity. Obviously Powell disliked Silver Sable's lover Jacques Girard, partly because Powell wanted a relationship with Sable, and perhaps also because Girard was black. Powell also hated the crime lord Foreigner and the superhuman vigilante Venom, but he appreciated his non-white groupmates, including Chen and (possibly Hispanic, definitely non-white) Raul Quentino. Although the Crippler humiliated Powell by defeating him in their first meeting, they came to have a relationship of friendly rivalry exchanging cutting remarks and only occasionally did Powell have real criticisms against Crippler, du to the latter's lack of discipline that endangered many or the fact that Crippler sang while fighting, and only because he sang badly.

Attributes

Abilities

Powell was a trained soldier with some, thou not extensive, military field experience. In addition to being talented at shooting various types of firearms, including experimental designs, he was a superb hand-to-hand fighter controlling different disciplines. Without weapons, Powell tended to use his fists in a form of fighting similar to boxing but he was also good at wrestling: He was able to defeat his partner Quentino in this way although the Crippler defeated him in their first confrontation (Larry Arnold also defeated Powell in their first confrontation, but he suckerpunched Powell). In combat, Powell proved to be especially daredevil, willing to jump at enemies without knowing their capabilities. Powell was able to fight efficiently and professionally even when drunk.

A distinctive characteristic of Powell was his extraordinary ability to withstand pain, especially blows received in combat, and in particular blunt attacks, but he also dealt with even poisoned spikes from demons without losing his grasp while climbing. In particular, Powell took pride of his washboard stomach. Attacks on his crotch caused a more noticeable effect.

Powell had been trained for other physical activities with use in military operations, including rock climbing, ziplining, paratrooping, and jetpack piloting. Powell has some experience commanding military operations (although in the Wild Pack, Battlestar was put in command of his unit), and made sure to constantly check to see if his teammates were doing anything that would put them at risk or others. On one occasion, Powell collaborated with Quentino to find information about a person of interest on their mission using computers; it is unclear how much Powell contributed to this process because technology was not Powell's specialty, and he did on occasion write off a damaged weapon without bothering to check it.

Paraphernalia

Weapons

Throughout his career, Powell has used several weapons. In the Wild Pack, he always carried a high-technology pistol and an assault rifle as his standard weapons; but has also used specialized weapons in specific operations, including sonic weapons against Venom, a web launcher against the Human Torch, mercy bullets to keep his targets alive in an assault to Latveria (although Powell usually resorted to his fists in these cases), and weapons designed by his partner Quentino with the ability to shoot down even fighter planes with an electrified cable.

Notes

• Unconfirmed reports claim that Greg Wright created Sam Powell to answer complains from Southern fans on Doug Powell's racism and negative Southern stereotypes, by making Sam react positively to Battlestar. They also suggest that Wright was also taunting Sam Lovelace, supposedly wife of Wild Pack artist Steven Butler, by using her as a reference.
• Several of the characters introduced in Silver Sable and the Wild Pack starred in short stories in the series, mostly to give details on their origins, including Chen, Quentino, Fin, and Man-Eater. The Crippler had already been introduced in Daredevil Annual #7 and Daredevil Annual #8 but still had a story about his past in Silver Sable Vol 1. Powell lacked this extra exploration on his background, leading to the specifics of his line in Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #24 "... ah still can't shake mah hatred of coloreds. Ah can never forget what they done ta me" not being revealed.

Trivia

• Although Powell plays the ladies' man, he has never been seen successfully approaching a girl, and he has been rejected repeatedly by Silver Sable, Amy Chen, and at least once by Lightbright, and the unnamed woman in the Greenwich Village bar.
  • Powell made a bet with Sandman on whether Powell would be able to seduce Silver Sable. Initially, the amount was $10,000, but not much later they talked about only $1,000, with just a couple months left to make it effective (The timeframe had not been specified in the first conversation to arrange the bet). Apparently Powell never succeeded in even attracting Sable's romantic interest, with Powell openly disliking Sable's lover Jacques Girard, and she eventually tried to start a romantic relationship with -ironically- Sandman. However, the closure of the bet was never shown.
  • Silver Sable almost never answered Powell's showoff approaches with anything but disdain. However, when Powell complained at the braggart attitude of Next Wave as something he could not stand, Sable joked that Powell needed to stand that attitude every time he was in front a mirror. Sable, who hid her emotions, was known to not make jokes, especially in a fight.
• Powell has no hair on his chest. He had a shiny smile, even if he made fun of Larry Arnold because the latter's teeth could gave their position in the dark.
• When interviewed by Phil Donahue, Silver Sable said "I am proud of my record of never facing charges of sexism, racism, or any other such prejudice." At that point, she was employing Powell, an open racist. Apparently, however, Powell's racist attitude did not break any law, or he was not taken to court for it.
• Powell once said "This heah heath makes July in Georgia seem like winter in Chicago!", suggesting he spent time in both places.

See Also

• 39 appearance(s) of Douglas Powell (Earth-616)
• 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Douglas Powell (Earth-616)
• 21 image(s) of Douglas Powell (Earth-616)

Links and References

• http://www.writeups.org/fiche.php?id=2845