Kyle Richmond

Kyle Richmond is a fictional comic book superhero who goes by the code name of Nighthawk. He is featured in comic book titles published by Marvel Comics and was originally introduced as a villain back in The Mighty Avengers #69 in October, 1969. Since then, he has gone on to become a hero, and has been a longstanding member of the Defenders, as well as had associations with other teams such as the Squadron Sinister, a brief stint with the Legion of the Unliving, and the bizarre Fearsome Four.

Early years
Kyle Richmond was born in Mamaroneck, New York and was the son of Arthur and Penelope Richmond. When Kyle was still very young, his mother was in an accident, and Kyle remained at her hospital bed and watched her pass away. His father, the wealthy founder of Richmond Enterprises hired a nanny to raise Kyle. He went to various private schools, invariably getting into some sort of trouble at each one, and eventually continued his education at Grayburn College in Upstate New York. His life at Grayburn was as irresponsible and carefree as his years in private school. He began drinking heavily and experimenting with drugs. During this time, he began dating a girl named Mindy Williams. Kyle's partying lifestyle ultimately got him into trouble, and he was kicked out of school following a drunk driving incident. Kyle attempted to enlist in the military, but his application was denied due to a heart condition. He began rigorously training his body in order to improve his cardiovascular health. Arthur Richmond died in an airplane crash, leaving Kyle as the sole heir to Richmond Enterprises. Kyle had no interest in running the company, and left its operation in the care of his financial advisor, Jean Claude Pennysworth.

Nighthawk
While still a young man, Kyle Richmond became a pawn of the Grandmaster, who was a manipulative cosmic being and one of the Elders of the Universe. The Grandmaster created his own version of an alternate reality superhero team known as the Squadron Supreme, which he dubbed the Squadron Sinister. The Kyle Richmond from this reality was a noble hero who went by the code name of Nighthawk. The Grandmaster manipulated the Kyle Richmond of the mainstream Earth-616 reality and gave him a serum that increased his physical characteristics threefold while operating at night. This, in combination with Richmond's wealth and ability to create fanciful gadgets, enabled him to become the Nighthawk of this reality. He became a member of the Squadron Sinister.

The Grandmaster pitted his newly formed Squadron Sinister against the Avengers, and had Nighthawk attempt to destroy the Statue of Liberty. At this time, he fought up against Captain America for the first time. Although the situation ultimately pleased the Grandmaster, the Avengers were successful at defeating the Squadron Sinister.

The Grandmaster left the Squadron to their own devices, and for a brief time Nighthawk acted solo. Needing thrills, he challenged Daredevil to capture him, committing spectacular crimes and seeing if the Man Without Fear could stop him. Daredevil ultimately foiled his plans, although Nighthawk escaped. Shortly thereafter, while purchasing replacement parts for his Hawk-Plane, Nighthawk committed an act of hit-and-run, leaving his victim to die.

The Defenders
Nighthawk was reunited with his fellow Squadron members when they were approached by the alien known as Nebulon, who had come to purchase Earth for his people. Part of this bargain involved melting the Earth's ice caps in order to flood the planet and make it more inhabitable for Nebulon's race. Learning of this plot, and finding it deplorable, Nighthawk sought the aid of the Avengers to try and stop his fellow Squadron members from committing this act. With the Avengers unavailable, Nighthawk learned of the Defenders and sought that group's aid instead. After an initial clash with the Defenders, they agreed to join him in stopping Nebulon. However, before Nighthawk could take them to the ice cap, he was teleported away by Nebulon. When the Defenders came to rescue Nighthawk, they clashed with Nebulon and found themselves launched into space. However, Nighthawk and the Defenders returned to Earth, and Nighthawk sacrificed his life to stop Nebulon by turning the alien's laser cannon on the monster, shunting him and the other Squadron Sinister members to another dimension and mortally wounding Kyle. The Defenders gave up portions of their life force to restore Kyle to life, and he asked to join the team. He joint, and became one of the Defenders.

