Whiteface (comics)

Whiteface is a fictional comic book supervillain in Marvel Comics. Created by Daniel Way and Steve Dillon, he was first introduced in Supreme Power: Nighthawk. He is the first supervillain to appear in the Supreme Power universe that does not have any superhuman abilities. Loosely based on DC Comics's the Joker, he is the first major antagonist to face Nighthawk (a character based on DC's Batman).

Fictional character biography

Early life

Steven Binst, originally a pharmacist in a small town in southern Illinois, was convicted of poisoning a mother and her children by giving them a toxin disguised as prescription medicine. While the police initially assumed a murder/suicide, a clerk from the pharmacy came forward to identify Binst as having given the family the pills. During the FBI's investigation, it found a laboratory with a large stockpile of the toxin, which he was apparently testing before widescale use; the FBI and the courts were unable to elicit an explanation from Binst for his actions. In prison, he was placed in solitary confinement for his own protection, but was brutalized and raped by unidentified attackers, who left him in a catatonic state and with two distinctive scars running down from either side of his mouth, giving his face a permanent frown.^[1]

Nighthawk

After 10 years in prison, he has since escaped wearing the clown costume that would later become his criminal signature. Five weeks later, after saving a baby from death and taking him to a woman named Doctor Arredondo, Nighthawk sees an epidemic of drug addict deaths all over Chicago. As the death count rises to 3800 over three days, the governor is helpless to stop the circulation of poisoned drugs. Nighthawk interrogates a federal judge to try to find the supplier, to no avail. Later Binst, made up as a clown and calling himself Whiteface, goes to a birthday party for the mayor's six-year-old son, killing the mayor's son and wife using poisoned helium balloons. The grief-stricken mayor commits suicide during a press conference, but not before calling on Nighthawk to kill Whiteface.

A manhunt for the killer starts in Grant Park, where the mayor's wife first met Whiteface. Nighthawk tracks him down to an abandoned warehouse, but Whiteface knocks him unconscious with a sleeping gas. After escaping, Nighthawk is exposed to the poison. As his civilian alter ego, Kyle Richmond, Nighthawk visits Dr. Arredondo, who had helped him in the past. She now knows his secret identity; after kissing him, he asks about a little baby he saved named "Baby Doe". After Kyle leaves, Dr. Arredondo goes to the nursery to look in on Baby Doe. Just then, Whiteface enters, kills Dr. Arredondo and takes Baby Doe.

After finding Dr. Arredondo dead, Nighthawk goes looking for Whiteface. The Deputy Mayor of Chicago gives a press conference and says that "Whiteface is dead". Nighthawk tracks Whiteface, with Baby Doe in hand, to a water treatment plant.

Whiteface makes the claim to Nighthawk that they're two sides of the same coin, and deep down need each other. Whiteface tosses the child in the water, thinking Nighthawk cannot stop him and save the child at the same time. Nighthawk shoots Whiteface with a harpoon gun that pierces through his chest and, using Whiteface as an "anchor", dives in the water to save the baby. After Nighthawk saves the child, Whiteface offers his surrender. Nighthawk instead rips the harpoon out of Whiteface's chest, eviscerating him in the process. Nighthawk then kills Whiteface by snapping his neck and knocking him into the treatment water.^[2]

References