Billy Hansen was a genius scientist working for Cybertek, and a personal friend of Cybertek's head Harlan Ryker. For Cybertek, Hansen worked in the creation of the cyborg Warwolf and in the project create a cyborg super-soldier called Deathlok, using the brain of donor Colonel John Kelly. During a test, the cyborg's computer electrocuted Kelly's brain dead, and the team was prompted to find the and correct glitch immediately (which Hansen succeeded in just one day) so that they could try it again with a new brain. While Cybertek sent Deathlok, with Michael Collins' brain, to a mission in South America, Hansen also recovered Kelly's discarded brain so as to experiments on it and try to recover Kelly's memories. Hansen believed his experiments failed and discarded the brain, which eventually became a conscious creature called Biohazard with partial memories from Kelly's. The South America operation failed spectacularly when Collins took over the cyborg and opposed Cybertek's intentions, and eventually led to law enforcement agency SHIELD arresting Ryker and dismantling Cybertek. Hansen was released on bail when he made a deal to provide evidence against Ryker, and was put in charge of the Newark Police Department. Ryker, from prison, released Warwolf with instructions to murder Hansen, which Warwolf succeeded at. Hansen's grave in Brooklyn was desecrated by Biohazard, and Hansen was cloned, as a part of Biohazard's plan to approach Deathlok and assimilate him.
History
Born in 1954,[1][note 1] in the United States, William Hansen became a scientist, technician and researcher[1] interested in technological progress and with little respect for the people that may be hurt by his work.[4]
Hansen came to work in Cybertek Systems, Inc., the applied cybernetics division of Roxxon Oil Corporation. Hansen became the best friend and division head of Harlan Ryker,[2] the ruthless division head of Cybertek.[3] They worked, along with other qualified people, in Cybertek's main lab[2] Paterson, New Jersey.[5] Hansen was in a romantic relationship with a woman named Abby, thou he doubted they would come to marry one day.[2]
Hansen contributed to the design and building of several prototype cyborgs for military use, including Warwolf, an unescapable killing machine containing an organic wolf brain, and later[2] Hansen was involved in the Deathlok Super-Soldier project to create the most versatile weapon[5] to be sold to the highest bidder.[6] For the Deathlok project, Hansen collaborated with cybersurgeons Dr. Hu and Dr. Kimble, and with fellow scientist/technicians Stanley Cross and Ben Jacobs. Ryker obtained support from other departments of Cybertek, such as the programmers of artificial limbs, informing of the details only to those who "could handle it" like programming head Jim Dworman, as some people would not want to want in a weapons project - especially not one with a strict deadline to be deployed in South America for military use against guerrillas. Hansen had not a moral problem with that.[7]
The Deathlok project required an organic human brain for storage,[7] kept alive with a nanobot-full stasis fluid provided by Hansen.[4] Ryker obtained a volunteer brain donor, Colonel John Kelly;[5] Hansen was relatively familiar with Kelly's personal situation through hearsay.[4] With the cyborg ready, Ryker arranged a test demonstration to impress his boss,[5] Clayton Burr, Vice President of Roxxon's International Development,[3] where Deathlok was to defeat twelve armed mercenaries using only paint pellets. During the test run in Cybertek Weapons Development Testing Facility 4, Paterson (attended by Burr, Ryker, Hansen and the rest of the Deathlok developers),[5] Kelly's brain tried to override the computer[7] and the computer reacted by electrocuting the brain, killing Kelly.[8] The cyborg succeeded in the mission, although he seemed to have gone rogue. The "glitches" detected meant that the Deathlok project was to continue, especially as a new organic brain was required.[5] Understanding the nature of what happened, Hansen[7] made sure that the computer in the Deathlok cyborg could not electrocute the brain in the next iteration.[8]
Returning to the main lab, Ryker, pressure to have the Deathlok cyborg ready in the short term, prompted the team to solve the bug by the following day; Jacobs thought the job to be unfeasible, but Hansen convinced Ryker otherwise - as long as Hu could get the surgery in time and a new brain donor could be obtained. During that same meeting, Hu discarded Kelly's dead brain, as she felt no autopsy was needed because they already knew what had happened, then Hansen asked to keep the brain himself[7] for his own experiments in his free time - he wanted to see if he could resurrect Kelly's brain, or at least recover his memories, using nanotechnology.[4] During the day, Hansen demanded extensive revisions on the operating system to Jim Dworman of the programming section, which led to pacifist Cybertek programmer Michael Collins illegally discovering the Deathlok project and threatening Ryker, which in turn led to Ryker obtaining the brain of pacifist Cybertek programmer, not a willing donor but a victim of Ryker's treachery. With Hansen's collaboration, Collins became the cyborg Deathlok, purportedly controlled from Cybertek's computers.[7]
