| Commander Steel | |
|---|---|
 The Nathan Heywood incarnation of Commander Steel as depicted inJustice Society of America vol. 3 #7 (September 2007). Art byAlex Ross. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | (Hank Heywood) Steel, The Indestructible Man # 1 (March 1978) (Hank Heywood III) Justice League of America Annual #2 (1984) (Nathan Heywood) Justice Society of America (vol. 3) #1 (February 2007) |
| Created by | (Hank Heywood) Gerry Conway (writer) Don Heck (artist) (Hank Heywood III) Gerry Conway (writer) Chuck Patton (artist) (Nathan Heywood) Geoff Johns Alex Ross |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Henry "Hank" Heywood Henry "Hank" Heywood III Nathan "Nate" Heywood |
| Team affiliations | (Hank) Justice Society of America All-Star Squadron Shadow Fighters United States Marine Corps (Hank III) Justice League Detroit Justice League (Nathan) Justice Society of America Justice League |
| Notable aliases | (Hank, Nathan) Steel |
| Abilities | (Hank) Cyborg, great strength, limited invulnerability, limited superspeed (Hank III) Superhuman strength, limited invulnerability, limited superspeed, infrared vision, enhanced hearing (Nathan) Superhuman strength, invulnerability, organic metal skin, superhuman speed |
Commander Steel (also known asCaptain Steel,Citizen Steel andSergeant Steel) is the name of threesuperheroes appearing in media published byDC Comics, all members of the same family. The first Steel appeared inSteel, The Indestructible Man #1 (1978), and was created byGerry Conway andDon Heck.[1] His stories were set inWorld War II. The two later characters called Steel are his grandsons.
Nate Heywood / Steel, his grandfather Henry Heywood / Commander Steel, and Nate's father Hank Heywood all appear inLegends of Tomorrow, portrayed byNick Zano, Matthew MacCaull, andThomas F. Wilson respectively.
The character served as an homage to the Marvel Comics character,Captain America. Gerry Conway stated: "Steel was intended to be a tip of the hat to the original Captain America. My favorite Cap stories, when I was growing up, were the ones Stan and Jack set in World War II, so I was just trying to recapture that feeling."[2]
Steel first appeared in a series set in 1939,Steel: The Indestructible Man, written byCaptain America writerGerry Conway.[3] The series was canceled after five issues, and Steel later made a guest-appearance inJustice League of America.[4] Steel was also a member of the World War II eraAll-Star Squadron team.[5] He made a prominent appearance many years later in four issues of theEclipso ongoing series, where he was killed. After this, he appeared in issue #2 of the 2010 series,DC Universe: Legacies, which chronicled the superheroes of the 1940s.
Starting in 1984, the second Steel appeared as one of the lead characters inJustice League of America,[6] until its cancellation during theLegends crossover in 1987. He made a single appearance several years later in issue #38 ofJustice League America, a continuation ofJustice League International, where he was killed. In 2006, he played a leading posthumous role in a single story arc ofJLA Classified, which chronicled a previously unrevealed adventure of the Detroit-era JLA. In 2010, he played a major role in the two-issueJustice League of America vol. 2 tie-in toBlackest Night, where he was temporarily resurrected.
The third Steel made his debut in the 2007 relaunch ofJustice Society of America, where he appeared for several years until the team was split into two separate groups by writersBill Willingham andLilah Sturges, where he appeared as one of the lead characters inJSA All-Stars. In 2011'sThe New 52 reboot of DC's continuity, he is shown to exist on Earth 2, under the nameCaptain Steel.
The World War II version of the character, Henry Heywood, enlisted in the United States Marine Corps prior to the United States involvement in the war but was injured when saboteurs, spearheaded by the man who would becomeBaron Blitzkrieg, attacked his base.[7] Heywood had been a biology student under the tutelage of Doctor Gilbert Giles, and his former professor performed extensive surgery on him, enhancing his damaged body with mechanized steel devices that gave him superhuman strength, speed, and durability. At the request of Giles, Heywood kept his newfound gifts a secret and was returned to service in a desk position.[8] Frustrated at his inability to help more directly, Heywood adopted the masked-hero persona "Steel", and was attempting to steal armaments from the military base where he worked—to send to those more directly in the war's fray—when some fifth columnist saboteurs broke into the base. Heywood defeated the saboteurs,[9] and embarked on a career fighting foreign threats and other criminals before America went to war.
Heywood entered more directly into World War II as a secret weapon before he allied himself with theAll-Star Squadron. In that time he was commissionedCommander Steel byWinston Churchill.[10] His membership in the Squadron was only for a brief period asCrisis on Infinite Earths caused him to shift from his nativeEarth-Two toEarth-One, which later became the post-Crisis Earth. Hank retired from his superhero career, as there were no active costumed heroes at that time on his new home.
