Loading AI tools
Fictional superhero From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hardware (Curtis Metcalf) is a fictional superhero published by DC Comics. An original character from DC's Milestone Comics imprint, he first appeared in Hardware #1 (April 1993), and was created by Dwayne McDuffie and Denys Cowan.[1]
| Hardware | |
|---|---|
Hardware #1, art by Denys Cowan | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Hardware #1 (April 1993) |
| Created by | Dwayne McDuffie (writer) Denys Cowan (artist) |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Curtis Metcalf |
| Team affiliations | Hard Co. Alva Industries Justice League |
| Notable aliases | The Cog in the Machine The High Tech Dreadnaught |
| Abilities |
|
Hardware was the first of Milestone's titles to be published, and (along with Blood Syndicate, Icon, and Static) was one of the company's main titles.[2]
Curtis Metcalf is a genius inventor who, in his Hardware identity, uses a variety of high-tech gadgets to fight organised crime. A central irony of the series (of which Metcalf is fully aware) is that Metcalf's employer, respected businessman Edwin Alva—who provides the resources Metcalf uses to create Hardware's hardware—is secretly the crime boss whom Hardware is trying to bring down.[1]
Metcalf was a working class child prodigy who was discovered aged 12–13 by a big-time businessman, Edwin Alva Sr., who with the blessing of Curt's parents, enrolled him in A Better Chance, "a program intended to get minority students into elite prep schools".[3] Curt proved to be much smarter than all the other prep school students, graduating at age 14, and earning his first college degree at age 15. Alva paid for Metcalf's whole college tuition up to six additional college degrees, in exchange for Metcalf coming to work, after graduation, in Alva Industries' "Inspiration Factory" program, with his "own lab, entirely too big a salary, and mandate to indulge [his] curiosity by investigating whatever struck [his] fancy"; Metcalf's inventions made Edwin Alva Sr. many millions of dollars.[3]
After a few years, and wanting a share of profits earned by his inventions, Metcalf asked Alva for a "royalty point or two". Alva's answer was: "Curtis let us dispense with any misconceptions you may be labouring under. You are not family. You are an employee. Neither are you heir apparent. You are a cog in the machine. My machine. You are not respected, Curtis. You are merely useful. You may go now".[3] Metcalf's first thought was to quit, but his contract forbade him from working for any competitors: "If [he wanted] to work in [his] field [of expertise], [he] had to do it for Alva".
Metcalf thought that with some advanced hacking, he could find something on Alva to use as leverage, but found that almost everything about Alva was "Stone Cold Crooked":
Metcalf: "It took me weeks to put it all together, but the evidence was clear and incontrovertible. Edwin Alva Sr. is at the center of an incredibly complex web of corruption. My benefactor and role model, the economic savior and humanitarian pillar of the city of Dakota, has connections to organized crime. He launders tens of millions of dollars in drug money, he has most of the city and state government in his pocket, he illegally manufactures weapons and sells them to foreign governments".[3]
Metcalf decided to stop Alva first by anonymously sending "copies of evidence to the FBI, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the state and local police, several newspapers and, just for fun, Hard Copy and A Current Affair".[3] Then he waited a while for the fireworks, but learned that Alva was too big; the law wouldn't dare go after him and the media refused to run any story that might incur his wrath. But Metcalf decided that maybe Alva wasn't beyond his own reach, so using Alva's own equipment and resources, Curt created "Hardware - the High Tech Creature of the Night, who's been checkmating Alva's illegal operations for the last ten months is, in a way, Alva's own creation".[3]
Afterwards, Metcalf dons a selection of his many high tech gadgets (which he hides away in an abandoned basement/bomb shelter connected to his private lab) to track down and destroy all of Alva's illegal business operations and Alva's factories where weapons of war are manufactured: "This used to be a bomb shelter. Now it's where I keep all the stuff I've scammed from Alva. He's turned the city upside down looking for Hardware. I live in his basement".[3]
Hardware works with many other superheroes over his career, such as Blood Syndicate and Icon. He even teams up with a few that he considers fictional, such as Steel and Superman. In one instance, he assists in the evacuation of Utopia Park, a newly built theme park, which is being destroyed by riots.
In Final Crisis, Orion kills his father Darkseid, destabilizing the multiverse. Dharma transfers the Milestone characters to the DC universe, altering history so that they always existed there. Following this, Hardware becomes a mentor to Static, provides him with a modified flying disk, and gets him a job as a S.T.A.R. Labs intern.[4][5][6][7][8][9]
Curtis Metcalf possesses no superhuman powers but has genius level intelligence, and is considered one of the most brilliant scientific minds on the planet. He has created breakthroughs in metallurgy, computer science, nanotechnology, and plasma weapons. Metcalf is also a good hand-to-hand combatant, having been trained by his father in the martial arts.
All of Curtis Metcalf's superhuman abilities derive from his armor.[10] It consists of a self-designed metal alloy, is resistant to bullets and energy, increases Hardware's strength via flexible polymers, and can fly via jet boots.[3][7][10] Furthermore, the armor's helmet includes a spectral scanning unit, a radio receiver,[10][11] radar,[12][13] a chemical analyzer,[14] a digital video player/recorder,[15] a translator, and a voice modulator.[6][7][10][12][16][17][18][19][20][21]
Curtis has designed various pieces of equipment to enhance the capabilities of his Hardware armor. Many of them are hand-held and can be easily carried on his belt. Larger pieces of equipment are mounted on Hardware's helmet, gauntlets and shoulder pads.
Other equipment Hardware has used include a forearm-mounted welding tool,[25] tracking devices,[26] a flashlight helmet attachment,[27] a handheld depolarizing device (used to remove his basic armor during emergencies),[28] a handheld scanning device,[29] a wrist-mounted energy analyzer,[8] a special gun that launches miniature eavesdropping devices,[30] a laser cutting tool,[17] a flare gun,[29] wrist-mounted high-intensity flashlights (that double as blinding weapons),[31] and a portable electromagnet capable of lifting weights equal to three armored SYSTEMatics.[7]
Other weapons Hardware uses less frequently include tasers,[26] timed explosives,[3] shoulder-mounted tranquilizer dart launchers,[38] a liquid oxygen-fueled flamethrower,[22] a micro-rocket (a small rocket that attaches to an opponent's back and then launches him helplessly into the air),[3] a remote-controlled thruster unit (a miniature jet thruster that latches onto a fleeing vehicle and causes it to spin wildly out of control),[25] a rocket pistol,[22] a kusarigama,[32] a high-powered laser pen (that temporarily blinds opponents), a neural net cannon (that produce effects like the omnicannon's neural net shells),[28] a machine gun that fires explosive bullets,[15] a "nova burst" (an extremely powerful directed energy weapon),[39] a heavily armed Hardware robot (that Curtis could control from miles away via a telepresense rig),[40][41] a power source shield (that protects his armor from energy-draining weaponry),[7] and a field of supercool atoms that can trap and immobilize energy beings like Doctor Light.[5]
Hardware can be included in the discourse of Afrofuturism based on its adherence to Mark Dery's definition of "speculative fiction that treats African-American themes and addresses African-American concerns in the context of 20th century technoculture—and, more generally, African-American signification that appropriates images of technology and a prosthetically enhanced future".[43]
Curtis Metcalf re-purposes technology as a force of liberation, fighting against the evil Edwin Alva. As Hardware, he uses his superhuman understanding and fluency with technology as a form of agency. Hardware's status as a superhero, through the manipulation of technology, is a means of transcending the digital divide.
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
