Jack Hawksmoor

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caption="Jenny Sparks : The Secret History of the Authority" #3 (of 5). Art by John McCrea and James Hodgkins, giving the origin of Jack Hawksmoor.
comic_color=background:#8080ff
character_name=Jack Hawksmoor
real_name=Jack Hawksmoor
publisher=Wildstorm
debut=Stormwatch # 37
creators=Warren Ellis
alliance_color=background:#ffc0c0
alliances=The Authority Stormwatch Black
aliases=
powers=A vast array of powers linked to a city environment.|

Jack Hawksmoor is a fictional comic book character whose adventures are published by Wildstorm Productions.

Character history

Jack Hawksmoor is the "King of Cities". He was repeatedly abducted and surgically modified by humans from the 70th century as a child, as a result of which he is linked to whatever city he finds himself in. These future humans modified Hawksmoor to provide him with the ability to combat a threat from the distant future, a gestalt being that was the entire city of Kansas City from the 70th century. Hawksmoor defeated the being by merging with -- and transforming -- the city of Tokyo into a giant humanoid being, battling and destroying the invader. ("Jenny Sparks: The Secret History of The Authority #3")

Jack Hawksmoor began quietly fighting crime in the city, later moving to strike higher, at politicians and corporations. He caught the attention of Stormwatch's Henry Bendix, who offered him a place in Stormwatch Black, the covert operations team of Stormwatch, alongside Jenny Sparks and Swift. Hawksmoor helped remove power-mad, super-powered cops, stop biological warfare in a small American city, solve the murder of ex-Stormwatch member Undertow and he personally fought and killed the insane, murderous, illegitimate son of a revered American President.

Jack had a tough time with Stormwatch, as the organization's flying fortress was simply not large enough in order to support his unique biological systems. Medical assistance was not very helpful.

Hawksmoor was part of the mission against the Changers, a super-powered group out to change the world. During this mission, he was forced to kill fellow teammate Rose Tattoo in order to stop her from murdering. The action failed, as all the Changers ended up murdered or dead.

After Stormwatch was destroyed by alien life-forms, Hawksmoor went into hiding with Jenny Sparks and Swift. There they recruited Apollo, Midnighter, the Engineer and the Doctor, the latter two being spiritual successors of two of the members of the Changers.

This team later became The Authority, who formed after a devastating supervillain attack on Moscow. This was where Jack learned his powers had increased, bonding him to cities much faster than usual. For example, Moscow let him know she was hurting through a painful nosebleed.

The Authority operated on a ship called The Carrier, which was large enough to qualify as a city, thus keeping Jack healthy.

After helping in various invasions, such as from Sliding Albion and God's own worms, Jack was there when Jenny's unique life came to an end. He inherited leadership of the team, leading it through many more dimension-crossing misadventures. He helped assert the team's independence, even once threatening Bill Clinton. For a while, when the team was replaced by evil forces, he lived as a brain-damaged homeless bum, unable to convince anyone who he was. He was rescued by his teammates and restored to his normal self.

The team broke up in 2005 and was restored in 2008 by Jenny Quantum. Jack still completely subscribes to the team ideology to fight for a finer world, no matter what it takes.

Despite his deformed genitals (which had made a Secret Service agent vomit), Jack is a womanizer, and he has an open on/off relationship with the Engineer.

It is noteworthy that Jack used to consider killing a last resort. When he was fighting the bastard child of an American President mentioned above, he said "Damn you for making me do this, you filthy bastard" just before hanging him. With tears welling in his eyes, he asks Stormwatch control to teleport him out of the place.

"World's End"

The 2008 Number of the Beast Wildstorm miniseries described the devastation of Earth, and set the scene for a new Authority ongoing series, World's End, by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. In this series Jack is confined to the ruins of the crashed Carrier. Like the ship and the ruins of London into which it crashed, Jack is left wrecked and disfigured, crippled and hooked to IV drips, reliant on a depowered Engineer for care.

Alternate versions

In an alternate reality, Jack became Stormwatch's Weatherman. Even though this alternate Jack was slowly having his alien parts removed, he still had many powers, such as being able to detect the atoms-wide dimensional breach the regular Stormwatch was using to spy on him.

In another, Jack was female and pregnant. Jack Hawksmoor actually met this version during an evacuation while the earth was in peril.

Abilities

He is physically unable to survive outside of an urban environment for long; however, when he "is" within an urban environment, he has vast, poorly-defined superpowers linked to the city, such as superhuman agility and strength, and telepathic control, such as animation and possession, of infrastructure and architecture, and allowing him to experience precognition and psychometry as if he and the city were one being. In one instance, he was able to wear the city of Tokyo as a "suit of armor." Jack treats individual cities as if each were their own being. Jack does not need to eat, as he can convert air pollution into nourishment. He can also transport between cities, originally inside a "womb"-like construct, though this may have changed. Also, he doesn't always estimate the time for womb-transport correctly.

Jack tends to use the artificial transporter mechanisms of his team's headquarters to facillitate transport from city to city. "Wildstorm Summer Special".

His powers and weaknesses are entirely symbiotic; the larger or more populous the city, the greater his abilities; and, conversely, if the city is damaged, he becomes less effective or develops an injury. Jack has been shown commanding cities to literally swallow people whole, sometimes Jack has caused parts of the city to erupt, damaging enemies. He also has showed to be able to fix damages and renew cities parts.

Appearance

Even though there is almost nothing left inside him that could be considered human, he is visibly distinguished only by his red pupils, horribly deformed (and never shown to the reader) genitals and ribbed/metallic (depending on the artist) soles of his feet (the latter has the deliberate result that he does not need to wear shoes, hence he can go barefoot and always be in contact with the city's streets and sidewalks).

He is named after Spring Heeled Jack and the baroque architect Nicholas Hawksmoor.

Jack Hawksmoor is one of the superheroes without costumes, although he is usually dressed in a stylish black suit with a white shirt. His clothing and haircut are similar to that of Johnny Bates from Miracleman.

Genesis

The concept of Jack Hawksmoor came from the observation that almost all superheroes usually operate in a city - possibly because large buildings such as skyscrapers provide a sense of scale to the actions of superheroes such as flying or fighting large monsters. Some of his powers (superhuman agility and the apparent ability to stick to walls) are based on the classic urban superhero Spider-Man.

References

* [http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/h/hawkmoor.htm Jack Hawksmoor] at the International Catalogue of Superheroes
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External links

* [http://www.comicsbulletin.com/reviews/120923182410143.htm "Secret History of the Authority: Jack Hawksmoor" #2] and [http://www.comicsbulletin.com/reviews/121226164373491.htm #3] , Comics Bulletin