Years later, Heywood's son, Hank Haywood Junior, dies in theVietnam War. Overcome by grief, Heywood blames his death on mortal weakness, and uses his resources as a wealthy industrialist to incorporate the same mechanized components into his grandson, Hank Haywood III.[11] He financed the Detroit version of the Justice League and gave them his best worker, Dale Gunn, to serve as this version of the JLA's all purpose man.[12] When he realized that this new League did not adhere to his now narrow beliefs, he enlisted Infinity Inc. to help him defeat them so that he could "straighten Hank out". The plan failed, and Hank suffered the indignity of being beaten by his grandson in hand-to-hand combat.[11] They were estranged from that point on until Hank III was mortally wounded by one ofProfessor Ivo's androids.[4]
After his grandson's death, Heywood resumes the mantle of Commander Steel and dies battling the supervillainEclipso while a member of theShadow Fighters.[8]
The second Steel isHenry "Hank" Heywood III.[13] Raised by his grandfather after the death of his parents, Heywood III was subject to the same procedure that created Commander Steel by his grandfather against his will.[14]
Heywood III was a "Justice League Detroit" team member, joining the team after Aquaman has the team revamped, and with his grandfather's support provides the team with a new headquarters. Hank befriends Detroit youth Paco Ramone, who joins the team as the superhero Vibe.[12] While on the team, Hank develops an attraction to Paco's sister Rosita, causing friction between the two men.[15] As part of the Justice League, Heywood takes part in theCrisis on Infinite Earths, where the supervillainWarp sends him into the far future during a battle on Earth-S.[16]
During the event "Legends", Martian Manhunter disbands the Justice League when the President of the United States outlaws all superhero activity.[17] Taking to the streets regardless, Steel is mortally wounded in battle against an android belonging toProfessor Ivo. His grandfather is unable to repair the injuries and turns off his grandson's life support at Martian Manhunter's suggestion.[4]
During theBlackest Night event, Steel is reanimated as a member of theBlack Lantern Corps.[18] Alongside the Black LanternVibe, Steel attacks his former teammates,Gypsy andVixen, untilDoctor Light destroys him.[19]He is later resurrected followingThe New 52 andDC Rebirth relaunches.[20]
The relaunchedJustice Society of America features another member of the Heywood family. During an interview withNewsarama, new series writerGeoff Johns announced him as a brand new character with new powers.[21] He debuted inJustice Society of America #2 with the name ofNathan "Buckeye" Heywood.
Nathan is the grandson of Henry Heywood and cousin of Henry Heywood III. Formerly a football star at theOhio State University, Nathan retired after shattering his kneecap and having his leg amputated due to an undiagnosed infection. The incident left Nathan addicted to painkillers.
While attending a Heywood family reunion, Nathan is attacked by the Fourth Reich, a team ofmetahumanNeo-Nazis ordered byVandal Savage to wipe out the bloodlines ofGolden Age heroes. Both Nathan's brother and mother are turned into metal statues by the villain Reichsmark. Nathan jams his crutch into Reichsmark's mouth, causing him to spit liquid metal blood onto Nathan.Hawkman takes him toDoctor Mid-Nite, who notes that the metal is being absorbed by Nathan's skin. Nathan's brother and mother, in their metal forms, are moved to the rooftop of the JSA brownstone.
Later, it is revealed that the metal has grown out from where Nathan's amputated leg once was, forming metallic bone, muscles, and flesh. Doctor Mid-Nite informs Nathan that he is now a being of living steel due to an unknown reaction to Reichsmark's blood. However, the steel tissues do not give Nathan tactile response, meaning he cannot feel textures or temperatures, nor gauge exerted pressures, and his weight has greatly increased, causing his footsteps to crack the ground. He is given a costume, a "second skin" made of a stainless steel alloy that reduces his strength to a manageable level. Nathan then joins the Justice Society to defeat the Fourth Reich.[8] Afterwards, the press asks if he is the new Commander Steel. Nathan denies it, saying that he is just an ordinary citizen, so he is called "Citizen Steel" byPower Girl.[22]
Originally Commander Steel could lift 1,000 pounds, but when he appeared in the pages ofAll-Star Squadron, he was attributed 'super-human' strength without an exact limit.
Citizen Steel's metallic body grants him superhuman strength and allows him to take direct blows from opponents as powerful asGog, and remain standing, and in turn knocking him to the ground—the only one in the JSA able to do so—but at the cost of reducing his sense of touch so that he cannot really feel anything he comes in contact with, making it hard for him to judge how much effort he should put into doing things. His alloy suit limits his strength to controllable levels but at a cost of slowing him down, as well as making him so heavy that he has been shown cracking pavements just by walking. Upon removing his suit, he can unleash his full strength without being slowed down.[23]
In September 2011, DC Comics cancelled and relaunched its entire line of monthly comics, in an initiative called "The New 52", and in so doing, rebooted the continuity theDC Universe. There are two versions of Commander Steel on Earth 2:
Hank Heywood Jr. appears asCaptain Steel in the comic seriesEarth 2. This version is a Filipino man whose bones were reinforced with experimental metal to prevent him from dying from a degenerative bone disorder. DuringDarkseid's invasion of Earth 2, Hank's father kills himself and destroys his research to preventParademons from obtaining it.[24]
Following a brief encounter withUltra-Humanite,Fury opens the Pandora Vessel as a last resort to save the Wonders, with Earth-2 being recreated once again.[25] A new version of Steel,Sergeant Steel, appears as the sole member of a super-soldier program called Americommando and the leader of an underground rebellion against the Ultra-Humanite.[26]
.jpg)
Thanks to scripter Gerry Conway and artist Don Heck, the red, white, and blue shone like never before - on the steel-alloyed suit of the World War II cyborg, Steel.
