Blackout

Real Name: Jack Wayne

Identity/Class: Human technology user

Occupation: War correspondent

Affiliations: Pop Simms, Dr. Dismal

Enemies: Nazis, Schwabach

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Berlin

First Appearance: Catman #10 (Holyoke, 1942)

Powers/Abilities: Blackout is blind without his special glasses, which have lenses which partially restore his sight, and internal lights which complete the job. He is an excellent fighter.

History: When the United States declared war on the Axis, Jack Wayne was working as an American war correspondent in Nazi Germany. He and fellow journalist Pop Simms were swiftly arrested and taken by the Gestapo for interrogation by the brutal Schwabach. After Pop was whipped to death in a failed effort to make him talk, Jack attacked Schwabach but was overpowered by guards. Angry at Jack's threatening him, the interrogator whipped Jack across the face, blinding him, but Jack grabbed the whip and retaliated, before accidentally stumbling backwards out of a window to inadvertently escape Gestapo headquarters. A chance encounter with a hunchback who had also felt the sting of a Nazi whip in the past gave Jack an unexpected ally who helped him evade his pursuers. The hunchback took Jack to the hidden surgery of Dr. Dismal, a surgeon who had suffered a broken skull at the hands of the Nazis, forcing him to wear a metal skullcap and driving him to lead the Berlin Underground Society. Dismal noted that Jack's optic nerves were not entirely dead and designed a pair of special glasses that allowed him to see again. Sharing a common desire to see the Nazis destroyed, Dismal recruited Wayne to help, convincing him to become the costumed Blackout, terrorising the Nazis. On his first mission, he rescued a captive, Miss Muller, from Schwabach as she was being escorted to Gestapo HQ, and when Schwabach pursued them into the sewers Blackout happily knocked the Nazi into the stagnant waters, where he drowned.

Comments: Created by Robert Brice.

CLARIFICATIONS: Not to be confused with

Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.

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