| Silvermane |
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| Real Name: Silvio Manfredi Powers: Originally Manfredi had no superhuman powers. Currently, Manfredi's body has largely been replaced with a cybernetic exoskeleton, giving him superhuman strength and resistence to injury. History: As a young boy, Silvio Manfredi immigrated to the United States with his family, who settled in the Little Italy section of Manhattan. Manfredi became involved with the crime syndicate known as the Maggia while still in his teens. As an adult, Manfredi quickly rose to become head of his Maggia "family" through a combination of cunning and superb hand-to-hand fighting ability. Through his brilliant strategy and his ruthlessness in gang wars, Manfredi greatly increased the power and influence of the Maggia as a whole and of his "family" in particular. Eventually, Manfredi was sent to prison for income tax evasion. During his prison term, Manfredi's family's power waned somewhat, and his rivals gained dominance within it. On his release, Manfredi formed an alliance with a much younger Maggia criminal, Dominic Tyrone. Together, often through bloody means, Manfredi and Tyrone took control of the family Manfredi had belonged to, and then established it through battles with rival gangs as the dominant criminal organization on the East Coast. Once Manfredi had reached this point of success, twenty years ago, he ordered Tyrone's death. (Unknown to him, Tyrone survived and would later attempt to avenge himself.) Manfredi's hair turning prematurely silver in his forties, he became known by the nickname "Silvermane." In recent years, Silvermane has been heavily involved in the importation and distribution of narcotics. As he grew older, Silvermane became afraid of his own death. He learned of an ancient clay tablet that contained a formula for a mystical rejuvenation serum. At the age of 80, in very frail health, Silverman finally secured the tablet and forced Dr. Curt Connors (a.k.a. the Lizard) to prepare the serum from its instructions. Silvermane drank the serum, which made him grow increasingly younger within a very brief time, until he reached a point before his birth. It then mystically caused him to age within moments until he reached his forties. By coincidence, on this same day Silvermane was approached by representatives of the major American-based fragment of HYDRA, now under the control of former members of the Corporation who intended to make this HYDRA less sexist and ideological than the original and to run it like a business. Silvermane, asked to become its Supreme Hydra, accepted, although he insisted on maintaining his position of leadership with his Maggia family. Silvermane kept his connection with HYDRA secret from the Maggia and intended eventually to use HYDRA's power to crush his Maggia rivals. Silvermane quickly built his HYDRA group into a large well-organized and well-equipped fighting force. He brought his son, Joseph Manfredi, another Maggia member, into HYDRA as one of his principal aides. Joseph used advanced HYDRA technology in the areas of anti-gravity, artificial psionics, and genetics to create the costumed identity of Blackwing for himself. Silvermane, however, was ultimately out of his depth in running HYDRA and was easily defeated by espionage director Nick Fury and his agency, SHIELD. The HYDRA hierarchy deposed Silvermane but, because of his Maggia connections, did not assassinate him. Silvermane returned to running his Maggia family, and Joseph abandoned the Blackwing identity and artificial powers to return with him. Soon after, Silvermane attempted to organize all of New York City's major independent criminal gangs under the leadership of his Maggia family. Silvermane was opposed in this scheme by the third incarnation of the villainous Green Goblin, who wanted to lead the gangs himself. A confrontation involving Silvermane, the third Green Goblin, and the hero Spider-Man ensued, during which Silvermane fell from a great height. Miraculously, however, Silvermane recovered, perhaps aided by long-lasting effects of the rejuvenation serum. Later, Dominic Tyrone, who had assumed the costumed identity of the Rapier, made an attempt on Silvermane's life. He survived the gunshot wounds he received, but was confined to bed and put on life support system. Moreover, the shock triggered a biochemical reaction in Silvermane's bloodstream that undid the effects of the rejuvenation serum, causing him to revert to being physically eighty years of age. Yet Silvermane was so powerful a figure in organized crime that he was able to continue running his criminal empire even though he was now bedridden. The costumed vigilantes Cloak and Dagger despised Silvermane for his role in New York City's illegal drug trade, and Dagger nearly killed Silvermane with her superhuman powers. Silvermane's life was saved when his brain, much of his head, and most of his vital organs were transplanted into a robotic body, which granted him superhuman strength. Now a cyborg, Silvermane sought out Cloak and Dagger for revenge and again clashed with Spider-Man. But Dagger used her powers to short out Silvermane's circuits, and her "light knives" deprived him of most of his life force. She absorbed that life force into her own body in the form of what she calls "light," and Silvermane was left clinically dead. However, the mechanisms of Silverman's cyborg body maintained enough life in him that he could be revived. Silverman's longtime criminal rival, the Kingpin of Crime, obtained Silvermane's cyborg form and had scientists in his employ restore it to life as an assassin. Silvermane did not regain his full consciousness, and hence would obey instructions nearly mindlessly. However, Silvermane had a psychic link to Dagger, who still retained his missing life force energy, and resisted the Kingpin's commands in order to seek Dagger out and drain her life energy into himself. Finally, to stop Silvermane's rampaging, Dagger returned his life energy to him. Silvermane thus returned to full life and full consciousness. He immediately departed, seeking solitude. |