History
An efficiency specialist employed by Stark-Fujikawa corporation, Yoshiro Hachiman developed a professional reputation throughout the company as "the Hatchetman" - a figure deployed to struggling branches of the company, whose presence would herald layoffs.[1] Yoshiro saw himself as ensuring efficiency.[2]
A man with few friends and no family, Yoshiro tried to express himself with poetry, but seeing early failure, gave up and became reserved. His early artistic desire was sublimated in a passion for elegance and efficiency - and, in patronage of various artistic endeavours, ranging from opera and theatre, to painting.[2]
At age 44, during a routine assignment to an oil platform off the coast of Tahiti, Yoshiro was mystically compelled to enter the Temple of Valtorr, on the nearby ocean floor. Empowered by the artefact he found within - the Verdant Vial of Valtorr - Yoshiro became Decay, one of the Exemplars. He would muse on the nature of all life towards death and rot as he used his powers to age nearby humans to dust.[1] As an Exemplar, his empowerment heralded a mystic ceremony where eight godlike beings would control all human free will, to be the armies in a war to see whose followers were the strongest.[3]
Rallying with the other other Exemplars, Decay served dutifully while he waited for the conditions to enact the ceremony. During this time, he clashed frequently with Tempest, an Exemplar whose ethos was biased towards the chaos of living plants.[4]
When the Exemplar's scheme was opposed by the Avengers, Captain America gave a speech which moved Bedlam, another of the Exemplars, to restore the normal minds of the Exemplars. Faced with the knowledge of the crimes committed and the disaster averted, Yoshiro and the other Exemplars fled.[2]Attributes
Powers
Weaknesses
- Decay's powers of decay are useless against an immortal, such as Thor
See Also
- 7 appearance(s) of Yoshiro Hachiman (Earth-616)
- 3 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Yoshiro Hachiman (Earth-616)
- 12 image(s) of Yoshiro Hachiman (Earth-616)