At home, Hansen tried to program nanotechnology machines called "assemblers" and "replicators" to replace and repair Kelly's brain cells, one atom at a time, using nutrients provided by Hansen and instructions obtained from Kelly's DNA. He theorized that, per the Planarian experiment, memory is stored chemically and thus can be recovered. However, Hansen noticed no progress in his experiment and ended up throwing Kelly's brain in the bin. The nanotech continued working, eating garbage around it and using the stasis fluid to read the DNA of the organic material it processed, reproducing useful attributes of it and eventually becoming the self-conscious creature Biohazard, who had faint memories of Kelly's including his time as Deathlok.[4]
Meanwhile, Hansen continued his work building and supervising the new Deathlok. Cybertek sent Deathlok to the Federative Republic of Estrella to fight off local guerrillas opposed to Roxxon's interests there; Hansen and the rest of the team also travelled to Estrella, to guide Deathlok from a bunker. While Deathlok wreaked havoc on a guerrilla encampment, Hansen was the first to detect a malfunction and proposed to stop the operation and bring the subject back. The mission ended up to the satisfaction of Roxxon's client, the Estrellan Armed Forces, but Collins have stopped Deathlok from killing an Estrellan girl, and Ryker noticed.[7]
Deathlok and the team were returned to Paterson, where Ryker met with the team to identify the problem and find a solution. Hansen correctly deduced that Collins' brain had overridden the computer, like Kelly's had, and suggested that they'd simply bit-map Collin's memory as software, and get rid of the organic brain. However, Collins took control of his cyborg body and escaped the facility,[7] eventually becoming a vigilante hero in Coney Island. Hansen correctly deduced Collins' activities from the reports of a new superhero in the news, and informed the rest of his Cybertek partners. Ryker took measures to find and apprehend Deathlok, but failed[3] and eventually Ryker was arrested in Japan by international peacekeeping agency SHIELD,[9] who had been following Cybertek for some time.[3] Most of the people involved in the Deathlok project were also arrested; but Hansen agreed to provide proof against his friend Ryker in exchange for a suspended sentence, and was eventually released on bail. Police Lieutenant Jerome Mason of Newark, New Jersey was in charge of Hansen Hansen was surprised that his girlfriend Abby had been supportive during his troubles, and considered marrying her.[2]
As Ryker would rather get rid of his prosecution's possibilities, he used his sole phone call to activate the cyborg Warwolf from a Lynchburg, Virginia, warehouse and send it to destroy the records of proofs, then murder the witnesses. Most witnesses were imprisoned in Danbury, but Hansen was driving through the highway in Newark and Warwolf attacked him as his first target. Hansen had the time to identify his attacker and knew he had no chance to survive; he was killed at 8:02 PM and identified by Mason, who accidentally revealed this information to Deathlok when the later phoned him pretending to be a journalist.[2] Hansen was buried in Brooklyn.[1]
Hansen's grave was desecrated by Biohazard after the creature obtained some information about it, and concluded that Hansen had been both its creator and Deathlok's; although the creature was unhappy at having to do that precisely with Hansen, feeling some appreciation for him. Biohazard consumed Hansen's brain to absorb his knowledge, then regurgitated a conscious clone of Hansen to get not only the knowledge itself, but also the insight provided by his intelligence.[1] Biohazard then entered the clone's body so as to approach Deathlok stealthily, with the clone not being aware of this. The clone went to Collins' home purportedly to warn him of the danger of Biohazard but, once discovered, Biohazard ripped of the clone to reveal himself.[4]Attributes
Abilities
Hansen claimed to be a genius.[3] He proved to be a very proficient scientist and technician,[7] with expertise in nanotechnology[4] and part of the teams that developed several very efficient cyborgs, including Deathlok[7] and Warwolf.[2]
Hansen knew how to drive a car.[2]Notes
- Hansen was casual in dress. Although Cybertek favored a dress code, Hansen sometimes wore a t-shirt under his white coat;[3] and sometimes he wore corduroy suits with clashing colors (brown jacket, mustard shirt, orange tie).[7]
- Billy Hansen kept an unshaven chin until he died.[7][2] His clone had a full-grown goatee, and in the flashback scenes, we see Hansen with the goatee.[4]
See Also
- 6 appearance(s) of William Hansen (Earth-616)
- 1 minor appearance(s) of William Hansen (Earth-616)
- 2 image(s) of William Hansen (Earth-616)
Links and References
References
- ↑ Hansen's date of birth is a a topical referenced, based on his tombstone as seen in Deathlok (Vol. 2) #13. The tomb specified he lived from 1954 to 1992, because 1992 was the real-life publication date of that issue, thus representing the present time.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #13
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #1
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Deathlok #2
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #14
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Marvel Comics Presents #62 ; "Test Run"
- ↑ Deathlok (Vol. 2) #29
- ↑ 7.00 7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 7.06 7.07 7.08 7.09 7.10 7.11 Deathlok #1
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #17
- ↑ Deathlok #4