Upon joining the Defenders, Kyle abandoned his hawk-inspired vehicles and redesigned his costume with new weapons and flight capabilities. In his first mission with the Defenders he aided the group and Professor X in stopping Magneto, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and Magneto's newest creation, Alpha the Ultimate Mutant, from terrorizing the world. Next, he aided the Defenders and Son of Satan in saving his teammate, the Hulk, from Asmodeus.

In an attempt to make the team more close knit, he refashioned his riding institute into a base for the Defenders, but found, to his frustration, that the group was too loosely based to have need of a true headquarters. He next went into action with the Defenders and Power Man to stop the Wrecking Crew, who were destroying Richmond Enterprise buildings in the hopes of reclaiming a gamma bomb developed by their member Thunderball. He also aided the Defenders and the Thing in preventing the Celestial Harmonica from being exploited by cult leader Van Nyborg to reshape the universe. During his time for the Defenders, Kyle began to develop feelings for fellow Defender teammate, Valkyrie, until he learned that her alter ego of Barbara Norriss was married, causing him to storm out. He was soon reunited with Trish Starr and revealed his secret identity to her. Kyle went into action as Nighthawk in an attempt to stop the Headmen from robbing diamonds during a madness inducing rainstorm of their creation, only to fail in stopping Gorilla Man.

Nighthawk once more became a pawn of the Grandmaster when he pitted the Defenders against champions selected by the robotic Prime Mover, a battle which the Defenders ultimately won thanks to some trickery on the part of their ally Daredevil. By this time Richmond's relationship with Trish became more serious. Things were cut tragically short, however, when a car-bomb planted by her uncle, Egghead, exploded in Richmond's vehicle with both of them inside. Although both Kyle and Trish survived, Patricia needed to get her arm amputated. After a brief clash with the Squadron Sinister (whom the Defenders mistakenly believed planted the bomb until told otherwise by Yellowjacket), Trish left Kyle, not wanting him to stay with her out of pity.

After aiding Spider-Man in stopping the Meteor Man from stealing meteors to increase his powers, Kyle aided his fellow Defenders in stopping the Sons of the Serpent from burning down tenement slums in New York. In battling the racist group, the Defenders revealed their leader to be J.C. Pennysworth the man Kyle entrusted to run Richmond Enterprises. Horrified that his most trusted man would use his companies money to fund a racist organization, Kyle briefly departed from the Defenders.

Kyle later returned to the Defenders to help them aid Earth-691's Guardians of the Galaxy in stopping the Badoon mutated creature Eelar. He traveled with the group to Earth-691's 31st Century to help the Guardians overthrow the Badoon who had taken over the Earth in that era. After succeeding in their mission the Defenders returned to their own native time.

Investigating Pennyworth's investments, Nighthawk learned of a movie studio purchased using Richmond Enterprise money, and that it was a front for the Maggia. Captured by their agent Tapping Tommy and held for ransom, Kyle was saved by his fellow Defenders. Later he and the Defenders helped Howard the Duck and Beverly Switzler defeat the Band of the Bland.

Earth-712
Kyle Richmond was born and grew up in the city of Cosmopolis in the state of New Troy in the United States of Earth-712. Richmond's father, the billionaire head of a pharmaceutical manufacturing firm, died of a heart attack when Kyle was eighteen. Learning that the elder Richmond had made his fortune through highly unethical means, Kyle Richmond vowed to devote his life to battling the evil perpetrated in the world by men like his father. Hence, Richmond became the masked crimefighter known as Nighthawk.

Although Nighthawk had no superhuman powers, he defeated numerous criminal opponents, his most frequent nemeses being the costumed criminals known as the Mink, Pinball, and Remnant. Nighthawk and Hyperion, who worked as a team, were two of the founding members of the Squadron Supreme.

The cosmic gamesman called the Grandmaster once used the Squadron members as pawns in a tournament between himself and the Squadron's foe, the Scarlet Centurion. Later, the Grandmaster caused the counterpart of Kyle Richmond of an alternate Earth to launch his own career as Nighthawk.

