Killer Shrike

Simon Maddicks, born in Williamsburg, Virginia, served in the U.S. Army and was later selected as a special agent by corporate interests (Brand Corporation / Roxxon). Maddicks was given powered armor and surgically enhanced by Brand scientists—including an implanted anti-gravity generator—and became a mercenary and professional criminal operating under the alias Killer Shrike. He has been injured in combat (notably badly injured and put into a coma after Ulysses Bloodstone short-circuited his weapons) and later had his memory restored by Brand agents led by Stephen Weems (Modular Man).

Killer Shrike typically wears a powered armored suit described as constructed of an insulated steel alloy that protects him from turbulence and small-caliber fire. The suit features twin wrist-mounted power-blasters equipped with titanium claws and electricity-generation capability; Maddicks also possesses a surgically implanted anti-gravity generator at the base of his spine enabling flight. Visual variants exist where the original costume is sold or used by others, and the suit has appeared in different hands across storylines.

Killer Shrike's capabilities are technological and physical rather than supernatural: flight via an implanted anti-gravity generator (activated by neural link in the primary incarnation), enhanced physical conditioning and strength resulting from surgical enhancement, wrist-mounted twin power-blasters with claws and electrical discharge, and armored protection against turbulence and small-arms fire. He is a trained hand-to-hand combatant and proficient with firearms and knives, functioning as an operative for corporations or criminal organizations and serving in teams such as Masters of Evil variants, Thunderbolts, and Sinister Six line-ups.