Dark Claw

Dark Claw
File:Dark claw.jpg Legends of the Dark Claw #1.
Publication information
Publisher	Amalgam Comics
First appearance	Sleuth Comics #27 (fake), Legends of the Dark Claw #1 (April 1996, real)
Created by	Larry Hama Jim Balent Ray McCarthy
In-story information
Alter ego	Logan Wayne
Team affiliations	Judgment League Avengers, Super-Soldier, Sparrow
Notable aliases	The Taloned Avenger, The Clawed Crusader
Abilities	Healing factor, adamantium skeleton, retractable claws, enhanced senses, genius-level IQ.

Dark Claw is a fictional character and an Amalgam Comics superhero. He is a combination of Marvel Comics' Wolverine and DC Comics' Batman who exists only in the temporary Amalgam Universe created when the DC and Marvel Universes combine. Dark Claw's first real appearance was in Legends of the Dark Claw #1 (1996), though his first appearance in the Amalgam Universe was in Sleuth Comics #27.

Character overview and history

Origin

At the age of five, after witnessing his parent’s murder at the hands of an armed robber, Logan Wayne was sent to live with his uncle in Alberta, Canada. His uncle was a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and was ambushed and murdered by poachers a short time after his arrival in Canada. After the death of his uncle, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police sent Logan to live in a home run by nuns and as soon as he was old enough, he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force, landing in the same outfit as Creed H. Quinn.

Both Logan and Creed where submitted to the Weapon X project, the Canadian Super-Soldier program. It was here that Logan had adamantium bonded to his bones and he learned of his metamutant nature. Throughout the course of the project, the other subject, Creed H. Quinn, became increasingly insane and would later become Dark Claw’s most dangerous foe, the Hyena.

The Weapon X project was terminated due to its dual failure as Logan was ineffective as a weapon because he possessed a conscience, and Creed was criminally insane. The files were deleted and the existence of the program was utterly erased with the exception of a few fragments of notes by a Professor Carter Nichols later uncovered by the Huntress.

After the collapse of the Weapon X program, Logan decided to fight crime to avenge his parents’ death. He spent years traveling the world, training himself to intellectual and physical perfection and learning a variety of crime-fighting skills, including criminology, forensics, martial arts, gymnastics, and disguise. Beyond academia, Logan acquired more "practical" skills. While abroad, Logan learned all 127 major styles of combat, from Aikido to Yaw-Yan. Frenchman Henri Ducard made him an apprentice in manhunting. The Ninja Clan Yoshinda schooled Logan in stealth and the ways of the shadow warrior. African Bushmen taught hunting techniques, while Nepalese monks revealed healing arts. He even studied ventriloquism from practitioners of the art.

Logan Wayne

To the world at large, Logan is an irresponsible, superficial playboy artist who lives off his family's personal fortune and the profits of the sales of his paintings.

Secret identity

Logan guards his secret identity well, as only his sidekick Sparrow and the Huntress know of his superhero alter-ego. However, his arch-nemesis, the Hyena, also knows his secret as he was also a part of the Weapon X program which gave Dark Claw his adamantium skeleton and awakened his latent mutant powers.

Current status

Dark Claw, though he still has successful solo series, is also currently a member of the Judgment League Avengers, and teams up with Super-Soldier regularly in a series called World's Finest Untold Tales.

Enemies

• Bloodcrow
• Cybercroc
• Green Goblin
• Hyena
• Lady Talia
• Omega Beast
• Ra's-A-Pocalypse
• Spiral Harley
• Warlord Gh'ul

New Gotham City

Dark Claw's base of operations, while solo, is New Gotham City, a fictional city modeled primarily after the Marvel Universe’s New York City and the DC Universe’s Gotham City. New Gotham City is specifically altered to emphasize the "dark side" of an urban environment.

Powers and abilities

Mutant abilities

Dark Claw is a mutant with a number of both natural and artificial enhancements to his physiology.

The cells of Dark Claw’s body regenerate many times faster than those of normal humans, allowing him to heal from injuries at a speed far beyond that of normal humans. This "healing factor" has enabled him to completely recover within minutes or even seconds from injuries usually fatal to most humans. This ability extends fully to his nervous system, which is largely not the case for normal human beings, and is so advanced that his body can even expel foreign objects. Extremely severe injuries, however, take longer periods of time for him to recover. His healing factor can regenerate some internal organs, such as his eyes, but not larger ones such as his heart. He cannot regenerate entire limbs that have been severed.

His healing factor makes him immune to most diseases, poisons, or drugs (except in massive doses), and limited immunity to the fatigue poisons generated by bodily activity, resulting in enhanced stamina.

Dark Claw also possesses superhumanly acute senses, enabling him to see and hear distant objects more clearly than a normal human, and identify and track someone by scent. His hearing is only slightly less developed than that of Marvel Comics' Daredevil, and Dark Claw can detect a normal heartbeat within 200 feet. It is unknown if his sense of taste or touch are enhanced. Though his senses may be seen as a separate ability, they are actually a result of his heightened cellular regeneration.

Dark Claw’s physical appearance displays number of animal-like mutations, including two fangs among his teeth, and more famously, six slightly curved retractable claws housed within his forearms, which he can release from beneath his knuckles. The claws lie beneath the skin and muscle of his forearms, and are connected to his skeleton and nervous system. He can unsheathe any number of his claws at once. The claws are never inside his wrist, but always either completely inside his forearms when not in use, or his hands when in use, allowing him to bend his wrists freely in either mode, but requires him to keep them straight when unsheathing or retracting them.

Dark Claw’s skeleton, including his claws, have been laced with the indestructible metal adamantium, rendering his bones unbreakable. Due to the adamantium, the limiting factor on what his claws can cut through is his own strength, rather than the resiliency of the claws. The adamantium interferes with his bones' ability to produce red blood cells, but is compensated by his healing factor.

Skills

Dark Claw has extraordinary hand to hand combat ability, and, alongside Super-Soldier is considered one of the finest combatants on Earth. He can use most weapons, long or close-range, and is an accomplished pilot. Dark Claw is extremely well trained in espionage and covert operations due to the training he received in the Weapon X program. He is also a brilliant tactician and master of all 127 major Martial Arts. Dark Claw is considered to be the Sherlock Holmes of the Amalgam universe and has Batman's genius-level IQ alongside Wolverine’s animal instincts.

Vehicles

Dark Claw's major mode of transportation is his stealth-like helicopter the "Claw-Copter" which is mostly piloted by his sidekick, Sparrow.

Costume

Dark Claw's costume is a mixture of Wolverine’s yellow and blue and Batman’s traditional dark scallop hemmed cape version. The cowl on this costume takes its shape from Wolverine, but incorporates the fangs and bone structure of a bat's face along with its wings going up the cowl.

Resources

• Legends of the Dark Claw #1 (1996)
• Dark Claw Adventures #1 (1997)
• Wolverine
• Batman
• Amalgam Chronology Center
• The Unofficial Guide to the Amalgam Universe
• Who's Who: Handbook of the Amalgam Universe