Sometime later, the government of the United States of the Squadron's Earth came under its first covert assault. A huge industrial complex called the Serpent Cartel was actually the base of operations for various human agents of the extra-dimensional serpent-god Set, who manifested itself in the Serpent Crown, a mystical object of power. The Serpent Cartel placed the President and various other high-ranking politicians under the domination of the Crown. At the same time, on Earth-616, Hugh Jones, then president of the Roxxon Oil Company, was also made a slave of the Crown and was attempting to mastermind a similar secret government takeover. The Avengers intervened, and the U.S. President of "Other-Earth" dispatched several Squadron members to the Avengers' Earth to battle the Avengers. Traveling to "Other-Earth" themselves, the Avengers seized "Other Earth's" counterpart to the Serpent Crown and convinced the Squadron that they were being misled by their President. The Squadron forced the President to resign and saw to the dismantling of the Serpent Cartel.

Kyle Richmond retired as Nighthawk in order to enter politics, hoping to help undo the harm perpetrated on the nation by the Serpent Cartel. Richmond was nominated for the presidency and won by a landslide. While in office, President Richmond became mentally enthralled by the Overmind, a collective alien intelligence that was working in concert with Null the Living Darkness. The Overmind also took over the minds of the rest of the Squadron members, except for that of Hyperion, who fled to the Avengers' Earth for help. With the Squadron's help, the Overmind took over the mind of every major political, military, and industrial leader in the world. The Overmind began to force the Squadron to build a vast nuclear arsenal on the moon with which he hoped to wage war on other worlds in the Squadron's dimension. Fortunately, Hyperion returned with new allies, the superhuman champions of the Avengers' Earth known as the Defenders.

In the aftermath of this alien takeover, the world was in the midst of nearly total collapse. Hyperion proposed to the Squadron that they take it upon themselves to remake the world into a utopia, solving all of Earth's problems, such as poverty, economic instability, war, crime, and even disease and death. Richmond, attending the meeting as Nighthawk, protested that for the Squadron to implement its "Utopia Program," it would have to take total control of the world, and resigned once again from the Squadron.

Determined to stop the Squadron from taking over the United States, Richmond planned to assassinate its leader, Hyperion, with a bullet made of Argonite, an isotope whose radiation was lethal to him. When the time came, however, he found himself unable to kill his friend. In the following months the Squadron carried out their Utopia Program, and even made widespread use of a behavior modification device invented by Squadron member Tom Thumb, which brainwashed criminals into becoming unable to commit further crimes. Nighthawk tried to organize a counter force powerful enough to oppose it. This aggregation of superhuman beings was informally called the Redeemers. Nighthawk was also aided by Professor Imam, Earth's Wizard Supreme, and by Hyperion's greatest foe, Master Menace. It was Menace who devised the means of undoing the effects of the behavior modification machine.

One year after the Squadron's takeover, Nighthawk's Redeemers entered Squadron City. Nighthawk demanded that the Squadron surrender all the authority they had usurped. The longtime Squadron members were alarmed to discover that their five newest members, Haywire, Inertia, Moonglow, Redstone, and Thermite, were double agents sent by Nighthawk, as were Lamprey, the Shape, and Foxfire. Ultimately, the Redeemers won the battle.

Nighthawk convinced the defeated Hyperion that the main problem with the Squadron's Utopia Program was that they had used basically ignoble means that violated human rights to achieve noble ends. Since the Squadron members were not immortal, they could not ensure that future generations would not be tyrannized by the Utopian technologies that they had created. One of the Redeemers, Foxfire, had fallen in love with Squadron member Doctor Spectrum, and wanted to help the Squadron win. She used her superhuman power to weaken the tissue of Nighthawk's heart muscles, giving him a massive heart attack. But another Redeemer, the Mink, avenged Nighthawk's death by killing Foxfire with her metal claws. But although Nighthawk had died, he still had won the battle. The Squadron Supreme surrendered, and Hyperion proposed that the Squadron dismantle the Utopia Program.

Notes & Trivia

 * The Earth-712 Nighthawk was created by Roy Thomas and artist John Buscema. He first appeared in The Avengers'' #84 in February, 1971.


 * "Nighthawk (Kyle Richmond)" redirects to this page.


 * "Kyle Richmond/Earth-712" redirects to the Earth-712 section of this page.


 * Hulk always called him "Bird-nose".