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Henry Bendix (bio)
Real Name: Henry Bendix
First Appearance: StormWatch Vol 1 #1
Affiliation: none
Former Affiliations: Team One, StormWatch, The Monarchy
Former Aliases: Think Tank, Weatherman One, "Happy" Hank Bendix
Vital Stats
Species: Human
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 139 lbs
Date of Birth: 1942
Birthplace: Maladyville, Mississippi, United States of America
Known Family:
- Ex-Wife: Angela Bendix (deceased)
- Son: William Bendix
Powers/Abilities:
As Weatherman One, leader of Stormwatch, Bendix had cybernetic implants allowing him to wire directly into the Skywatch computers. This amplified his mind's capabilities and awareness, allowing him to monitor and handle many earthbound situations simultaneously and assume control of Skywatch's systems.
SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT!
Bio:
Henry Bendix's past remains fairly muddled, partly because of the existence of an alternate Bendix who has been known to pose as the original. He grew up in Maladyville, Mississippi, raised by his abusive alcoholic father. It appears that his father more than once killed a girlfriend during a drunken rage. Even as a child, Henry was extremely intelligent, designing the bodily enhancements that eventually led to the creation of the superheroes Midnighter and Apollo. A diary purporting to record this part of Henry's life (which may have been planted by his alternate universe counterpart) would mention that he had been contacted by the alien Weavers, who showed him the future. Young Henry was shocked to find out that he would become a villain, but the Weavers told him that till then he could be a hero. Henry killed his father with a self-built energy weapon in order to save his father's girlfriend, Delia. (This origin was told in the Monarchy series, and might have been retconned out of continuity)
During the 1960s, Bendix worked for the US government, developing a mobile weapon that was operated through a combination of manual controls and cybernetic uplink. It was dubbed "Think Tank". He was recruited into Team One, a secret task force designed to deal with the emerging Daemonite threat. Team One was dissolved following its first mission, but the experience gave Bendix a lifelong interest in Earth's secret history. This fascination put him in contact with the villains known as the Four, and led him to discover the interdimensional realm known as the Bleed, among other things.
Bendix continued to work for the US government, working on more and more covert operations, and he kept most of his funding and dirty secrets to himself. In 1978, he was appointed to the post of Weatherman One, head of StormWatch, the United Nations special crisis intervention team. He was outfitted with further cybernetic implants, granting him direct cybernetic link to Skywatch's operating systems. He was also summoned, along with his old boss Miles Craven, before the UN's secret MJ-12 council and told about the infiltration of Team One, and humanity as a whole, by aliens such as Saul Baxter (Lord Emp). The MJ-12 apparently wanted Craven and Bendix to work behind the scenes to counter this threat.
Bendix retained his post as Weatherman until 1994, when he was temporarily replaced by Christine Trelane. He regained his post a year later following the Second Despot Incident. All the while, he continued to explore the world and advance his own secret agenda. At some point, unbeknown to the UN, he began creating his own superhuman such as Apollo and Midnighter for use in secret missions. The Fire From Heaven incident inspired Bendix to take a more proactive approach to peacekeeping: He reorganized StormWatch, firing most of the junior members, recruiting Jenny Sparks, Rose Tattoo and Jack Hawksmoor and placing all members of the original team into inactive duties. He split the remaining membership into three teams: StormWatch Prime, StormWatch Red and StormWatch Black, stating that this structure would allow for a more flexible response to post-human threats. It was later revealed that the covert operations team StormWatch Black had previously existed behind the scenes, with various lineups.
Shortly after StormWatch's reorganization, Bendix was approached by an alternate universe version of him, who arrived through the Bleed in a transdimension "Carrier". He offered Bendix a chance to explore the source of the Bleed, where new universes are created. In exchange, he asked to replace Bendix, for the chance to shape an orderly world. This alternate Bendix was eventually killed by Jenny Sparks, after he slaughtered members of a superhero team that was attempting to create a crime-free utopia. It may be that this Bendix actually orchestrated his own death at the hands of Sparks, to facilitate his ascension to a higher, "imaginary" plane of existence.
At the time of the alternate Bendix's death, members of Stormwatch believed him to be the real Bendix gone insane. The new Weatherman, Jackson King, even believed Bendix' madness was a result of the cybernetic implants that were part of the Weatherman's job, and refused to have them himself. King later hypothesised that Bendix had been unhinged even earlier, when his Think Tank was torn apart by daemonites in Team One's disastrous first mission.
After exploring the Bleed and gathering allies, who he dubbed the Evolutionaries, Bendix returned to his own world in 2004. Discovering that the Authority was now in charge of America, he sought out Rose Tattoo and devised a plan to break up the Authority and remove them from power.
Following the success of this plan, Bendix assumed control of the shattered Secret Monarchy, the loose coalition of secret groups that run the world behind the scenes. He implemented an active post-human advancement agenda, facilitating integration of Kherubim and other otherworldly technology into American (and, to a lesser extent, global) society. In 2008, he faced off against a reorganized Authority, led by Jenny Quantum. Despite having planned meticulously for this inevitable confrontation (e.g. having imprisoned both the new Shaman of Earth (Doctor) and the spirit of the previous Doctor), the new Authority prevailed and Bendix was eventually killed by Midnighter.
Alternate Bendix
The alternate Bendix who replaced the original has had a substantial impact on the team as well, though in a much more negative way. Whilst the first Bendix had an undoubtedly ruthless and cold-hearted side, the new one was an entirely self-centred, psychotic individual pursuing an ultra-conservative agenda. He had a bizarre romantic affair with Rose Tattoo, the Spirit of Murder, apparently being attracted to her lust for death and destruction (when a later, evolved Tattoo asked why her poisoned kiss did not affect him, he replied "Because I embrace it."). As mentioned, the new Bendix was first defeated after attacking a group of superhumans attempting to establish a utopia in South America. Though believed dead at Jenny Sparks's hands, Bendix had in fact escaped to an alternate dimension. There he prepared an elaborate scheme to destroy the Authority, the successors of Stormwatch.
Alternate Versions:
- The Monarchy: In the Monarchy series, Henry Bendix appears, claiming to have planned his death by Jenny Sparks so that he could become an imaginary being, capable of assisting the Weavers and the Monarchy in their battle against Chimaera. Jackson King visits Bendix' home and finds his childhood diary there. In it Bendix relates the events of his first contact with the Weavers. The Authority: Revolution series seems to have retconned these events away. Therefore it is also unclear whether his youth in Maladyville, Mississippi is still part of continuity.
- World War 3: In this Marvel/WildStorm amalgamated universe, Weatherman One still leads StormWatch, fighting against the combined evil of Dr. Doom, The Skrulls, and the Daemonites.
Trivia
- Henry Bendix was created by Jim Lee & Brandon Choi.
Commentary:
- "For me, Henry Bendix functions as a metaphor for the rapid change in technology and how it is perceived. As Think Tank, he's a 1960s state-of-the-art computer fighting machine, a symbol of better living through science. As his story continues, he loses that personal touch and becomes Weatherman One, cold and calculating like the technology he's embraced in the '90s." - Steven T. Seagle (WildStorm Gallery card #52: Think Tank)
Appearances:
- The Authority: Prime #1, #3, #4, #5, #6
- The Authority Revolution #1, #3, #4, #5, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12
- Codename Stryke Force #4
- Fire From Heaven #1/2, #1
- Gen 12 #3
- Gen 13 Vol 2 #11
- Gen 13 Bootleg #9
- Grifter Vol 2 #11
- Hazard #7
- Jenny Sparks #2
- The Monarchy #5, #11, #12
- Savant Garde #6
- Sigma #2
- Shattered Image #2, #3
- Sigma #2
- StormWatch Vol 1 #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #19, #22, #23 1/2, #24, #26, #27, #28, #29, #30, #31, #32, #33, #34, #35, #36, #37, #38, #39, #40, #42, #45, #47, #48, #49, #50
- StormWatch Special #1
- StormWatch Vol 2 #2, #3, #4, #11
- Supreme Vol 2 #16
- Team One: StormWatch #1, #2
- Team One: WildC.A.T.s #1, #2
- Union Vol 2 #7
- Wetworks Vol 1 #29
- WildC.A.T.s #7, #30
- Wildcats Vol 4 WorldStorm #1
- WildStorm Spotlight #4
Sources:
See Also:
| List of StormWatch Characters | List of Authority Characters | List of Team One Characters |
| List of Monarchy Characters |
WildStormResource |
Latest page update: made by WildStormResource
, Nov 28 2009, 4:50 PM EST
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